Tableless css gallery

You can see all the code for it here dnevnikeklektika.com

I was scratching my bean yesterday because I really wanted to jazz up my dad’s site’s catalog pages with some thumbnail pictures but I had put so many dumb divs in those pages already that I was tired of moving everything about when I added something new.
This is the pain of div-itis and it is a problem when you realise you simply can’t just squish in a bunch of divs in order to position all your content.You may as well stick with tables if you’re going to use divs like tables,I guess.
I had done just that because I was trying to get that awesome css float element to work with these pages and it was a short cut of a sort to just div it all up.
My pages still needed some work and it looked very plain and dull,despite a day playing with positioning and color.
I’d started to put in a few lightbox linked photos but with all the divs and whathaveyou,the padding and margin and etc,the word wrap was stopping at the bottom of each image if it was a certain size.If there was a lot of text it was fine(duh).Anyway, it just looked cluttered when I was done and in the end I was grateful for dull and plain…
I googled css thumbnail gallery and found the site I mentioned above.
I took his advice(I think he’s a he) and kept each thumbnail at 75px by 75px.I used my lightbox linked images that I already had.I can see now that these images are a little small to use in a lightbox so I am going to link them to some larger ones tommorrow.
See the coolish results here catalog thumbnails

Strange it’s ended up this way.

I’ve been working hard this past month on a big project-designing a website with an integrated CMS and adding into it a shopping cart and an AJAX powered slideshow within which the client can also switch what pictures it shows.
For the experience and also to learn a lot I decided that this very project would be my feetwetting into the world of obeying particular standards and also keeping my ears and eyes open to the desires of a client.And I tried hard to do this without inserting too much of my own design sensibilities(I like white pages and colored font headings not that you could tell from the way my blogs look 🙂 )
I worked for free,too.And I never once minded that I wasn’t going to be getting paid.After all I answered this ad from the Craigslist section “Barter”

The job required loads of research and testing and for the CMS even more testing.Testing testing testing!

Anyway once I found doop I was all set I thought until I was asked to make some regular
HTML pages.The client didn’t actually know he was asking for more pages–he just requested a way to showcase some products in such a way that the shop couldn’t(within my powers) be configured to do so.Good old fashioned HTMl pages to the rescue.

So I had to find a php script that would let my client edit plain HTML files.
I did with a script called EasyEditPHP.
I tried to track down the website that hosts EasyEditPhp but I can’t find it just now.
But here is the link to doop.You really should check it out.It’s quite, quite awesome.

My client’s last CMS was mysql powered.But I could tell from the way his old pages looked that the CMS provided wasn’t jibbing too well with the overall page design,I.E.: if he uploaded a pic it would be smack dab in the center of a page.This was because he didn’t use the rich text editor’s options for image placement within a document–which told me the new pages would have to have the HTML for pictures already built in.I also positioned everything with CSS.In short I tried as hard as I could to make this image placement as much of a no-brainer as possible for him.
Both my CMS’s show the html of a document-and EasyEditPHP shows all the source code for any document.I pictured myself 4 years ago when I first saw code and so I knew I needed to softsoap the experience by adding on top of all the work a handbook with detailed explanations of how to use HTML with images.

So just when I had finalized the project(short of getting a hold of the new shots of the products that this was all for, I got an email from the client asking me if I had deleted his mail program!

Well I went and looked at his shared cgi-bin and it was empty.I knew my client didn’t know how to access his files with FTP and I knew I hadn’t accidentally arsed such a big file myself.

So the only other person was the original creator of the client’s website.But he wasn’t some total fool who would do such a thing.
I figured(actually just as I am writng this) it was just a matter of an upgrade coinciding with my client’s rare usage of this program.I guess the webmaster was just assuming he could make changes without alarming anyone. This seems to have been the case after all…the program is called dadamail and it is a beast of a thing.I tried to upload and run it on my other site but wonders of wonders–no running.It’s mysql pm’d to the max.It uses many perl mods that my other hosts configuration has left out.Really, the least they could do is upgrade all their IIS clients to this latest version…They really don’t do much for their customers.grr. Another story.

I wrote to both of the involved asking how this misunderstanding was working out and I hoped to get some kind of answer.After all, I was under suspicion of deleting an important file and I didn’t want it on my head.

This all started on Monday or Sunday of this week and I haven’t heard a thing from either of them.I am giving my client the benefit of a doubt but still–we were writing pretty consistently back and forth fairly often(45 emails in a month) and so this silence is telling.

And by the way–the mail program is back in the cgi-bin wonder of wonders.

7:30 P.M Chinatown

I took the dog for a walk that turned into a walk across the Manhattan Bridge.This spirit of adventurousness took us to Chinatown where we picked up a few things for the kitchen.
Bozzio was beside himself amongst so many of his best friends (anyone and anybody)and I was happy to find deals like 6 oranges for 2 dollars.

But the rain and the cold got to us and we wanted to go home.I realised I’d gotten us into a pickle because if cabs are hard enough to get when it’s raining, try adding a dog to the equation…sure enough not even standing right in front of the off ramp of the Brooklyn Bridge(where vacant cabs were off loading by the dozens)
was doing the trick.One genius stopped just to tell me that he’d let us in his cab if Bozzio was wearing a box(muzzle) over his face.

This seemed funny to me- cabs have plexi glass dividers between the front and back-so who was Bozzio going to bite?Me? And was I then going to sue the cab company? Because my dog bit me in their cab?

I don’t think he had the slightest idea that he was implying so many insane scenarios with that one remark.But when I accused him of making up stories he rolled up his window and became much less forthcoming with bs theories.

I’ve lived in the NY area since 1989-you’d think I would’ve seen a sign in one of the billion cabs I’ve ridden in about their policy about dogs…

I thought about trying to take Bozzio on the subway but I didn’t know the MTA’s policy about this.Bozzio is a 65 pound pitbull boxer mix.I’ve seen little doodad dogs in purses on the subway…but no one Bozzios size.I called 311 to ask.
311 didn’t know and they also didn’t know if there was a standardized rule about taxis and dogs.
311 was transferring me to the MTA when a cab did stop for us!
Our hero was 24.

He thought I was funny because I was telling him the trouble I’d been having.
He asked about Bozzio’s name and didn’t know who Frank Zappa or the Mother’s of Invention were!?
Anyway we got home and I think I tipped him the cost of the ride itself but it was worth it.

Wither Thou,Thickbox?

I can’t get ThickBox to run on this new site I’m working on. I know it’s my thickheadedness in figuring out the path(I have a mental block with paths)to the script,but why then am I able to do anything else?

Why am I able to get greybox and lightbox to work?

I’m trying to make something rather small like a minigallery for this new site but even though thickbox woulda been awesome-no luck.