Bauhouse Design

Textile

2006-10-17T23:26

#### Textile: A Humane Web Text Generator. Textile has been one of the many benefits of working with Textpattern as a content management system. It is a way of formatting text in HTML without knowing anything about HTML.

Building a Symphony Theme: Part 2

2006-10-29T23:08

As we discovered in [Part 1](/journal/building-a-symphony-theme-part-1/) of this series, a valid XSLT template and stylesheet must be available to transform XML data into HTML Output. (Note that I will be using the [latest update](/journal/updating-symphony/), Symphony 1.5.06, for this tutorial.) At this point, though, we have no data to transform. Next, we need to create an XML Data Source. But, before we get there, let's discover what is possible in Symphony even without a Data Source. The power of Symphony comes in the ability to build HTML pages by assembling pieces of reusable HTML code and XSLT templates into modular page structures through Masters, Pages and Utilities.

Textpattern

2006-10-17T22:24

Textpattern is a free, flexible, elegant, easy-to-use content management system for all kinds of websites, even weblogs. Many of the sites that I have developed were built with Textpattern, and it has served me and my clients very well. However, now that I have discovered [Symphony](http://21degrees.com.au/products/symphony/), I am finding the flexibility of Symphony to be far superior. Textpattern 4.04 has just been released, so it may be worth revisiting. One of the main improvements would include the release of [Textile 2.0](http://thresholdstate.com/threshold/4210/textile-two-point-oh) as part of the core Textpattern code.

Markup Library

2010-03-29T21:55

An open source library of [markup languages](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markup_language), including [XML](http://www.w3.org/XML/), [HTML](http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/) and [XSLT](http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt) to develop a resource of markup and user interface design patterns that adhere to a generally accepted set of code standards.

Updating Symphony

2006-10-29T21:06

This weekend, the Symphony Team has released an update to the official [Symphony 1.5 Public Release](http://overture21.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=457) (version 1.5.05) that was released on September 21, 2006. [Symphony 1.5.06](http://overture21.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=668) provides several user requested improvements and bug fixes. Much credit must be given to the Symphony development team for their responsiveness and their fast-paced development. The 1.5.06 update provides many additional possibilities for the development of a Symphony theme, so you may enjoy a short intermission in our series on "Building a Symphony Theme":/journal/building-a-symphony-theme-part-1/ as we update the application. It should take merely a moment to update.

Building a Symphony Theme: Part 1

2006-10-28T21:06

This is part one in a series of articles on [Creating a Theme for Symphony](creating-a-theme-for-symphony/). Building a site in Symphony will require some knowledge about XML, XPath and XSLT, as well as HTML and CSS. All of these technologies are standards developed by the World Wide Web Consortium as the basic building blocks that make the web work. Many of us have come around to the idea of developing standards compliant sites using XHTML and CSS. XML is a standard means of storing and retrieving data and media. However, XPath and XSLT are neglected siblings that could use some attention, and Symphony can help us out in this area. They are, in fact, the heart and soul of Symphony.

Windows Internet Explorer 7

2006-10-20T19:55

Windows Internet Explorer 7 was released by Microsoft on October 18, 2006. This announcement is good step forward for standards compliant web design as many, though not all, of the issues that have plagued the aging web browser have been resolved.

Logo Lounge

2006-10-13T18:36

LogoLounge allows designers to share their ideas and concepts with peers and clients. As a member of LogoLounge ($100.00 annual fee), you can search through thousands of logos created by designers and firms known and unknown, as well as upload your own logos.

Enable ZIP Extension for PHP

2010-01-01T17:23

I was disappointed with the fact that I was no longer able to export ensembles when I upgraded to some new Apple hardware. Since it was running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, I needed to make some changes to my local development environment to get my several Symphony installs up and running again.

jQuery Tools

2010-03-19T15:04

#### The missing UI library for the web jQuery Tools is a collection of the most important user-interface components for the web. These are tabs and accordions, tooltips, overlays, exposing effects and scrollables. This single JavaScript file weighs only 5.72 Kb.

JQuery Tools Theme

2010-03-19T14:37

This single page theme is powered by the lightweight and powerful jQuery Tools and should be a breeze to customize with your own content. The CSS is also minimalist and well organized in case you want to change the structure of your pages.

Typoasis

2006-10-12T13:33

A collection of digital revivals and original typeface designs, featuring primarily scripts of various origins.

The Book on Symphony

2007-02-09T11:35

I finally discovered that I can have a pretty decent looking PDF file by printing directly from my website if I don't specify my stylesheet for screen media only. After turning off all the cruft produced by the web browser for pagination, etc., I can get a layout that turns all my CSS elements into PostScript objects. The implications for the printing industry could be amazing if XML, XSLT and PDF could be combined into some sort of prepress workflow. I am sure that someone has thought of this before, or has already implemented it.

Building a Symphony Theme: Part 5

2007-01-06T10:35

Symphony is an application that is built on web standards: XML, XSLT, XHTML, and CSS. Symphony accomplishes this using open source scripting and database software: PHP and MySQL, respectively. Up to this point, we haven't really touched on CSS or Cascading Style Sheets other than to apply some style to a link with a class of "current". Primarily we have been concerned with content: using Symphony's XSLT templating system to transform XML data, stored in the MySQL database, to HTML. At this point, we should have a better understanding about how XSLT works and how we can use Symphony to build a basic HTML page structure. If we know anything about Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), we understand how easily we can separate the presentation of a web page from the content of the page. We can create XSLT templates that output HTML pages that use inline styles, embedded style sheets and/or external CSS files. Before we try adding any additional functionality to our site, let's add some style to our pages with CSS.

Design Agency International

2006-10-05T10:15

If you are looking for someone to hire for your next design project, there is a directory of selected design companies and professionals available here. It would be interesting to know what their criteria are for making their selections.

Cyberduck

2006-10-04T09:59

Cyberduck is an open source FTP and SFTP (SSH Secure File Transfer) browser licenced under the GPL with an easy to use interface, integration with external editors and support for many Mac OS X system technologies such as Spotlight, Bonjour, the Keychain and AppleScript.

Semantic Page Divisions

2010-03-28T09:56

I've been trying to determine the best way to avoid class names that use presentational language to describe the content of an HTML page. Terms such as "header", "footer" and "sidebar" refer to locations in a layout, so they refer to the way information is presented. Depending on the medium, this presentational information may be irrelevant.

QuickSilver

2006-10-05T09:32

Search. Command. Act without Doing. Quicksilver's greatest strength, however, is not search. Any item you are able to find, drag, or otherwise pull into its universe is endowed with many potential uses. Hitting tab takes you to the action field, where you can use the same adaptive search to select what you would like to do. Among other things, files can be emailed, copied, compressed. Text can be modified, transmitted between programs, or searched for on the web. Some actions even support an indirect object, so you can send an item to a person, move files to another folder, or open files with a specific application.

iBiz

2006-10-05T09:26

iBiz is an easy to use time-billing and invoicing application. It integrates with iCal and Address Book, offers tax support, easily generates custom invoices and does all data saving behind the scenes for you.

Cha-Ching

2006-10-05T09:23

Cha-Ching is a fun and easy to use money manager, done Mac OS X style. A tag based database lets you organize and search for your incoming and outgoing transactions your way. With Cha-Ching, you can also organize pending transactions, so you can keep track of the the cash you owe the electric company as well as the cash others might owe you -- and with iCal integration, you'll never forget a payment. Cha-Ching also offers fun little doodads you may have not expected -- you can keep a photo inventory of your purchased items for insurance and tax purposes, or just for fun.

iRatchet

2006-10-05T09:22

Ratchet is a new Tiger-only Invoicing and Billing application written in Objective-C/Cocoa. iRatchet provides the features and functionality common to billing and invoicing apps, (tracking hourly and fixed entries, multiple clients/projects, timers, pdf output, emailing of invoices, etc.), it excells in workflow, mileage tracking, web integration and ease-of-use.

On The Job

2006-10-05T09:17

On The Job is an unobtrusive, easy to use time tracker. It's not bloated with features you'll never use, yet it's powerful enough to handle all of your time tracking needs. On The Job is perfect for anyone billing by the hour. Via [Glenn Wolsey: On The Job - Time Tracking Made Easy](http://www.glennwolsey.com/?p=33)

The New W3C Site for Handheld Media

2010-03-25T09:15

When the new W3C site design launched, I was glad to find that the redesign was able to set the bar a little higher for HTML and CSS development. I noticed that the site would switch stylesheets when resizing the browser window to a narrow width. I assumed that this was being accomplished with JavaScript. Not so.

Web Style Guide

2010-03-28T09:14

The Web Style Guide site houses an unabridged, online version of the third edition of Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites, by Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton. You’ll find the complete text and illustrations from the printed book here under [Web Style Guide Online](http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/languages/html/webstyle/wsg3/index.html).

Building a Symphony Theme: Part 3

2007-01-02T09:00

Continuing on in the series on Building a Symphony Theme (see [Part 1](/journal/building-a-symphony-theme-part-1/) and [Part 2](/journal/building-a-symphony-theme-part-2/)), I will start to introduce some dynamic elements. Just to review, we have set up a virtual host, installed Symphony, set System Preferences and Author Settings, installed and enabled a Campfire Service, created a Page template and a Master template, and looked around the ?debug interface to view the XML data, XSLT templates and XHTML Output. Before we start integrating our XHTML structure and CSS files, let's get aquainted with the basics of working with Symphony and XSLT.

I Am Back

2010-03-18T08:58

#### And It's About Time I never really left. If you were looking for me, you could always find me, usually on the [Symphony CMS](http://symphony-cms.com/discuss/) forum. But this site has been sadly neglected for a few years. Mostly because things have changed.

stock.xchng

2006-10-13T08:44

The leading free stock photo site. Share your photos with fellow designers. SXC is a friendly community of photography addicts who generously offer their works to the public free of charge. The gallery contains over 200,000 stock photos by more than 15,000 photographers.

Don't Use @import

2010-03-25T08:40

Steve Souders, on his [High Performance Web Sites blog](http://www.stevesouders.com/blog/), advocates the use of the `link` element over the `@import` directive for including CSS stylesheets.

Code Beautifier

2010-03-28T07:43

CSS Formatter and Optimiser based on [csstidy 1.3](http://csstidy.sourceforge.net/). This is a great online tool for quickly compressing or formatting CSS code.

Building a Symphony Theme: Part 4

2007-01-04T03:01

The series on [Building a Symphony Theme](/journal/building-a-symphony-theme-part-1/) has touched briefly on several concepts to make sure we understand the basics before we get into the more complex areas of developing with Symphony. You may realize by now that building a theme in Symphony really means building an entire site from the ground up. But once we have built a theme, the same templates and database structures can be used to easily build other types of sites that may have an entirely different style with very different functionality. Every site tends to have some basic similarities. There needs to be some way to manage the static content of your site. It may not change much, but it is good to have some way to update these areas, such as the About and Contact pages. Here is where we go beyond the default parameters and data sources to actually creating content. We will start by creating a Section and creating Custom Fields for entering content.

Building a Symphony Theme: qwilm

2006-11-30T01:09

Now, that we are developing the qwilm theme, I have created another virtual host, database and Symphony install for a local test site. I have a virtual host called `sym.qwilm.site` that uses a database called `sym_qwilm` and I installed a fresh version of Symphony. Just to make sure we are on the same page, now that I have switched to developing qwilm instead of Pink for October, Here are the steps that you can take before jumping back into the tutorial on Building a Symphony Theme to add a virtual host specifically for this theme: `sym.qwilm.site`. If you would rather jump right into learning Symphony, head to the entries: * [Building a Symphony Theme: Part 1](building-a-symphony-theme-part-1/) * [Building a Symphony Theme: Part 2](building-a-symphony-theme-part-2/)

960 Grid System

2008-03-26T00:00

Nathan Smith introduced his [960 Grid System](http://sonspring.com/journal/960-grid-system): > As you might have heard, I recently launched a site for the templates that I created to use in my personal and professional projects. For lack of a better name, and because the numerals made for a nice logo, I’ve decided to simply refer to it as the 960 Grid System.

Creating a Theme for Symphony

2006-10-27T00:00

I have decided to build a theme for [Symphony](http://21degrees.com.au/products/symphony/) using the [Pink for October](http://bauhouse.ca/journal/pink-for-october/) WordPress theme. I will be describing the process step by step to help others who are wondering about the lack of documentation for developing sites using Symphony. I have found the best way to learn is by playing with the application to see what it can do. Learning about XML, XSLT and XPath are part of the process. Symphony provides a wonderful tool for learning the ins and outs of XSLT templating. So, here goes...

Pink for October

2006-10-27T00:00

Yes, October is running out. But while it is still October, and seeing as I haven't made any entries for the month of October, there is still time to act. I wanted to find a theme that would be worthy of inclusion in the list of themes available for [Symphony](http://symphony-cms.com/), as theme development seems to be a little slow.

Symphony: Setting a New Standard

2006-09-22T00:00

[Symphony](http://symphony-cms.com/) is a web publishing system based on web standards. By using standards, you are investing in technologies that work now and will be sure to work in the future. Web development has often relied on proprietary technologies that work only with particular applications. There was a time when websites recommended that the website was best viewed with the latest version of Internet Explorer. Many more browsers are being used.

Symphony: Then and Now

2006-09-15T00:00

This following excerpt regarding the default templates came with the default template for the Symphony 1.5 beta, but I saw no reason to dispense with it. It helps me remember the process that the Symphony Team has gone through to arrive at this state of Symphony's development. I consider it to be a privilege to be able to work with such a powerful and flexible application. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the Symphony Team and the Overture forum contributors for their work, tutorials, tips and suggestions, as well as for introducing me to another web standard: XSLT. For myself, it did not take very long to learn the basics. Let's look back at the progression of Symphony's default templates...

Font Licensing

2006-09-03T00:00

Stop stealing sheep, as Erik Spiekermann put it. Fonts represent a significant investment of time to create them and money to license them. Yet, because they are everywhere, few recognize their value and inadvertently break the law by distributing them to others.

Web Standards

2006-09-01T00:00

To what does the term web standards refer? Since the publication of the [first website](http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html) in 1991, the World Wide Web has grown from a means of sharing information among the scientific community to become the primary means for operating businesses in the information age and for social interaction around the world.