Blog > Web Development

How to detect user scrolling behaviour with JavaScript

Posted 16th February 2012 | Category: Web Development |

Tracking user behaviour can help you tailor your website to users' needs and keep them on your site. We've developed a script to track how far down a page a user scrolls before navigating away from that page, which should be especially useful for websites with longer pages. If for example you found that hardly any users actually scrolled to the very bottom of your web page you may then decide to either condense your content or adjust it so more users are likely to view it.

What skills do I need to apply scroll detection?

• JavaScript
• MooTools framework
• PHP
• MySQL
• CSS
• HTML
• AJAX

What do I need to start tracking user scroll behaviour?

Before we start you will need to grab hold of the MooTools JavaScript framework Core and More files, the Date Picker files and the scroll tracking files which can be found here: Scroll Detection Files Read more...

How we add value to your web project

Posted 18th April 2011 | Category: Web Development |

When you hire Bluelinemedia, you're not just getting a developer who will run through your work list. We add value to your project with ideas, feedback and improvements. Every stage of our process helps both you and us to think more about what you need.

First meeting

We try to get back to the basics of the project by finding out not just what you want but why, what your ultimate objectives are, your customers and products. If we know more about your fundamental objectives, we can come up with better and different ideas about all the various little issues and decisions that come up during design and development.

Design

Rather than rushing into a list of work tasks, we spend time on the design and requirements stage. This is not just to make the development more efficient, but also to make you think differently about what you want. During the design phase we talk about page layout or "wireframes" first, then build on this with graphic design and colour. We ask things like your favourite sites, customer types, what process they should take on your website, and more. This dialogue helps us learn more about your objectives and come up with ideas for you to do it better. Read more...

Replacing desktop software with online alternatives

Posted 4th March 2011 | Category: Web Development |

Using the Internet as a place to develop and use online software is becoming increasingly common, and with advancements in both server hardware and online languages such as HTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP it's now possible to completely replace a range of traditional desktop applications with online alternatives.

While the initial switch from a desktop application to an online application might seem like a big jump there are some key advantages to consider when making the switch.

Read more...

FTP across two websites

Posted 28th February 2011 | Category: Web Development |

Recently we built 2 separate websites that used the same CMS (content management system). The problem we had with this is when files were uploaded using the CMS, take images for example, they would upload to the website under which the CMS resided. Therefore the images could not be accessed by the second website.

The solution to this problem was to work out which site the images were being uploaded to and if it were the 2nd site, FTP them across. PHP allows you to easily do this. Firstly we need to open a FTP connection.

<code>$aFtpCon = ftp_connect('ftp.example.com');</code> Read more...

Interactive timeline

Posted 28th February 2011 | Category: Web Development |

We recently developed a project timeline for one of our clients that allows users to quickly browse a timeline display with advanced capabilities.

The requirements for this timeline were that it would automatically scroll to the current date and also highlight that date on the timeline itself. The user was to be able to scroll using a button to move a fixed period of 3 months in either direction or to scroll a miniature view window to any position which the main display would then replicate. Finally, the various entries on the 3 views were to cross highlight on the mouse rolling over them. This would allow the user to correlate the various entries.

The obvious solution to this problem would be Flash, but the target environment would not support such an implementation so we used the MooTools JavaScript framework to create all the features described above. We also ensured that the functionality was supported on all major browsers. Read more...