I was wondering if you can give me any pointers on how to write a firefox plugin/add-on, that would change the layout of the page one is on, based on a pre- written CSS file.
It's meant as a prototype and what I want to be able to do initially is to make my browser automatically change the background color of certain div's, when I navigate to the chosen page. I'm only trying to make it work for a couple of sites.
I speak python, javascript/jquery, css, html ..
You may be able to accomplish your goal using the Stylish addon without writing your own. This basically allow you to attach custom CSS overrides based on a URL pattern.
If you want to do this and write your own extension, you could use the addon-sdk and make use of page-mod. Here is a tutorial that will help you with running the script only on the URL's you specify. As of FireFox 34 you should be able to attach actual CSS files instead of having to rely on JavaScript. Learning the addon-sdk it a lot less intimidating than making an old style / low-level extension and should be sufficient for your needs.
There are a few different ways to accomplish similar things, so you will need to experiment based on your needs.
Related
After many fruitless days of trying to get JQuery Mobile and AngularJS routing to work together, I'm considering my alternative options..
Is there a way to use the JQM CSS without relying on JQuery's javascript?
Or is there a substitute CSS package that are recommended? something with all header/footers and lists that is available in JQM?
Of course, there is an CSS file in the package you downloaded. But all the sites functionality and the mobile adaption will be broken. You can rename the classes and the id's or directly use the classes from the css file.
Greets
There are quite a few jQueryMobile functionalities that rely solely on the CSS fole, eg. the grids. You won't get the interactions, but all the buttons looks, shapes and colors are totally useful without the JS.
Still - depends on your expectations.
And when using it like that you need to understand a bit how JQM works to know the classes and html structure that's expected, because some of these are generated by javascript.
[kind of digression]
But maybe you just dislike how big jquerymobile is?
Then you probably want to use: http://jquerymobile.com/download-builder/ to get only stuff you need, and also use tte themeroller here: http://jquerymobile.com/themeroller/index.php to create only one theme (global) and remove other themes (A,B,C)
That's how you get it a lot smaller.
You can reuse the CSS file inside he downloaded JQM package. The file jquery.mobile-1.x.x.css can be included, but make sure to include the images folder as well and have it at the same location at the destination.
If you aren't sure of which classes to include for which purpose, you can simply find it out by inspecting a JQM demo page to find out (View source will not work due to the JQM javascript).
JQS provides support for ui animations and user experience enhancement. Removing libraries will dispart you from accessing css contents created and used by javascript in order to 'manage' a front-end design. –
Yes you can use jquery mobile theme and adapt it to your needs.
Just reading there was adapter releases for your situation : https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/angular/oIxRxpkn3L0
Perhaps substitutes to css packages are documented. About heavier JQM templating and using, there are some introduction to what you'll need to take a look at like adobe theme-control-jquery-mobile.html ..
I have previously created buttons and other graphics (footer bars) from within photoshop and then saved them out for web. Should I now be using css to create my buttons for me? I noticed these are quite code heavy.
You don't have to but the reason using css is considered the better way is because you will not need to make an extra http request to get the image. It really is personal preference.
If the design, you previously made, satisfies your goals there is no necessity to change it. But if you want to use advantages of CSS and if you are not scared of some problems with browsers which do not support CSS completely or support it with some bugs, you can create new CSS elements.
Here are some advantages and disadvantages of both ways.
Images
+ cross-browser solution. Easier to make GUI look the same way in all browsers.
- extra requests to the server
- extra traffic downloaded by users
- the page will weight more and load longer time
- much more time needed to make some little changes in the GUI appearance
CSS
+ no extra requests to the server
+ no extra traffic downloaded by users
+ the page will weight less and load faster
+ less time needed to make changes in the GUI appearance
- NOT a cross-browser solution. Harder to make GUI look the same way in all browsers.
As you can see, CSS has more advantages, but it is way harder to make a cross-browser design using it.
P.S. I'm sorry for my poor language.
Generally using code for things like buttons is currently the way to go. Buttons created in photoshop tend to look gimmicky (currently) and, if you look at the majority of websites you'll notice buttons are very clean, usually subtle gradients and slight box-shadows or such. With the benefit of not having an extra http request this gives it even more of an edge to use code to create such things.
There are many tools and pre-made buttons available to help create the buttons.
Twitter Bootstrap buttons are very clean and widely used. (You don't have to use the whole bootstrap system to use them, just look at their code and re-create :))
Or to customise your own button you can use websites such as CSS button generator
What is the easiest way to do it?
I have difficulties to understand and not having now enough time to spend and study Greasemonkey properly, to just apply a PERMANENT css change to ANY website.
I thought that was more easy, to just add a CSS that would stay with the browser. But I do not find any easy/quick tool customization to just add a simple .css file to do my changes.
For example I would like to restyle Twitter, because I hate the new design, It is killing any kind of graphic personalization that I would like to have.
I need it simple, because I want to let people with not high tech knowledge, to be able to get my personalization, implement it and do it as well.
I know that this could have a security issue, but all that I want to do it is add a piece of CSS, and not additional Javascript functionality.
EDIT: Possibly that could work in all the browsers, not only Chrome and Firefox (I know that might not exist, but I would like to have an alternative for people that use IE)
I am an expert web designer, but I am not a programmer. Outside Javascript I do not script anything else.
Install Stylish. Make custom CSS file. Winning.
You're looking for the Stylish extension.
You can add a user stylesheet in several major browsers that will override the site stylesheet. It will require a good working knowledge of CSS though and for firefox you have to create the file manually in your profile.
http://www.squarefree.com/userstyles/user-style-sheets.html
I am developing a "bar" like what you see on the top of many default Blogger blogs that acts as a unifying element on otherwise different-looking sites. I want to package the code up into a neat package so that I can give other developers a few simple lines of code that they can paste into the beginning of their <body>.
I know there are many ways to do this, like using PHP includes, AJAX calls, JavaScript and XmlHttpRequest, Google closure templates, etc. BUT I want to make sure the bar is CSS independent, meaning other CSS that is used on the site does not affect my bar.
I am wondering what is the best method to accomplish this? Is inline CSS the only way around this?
Just like JavaScript plugin development, there's no guarantee that CSS classes and IDs wont be overridden later.
If the code needs to be inline, I'd suggest namespacing all of your classes and IDs: pluginname-wrapper, pluginname-container, pluginname-block, etc.
Otherwise, you could use an iframe element to store a miniature page.
I'd suggest sticking to namespacing. If someone includes your plugin and it's off by a bit, they'll be able to manually override the styles to make it look the way they want.
Someone who writes div {float:left;} or anything similarly silly will have problems either way, so don't worry about making it the same for everyone, just make it work with the default styles.
Where multiple people can work on same css. is it possible to follow semantic name rules even in large websites.
If I would write all main css first time with semantic names . then what and how i should guideline/instruction to other developer to maintain css readability, validation . and to know quickly where other are adding their own css if required.
Right now every one just go to down and write required css classes ot IDs at bottom. and most of the time they don't write semantic names.
How to make good documentation/guide with text or with images for other developers on how to use css in whole site and how i wrote and what i used.
Update:
We use only one CSS file. I don't want to divide one css in multiple. Want to keep css managable even using one CSS file for whole site.
A similar question was asked a while ago: How to manage CSS Explosion there is a number of good answers there, and a number of great links (check out those provided by Paul D. Waite for example.)
Your main problem is going to be structuring the CSS file well. You will need clean rules for that: Keep everything grouped within the CSS file. Maybe using a CSS editor that can help you "navigate" through the style sheet is a good idea (similar to a programming IDE's "code explorer" feature). I don't know, however, if such a thing exists.
Other than that:
Using version control is a MUST. I personally am totally happy with centralized versioning using Subversion and TortoiseSVN; others believe in distributed version control like git or hg. For a team of designers, I think the centralized approach of Subversion is good, but that is a discussion in itself.
Maybe it's a good idea to split the style sheet into thematically relevant separate files to avoid chaos, and compile it using a tool like LESS or xCSS.
Define a clear, concise coding style. Use a CSS beautifier like Polystyle ($14 per license but money well spent) or Code Beautifier (based on CSS Tidy, haven't used it but looks interesting) and run it frequently on the file.
Have a number of links handy of pages that use the style sheet. Have people test those pages after they have made a change to the style sheet.
I would break down your css logically into groups and put each of these groups into its own css file. For example: header, footer, sidebar, content groups. Maybe some pages even deserve their own css file if big enough.
Similarly, give ids and classes on pages names that make sense. If it is a css rule for sub headings on a navigation bar, make sure it comes off as that in naming. Similarly to any other coding, don't use any magic numbers, etc. for naming.
See Modularizing web applications, includes specially CSS