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SMOOTH SLIDER Plugin added to HART-Empire Blog
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I Like That LINKWITHIN Related Widget
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My New Business Cards Have Arrived
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Smooth Slider

• MAN .. I suck at CSS *sniffles*

  1
  
  March 2nd, 2007HARTHmmmm Things, Reviews

  I have been experimenting with PHP includes

  Currently, the network code in the sidebar is a javascript code. What that means, is that I have one data file on this server, and I can update it once and instantly all sidebars throughout the network is updated instantly as well. This is a huge savings in time – versus actually adding each site into the blogrolls of every site – because when I have to shuffle sites around the channels, or add new sites or remove old sites or change names to certain sites .. it can become tedious to do that in each individual site.

  There is a downside though. I really do NOT get any link love from myself and all of my sites from each other. It annoys me to death at times, but .. it’s a slow death – because I keep forgetting to do anything about that!

  If you view source, you would just see the javascript code. You don’t actually see the individual sites in the sidebar.

  What I want is to have a PHP INCLUDE statement so it retrieves all of the same information and the real links appear in both the View Source, and for real in the search engines etc. There’s a problem though, for amateur PHP’obbyists and oblivious people like me .. because generally PHP programming and most servers will not allow PHP scripts to run scripts on other servers. Well, that’s how I understand it anyway.

  I’ve created a base template file that contains only the network sites. I would like to create a way to GET THAT SCRIPT from some central location so I can update itself if there is a change. I have yet to figure it out, or get that working. I felt hopeful .. when I actually recalled Ryan of College-Startup casually suggesting an intriguing PHP statement in the comments that was very intriguing that I plan to investigate further.

  Even if I couldn’t make that work .. it probably is possible! At least to the professional PHP programmers, and I could hire out to code something. But, in the meantime – I have created a central folder on my computer for all include statements and templates, and when there is an update – (and I’ve done this before) .. with my WS_FTP_LE program .. I load up every one of the 32 domains that I currently house blogs in and just browse to the folder on my hard drive and upload it to the template file, already defaulted in the program. That whole procedure takes me about 20 minutes working fast! I’ve even deleted all those other crappy FTP login sites and default sites in WS_FTP just so my domains show up and I just go down the list. So .. even if I don’t get it to actually update itself – (for now) – that is not a big deal.

  So – Effective March 1, 2007 (so I thought) .. “I would work on getting this to work”!

  Now .. all I needed to do was figure out the CSS and make it look cool, or not ugly anyway .. and not take up too enormously amount of valuable sidebar space .. plus somehow be able to fit in all types of templates around the network – or at least in my own sites. And I twiddled .. and I tweaked .. and I twaddled .. and tweaked some more .. and came into a perfect looking sidebar network code!

  And then – I put them in a few sites… Each one is different…

  Here is my existing code

  This is the existing code I have been using, that is javascript. I like the the Larger Font Green over the text but wish the text was smaller.

  
  
  

  Here is the best that I can come up with

  I was first experimenting with a yellowish background that makes it highlighted, but I thought I would try to have a lighter yellow background and maybe some lines over the top and bottom of each channel to make it look good. Thanks to Mandarin Designs Cool Text Trips (yes .. my secret to CSS is out) .. I managed to find something comparable .. and similar to the following:

  The new code is now active in this sidebar ..

  Here is the code that creates that mess

  
/*
HART-Empire Network .. just playing
*/

  h4.HENchannel {
  background-color:beige;
  border-bottom:4px double maroon;
  border-top:4px double maroon;
  font-size:10px;
  letter-spacing: -.03em;
  margin-top:2px;
  margin-botton:2px;
  padding:3px 10px 3px 10px;
  text-transform: capitalize;
  FONT: Haettenschweiler, brush script mt,impact,arial,verdana;
  COLOR: #000033;
  padding-left : 5%;
  padding-right : 5%;
  }

  h4.HENsites {
  font-size: 0.7em;
  letter-spacing: -.04em;
  FONT: verdana;
  padding-left : 5%;
  COLOR: navy;
  }

  These Are NOT Uniform

  PapillonLvr.com/blog/

  AndYouRetire.com

  62-151.com

  Battling-Addiction.com

  And – HART-Empire.com >> over in sidebar!

  See how they are all different? I don’t suppose anybody would want to help me standardize this code to look identical on every possible template out there? In each case and blog .. there are always overriding Style.css template commands melding with my codes and making the above look … *blahhh*

  What do I think is wrong with this first working draft

  * the outline is entire width of column
  * too much white space before / after each section
  * not sure about the hover or visited site colors
  * I can’t seem to get Navy Blue site link colors
  * I’d like really really small letters so there is no site names that takes up 2 lines. But, I’m able to shrink the font size .. but it’s not readable. There has to be a readable font that’s small, and not annoying.

  In the meantime, I’ll leave the code and start adding it to a few more sites because I want to see if the linking really does make a difference.

  

  Check These Out!

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