jQuery for Absolute Beginners: Day 15

Today’s screencast is a bit misleading! Over the course of the next two tutorials, we’ll be creating a jQuery style-switcher that will allow the user to switch between CSS files. However, today we’re only going to be working with PHP! Day 15: Part 2 will cover the jQuery.

Before we begin, credit must be given where it’s due. We’ll be using a NETTUTS article called “How To Create An Amazing jQuery Style Switcher” by James Padolsey as a guide. Though we won’t follow the tutorial step for step, we’ll use it as a basis. It’s not required by any means, but I highly recommend that you review the tutorial. While you’re at it, be sure to visit his personal site for more tutorials; He’s extremely talented.

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Wednesday 31st December 2008 | 33 Comments

Jeffrey

Use Absolute Positioning to Create Equal Columns

There are many, many ways to create equal columns with CSS. This is one of those features that was MUCH simpler to achieve back in the days of html tables. In the next couple of years, when the use of CSS tables becomes more reliable, we won’t have this problem anymore. (For more information, watch this video.)

I betcha didn’t know that there is a neat way to create equal columns by using absolute positioning. Will this be applicable for all scenarios? Absolutely not. But, it’s a nice trick to have in your tool box!

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Tuesday 30th December 2008 | 39 Comments

Jeffrey

jQuery for Absolute Beginners: Day 14

Today, I’ll show you how to implement a jQuery plugin into your applications. There are literally hundreds of third party plugins available. It would be silly to ignore them! As you’ll find, they’re quite easy to implement! I’ve chosen the s3Slider plugin.

Later, down the road, I’ll show you how to build a plugin! But not today.

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Friday 26th December 2008 | 41 Comments

Jeffrey

The $3000 “New Year” Competition!

It’s contest time! We’re starting 2009 with a bang! We have $3,000 cash to give away to ten brilliant designers. The authors of the top ten site template submissions in January will each receive a $300 bonus!

How Exactly Does it Work?

Between January 1 and January 31, you may submit your best theme for the “Site Template” category. During the first week of February, our staff will choose the top ten templates that were submitted during this time span. We will consider aesthetics, coding practices, and practicality – when choosing the winners.

How Do I Enter?

All approved site templates that are submitted in January will be automatically entered!

What Prizes Will Be Awarded?

The authors of the ten best templates will each receive a $300 bonus – in cash! Payments will be sent via Paypal.
The winners will be featured on the ThemeForest blog, via a “Featured Collection” link for a minimum of 60 days.
You’ll receive an extra sales boost as we milk your template for all it’s worth!
A roundup of the winners will be announced on NETTUTS.com – along with links to each template.

Who is Eligible?

Unless you’re an Envato staff member, you are more than welcome to enter. In fact, please do! Only submissions made to the “Site Template” category will be considered. Wordpress, Miscellaneous, Joomla, and PSD themes will not qualify.

When is the Deadline to Enter?

You have until 11:59 P.M (Central Standard Time) on January 31 to enter. Any submissions received after this date and time will not be considered.

Will the Reviewing Guidelines Remain the Same?

Absolutely. In fact, the only thing that will change is the bonus! Templates will still be rejected if deemed necessary. Only approved files will be considered for the bonus.

May I Enter More Than Once?

You’re welcome to submit as many templates as you like; however, only one of your submissions will be selected. The maximum earnings for each author is $300.

When Will the Winners Be Announced?

Sometime within the first week of February, our staff will notify the winners via email. A congratulatory posting will also be made on the blog at that time.

Some Advice From Your Site Manager

We’re looking for beautiful, but practical templates. Remember, you may have the most spectacularly designed theme. But, if it doesn’t have an audience, it won’t sell. Repeatedly ask yourself as you ready your submission, “Is this usable? Does it have an audience?”. We will be asking ourselves the same questions when deciding upon the winners!

Terms and Conditions

Entry is open to any Envato marketplace author who is NOT a paid staff member.
Any approved file uploaded between 12:01AM January 1, 2009 and 11:59PM January 31, 2009 (Central Standard Time) is eligible.
Payment to the ten winners will be made via Paypal and will be in US dollars.
The 10 winners will be selected solely at the discretion of ThemeForest and its staff.
All decisions are final.
For questions and/or concerns, contact the site manager at sitemanager@themeforest.net.

Friday 26th December 2008 | 23 Comments

Jeffrey

12 Creative Ways to Promote your Theme

While quality is the key factor in how well a theme will sell, there are many techniques and tips one can follow to help increase the chance of a sale. Taking a little time to promote your work and your themes is sure to be reflected in your number of sales. Today, we will go over 12 creative ways to promote your ThemeForest themes.

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Tuesday 23rd December 2008 | 14 Comments

Drew Douglass

jQuery for Absolute Beginners: Day 13

Today, I’m going to show you how to submit information to a database asynchronously – using PHP and jQuery. We’ll be primarily working with the $.ajax method.

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Monday 22nd December 2008 | 97 Comments

Jeffrey

jQuery for Absolute Beginners: Day 12

Today will be the first part of a 2-part series. Ultimately, we’ll be drawing information from a database to create an advanced tooltip. Today, we’ll start with the layout and the basic functionality. It shouldn’t be too different from what we did in Day 11. In Part 2, we’ll use jQuery to call a PHP method asynchronously, and then populate the tooltip.

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Friday 19th December 2008 | 56 Comments

Jeffrey

Important Notice About Payouts For Authors and Referrers

Yesterday authors should have received an email informing them that there will be a change in payouts effective from the 1st of January 2009. The email notice said the following:

New earnings payment system

As of January 15th 2009, you will be provided with a new feature allowing you to automatically withdraw your final earnings balance for the month.

For example: If you select this option on January 16th, then a withdraw request will be automatically submitted for your total earnings balance up until January 31st at 11:59:59pm.

For those members who like to withdraw their maximum earning each month this tool will be extremely useful – no more missing the payment request cutoff by mistake!

The original withdraw system will also remain in place, allowing you to continue to withdraw specific amounts from your earnings balance.

Please read this additional post on the new maximum earnings feature for more information.

New payment date

As of January 2009 all of the months earning payments will be issued on the 15th of following month *.
For example, all earning withdraw requests from January 1st to January 31st will be paid out on February 15th *.

December withdrawal request processed on 1st January

January withdrawal request processed on 15th February

February withdrawal request processed on 15th March

This new payment system will save authors time and will allow Envato to continue to make timely monthly payouts to a variety of account types. Thank you for your understanding while we make this transition and for your continued support.

——-

*If the 15th falls on a weekend or public holiday, the payment will be made on the following business day Australian Standard Time (no exceptions).

We apologize for any inconvenience while we make this transition to the new payout date. Recent site growth and increased incidences of attempted fraud have made it necessary to implement increased payment processing time. Please direct any questions, concerns or comments to this thread where they will be reviewed and answered by staff.

Again, thank you for your understanding and support.

Wednesday 17th December 2008 | 4 Comments

Cyan

jQuery for Absolute Beginners: Day 11

Have you ever hovered over an image and seen a larger version pop up that moves parallel to your mouse movement? I’ll show you how to mimic that functionality today!

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Wednesday 17th December 2008 | 75 Comments

Jeffrey

7 Ways to Enhance Your Theme Using PHP

Recently, Jeffrey has been doing an awesome job covering the client side aspect of theme development by taking us on a “jQuery for absolute beginners” journey. While we often use Javascript and JS libraries such as jQuery and mootools on the clients side, its nice to incorporate some server-side functionality. This is most often accomplished with the easy to learn web language known as php. Today, we will cover some unique ideas and tutorials to help you incorporate some php functionality into your themes.

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Tuesday 16th December 2008 | 15 Comments