Alternative to CurvyCorners - javascript

Is there an alternative script to CurvyCorners that does border-radii based on CSS? CurveryCorners has so many bugs and rarely works the way it's expected to, it's just not worth using anymore.
Thanks.

The alternative is to use the CSS3 border-radius style.
This works out-of-the-box in all current browsers, except IE8 and earlier. For browsers other than IE, you shouldn't be running any kind of script at all for this, as it's a standard built-in feature in the browser.
For IE8 and earlier, there is a hack called CSS3Pie which allows IE to also support the standard CSS3 border-radius style. This is Javascript based, but works with the standard CSS code, meaning you can use the same style for all browsers.
As an added bonus, CSS3Pie also implements CSS3 box shadows and gradients for IE as well. And it's under active development, and the author is great at helping people out on the forum if they're having problems with it.

In the past i've used Diller Design's Roundies which has always worked pretty well for me.
It uses VML to create the rounded edges.
UNfortunatley i don't think the author is updating it any more.

Related

Cross-browser CSS horizontal nav with dropdowns - is there such a thing?

I've created a website with horizontal navigation and one level of dropdown menu on each. It works great in all browsers except IE7 (dropdowns don't work) and IE6 (each <li> and <a> is 100% body width). I'm loathed to go through another 10 tutorials on the web and test each one in all browsers. Debugging my current one will probably take even longer.
I wondered if anyone has a concrete solution that works in all browsers? It's such a common design element. I'm happy to rely on CSS, Javascript, browser hacks, etc - whatever produces a consistent usable nav in all browsers.
tl;dr What code do you use for horizontal nav with drop-down menus, to work in IE6 and IE7?
"Suckerfish Dropdowns" is what springs into my mind.
Here's an updated version: http://www.htmldog.com/articles/suckerfish/dropdowns/
Note that the required JavaScript code to make it work in IE6 is included.
Almost in all of my designs, I had to add conditional styles for the stinky browsers IE6, IE7 and IE8. And to share with you, IE9 is not better, as it doesn't support CSS3 Transitions. Anyway, I strongly suggest that you stop searching an all-encompassing solution and try to create conditional styles and if necessary, even conditional scripts for IE, due to these reasons:
We developers almost always need to support IE as it has a considerable browser market share.
IE has many known problems which are never solved by Microsoft, and community found tricks and workarounds for it.
Addressing IE separately is known to cost less, than trying to address IE and other browsers in a package (experience)

Modernizr, html5shiv, ie7.js, and CSS3 Pie. Which to use and when?

I'm just starting to use HTML5 and CSS3 in my documents.
I understand the need for JavaScript to bring Internet Explorer up to speed with these new tags and styles, but I don't know which to use and when!
My plan was to use html5shiv and IE9.js to look after the HTML5 tags as well as the transparent pngs (and whatever other pesky errors they fix) but then Modernizr and CSS3 Pie were brought to my attention.
My question is, if I use Modernizr, does it look after my need for html5shiv as well as IE9.js? Or should I include these as well? What is the overlap, if any?
And what does CSS3 Pie do that Modernizr or the others doesn't? Or vice versa?
I appreciate your guys help. Let me know what you do!?
I've got extensive experience with all of these, having used them for a few years each.
Modernizr
Includes HTML5shiv functionality
Also does a lot more – if you don't use the other features, then don't use it, it does slow down page loads, but is worth it if you need it!
HTML5shiv
Very small, just fixes html5 elements in IE, nothing else.
CSS3PIE
Lets you use border-radius, gradients and box shadow in older versions of IE. Also can allow PNGs in IE 6. Adds a noticeable delay to page load.
ie7.js (and ie9.js)
Gives you many CSS3 selectors, min and max width, multiple classes and fixed positioning. Also can have a png fix if you like. Doesn't seem to slow things down much.
Conclusion
My advice would fall into two categories:
If you are just using the new (is 2 years new on the internet?!) elements, and CSS3 selectors, then use ie9.js + the html5shiv. This is lightweight, and just lets you get on with things without having to remember that IE6 doesn't support anything.
If you are using a lot of CSS3 stuff, then CSS3PIE will sort out border-radius and box-shadow. The gradient support seems a little flaky, so I've always used a fallback image instead. Modernizr lets you easily deliver different properties to browsers with different support. I've mainly used this for determining whether a browser has CSS transitions and transforms, as they are useful for any image sliders or content carousels. It's worth using the customisation tool to only include the functionality that you want – the webforms stuff shows a textbox with 50 in it for a couple of milliseconds, so it's worth disabling if you don't want it.
Hope that's helpful!
I would recommend you use only what you need. Build your app in a browser that supports the features you are using, and periodically test in other browsers that you support. If something isn't working correctly, find the appropriate fix, whether it be html5shiv, IE9.js, Modernizr, or CSS3 Pie. You are not going to use all of the new features in HTML5 and CSS3 all in one page, so you don't need to include every polyfill library in existence. Wait until you find problems with the features you're trying to use, then try and find the library necessary to do that.
I've used mainly CSS3Pie...it works great. But this afternoon i tested it on my laptop with I.E8 and there was an problem with it...it was disabling some css lines...when i removed the css3pie code my site gained twice the speed...then i came accross the posts with people arguing about the css3 slowdown...So at the moment i'm busy to find another way for IE7 & IE8 to have border-radius and shades.
If you want to use it...please test alot as it is NON-official fixes

<marquee> html tag usage/replacment

I know that <marquee> tags are evil.
If it is so bad to have scrolling text, then using JS to get the same effect doesn't make it any better, right?
And suppose I decided to have some scrolling text (gasp), is there some type of CSS(3?) or HTML(5?) way to do this that is technically correct (i.e. not deprecated)?
If there isn't a CSS/HTML solution, should I use:
Javascript, which will be heavier to download and might be turned off (is that a pro or a con?), but I get the bonus of being W3C correct and valid and non-deprecated and smart,
or should I use
the hated <marquee> (<blink><blink>) tag, which is lightweight (19 bytes!), fully supported by all browsers in all rendering modes and all doctypes (even though it shouldn't be), but is deprecated?
Thanks.
P.S. I think a news ticker is a valid use for marquee-style
P.P.S. If anybody tells me that if I don't want a heavy Javascript solution I should use JQuery because it is lightweight, I will shoot them in the comments
Edit: I'm adding JQuery tag since that seems to be the best way to get attention from a lot of experts on JS questions, and it is not totally unrelated here.
It is not the effect that is bad. The problem with marquee, blink and font tags is that they convey presentation not structure of your content.
CSS3 has support for marquee, but it is only supported in a few browsers (Safari and Chrome are the only one, to my knowledge)
http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-marquee/
There are several JQuery plugins that accomplish it, but they come at the expense of loading JQuery (26Kb, heavier than the HTML only solution, but not what I would call heavy)
http://plugins.jquery.com/plugin-tags/marquee
Of course you can easily do it yourself without JQuery, but looking at those plugins may give you ideas.
Another option to consider is to do a small Flash animation.
If you're sure that it works on all platforms you're aiming for, and you don't care what w3c says you can certainly use the marquee tag. There is no way that you can find a JavaScript solution that works in less than 14 bytes.
The only unfortunate thing is that the reason all these browsers support all these deprecated elements that are -in this case- not even part of any HTML standard, is because of all these people using these elements and start whining when a new version doesn't support their 1982 compliant website anymore.
So please go ahead and use marquee as long as it works for you, but please don't complain if you site stops working in a newer browser.
Here's the code that implements the marquee element in Firefox, it's basically doing it in JavaScript anyway so you could always just adapt that code and use it directly in all browsers.
The code can be hacked around so that marquee can be implemented on any element in Firefox, applied through CSS and XBL bindings (Firefox only example). The equivalent in IE would be behaviours, and you could use the CSS3 in Safari/Chrome as nico suggested and you would be keeping the presentational stuff out of your markup, but only you can know if it's worth the effort.
I've been looking for the most efficient and cross-browser supported marquee implementation. For whatever reason, even the webkit CSS marquee implementation is glitchy.
The common approach is to use timer (or jQuery animate implementation) to adjust the CSS margin property of the element. This is too glitchy and very inefficient. I came up with implementation that utilises CSS3 transitions for browsers that support it and otherwise animate the scrollLeft property of the containing element. It is an experimental implementation, though it works well with IE7+. Other people might find it useful as well, https://github.com/gajus/marquee (demo https://dev.anuary.com/60244f3a-b8b2-5678-bce5-f7e8742f0c69/).
Recently, i had to do this effect for a client and i've used this plugin which is very easy to use :
jQuery Marquee plugin on github
jQuery Marquee on plugins.jquery.com

Is there a possibility to enable CSS3 features for internet explorer users?

I'm using CSS 3 features like "rounded corner" or "shadow box".
IMHO These are fantastic features for people like me with no graphics knowledge. But, i've noticed, IE 7-8 not support CSS 3.
So i'm asking you: is there a way to "enable" some features maybe with some javascript functions to include in my html file ?
Thank you!
ie7-js fixes certain CSS issues. I don't think the ones you named are included, but they might be in the future.
You cannot enable them, but you can detect them and mimic them using a good shot of JavaScript. Modernizr can be used to detect HTML5 and CSS3 features so that you can control the behaviour better. You can also use jQuery Corner and jQuery Text-Shadow plugins to progressively enhance the browsers not supporting them.
Note that HTML5 and CSS3 are not coupled to each other.
Take a look at HTML5 enabling script, jQuery dropshadows and corners.
Also, you might want to read a good article on making dropshadows, curvy corners & gradients using jQuery.
The easiest is probably Chrome Frame, but you have to convince your users to install it.

Is there a way to get border-radius and gradient backgrounds in IE?

I am wondering if there is any work-arounds using javascript or whatever to get IE to show border-radius or gradient background?
I came across this by looking for fixes to using 'gradients and border-radius' in IE9. And yes while its true you can now use both in IE9, you sadly cannot use them together.
The issue is documented in a a few places:
http://abouthalf.com/2010/10/25/internet-explorer-9-gradients-with-rounded-corners/
http://frugalcoder.us/post/2010/09/15/ie9-corner-plus-gradient-fail.aspx
IE9 border-radius and background gradient bleeding
The issue seems to be related to border-radius not playing nice with IE's old filter gradients. Sadly the release of IE9 did not bring proper CSS gradients.
jquery for at least the radius / corners item.
For gradient backgrounds see this.
You don't need to use jQuery for rounded corners, there are solutions that will make browsers behave well even in the event of javascript being disabled.
Check out http://css3pie.com/, provides a pretty simple solution (htc file) for making this work. As monn indicated IE9 gradient and radius don't work together. Css3Pie is intended to let you dev with css3 markup but provides backups for IE back to IE6.
There's also css3please and compass (for ruby).
This issue has recently been discussed in the HTML5 Boilderplate issue queue (HTML5 Boilerplate is a well-vetted collaboration to bring together the best techniques in modern web markup as a starting point for any platform).
https://github.com/paulirish/html5-boilerplate/issues#issue/354
Here's a demo of the problem & solution:
http://frugalcoder.us/post/2010/09/15/ie9-corner-plus-gradient-fail.aspx
This is quite new: https://github.com/bfintal/jQuery.IE9Gradius.js
Just include the script last in your head tag and it should handle the rest. See readme notes

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