Thau's Basic JavaScript Tutorial

The series starts off with a look at JavaScript fundamentals, including variables, if-then statements, link events, and image swaps. Keep following along as Thau gets down and dirty with the JavaScript Document Object Model, windows and frames, JavaScript syntax with loops, arrays, and functions, and forms. This all sound like a bunch of gobbledygook? Well, dig in and learn!

Thau. Webmonkey (2001). Design>Web Design>DHTML

Threaded Discussion with PHP/MySQL

Make your Web site a conversation piece and learn a couple of coding tricks in the process.

Bulger, Brad. Webmonkey (2000). Design>Web Design>Server Side Includes>PHP

Transactions in MySQL

Protect your data from crashes and the confusion of multiple user requests with a transaction-capable database.

Greenspan, Jay. Webmonkey (2002). Design>Web Design>Databases>SQL

Wanna Be a Project Manager?

Whether you're managing an entire army or an army of one, Pam's project management tips will help you get that site built.

Statz, Pam. Webmonkey (2003). Design>Project Management>Web Design

Web Animation Tutorial

In these modern days, Web animators may not have to spend 17 hours hand painting cells to make Dopey wink, but bandwidth, platform, and browser issues make animation for the Web its own special hell. Anna and Emily have navigated many circles of this hell, and they make animation ... well, if not easy, then easier.

McMillan, Anna and Emily Hobson. Webmonkey (2001). Design>Multimedia>Interactive

Web Hosting for Under Ten Bucks

There's a ginormous number of hosts out there, and they each offer a variety of packages and pricing plans. A lot of people can get away with hosting a site for free, while some prefer to have their own domain name and email address associated with their site. But whatever your motivation or reason for hosting, there's a perfect package available for you. I've sniffed around and I've found some of the best bets for cheap hosting — most of my finds were under US$10 per month

Patrikios, Jay. Webmonkey (2003). Design>Web Design>Hosting

Web Typography Tutorial

Though many outside the design community see type as 'just lines on a page,' it has long been considered an art form, as well as a potent form of communication with a stylistic language all its own. From the calligraphy schools of ancient China to the explosive new forms of David Carson, it's clear that type is more than just a vehicle for conveying information to the user. If done right, type can be one of the most powerful tools for shaping the way an audience perceives written information, written information such as these very fiery-hot words you see before you. The pages that follow are your mini-guidebook to the strange and magical land of type. Your guide on this tour is Webmonkey Nadav, the designer with a human-friendly touch.

Savio, Nadav. Webmonkey (2001). Design>Typography>Web Design

What can <META> Do for You?

The <meta> tag is often found at the top of an HTML document between the </title> and the </head> tag. It has a variety of uses, but one of the most common is the client-pull function, used to either reload or redirect pages after a specified amount of time.

Waller, Zach. Webmonkey (1996). Design>Web Design>HTML>Metadata

WML Overview

WAP is the Wireless Application Protocol, actually a suite of protocols and specifications designed to allow folks to receive Internet-type data on mobile devices. The often-heard catchphrase — used, for example, to explain WAP to your parents or your customers — is 'the Internet on your phone.' Unfortunately, that's a bit misleading because WAP services are available on an array of devices, not just phones, and because only a tiny subset of the Internet can be viewed via WAP. WAP has gotten its fair share of negative press (much of which is summarized here) and is generally considered to be not quite perfect — but, like it or not, it's been rolled out on a fairly large scale. WAP is best suited for small, concrete pieces of data; stock quotes, addresses, instant messaging, and such. It's much less well suited to things like huge threaded message boards or slideshows from our trip to wine country. To accommodate the limitations of a phone-sized platform — tiny screen, minimal input options, low bandwidth, and excruciating per-minute charges — a special markup language, part of the WAP specification, has been devised.

Adams, Paul. Webmonkey (2001). Design>Web Design>Wireless Web

The Writing on the Web

Sure, the Web talks a good game with its sound and video and animation and god-awful 3-D interfaces. But lurking beneath all those various bells and whistles is good ol' text. It doesn't have the sinus-blowing sex appeal of Flash or MP3, but text is the stalwart backbone of Web-based content. It rolls up its sleeves and gets the real work done.

Allen, Joshua. Webmonkey (1999). Design>Web Design>Writing

Writing Web Documentation

Your product is almost ready for release. You're about to pat yourself on the back when you realize that you have no user documentation! Panic sets in.

Nichols, BeLinda. Webmonkey (2000). Design>Web Design>Documentation

Building Web Pages With HTML 5

Depending on who you ask, HTML 5 is either the next important step toward creating a more semantic web or a disaster that's going to trap the web in yet another set of incomplete tags and markup soup. The problem with both sides of the argument is that very few sites are using HTML 5 in the wild, so the theoretical solutions to its perceived problems remain largely untested.

Webmonkey (2009). Resources>Web Design>Wikis>HTML5

Great Documentation Is Key to Open Source Success 

Listen up open source developers, if you want your project to succeed you’re going to have to do more than write great code; you’re going to have to document it, teach new users how it works and provide real-world examples of what you can do with it. That’s the message from Jacob Kaplan-Moss, one of the creators of Django, a very successful open source, Python-based web framework. At least some Django’s success can be attributed to its thorough documentation which is not just reference materials, but also includes tutorials, topical guides and even snippets of design philosophy.

Gilbertson, Scott. Webmonkey (2009). Articles>Documentation>Usability>Open Source