Table view helper has been released! Since my last post about writing a helper such as this, a lot has changed. I hope to have API docs up soon. In the meantime you can download the code and check out the examples at its new project page.
This was taken yesterday as I was leaving the New England Forest Rally. I will have all ~130 pics uploaded soon! Gotta love their expressions.
Thought I would give you all a sneak peek at the table helper class I am working on. I’m not a big fan of table helper classes but I kind of found a use for a helper such as this for one of my projects–plus it’s neat.
$table = new Table();
$table->setCssId('my_table');
$table->addCssClasses('default big_text');
$thead = $table->addGroup('thead')->addCssClass('thead_tag_css_class');
$row1 = $thead->addRow()->addCssClass('sample_css_heading');
$row1->addHeadingCell('Name');
$row1->addHeadingCell('Sex');
$row1->addHeadingCell('Position');
$row1->addHeadingCell('Top 2 favorite colors')->colSpan(2);
// rows that are not instantiated from addGroup() are added to tbody
$row2 = $table->addRow();
$row2->addDataCell('Adam Smith');
$row2->addDataCell('Male');
$row2->addDataCell('Economist');
$row2->addDataCell('Black');
$row2->addDataCell('White');
$tfoot = $table->addGroup('tfoot');
// empty data cells make sure we are compliant
// empty cells default to
$row3 = $tfoot->addRow();
$row3->addDataCell('example footer data');
$row3->addDataCell();
$row3->addDataCell();
$row3->addDataCell();
$row3->addDataCell();
// we can also just call print $table;
print $table->display()
Produces…
<table id="my_table" class="default big_text">
<thead class="thead_tag_css_class">
<tr class="sample_css_heading">
<th>
Name
</th>
<th>
Sex
</th>
<th>
Position
</th>
<th colspan="2">
Top 2 favorite colors
</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td>
example footer data
</td>
<td>
</td>
<td>
</td>
<td>
</td>
<td>
</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
Adam Smith
</td>
<td>
Male
</td>
<td>
Economist
</td>
<td>
Black
</td>
<td>
White
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
I still have some refactoring/testing/fixing to do but I hope to release this package soon under the GPLv3. I have also been throwing the idea around of being able to have this class generate CSS tables–e.g. fetchCssTable() and displayCssTable() (something like that) that would return both a CSS stylesheet and the proper div tags for the table itself.
Once I’m happy with this package I will also convert it over to Solar since it lacks this type of helper.
It’s out! Maillog Logger 0.2.0alpha1 was released overnight and is a great improvement over 0.1.0. We now have new CSS styles, MySQL vs. SQLite for security, and an easier install procedure.
Bangor Daily News has an article out right now about how Republican Les Otten, exploring the possibility of running for governor of Maine in 2010, has ripped off Barack Obama’s “O” logo. However, what they fail to point is the fact that Otten’s entire website is a rip-off.
The website not only has the same layout (navigation placement aside), but the font colors, font sizes, placement of content, and content borders are almost 100% the same.
To really get the full impact of how horribly ripped off this site/logo is, let me show you some screen shots–you be the judge.
www.barackobama.com as of July 1st, 2009
www.lesotten.com as of July 1st, 2009
What’s worse is the blatant logo ripoff. I have compiled a progression from Obama’s logo to Otten’s, increasing Otten’s logo by 25% opacity until it was 100% opaque. I also blew up the image so you could see it in more detail. I apologize for the pixelation.
Obama/Otten logo overlay as of July 1st, 2009
After studying the logos on top of each other you notice a few things:
If you saw Otten’s logo independent of his web site/campaign, you might assume this was Obama 2.0, the launch of a new PR push within the Obama administration. It’s no coincidence that Obama’s campaign won a couple of advertising awards from Cannes Lion, those guys knew what they were doing–you see the “O”, you think “Obama.”
According to the Bangor Daily News, Edith Smith, Otten’s spokeswoman, explained that the web site design firm “used standard industry templates and colors found on political Web sites nationwide.”
Here’s a random list of other politicians’ sites that meet Smith’s “industry standards” without reusing Obama’s layout and logo. In fact, I can’t seem to find another site that does.