Webmasters Gallery

The latest version of django CMS, version 3.2, has been released and it comes with a better user interface, and moves further towards better support for touchscreen devices.

This new version of django CMS focuses more on the needs of content editors. The button behavior and display logic has been enhanced, so as to be able to make editing content via touch devices even easier. django CMS 3.2 also comes with a new Content Creation Wizard, that helps you quickly add content to your website via a guided step by step approach.

Furthermore, since django CMS is moving towards absolute support for touchscreen devices, the front-end code has been optimized to enhance speed and usability. By making use of automated minification, django CMS 3.2 offers better page load times for users.

To quote django CMS blog:

Most editing and management operations now work well on most devices, and we are moving ever closer to complete touch-screen support.

Even though it happens to be the biggest release of django CMS so far, version 3.2 is just another step towards version 3.3, that promises to bring many more changes to the table.

Following the release of version 3.3, django CMS intends to drop support for obsolete versions, such as Django 1.6 and 1.7, as well as Python 2.6 This will also mean that changes will be made to menu and permission systems in django 3.3

To learn more, you can read the release notes of django CMS 3.2 here, or check out a demo site.

Read More at django CMS 3.2 Has Been Released

I’ve been a web developer for 15 years, but I’d never looked into accessibility. I didn’t know enough people with (serious) disabilities to properly understand the need for accessible applications and no customer has ever required me to know what ARIA is. But I got involved with accessibility anyway – and that’s the story I’d like to share with you today.

At the Fronteers Conference in October 2014 I saw Heydon Pickering give a talk called “Getting nowhere with CSS best practices”. Among other things, he made a case for using WAI-ARIA attributes like aria-disabled="true" instead of classes like .is-disabled to express application state. It struck me then and there that I was missing out on a few well-prepared standards, simply because ARIA belongs to that accessibility space that I had no idea of.

The post Making Accessibility Simpler, With Ally.js appeared first on Smashing Magazine.

It’s been a few months since I’ve done a Chronicle post around here. There are the posts in which I catch you up with all the goings on of the site and myself. A roundup of life, if you will.

---

I went to number of conferences that were a bit outside of my wheelhouse this fall.

In September I was at XOXO in Portland, Oregon, which was the most unusual and wonderful “conference” I’ve been to. The videos (which only capture some of the spirit there) are all available now in a YouTube playlist.

SNDMakes in Austin, Texas was another unusual experience for me. CodePen sponsored it, and I participated in it, so I wrote about it over on the CodePen blog. I learned a lot, I met a ton of fascinating people, and got a chance to do some good ol’ fashioned webhackin’ on a totally fresh project.

It was kinda like a hackathon. Tongue in cheek, I was calling it a hackathon for smart people. (Marketing people, call me, I’m expensive.) They specifically don’t call it a hackathon though. It’s a rapid prototyping sprint or more casually, a boutique (really long) dinner party.

While in Austin I got to hang out with some of the folks there for SassConf #swoon. We also went out to Jester King Brewery which I can’t recommend enough. It’s not hard to find fun things to do around Austin, because DayTrip.

Even CSS Dev Conf was a new experience for me, as rather than doing a traditional talk, I hosted a Show & Tell event during the conference. I wrote about that on my personal CodePen blog. I loved how the fast the ideas flew around, how lighthearted and funny it was, and how it was a break from the normal format.

My plan is to only do non-traditional kind of “presentations” going forward.

---

Speaking of unusual conferences, A List Apart has been doing these online panels through Google Hangouts, and I was on one of those called “The State of Front End Dev”. We rebroadcast it on ShopTalk in audio-only format. I call it unusual not just because it was online-only, but because of the scope. Thousands of people listened to it live, which is so much more reach than your average conference talk and kind of a homage to what the web can do.

---

Katie Kovalcin and I were invited on the Responsive Web Design podcast to talk about the CodePen redesign (which is mostly responsive). Ethan and Karen are gosh darn powerhouses in the world of responsive design (and really the web, period) and it’s straight flattering to get to talk with them. Talking about our baby with their baby, as it were.

---

I’m just back from a trip to our nation’s capital, where we had the largest CodePen Meetup ever (I’m pretty sure, there were like 200ish people there). If you’d like to hold a meetup in your town, definitely let us know.

Plus I got a chance to work in person on CodePen stuff with Tim Holman and David DeSandro and that’s always a good time.

I did a bunch of fun stuff in D.C., too. I got a little tour of NPR thanks to Tyler Fisher and saw Ben Folds at a Tiny Desk concert while there.

The next day I got a tour of the West Wing (!) from Andrew Nacin. The Oval Office, the press room, the Roosevelt Room, peaked into the Situation Room, all that good stuff. Pretty spine tingling to get to check out where POTUS and his staff literally work every day. Did you know the presidents chair is always 2″ taller than the rest of the chairs in meeting rooms? It came up that what Obama is doing with USDS may turn out to be one of his more interesting legacies. I’m working on figuring out a ShopTalk to do around that subject.

---

Remember when I asked you some questions? There were nearly 4,000 responses and you are free to browse and download that data if it’s of interest to you (or you want to do something cool with it).

---

There has been a ton going on at CodePen, and we even have a few more releases coming out this year. Stay tuned to the CodePen blog for those and a year end wrapup. It’s been quite a year! Loads of releases, redesign, fundraising and funding, hiring, to name a few. All stuff we talk about on CodePen Radio too, by the way.

---

ShopTalk is approaching our 200th show. I’m not sure what the average run of a podcast is, but I bet we’ve got it beat! One thing that’s been fun and keeping us fresh is switching up the format a little bit here and there. For example we’ve done three (1, 2, 3) panels in the recent past and even a book club.

We plan to keep doing that in 2016.

---

Dave and I were also twinerviewed (ouch) in the latest Responsive Design Weekly.

---

CSS-Tricks Chronicle XXV is a post from CSS-Tricks

Cortana is Microsoft’s version of Siri, the virtual personal assistant that helps you get things done. Thus far, Cortana was available only on Windows devices, but it has now come to iOS and Android as well.

Starting now, users of Android and iOS devices can download and install Cortana. The features and functionality of Cortana across different devices remains the same — it will help you schedule your tasks and appointments, keep you reminded of stuff you’re supposed to do, and also entertain you with a joke or two.

Beyond that, Cortana also lets you manage your emails, track packages and flights, get directions, view scores and stocks, and so on. Cortana comes with its own notebook as well.

So, will it mean users will give up Siri and switch to Cortana? Doubtful, and this makes the prospects of Cortana on iOS little bleak. However, for Android users, Cortana can be useful, especially because most Android users use a Windows laptop or desktop for work, and this can help them keep their content synced across devices.

You will need a device with iOS 8 or higher, or Android 4.1.2 and above in order to be able to use Cortana. If you are on Windows 10, you can sync your mobile phone or tablet and install Cortana directly, as long as you have a compatible version of the mobile operating system.

Android users can find Cortana here, where iOS users can download Cortana from this page.

Read More at Microsoft Cortana is Now Available on Android and iOS

Animation is tipped to be one of the biggest web design trends for 2016, especially micro-animations on UI elements and icons. So we’re delighted to bring you this exclusive set of animated icons from Animaticons.

All Animaticons icons are animated GIFs, which means they have excellent browser support without the need for plugins or libraries. Unlike CSS or JavaScript animations, animated GIFs contain the animation instructions inside the image file so they can simply be dropped directly into your HTML just like a regular image. They’ll play and loop automatically as soon as they load. You can even safely use them in email!

The download includes 2 variations of 10 different icons from the Animaticons collection. Our favorites include the rocket ship, the video, and the pencil.

All the icons are editable; to make changes, open any of the files in a bitmap editor such as Photoshop (CS5+), make your changes, and then re-export.

Download the files beneath the preview:

The Only Motivational Startup Posters You’ll Ever Need – only $18!

Source

What’s going on in the industry? What new techniques have emerged recently? What insights, tools, tips and tricks is the web design community talking about? Anselm Hannemann is collecting everything that popped up over the last week in his web development reading list so that you don’t miss out on anything. The result is a carefully curated list of articles and resources that are worth taking a closer look at. — Ed.

You probably haven’t bought your Christmas presents yet. Usually we feel the need to buy a gift for friends and family. It often lets us buy random stuff that is often of no real value. Turning this around, I started to enjoy the evening with a hand-made dinner, small hand-made gifts and enough time for the loved ones. So far, this worked way better than any gift I’ve ever bought in a store. So don’t stress yourself if you haven’t found anything yet — time, attention and doing things together can also be a great gift. Have a nice weekend!

The post Web Development Reading List #116: Chakra, Credential Leaks and What Makes a Function Asynchronous appeared first on Smashing Magazine.

Are you ready for Christmas? We hope you are. Since we have collected twenty-some cool websites that will draw you away from the preparation and decorating routine. The web hides lots of valuable stuff. While last year we have posted several articles helping to put you in the right mood, this year we are aiming to entertain you as well as offer several relevant services and even broaden your knowledge in some way. The listed projects will hopefully increase the cheerful atmosphere and charge your day with positive emotions and joy.

These articles from last year are still well worth a look, too:

• The Right Mood #1: Free Christmas Icons, Patterns and Mockups 2014;
• The Right Mood #2: 25+ Free Christmas Cards, Flyers, Tags and Printables 2014;

Now sit, relax and enjoy our festive roundup.

The Best Christmas Toys

The website is a great nostalgia trip. It gently guides you through a memory lane that is skillfully brought to life with the help of wonderful illustrations and subtle motion. It covers the last 35 years, exhibiting the most popular toys of that period.

Christmas Express by Milka

The website encourages you to create a cheerful letter and sends it to the beloved ones. The project features spectacular winter scenes that are made in a brand coloring. The relaxed, merry and jolly atmosphere prevails here.

GangstaClaus

The team has blessed the online audience with three fantastic projects: ‘Santa or Scrooge’ in 2013, ‘Chittin Santa!’ in 2014 and ‘GangstaClaus’ this year. The latter is a small yet captivating 8-bit browser game with some hard-rock feel and constantly updated leaderboard.

Christmas with Joy

The website offers you to choose the beloved folk character that will send Christmas wishes to your friends. The team has included several Xmas Heroes from different countries: Pere Noel from France, Christkind from Germany, La Befana from Italy and others

Is Christmas Cancelled

The website attracts online visitors with a lovely visual storytelling experience. It is controlled by scrolling and comprises lots of corresponding illustrations that meet the mood of the upcoming event.

The Christmas Endorser

The service is intended to improve your LinkedIn profile with a killer endorsement. There are almost forty options starting with Quantum Mechanics or Modeling and ending with Juggling or Stand-up Comedy.

Merry Christmas by Central England

The agency has prepared a kind gift for its loyal customers and online readers. There is a page with Christmassy aura and cheerful design that not only congratulates all the viewers with the upcoming event but also includes special offers, advent calendar, and vouchers.

Polish Christmas Guide

This splendid interactive guide walks you through the traditions of Polish Christmas. You will learn about twelve dishes, animals with human voices, Carols and other customs. Gorgeous illustrations, animated SVG graphics, and sounds reinforce the impression.

Stocking Builder

This is a small generator that allows you to craft your own Christmas stocking. You can choose the size, select the direction, add design to top and foot parts, and personalize it with your name or initials. Save the result and the team will send it to you for a small fee.

Kultwerk

The agency greets everyone for Christmas and New Year in an original and amusing way. There is a grid with all the members that feels exceptionally festive. Each person has its own page including a small video.

Christmas Experiments

Much like the Stocking Builder, this interactive composer enables you to craft your Christmas bauble. You are welcome to customize every tiny detail by selecting the color of a ball, pattern color, top pattern, middle pattern and bottom pattern.

Merry Christmas from FP Creative

The website charms with a wonderful winter scene spruced up with motion and some special effects that produce a favorable impression. Click on the bubble and see what the team has prepared for you.

Pixelgyar

Embark on a fully illustrated adventure with Santa Clause and accompany him from the Moon to the Earth. This small trip radiates with joy and amusement.

The PNC Christmas Price Index

The website is dedicated to an exceptional event of building a life-size bank from Gingerbread within the celebration of ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’. Explore the gallery, take a look at captivating videos and surf through the index price.

Christmas Gifs

The website is an online collection of animated Gifs that are made with Christmas in mind. Although it looks a bit messy and overwhelming at first sight, yet the modular structure creates order out of chaos, giving you an opportunity to enjoy some funny animations.

Merry Pixmas

This online application offers you to build a personified Santa Claus that will look much like a Danbo. With the help of an intuitive 3D environment, you will be able to customize the head, body, bottom, color and even background color as well as rotate the model vertically and horizontally. Although the project looks a bit outdated, however, bear in mind that it was created only with HTML5, CSS3, and JS.

Santa Tracker by Google

The website goes live in anticipation of the most awaited winter holidays. The project lets you explore Santa’s village, play a small browser game with Rudolph and learn traditions of various countries with the help of elves. What’s more, there is another sister site, called Santa selfie.

Digital Santa from Ebola

Want to spice up your favorite websites with some ornaments and festive appeal? Then this tiny browser extension is right for you. Click on the button and the 8-bit Santa will decorate the UI by hand. Just choose the option and behold the magic.

How Santa Are You?

The team invites you to delve deep into an interactive video where you will be the protagonist. To enjoy the whole action you should turn on the speakers and answer the questions honestly.

Santa Drop

This is another browser game in our list where Santa Clause is the protagonist. Use the keyboard or a set of buttons that are included on-screen specifically for touch devices and deliver as many presents as possible. Do not forget to avoid obstacles and hurdles.

Happy New Year

This online app lets you send an unforgettable digital greeting card that is marked by a bright and dynamic 3D scene. It allows enjoying a panoramic view, moving around with the help of the mouse cursor and even tossing the confetti. All you need to do is fill in all the required information about the addressee.

Greestmas Greeting

The website is aimed to raise awareness of the terrible fate that awaits Christmas trees. It encourages users to avoid buying live fir-trees and go for an artificial substitute thereby saving Softwood from extinction.

Christmas is looming, and it is time to make the spirit bright. We hope our collection of amusing and entertaining festive websites helps you tune into a positive wave in no time.

Merry Christmas to Everybody!

BTW: If you know similar websites, share them with us in the comments below.

(dpe)

For quite a while, Team Treehouse has been a popular website for learning new web design and development skills, such as PHP, .NET, JavaScript, WordPress, and so on.

Recently, Treehouse has decided to drop its WordPress courses. According to Zac Gordon, one of Treehouse’s (now former) WordPress educators, the website has discontinued all courses related to WordPress, BuddyPress and WooCommerce, and will not be adding new courses, nor will the existing courses be updated.

Gordon posted a rather emotional blog post discussing this matter, and went on to add that he tried hard to convince Treehouse to invest in WordPress, but the company failed to see any merit in it. Plus, he also shared that Treehouse will probably be focusing more on technologies such as .NET, JavaScript and the likes, rather than WordPress. To quote Gordon:

While working at Treehouse I attended between 8-12 WordCamps per year and spoke about a range of the subjects I taught at Treehouse. Not everyone knows this, but Treehouse didn’t pay for 95% of these trips. In fact, I regularly fought with Treehouse to see the value of sponsoring WordCamps, sending me to them to speak, and even that giving back to the community is an important thing we should do.

It might just be that WordPress, in itself, is not as difficult a skill to acquire as compared to, say, .NET, and as a result, Treehouse might not have seen much benefit in offering WordPress courses. Plus, there are several other WordPress-specific courses out there, and Treehouse would probably find itself better off focusing on topics that have less competition for them.

Either way, the news now is that Treehouse have discontinued their WordPress and related topics’ courses. What are your thoughts on this? Share your views in the comments below!

Read More at Treehouse Have Discontinued WordPress Courses

Traditional methods, such as wireframing, outsourcing, and online website builders have their pros and cons, none of them however match the advantages of pre-built websites.

• Wireframing is popular, but it takes you only so far. Wireframing can be time consuming when designing complex websites, and completing a project usually requires outsourcing or coding experience.
• Complexity is not an issue with pre-built websites. Neither coding nor outsourcing is necessary, and web pages can be built at a much faster pace.
• When you assign your project to a reputable design/development team, you can usually expect high-quality work. Outsourcing is expensive however.
• Pre-built websites provide the same degree of quality at far less cost, and the cost and time required to make a design change is often insignificant.
• An online web-building tool may satisfy your needs, but finding the right one can be a challenge, as can selecting a cost-effecting subscription plan.
• The pre-built website approach is superior. It is less expensive, and it offers greater flexibility then online tools can provide.

Six Examples of Pre-built Websites

Xmas

Club

Digital

Burger

Media

Surfing

How to Edit a Pre-built Website with Muffin Builder 3

If you prefer to build websites from scratch, Be Theme is the right tool for you. It’s fast and easy to use, and has every feature you need. Using a pre-built website to start a project is a faster and easier approach. Pre-built websites, 5 of which are shown here, are fully customizable. There are more than 155 to choose from, and 119 feature multiple pages.

It takes but 1 click to install a customizable pre-built website. Having done so, Muffin Builder 3 does the necessary editing, and you are on your way. The video shows you just how easy the installation and editing processes are.

Please embed the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXSjHixexRQ

The action may at appear to be somewhat fast paced, but once you get into the rhythm of things you’ll find yourself moving along at a similar clip. A little music can help, but you’ll have to supply your own!

With Be Theme, Muffin Builder 3, and a pre-built layout at your disposal, you’ll discover it’s possible to build a website page in minutes instead of hours. You can have a website up in running in hours instead of days. It’s that fast, easy, and reliable.

Website complexity will not be an issue either. Wireframing can be too time consuming, outsourcing too expensive, and some online tools are not even up to the task. With Be Theme, building a complex website e.g., a large online store, can be a breeze.

A Look at What Be Theme Offers

BeTheme is the biggest WordPress theme ever and it is also an excellent example of bigger meaning better. It has recorded more than 22,800 sales, and the number keeps growing. Pre-built websites continue to grow in number as well, with 8 new ones added every month. The number of core features, currently at 40, may not grow significantly, but they are constantly being updated and upgraded.

A pre-built website, which can also serve as a conceptual design, in addition to be the foundation you’ll be building your website on, takes only 1 click to install. Of the 155+ you can choose from, 119 have multiple pages.

Once you have done the install, you’re off and running, and these powerful core features will speed you on your way:

• As the video illustrates, you can build a web page quickly. You can do so even more quickly with features like the powerful Muffin Options Panel, a Shortcode Generator, 200+ Shortcodes, and the Layouts Configurator to help you along.
• The popular Muffin Builder 3 has all the functionality you need for your page-building activities, but if you’re an ardent fan of Visual Composer you can use that page builder as well. You can use either, or you can use both.

• Be’s 20 Customizable Header Styles that allow you to upload logos, fonts, other design elements, and set your own colors, and the 6 Column Support hint at the flexibility and versatility this WordPress theme offers. If you are starting from a blank page, any one of the Base Grid’s 5 layouts will give you plenty of design flexibility as well.
• Other features include a Mega Menu, the ability to assign different menus to different pages, unlimited colors, parallax effect, video background, and advanced typography. Be Theme is Responsive, Retina and SEO ready, and optimized for speed.

Be Theme Testimonials

This sampling of what customers have to say shows the many things they love about Be Theme; its customizability, flexibility, and many more. Customers like the many different features offered, they love the way the page builders work, and they are especially pleased with how easy it is to initiate a project by installing a pre-built website. The user community is a happy and a satisfied one, and we intend to keep it that way!

Awesome Customer Support

No matter how high powered your tools may be, your results can be far less than satisfactory if adequate support is not there. There are often questions that require answers or issues to be resolved to keep work flowing at a constant pace. You can rely on Be’s Customer Support team to answer your questions and address any problem you might encounter, promptly and effectively. You will never be referred to an FAQ page. The response you get will go into whatever level of detail is necessary to help you get on with your work.

By now you should have a fair understanding of what BeTheme has to offer, and why using pre-built websites is a superior website-building approach. The advantages this theme and these pre-built websites have over wireframing, outsourcing, and using online website-building tools are many, and they are significant. Visit BeTheme’s website, browse among the more than 155 pre-built websites, and take a few moments to view a demo two. Once you do, the chances are good you’ll want to hop on board!

Read More at Why More Web Designers are choosing a Pre-Built Website Approach

Mozilla has decided to put an end to its smartphone adventures, and henceforth, Firefox OS will no longer be available on newer smartphones.

Ever since its beginnings in 2013, Firefox OS had struggled to find ground in the competitive smartphone market. Trying hard to carve a niche for itself in an industry otherwise dominated by Android and iOS, Firefox OS never became a big name in the smartphone world.

As such, at the recently held Mozilla Developer Event in Orlando (called “Mozlando”), Mozilla announced that it will no longer sign contracts with OEMs for new Firefox OS smartphones, and will instead focus more on connected devices.

This means that Firefox OS, in itself, will not be abandoned and Mozilla will continue working on it. However, the focus has now shifted in favor of connected devices, and smartphones have been dropped. As such, devices such as smart TVs will continue to be at the focus of Firefox OS.

The discussion is still going on over at Twitter, and you can follow some of the tweets here, or learn more over at Firefox Central.

Mozilla has been on a clean-up spree of late, considering the fact that it had recently expressed desires to split off its email client, Thunderbird, and has also launched an ad blocker for Safari on iOS. The decision to pull Firefox OS from smartphones is yet another step in this direction.

What do you think of this decision by Mozilla? Share your views in the comments below!

Read More at Firefox OS Will No Longer Run on Smartphones