A Beta Home Page: part 1, the scripting
It is May 1st and some people that read this blog or talk to me fairly regularly are expecting a new home page for UW today. Well you will have to wait a bit longer for that, but you can get a sneak peak of it soon – if you haven’t already. You will have to guess the URL 
The following is an explanation on the key parts of the beta site that have stirred soem discussion in regards to the code. I have broken it into three parts. Part 1 is about scripting, Part 2 about how the scripting brings it together, and Part 3 overall page layout (CSS and navigation).
…and the first question anyone that looks at the code asks is:
You are using javascript, I thought that is not accessible?
Providing the navigation and/or content so that it is reliant on javascript to be accessed is not accessible, enhancing the appearance of the web site is just fine. Responsible use of scripting languages is what is required. There are many advantages to using JS but for the beta version of the home page I used it simply to enhance the visual appearance using sIFR and Nifty Corners.
sIFR
The website carries a better explanation of what the scripting is so I won’t go into that but why did I use it? Well the current bare bones template offers up the age the old .jpg or .gif of the font that no one has. Have you look at that in a handheld? It was fine with images turned off but handhelds like Blackberries scale the image to its screen. Then of course is the issue of creating a different title for any number of sites you have to work on. If a committee changes your mind, back to Fireworks.
By replacing the text with a flash text version that has the proper font I don’t have to use Fireworks again to make a title bar, or use the Graphics PHP image generator. I just type in the text and there we go. Plus it looks good on a handheld. It was a bit of work setting it up but I am fairly confident the time savings can be passed on to whoever wants to use it.
Nifty Corners
Again, the website can explain what it is better than I can but why did I use it? Well simply for visual effect while ensuring that the code was not effected. It is as easy as adding one line of code to the JS for the div or class name and you have rounded corners and even a border. No it isn’t as refined looking as an image technique but it leaves you without having a case of divitis to achieve a similar effect.
By the time the final version of the home page roles around maybe nifty corners will offer up a way to plug in your images.
Next, Part II – bringing the page together and adding some features with server side scripting.