How | Andy Sciro's Blog

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How to test websites for multiple IE(5,6,7,8)versions!

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

Internet Explorer 6..who the heck still uses that?

From the W3C

Lots of people still use IE6, despite the fact that it came out in 2001!! That’s a whopping 9 years! Bottomline, ie6 users are not going anywhere, you must accommodate them!

Typical Internet explorer 6 user

The problem

Wow, where to begin. O I know lol, I hate Internet explorer 6. I found that a lot of my time developing websites was wasted testing the internet explorer series 7 and below to make sure there are no problems (along with a thousand conditionals for iftltIE) through various inefficient methods. Well finally there is a decent solution… enter IETester!

What does it do?

Pictured: Scirodesign tabbed in ie 5.5, 6, 7, and 8!

It allows you to test a website in all major versions of IE. Not only that but it has diagnostic tools within it to assist you with debugging and analysis. Simple problem, simple and elegant solution. Thanks DebugBar

What’s so great about it?

You can tab 5,6,7,8 all in one window!
Works on vista and 7
FREE!
No need to create a virtual box!
Once again NO NEED TO CREATE A VIRTUAL BOX!

Enough Talk! Where can I get it?!

download it here!!

Tags: 5, 5.5, 6, 7, 8, debug, easy, explorer, for ie, free, how, i hate ie6, Internet, multiple, multiple ie, test, to, versions, vista, windows 7
Posted in helpful hints, tutorial | 1 Comment »

(AS3) – Tweenlite delayedCalls();

Saturday, January 9th, 2010

Tweenlite/Max is easily my favorite AS3/AS2 Tween Engine. Here’s a quick code snippet that most people do not know about!! If you enjoy using timers in AS3 check out the “delayedCall()” function in TweenMax/Lite. The key argument here is scalability, after a while using 1 line of code (delayedCall) becomes a lot more convenient then the more involved timer class.

Std. Timer listener dispatch + function

package {
    import flash.utils.Timer;
    import flash.events.TimerEvent;
    import flash.display.Sprite;

    public class TimerExample extends Sprite {

        public function TimerExample() {
            var myTimer:Timer = new Timer(1000, 2);
            myTimer.addEventListener("timer", timerHandler);
            myTimer.start();
        }

        public function timerHandler(event:TimerEvent):void {
            trace("timerHandler: " + event);
        }
    }
}

VS.

Std. Tweenlite/Max delayedCall (v.11)

package {
    import com.greensock.*;
    import flash.display.Sprite;
    public class DelayedCallExample extends Sprite {

        public function DelayedCallExample() {
            TweenLite.delayedCall(0.5, myDelayedCall, [1,true]);
        }

        public function myDelayedCall(argument1:Number,Boolean):void {
            trace("that was easy!");
        }
    }
}

myD

Tags: as3, call, delayed, delayedcall, flash, green, how, lite, max, params, sock, timer, to, tween, tweenlite, tweenmax, vs
Posted in helpful hints | 2 Comments »

The easiest way to disable flash for testing alternate content!

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

This is something I have constantly wrestled with to find a clear cut answer. Its funny because back in the day I can remember that I had to literally go into my C:\program files and change the name of some .dll, or .exe in order to cancel flash from loading. Adobe/Macromedia were pretty firm on the issue that they don’t want you “disabling” their plugin lol. Then there was an onslaught of plugins for FF, IE, etc that could also do it but none of them worked well. Finally FF was sensable about it and included an easy “disable flash” option which makes things so simple. The problem is that noone seems to know about it lol. So with that said, here’s how to do it!!

1. Here’s my Site!

This is what my Site looks like with flash enabled. Pretty nice huh?

Now lets get rid rid of flash to see what my site looks like on a user’s mobile phone, older computer, or a computer at a business/school/etc that blocks flash all together!

2. Lets get rid of flash for a sec!

To start head to the top of Firefox and find the “tools” menu. From there find “Add-ons” (as shown above) and click it!

3. The “Add-ons” menu!

After you clicked “Add-ons” from the “tools” toolbar you will get this dialog box that pops up. It should pop-up, and be on “extensions.” however we want to go elsewhere, so proceed to the next step!

3. Find the “plugins” section!

As you can see above “highlighted in red” simply click the “plugins” tab and then proceed to the next step! (we are almost done!)

3. Find “ShockWave Flash”!

After you clicked the “plugins” button you will be presented with a lot of different items (more or less depending on what you personally installed). Regardless, the list is in alphabetical order so scroll down to “S” and find “Shockwave Flash” which is “circled in red” above!

3. Disable/Enable Flash!

Finally just click “Disable” to temporarily turn off flash. When you are ready to turn it back on, just press “Enable” and you’ll be able to view any flash content like youtube videos, flash sites, and most importantly facebook’s farmville again lol.

3. Begin testing!

Here is my site with flash turned off. I personally use swfObject 2.0 (I’ll blog about swfObject soon, and why its so good) which presents the alternate content to my users. If they don’t have flash, then they have two options. Either update flash to the current version, or enter my low bandwidth site which doesn’t really require flash for any crucial information!

Have fun and Happy testing!

Tags: 1.0, 2.0, add, adobe, alt, alternate, content, debugging, disable, firefox, flash, how, ie, macromedia, object, off, on, plugin, swf, swfObject, testing, to, turn
Posted in helpful hints, tutorial | No Comments »

The easiest way to resize your browser for testing webdesign!

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

The Problem:

I constantly have this problem where I have to resize my browser window to check my sites/designs/etc on multi monitors. Normally I use my nvidia control panel, or just the plain windows display control panel. The problem though is that my monitors are not normal 4:3, I have a 16:9,and a 1:1. Whenever I use the graphic card based resize my monitors freak out and stretch, flicker, and give warnings etc.

The solution?

This awesome browser window resizer plugin for FF. Its so simple and has a variety of sizes:

Supported Resolutions:

640×480

800×600

1024×768

1280×800

1280×1024

1600×1200

Grab it here!

Tags: browser, easy, firefox, how, Im, monitor, plugin, res, resize, resolution, simple, sizes, testing, to do, webdesign
Posted in cool finds, downloadable goodies!, helpful hints | No Comments »

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