More On iPad Compatibility
02/06/10 02:20
Since we've gotten some questions about when our themes will offer complete iPad compatibility, I made a short video that explains what we've been working on, including a demo with iPad so you know what to expect when we start rolling out theme updates.
Enjoy~!
Enjoy~!
iPad Theme Support
06/04/10 23:18
Over the past few days we've gotten a flood of emails asking if our themes are compatible with Apple's new iPad, and asking we release updates soon.
Well, good news - our themes are already iPad compatible! The special link tags and javascript we use to target iPhone and other mobile users will only detect iPhone, iPod Touch, and Android-based devices. iPad users will automatically see the full desktop version of any sites you build with our themes.
That being said, we do need to make some minor adjustments to ensure that larger format websites (those with a width of greater than 700px) display on iPad without any "overflow". Since iPad's screen width in portrait mode is only 768 pixels, there's a possibility that larger websites may stretch beyond the boundaries that iPad can display.
If you don't want to wait until our theme updates are ready, you can add a meta tag to your RapidWeaver site under the "Header" tab in the Page Inspector. The Name value should be "viewport" (minus the quotation marks), and the Content value should be "initial-scale = 0.8" (again, without quotation marks). This is the same approach we'll use with our theme updates (at least until we find a more elegant solution).
UPDATE: We have found a more elegant solution, but it requires adding a custom iPad stylesheet and changing the template index.html file that is included with each theme. The brand new theme we're currently working on will use this approach, and we'll release updates for our other themes shortly after this new theme is released.
UPDATE: If you add the above described temporary fix for iPad, and then remove the built-in iPhone support from your site, you may need to add another meta tag to make sure iPhones properly display your site. As explained above, create a new meta tag in RapidWeaver with the same Name value ("viewport") but with a Content value of "width=960" (minus the quotation marks).
Hope this helps, and Happy Weaving~!
Well, good news - our themes are already iPad compatible! The special link tags and javascript we use to target iPhone and other mobile users will only detect iPhone, iPod Touch, and Android-based devices. iPad users will automatically see the full desktop version of any sites you build with our themes.
That being said, we do need to make some minor adjustments to ensure that larger format websites (those with a width of greater than 700px) display on iPad without any "overflow". Since iPad's screen width in portrait mode is only 768 pixels, there's a possibility that larger websites may stretch beyond the boundaries that iPad can display.
If you don't want to wait until our theme updates are ready, you can add a meta tag to your RapidWeaver site under the "Header" tab in the Page Inspector. The Name value should be "viewport" (minus the quotation marks), and the Content value should be "initial-scale = 0.8" (again, without quotation marks). This is the same approach we'll use with our theme updates (at least until we find a more elegant solution).
UPDATE: We have found a more elegant solution, but it requires adding a custom iPad stylesheet and changing the template index.html file that is included with each theme. The brand new theme we're currently working on will use this approach, and we'll release updates for our other themes shortly after this new theme is released.
UPDATE: If you add the above described temporary fix for iPad, and then remove the built-in iPhone support from your site, you may need to add another meta tag to make sure iPhones properly display your site. As explained above, create a new meta tag in RapidWeaver with the same Name value ("viewport") but with a Content value of "width=960" (minus the quotation marks).
Hope this helps, and Happy Weaving~!
New Site Design
08/10/09 23:27
Welcome to the new NimbleHost RapidWeaver Theme site!
I must admit, I like this new design much more than the previous version. The overall feel is much smoother and more professional.
The best part? It was built entirely with RapidWeaver! In fact, we simply took one of our current desktop themes (Mirage, if you want to know), and retooled the underlying code. We added bits and pieces here, took out some stuff over there, and the result is here before you. :-)
Hopefully you like it as much as we do, but even if you don't make sure to leave us a comment with your impressions. We love to hear from you~!
I must admit, I like this new design much more than the previous version. The overall feel is much smoother and more professional.
The best part? It was built entirely with RapidWeaver! In fact, we simply took one of our current desktop themes (Mirage, if you want to know), and retooled the underlying code. We added bits and pieces here, took out some stuff over there, and the result is here before you. :-)
Hopefully you like it as much as we do, but even if you don't make sure to leave us a comment with your impressions. We love to hear from you~!
Mirage v1.4 Update
03/10/09 23:22
I'm a little late posting about this update here on the blog. Most likely you've already heard about this, so I'll keep it short and simple.
Lots of good stuff. Lots less of bad stuff.
Okay...I realize that's a bit sparse on details ;-) - here's the complete lowdown:
- Even better IE6 support (dare I say, nearly perfect?...Okay, maybe not, but pretty darn close!)
- Added support for the brand new IE Google Chrome Frame Plugin
- You can now display your site logo, title, and slogan above a CrossSlide slideshow in the header
- Stylesheet management has been improved - All the default styles have been moved to Mirage’s base stylesheet. Mirage v1.4 now only loads ~7 stylesheets by default, and this means you can add more plugins to the same page without worrying (so much) about IE compatibility
- Increased the fade out speed of the drop down menu to improve overall menu performance
- Fixed a small bug that may have incorrectly displayed ExtraContent areas in the header image
- Fixed a small bug that incorrectly displayed the site logo, title, and slogan on the iPhone if you chose to display the header image below the main menu in the desktop version
Enjoy and Happy Weaving~!
Lots of good stuff. Lots less of bad stuff.
Okay...I realize that's a bit sparse on details ;-) - here's the complete lowdown:
- Even better IE6 support (dare I say, nearly perfect?...Okay, maybe not, but pretty darn close!)
- Added support for the brand new IE Google Chrome Frame Plugin
- You can now display your site logo, title, and slogan above a CrossSlide slideshow in the header
- Stylesheet management has been improved - All the default styles have been moved to Mirage’s base stylesheet. Mirage v1.4 now only loads ~7 stylesheets by default, and this means you can add more plugins to the same page without worrying (so much) about IE compatibility
- Increased the fade out speed of the drop down menu to improve overall menu performance
- Fixed a small bug that may have incorrectly displayed ExtraContent areas in the header image
- Fixed a small bug that incorrectly displayed the site logo, title, and slogan on the iPhone if you chose to display the header image below the main menu in the desktop version
Enjoy and Happy Weaving~!
Glide v1.7 Released
19/09/09 23:05
By now you probably know that the monstrous Glide update has officially been released.
*Whew!*
There's so much good stuff packed inside, what with the new drop-down menu version, support for CrossSlide and Pulse, and better IE and 3rd party plugin compatibility, that upgrading really is a no brainer.
So now that the update has been released, what's next?
*Gleeful cackle* Well, let's just say that I'm literally bursting with good ideas. And not just new and awesome themes, but also a new and even awesome-er Plugin. That's right, I'll be taking the leap down deep into the world of RapidWeaver 3rd party plugins here in the near future.
That being said, don't expect anything real soon - there's a learning curve to be had, and though the web-design portion of creating a plugin can be knocked out fairly simply, actually building the plugin involves some heavy duty Mac OS X programming skills.
I'm also considering putting together a monthly extended support program. Not really sure quite yet if this is going to happen just because of the tremendous time investment required, but there are so many people who ask me for custom css help and theme customization, that I'd like to make this available. Still thinking about that....
As a final tease, I took a break from working on the site redesign to write this...which means, you'll see the new design in the next few days if nothing drastic happens (fingers crossed). Stay tuned!
*Whew!*
There's so much good stuff packed inside, what with the new drop-down menu version, support for CrossSlide and Pulse, and better IE and 3rd party plugin compatibility, that upgrading really is a no brainer.
So now that the update has been released, what's next?
*Gleeful cackle* Well, let's just say that I'm literally bursting with good ideas. And not just new and awesome themes, but also a new and even awesome-er Plugin. That's right, I'll be taking the leap down deep into the world of RapidWeaver 3rd party plugins here in the near future.
That being said, don't expect anything real soon - there's a learning curve to be had, and though the web-design portion of creating a plugin can be knocked out fairly simply, actually building the plugin involves some heavy duty Mac OS X programming skills.
I'm also considering putting together a monthly extended support program. Not really sure quite yet if this is going to happen just because of the tremendous time investment required, but there are so many people who ask me for custom css help and theme customization, that I'd like to make this available. Still thinking about that....
As a final tease, I took a break from working on the site redesign to write this...which means, you'll see the new design in the next few days if nothing drastic happens (fingers crossed). Stay tuned!
Glide Update Coming
13/09/09 01:29
When I started working on this update to Glide, my biggest concern was making sure it could work with all the various plugins that our customers use, while still looking fantastic on all the various browsers out there. And that presented a problem because IE compatibility is a factor, which means we're limited in the number of theme options we can provide. IE only supports 30 stylesheets per page, and typical RapidWeaver themes serve one stylsheet per theme option.
A sticky problem.
Even so, I steeled myself against the challenge and significantly altered the underlying code that handles Glide's theme options. The result is an updated version of Glide will only serve about 11 stylesheets by default. Considering that v1.0 serves over 20 stylesheets by default, this is a huge improvement, meaning more plugins can be used on the same page, and IE compatibility is greatly improved (it was pretty good already).
Just to be clear, if Glide's defaults are changed, more stylesheets will be added - but we've also changed how some options are applied, so changing certain options will also reduce the number of stylesheets on the page. Pretty smooth~!
And if that's not enough, we've decided to include a brand new, drop-down menu version of Glide in this update free of charge.
Holy cow!
Of course, there is a catch to all this awesome theme update goodness - the price of Glide will go up to $24.95. The good news is that there's still time before the update is released, so if you get a copy now you'll get the update for free. A HUGE bargain.
Happy Weaving~!
A sticky problem.
Even so, I steeled myself against the challenge and significantly altered the underlying code that handles Glide's theme options. The result is an updated version of Glide will only serve about 11 stylesheets by default. Considering that v1.0 serves over 20 stylesheets by default, this is a huge improvement, meaning more plugins can be used on the same page, and IE compatibility is greatly improved (it was pretty good already).
Just to be clear, if Glide's defaults are changed, more stylesheets will be added - but we've also changed how some options are applied, so changing certain options will also reduce the number of stylesheets on the page. Pretty smooth~!
And if that's not enough, we've decided to include a brand new, drop-down menu version of Glide in this update free of charge.
Holy cow!
Of course, there is a catch to all this awesome theme update goodness - the price of Glide will go up to $24.95. The good news is that there's still time before the update is released, so if you get a copy now you'll get the update for free. A HUGE bargain.
Happy Weaving~!
Mirage v1.0 Released
03/09/09 21:28
I’m immensely happy to announce that Mirage, our newest RapidWeaver theme, is now available.
This release comes a bit earlier than we were planning - after the classified report that was posted in the RapidWeaver Forum a couple of days ago an avalanche of RapidWeaver users joined our mailing list asking for access. A few even managed to figure out where the sales page is and have already purchased copies.
Mirage is our finest theme achievement to date, and apart from all the good stuff you’ve come to expect in an exceptional theme, we’ve also added built-in support for the CrossSlide and Pulse jQuery plugins, and included tutorial videos and 23 snippets to help you get the most out of everything Mirage offers.
Here’s a short list of Mirage’s features:
- A powerfully simple & clean design
- Beautiful drop-down menus that degrade gracefully - in other words, they’ll even work on browsers without javascript support
- iPhone/iPod Touch/Android-enabled
- support for 6 ExtraContent areas
- built-in support for FancyZoom, CrossSlide, and Pulse
- Tested on all the major browsers: Safari, Firefox, IE 6/7/8, Chrome, and Opera
- A plethora of theme options and color pickers
- Tested with a large number of 3rd party plugins
You can preview Mirage, to see it in action, or get your copy right away.
I’d like to publicly thank our beta testers, and also give a shout out to Will Woodgate of ThemeFlood for his help answering our questions when we first started working on Mirage.
Happy Weaving~!
This release comes a bit earlier than we were planning - after the classified report that was posted in the RapidWeaver Forum a couple of days ago an avalanche of RapidWeaver users joined our mailing list asking for access. A few even managed to figure out where the sales page is and have already purchased copies.
Mirage is our finest theme achievement to date, and apart from all the good stuff you’ve come to expect in an exceptional theme, we’ve also added built-in support for the CrossSlide and Pulse jQuery plugins, and included tutorial videos and 23 snippets to help you get the most out of everything Mirage offers.
Here’s a short list of Mirage’s features:
- A powerfully simple & clean design
- Beautiful drop-down menus that degrade gracefully - in other words, they’ll even work on browsers without javascript support
- iPhone/iPod Touch/Android-enabled
- support for 6 ExtraContent areas
- built-in support for FancyZoom, CrossSlide, and Pulse
- Tested on all the major browsers: Safari, Firefox, IE 6/7/8, Chrome, and Opera
- A plethora of theme options and color pickers
- Tested with a large number of 3rd party plugins
You can preview Mirage, to see it in action, or get your copy right away.
I’d like to publicly thank our beta testers, and also give a shout out to Will Woodgate of ThemeFlood for his help answering our questions when we first started working on Mirage.
Happy Weaving~!
The Next Big Thing
16/08/09 01:46
And this is going to be huge! I’m literally bursting to tell you about our newest theme - how completely awesome it is, how it really breaks the mold of what RapidWeaver themes are so often viewed to be, and how you can use it in so many different ways for so many different sites - seriously!
iPhone/iPod Touch/Android enabled? - check
Beautiful, exquisite design? - check
A seriously intelligent navigation system? - check
ExtraContent? - check
Custom headers? - check
Custom backgrounds? - check
Much, much, much more? - check
And some other features that are so completely amazing, you’ll wonder how one theme can do it all.
As a wise kung-fu panda once said, “There is no charge for awesomeness.”
iPhone/iPod Touch/Android enabled? - check
Beautiful, exquisite design? - check
A seriously intelligent navigation system? - check
ExtraContent? - check
Custom headers? - check
Custom backgrounds? - check
Much, much, much more? - check
And some other features that are so completely amazing, you’ll wonder how one theme can do it all.
As a wise kung-fu panda once said, “There is no charge for awesomeness.”
Site Redesign Coming...
15/08/09 22:52
I’m not going to say it’s been a long time coming - especially since less than 6 months have passed since we launched the current version, but I am tremendously excited about this new design! True to our nature as a premier desktop and mobile RapidWeaver theme developer, the new site will look great on your iPhone (and those irksome IE browsers, too).
We’ve also got a new theme coming soon. If you like discounts (who doesn’t?) then make sure to join our mailing list - only previous customers and members of our mailing list get a 3 day head start and 25% discount on our new themes! Time’s ticking...
We’ve also got a new theme coming soon. If you like discounts (who doesn’t?) then make sure to join our mailing list - only previous customers and members of our mailing list get a 3 day head start and 25% discount on our new themes! Time’s ticking...
Unity v1.8 Now Available
30/05/09 18:36
This major update brings Unity up to par with Glide - pushes beyond it, actually. Here’s what changed:
- Fixed a lingering bug in IE 6/7 so that the sub menu displays properly
- Rewrote the FancyZoom script so it doesn’t conflict with 3rd party plugins (obviously we can’t test all possible scenarios, so let us know if you’re still running into any problems)
- Fixed formatting issues that caused TabLoom and WP-Blog pages to not display correctly
- Fixed the CSS sprite graphic used with blog icons - no more overlap or disembodied icons
- Increased the number of page headers from 10 to 30
- There are now options to hide both the page header and the sub menu located below it
- Added a more height options for the page header
- Added a Content Width Declaration option - for use when you hide the sidebar, you can use this option for any 3rd party plugins that need a declared width to fill the entire width of the main content area
- Changed some footer design elements so Unity displays well on larger resolution displays
- Added a couple of footer text/link color options
- Switched placement of the Menu and Sidebar buttons on the iPhone version
You can download the update installer from Unity’s features page. Keep in mind, you must have a copy of Unity installed on your mac already for the installer to work. As always, make sure to backup your data first before running the installer.
Happy Weaving~!
Theme Development Hurdles
22/04/09 21:15
It’s now been almost a year since we started developing themes for RapidWeaver. As many of you are aware, we focused on making mobile themes first, as there were no RapidWeaver themes specifically designed to be viewed on mobile devices at the time. There’s no doubt that everything is trending towards the mobile web.
Mobile web design is a different animal than your typical desktop variety. There are so many different and limiting factors that you really can’t compare the two at all, but I always thought the mobile space would remain the most challenging by far....
That was before we started working on desktop themes and had to build in compatibility for IE 6. I can now say, without pause or even the slightest bit of doubt, that developing with IE 6 compatibility in mind is a nightmare.
Take, for instance, our newest theme (which is currently out to our beta group). We were having a incredibly frustrating problem I’d never seen before. When hovering over one of the split level navigation menus, IE 6 (and 7, in this case) cut off the bottom portion of the content area. After hours of testing, applying various hacks, and googling until my eyes bled, we still hadn’t figured out what the problem was.
Next day we start afresh. Checked to see if any other coding gurus out there had come across similar problems...and just by chance stumbled across what is called the Guillotine bug. Bingo! The fix was simple, and IE 6/7 now play nice.
Mobile web design is a different animal than your typical desktop variety. There are so many different and limiting factors that you really can’t compare the two at all, but I always thought the mobile space would remain the most challenging by far....
That was before we started working on desktop themes and had to build in compatibility for IE 6. I can now say, without pause or even the slightest bit of doubt, that developing with IE 6 compatibility in mind is a nightmare.
Take, for instance, our newest theme (which is currently out to our beta group). We were having a incredibly frustrating problem I’d never seen before. When hovering over one of the split level navigation menus, IE 6 (and 7, in this case) cut off the bottom portion of the content area. After hours of testing, applying various hacks, and googling until my eyes bled, we still hadn’t figured out what the problem was.
Next day we start afresh. Checked to see if any other coding gurus out there had come across similar problems...and just by chance stumbled across what is called the Guillotine bug. Bingo! The fix was simple, and IE 6/7 now play nice.
New Theme Nearing Release
16/04/09 14:06
I’m not going to spills the beans just yet, but we have a theme under development that, frankly, absolutely rocks! We’ll be pushing out a beta version to our testers within the next week or two, and barring any major bugs we’ll have our standard pre-launch release just for our current customers and mailing list members shortly afterwards.
What can you look forward to in this new theme? Ultimate customization for one. An iPhone/Android mobile version, as with our Unity theme. 7 ExtraContent areas. And another RapidWeaver theme first (at least as far as we know) - an easy way to insert Flash and BannerZest headers into the page header.
Stay tuned for more!
What can you look forward to in this new theme? Ultimate customization for one. An iPhone/Android mobile version, as with our Unity theme. 7 ExtraContent areas. And another RapidWeaver theme first (at least as far as we know) - an easy way to insert Flash and BannerZest headers into the page header.
Stay tuned for more!
Unity 1.5 Released!
29/03/09 13:12
The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity, and it’s my distinct pleasure to announce this new release of Unity. Version 1.5 is a solid update that takes care of a range of bugs and offers some new features as well. Here’s the lowdown:
We hope you enjoy the update. Happy Weaving!
- Unity is now IE 8 compatible
- You can now change the background color in Unity
- Added support for Android devices - reach a wider mobile audience!
- Lists items are now properly formatted
- You now have the option to hide the Logo and Title/Slogan on individual pages
- You can now choose the height of the Logo & Title/Slogan container
- Fixed a null error bug when using Accordion, Collage 2, Kwix, some other javascript based plugins in Unity
- Added a fancyzoom.rwsnippet for those who want to utilize the FancyZoom feature
We hope you enjoy the update. Happy Weaving!
Designing for the Mobile Web
07/06/08 13:43
As all web designers know, getting your site to work with the three major desktop browsers can be a real pain in the butt. Now imagine you design for the mobile web, except here there are at least 19 major browsers to support, and somehow your site is supposed to look similar on all of them.
Nigh impossible.
That's why the first commandment of mobile web design is to know your audience. What kind of devices do your visitors use? Which devices do you need to support? Once that's figured out, then you'll know exactly what limitations you're working with - screen sizes, browser types, etc.
One thing to keep in consideration - it's very unlikely that your web site is going to look perfect on all the thousands of different mobile devices on the market. Don't get frustrated though, that's why it's so important to know your target audience.
Another part of knowing your audience is why they are visiting your site to begin with. There's an excellent article on sitepoint about designing for the mobile web, and it touches on the three main groups of mobile users and how to approach designing your web site for each group.
There is a wealth of information on the web regarding this topic, and below we've included a short list of the articles and resources that were helpful on the journey we took to bring you MobileFusion.
Nigh impossible.
That's why the first commandment of mobile web design is to know your audience. What kind of devices do your visitors use? Which devices do you need to support? Once that's figured out, then you'll know exactly what limitations you're working with - screen sizes, browser types, etc.
One thing to keep in consideration - it's very unlikely that your web site is going to look perfect on all the thousands of different mobile devices on the market. Don't get frustrated though, that's why it's so important to know your target audience.
Another part of knowing your audience is why they are visiting your site to begin with. There's an excellent article on sitepoint about designing for the mobile web, and it touches on the three main groups of mobile users and how to approach designing your web site for each group.
There is a wealth of information on the web regarding this topic, and below we've included a short list of the articles and resources that were helpful on the journey we took to bring you MobileFusion.
- XHTML Mobile Profile - A list of the standard XHTML all mobile browsers should support.
- CSS Mobile Profile 2.0 - Ditto for the above, except for CSS. A side note, though - in our tests many devices did not support all the specifications listed here, i.e. Blackberries don't appear to support either the display: inline; or display: none; elements, etc.
- Screen Size Trends - A good reference when you need to know what screen sizes are on the market.
- Designing for the mobile web - The same sitepoint article we reference above.
- Mobile web design - Another good article from the Dev.Opera site about designing mobile web sites.
- Serving content to mobile browsers - We decided not to take this approach, but a good read on browser sniffing, etc.
- CSS 2.1 Reference - This is a great resource, especially for those who know what they want to do with their stylesheet, but aren't sure of the syntax to use.
- W3C Mobile Validation - A beta service that will check your page to see how mobile friendly it is.