test: October 2011

Sunday, 23 October 2011

Create post summary for video post

Some readers asked me how to make a frontpage like simplextube2 . The video player is shown directly in homepage . The idea behind this script is similar to other 'readmore' script ,but it focus on video .

First , we set the form for a video post :

video link ...
endofvid
[starttext]
text for description
[endtext]

it means when we have a video post ,we have to post it as exact as this form .For example with a video from youtube :

http://youtube.com/..... endofvid
[starttext]
this is description
[endtext]

The term 'endofvid' is used to marked the end of video link ,the text in front of this term is video link .

Second ,when creating readmore ,the script will scan all post content ,searching for the term 'endofvid' ,extract the text before this term and determine which service it is belonged . For example ,if the text contain the word ' youtube' ,it means video service provider is youtube . If the text contain 'vimeo' ,it means the video provider is vimeo .

Third , create a video player for the video service we determine above . For example ,if the video link above is belong to youtube ,in this step ,we create a youtube player . After creating video player ,feed the video link to player ,and show it in front page .

Fourth ,delete marked words 'endofvid' ,'[starttext]' ,'[endtext]

Now we move to the script

Insert this code before <body>

<script type='text/javascript'>
<![CDATA[//><!]]>

</script>

Content of this script is as exact as the explanation above ,step by step . In this script ,there are 5 video service : youtube ,liveleak,vimeo,dailymotion and metacafe . If you want another video service that allow video embedding ,feel free to suggest :D

Now ,move to the body of the post ,find this code

<data:post.body/>

and replace it with

<div expr:id='"summary" + data:post.id' style="margin-top:10px;">
                                    <data:post.body/>
                                </div>
                                <script type='text/javascript'>createVideo("summary<data:post.id/>");</script>

Now let's check for the post summary . You can create a post as the structure in step 1 ,insert a video from youtube ,and then see the result of post summary . Does the post show up with post summary and a video player ?

Sunday, 16 October 2011

Make an impressive landing page for blogspot .

Some readers asked me for making a static landing page for blogspot . It makes blog look more professional and separated to other blogspot’s blogs .

In this post ,I will tell you how to make a landing page for blogspot . This post related to HTML,CSS ,Jquery and some Blogspot Api’s ,so you must be familiar to them before we start .

The idea for this landing page is inspired by a design from Tympanus website .

Live Demo

Now let's start

1,HTML markup

The HTML structure consists of a main container and an unordered list where each item is one of the columns. The main container has class “ei_menu” and also the id “ei_menu”.
Under the main container ,each of <li> item contains a link element with two spans inside and a div element with the content.
The two spans are for the background image shown at the beginning and the image shown when click (active) . Since we are using just one image for each we will have to define the background position.
Div element contain the title ,text,and links .

<div id="ei_menu" class="ei_menu">
    <ul>
        <li>
            <a href="#" class="pos1">
                <span class="ei_preview"></span>
                <span class="ei_image"></span>
            </a>
            <div class="ei_descr">
                <h2>title</h2>
<a href="link">                <h3>Click here to go</h3></a>
                <p>Some text here...</p>
            </div>
        </li>
        <li>
            <a href="#" class="pos2">
                <span class="ei_preview"></span>
                <span class="ei_image"></span>
            </a>
            <div class="ei_descr">
                <h2>title</h2>
<a href="link">                <h3>Click here to go</h3></a>
                <p>Some text here...</p>
            </div>
        </li>
<li>
            <a href="#" class="pos3">
                <span class="ei_preview"></span>
                <span class="ei_image"></span>
            </a>
            <div class="ei_descr">
                <h2>title</h2>
<a href="link">                <h3>Click here to go</h3></a>
                <p>Some text here...</p>
            </div>
        </li>
<li>
            <a href="#" class="pos4">
                <span class="ei_preview"></span>
                <span class="ei_image"></span>
            </a>
            <div class="ei_descr">
                <h2>title</h2>
<a href="link">                <h3>Click here to go</h3></a>
                <p>Some text here...</p>
            </div>
        </li>
<li>
            .....................
        </li>

    </ul>
</div>

Link in href attribute of this line

<a href="link"> <h3>Click here to go</h3></a>

Can be link to any page you want . Link to all posts in blog is :

http://blog_name.blogspot.com/search/posts/default

When we use this HTML markup for home page ,it means we have to hide another elements . It's the time to use Blogspot API - the conditional statement .
It look like this

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl'>
The HTML markup
<b:else/>
Other elements you want to hide in home page
</b:if>

For example ,in default template (such as minima) ,we want to hide blog posts :

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl'>
The HTML markup
<b:else/>
<b:section class='main' id='main1' showaddelement='no'>
.......................
</b:section>
</b:if>

2,The CSS

Add this code in CSS sections of your template

/* Menu style */
.ei_menu{
background:#111;
width:100%;
overflow:hidden;
}
.ei_menu ul{
height:350px;
margin-left:50px;
position:relative;
display:block;
width:1300px;
}
.ei_menu ul li{
float:left;
width:75px;
height:350px;
position:relative;
overflow:hidden;
border-right:2px solid #111;
}
.ei_preview{
width:75px;
height:350px;
cursor:pointer;
position:absolute;
top:0px;
left:0px;
background:transparent url(../images/bw.jpg) no-repeat top left;
}
.ei_image{
position:absolute;
left:75px;
top:0px;
width:75px;
height:350px;
opacity:0.2;
background:transparent url(../images/color.jpg) no-repeat top left;
}
.pos1 span{
background-position:0px 0px;
}
.pos2 span{
background-position:-75px 0px;
}
.pos3 span{
background-position:-152px 0px;
}
.pos4 span{
background-position:-227px 0px;
}
.pos5 span{
background-position:-302px 0px;
}
.pos6 span{
background-position:-377px 0px;
}
.ei_descr{
position:absolute;
width:278px;
height:310px;
border-right:7px solid #f0f0f0;
padding:20px;
left:75px;
top:0px;
background:#fff;
}
.ei_descr h2{
font-family: 'Rock Salt', arial, serif;
font-size:26px;
color:#333;
padding:10px;
text-shadow:0px 0px 1px #fff;
background:#fff url(../images/stripe_light.gif) repeat top left;
}
.ei_descr h3{
font-family: 'Raleway', arial, serif;
color:#fff;
text-shadow:0px 0px 1px #000;
font-style:normal;
padding:10px;
background:#333;
}
.ei_descr p{
color:#000;
padding:10px 5px 0px 5px;
line-height:18px;
font-size:11px;
font-family: Arial;
text-transform:uppercase;
}

Meaning of these CSS tags can be found in CSS cheat sheets or websites focus on CSS . I will not explain here for keep the post short and clean .Replace the images in background attributes to yours own images .
Add two lines

<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Rock+Salt' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' />
<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Raleway:100' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' />

Right after </head> for embedding Google fonts into this design .

3,The Javascript

The idea is to expand the menu when clicking on it . The initial width for each menu item is 75 pixel ,when clicked ,the width is enlarged to 400 pixel (75pixel plus 325pixel for the hidden content )
Add this code right before </body>

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://gsgd.co.uk/sandbox/jquery/easing/jquery.easing.1.3.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() {
var $menu = $('#ei_menu > ul'),
$menuItems = $menu.children('li'),
$menuItemsImgWrapper= $menuItems.children('a'),
$menuItemsPreview = $menuItemsImgWrapper.children('.ei_preview'),
totalMenuItems = $menuItems.length,

ExpandingMenu = (function(){
/*
@current
set it to the index of the element you want to be opened by default,
or -1 if you want the menu to be closed initially
*/
var current = -1,
/*
@anim
if we want the default opened item to animate initialy set this to true
*/
anim = true,
/*
checks if the current value is valid -
between 0 and the number of items
*/
validCurrent = function() {
return (current >= 0 && current < totalMenuItems);
},
init = function() {
/* show default item if current is set to a valid index */
if(validCurrent())
configureMenu();

initEventsHandler();
},
configureMenu = function() {
/* get the item for the current */
var $item = $menuItems.eq(current);
/* if anim is true slide out the item */
if(anim)
slideOutItem($item, true, 900, 'easeInQuint');
else{
/* if not just show it */
$item.css({width : '400px'})
.find('.ei_image')
.css({left:'0px', opacity:1});

/* decrease the opacity of the others */
$menuItems.not($item)
.children('.ei_preview')
.css({opacity:0.2});
}
},
initEventsHandler = function() {
/*
when we click an item the following can happen:
1) The item is already opened - close it!
2) The item is closed - open it! (if another one is opened, close it!)
*/
$menuItemsImgWrapper.bind('click.ExpandingMenu', function(e) {
var $this = $(this).parent(),
idx = $this.index();

if(current === idx) {
slideOutItem($menuItems.eq(current), false, 1500, 'easeOutQuint', true);
current = -1;
}
else{
if(validCurrent() && current !== idx)
slideOutItem($menuItems.eq(current), false, 250, 'jswing');

current = idx;
slideOutItem($this, true, 250, 'jswing');
}
return false;
});
},
/* if you want to trigger the action to open a specific item */
openItem = function(idx) {
$menuItemsImgWrapper.eq(idx).click();
},
/*
opens or closes an item
note that "mLeave" is just true when all the items close,
in which case we want that all of them get opacity 1 again.
"dir" tells us if we are opening or closing an item (true | false)
*/
slideOutItem = function($item, dir, speed, easing, mLeave) {
var $ei_image = $item.find('.ei_image'),

itemParam = (dir) ? {width : '400px'} : {width : '75px'},
imageParam = (dir) ? {left : '0px'} : {left : '75px'};

/*
if opening, we animate the opacity of all the elements to 0.1.
this is to give focus on the opened item..
*/
if(dir)
/*
alternative:
$menuItemsPreview.not($menuItemsPreview.eq(current))
.stop()
.animate({opacity:0.1}, 500);
*/
$menuItemsPreview.stop()
.animate({opacity:0.1}, 1000);
else if(mLeave)
$menuItemsPreview.stop()
.animate({opacity:1}, 1500);

/* the <li> expands or collapses */
$item.stop().animate(itemParam, speed, easing);
/* the image (color) slides in or out */
$ei_image.stop().animate(imageParam, speed, easing, function() {
/*
if opening, we animate the opacity to 1,
otherwise we reset it.
*/
if(dir)
$ei_image.animate({opacity:1}, 2000);
else
$ei_image.css('opacity', 0.2);
});
};

return {
init : init,
openItem : openItem
};
})();

/*
call the init method of ExpandingMenu
*/
ExpandingMenu.init();

/*
if later on you want to open / close a specific item you could do it like so:
ExpandingMenu.openItem(3); // toggles item 3 (zero-based indexing)
*/
});
</script>

That’s all .
There are two keypoints here :
1-Make the HTML markup ,adding CSS and javascript to make an expanding menu for homepage .
2-Hide elements which you do not want to show in homepage .

I hope this post helpful to you .

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