if field is empty hide div - the golden ticket.

Working on a project today, and came across an age-old struggle; Simon vs. Various Coding Languages. I am building out a project page using Advanced Custom Fields (for WordPress), and I built out these neat little cards, with an image, title, and blurb, and two buttons on the bottom. 

Not knowing how many cards my client would need for each section, I built out a total of 10. But what if the client only needs 8 on a particular page? There are still ugly buttons underneath a blank spot with no image or text - this will not do.

I spent 30-40 minutes noodling around jQuery and could not sort out how to hide the div if the particular field was empty. 

Chris Coyier of CSS Tricks has a good article, but I was unable to sort it out and adapt it to my situation. I am rather overwhelmed with PHP, as I am only familiar with WP's brand of PHP. 

Short of the long, here is what I found:

<?php if (get_field('region10') && get_field('region10') != "") { ?>

    <article class="one-third-space region-card">
    <img src="<?php the_field('region10-image'); ?> " alt=" <?php get_image_tag($alt); ?> ">
        <div class="text"><?php the_field('region10'); ?></div>
<a href="<?php the_field('region1-link'); ?>">
<button class="button bg-orange centre">MORE DETAILS...</button>
</a>
<button class="button bg-blue centre">RESERVE THIS TRIP</button>
</article> <?php } ?>

The fields I created are called 'region10' . The PHP is wrapped around the whole section which it will logically decide to show or hide what's inside. 

"IF THIS FIELD IS EMPTY, SHOW NOTHING (denoted by " ")"

As a front-end developer I cannot explain it any deeper than this, and I truly hope this helps.

Is The Government Spying On Us Via The Internet?

In short, the answer is yes. The whole Internet is spying on you, but it’s not because you are special. On one hand - “I’ve got nothing to hide, let them peek!”, the other – “This is a breech of my rights!”. Sure, both arguments are fair, but we must keep in mind the big picture here. There’s really not a whole lot we can do about it.

Sure you’ve got nothing to hide, and you did check that ‘I agree to Terms and Services’ checkbox before you downloaded/joined/signed up for the service, and the Internet is not publicly owned (even though it really really should be).  The thing is, the services we sign up for are using your private information and selling it to advertisers, governments, and corporations. 

Pro-Spying Argument:

If you were a terrorist, I’m sure they would be retroactively searching through your Facebook photos, or e-­‐mail accounts, but can you imagine the amount of e-­‐mails people would have to filter through to find anything of value? Even though you are allowing (or enabling) these groups to use your personal information as they please, we were somehow mislead into thinking this was okay, or this is how it has to be. You must keep in mind: WE ARE BEING TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF. 

If you sign up for a social service, and are –by choice-­‐ displaying personal information for the world to see, that’s your business. BUT when companies are using your search history, collecting your location data, and selling it to others for huge profit, only to be used against you‐ this is not right.

The greatness of a network that can connect the world, share trillions of bytes of current information, making everybody a part of a collective consciousness has the potential to be one of the greatest progressions of human behavior and thinking this planet has ever seen.  This massive thought alone is why the Internet shouldn’t be used for mining data and personal information of the people who use it. The network as a resource is what should be taken advantage of; not it’s users. 

Next time you sign up for a social service, do yourself a solid and read over some of the ‘terms of use’. You may find it interesting how many little things hide in that small print. Inform yourself, and know what you’re getting into; you’re worth a lot more than a marketing statistic.

Talk Is Cheap, Good Web Design Isn't

What I would like to do, is build small business websites and make a living doing it. I am not yet what I would call a 'good web designer' but I'm getting there.

Since I am fresh on the East Coast, I have yet to make a good supporting group of business contacts, so I've been advertising on Kijiji.
I get approximately one inquiry per day from these ads I keep on there, and so far, 3 potential leads have got me zero jobs.
The inquiries are already classic and stereotypical;
"How much for a website?"
"Well," I tell them, "it depends on the project, but $300 for the home page and design, and $200 per additional page." Completely reasonable rates; I need to feed my family, but I am hardly a professional.
I don't charge a lot, do decent design work and know my way around CSS and HTML environments. Most importantly, I keep up on modern web & design trends and best practices.

There are so many ads on there for "Custom Website, only $300!"

Side Note: So many of the portfolio sites affiliated with these ads are 'copyright 2001', and some of them are those horrifying pieces of work that you occasionally come across and think, "Was this ever a thing?" Well it was...
There was a time when people who made websites were people who only knew the Hypertext Markup Language (or more recently Flash) that built them. They weren't designers, and it shows.

These "Custom Websites" are static and HTML based, and apparently have little place in the web today. Everything is going Dynamic for more reasons than one, and so, the web designers and developers of today must follow suit.

I suppose I could code you a website - pure static HTML, like a business card - for as little as $200, but you're going to have to get a new one built next year, when you realize Google wants nothing to do with the static web and blacklists the website.

In summary, I need to feed my family, and $300-$500 is not a lot for a nice site, when a good website and some good advice can provide a great return on investment.

The Importance of Contracts in Freelancing

I am new to the freelance world, and I'm not afraid to admit it. I've worked with a handful of clients and had no issues regarding what little content in the contract agreements we had. Until now.
Enter large project. Zero scope. The "scope" of a project is what one is expected to do according to the agreement. Since we did not agree on a scope for this project (besides building a website), I have ended up handling content management among other things usually outside the scope of a web designer/developer. The biggest issue I have run into so far is revisions. It seems every time said client sees a different website they like, they send me all these ideas from the new website. Keep in mind I have already designed and coded most of this website. Weeks pass and the revisions keep coming. So many revisions after one month that my code is a mess, and I scrap the whole thing and start from scratch. It only takes me a day to catch up, but then come more revisions.
As a whole, this project will be awesome for my portfolio, and besides the indecision, the clients are great people.
In conclusion, I've come up with some tips for new freelancers.

Simon's Tips for Fresh Freelancers (or What I've learned):

1. Make a contract.
2. Learn meaning of and include "scope" in said contract.
3. Wait until client gives you all content before beginning.
4. State amount of allowed revisions in contract.
5. Listen to Deeply Graphic Design Cast for more tips and tricks.
6. Over estimate everything; (time, cost) revise later.
7. Don't take clients (for big jobs) who hire you before looking at your portfolio or website.
8. Client referrals are important.
9. Write in contract that cost is ONLY AN ESTIMATE in case of overestimates.
10. Always get paid what you're worth. If you feel like you're not charging enough - you're not. In fact, charging less than industry standard brings down the industry standard and EVERYONE can expect to get paid less.

That is all for now. I am going to try and keep up this blog more regularly, so keep in touch.

,Sim

Crowd Funding Speculation

CROWD-FUNDINGSPECULATION

Recently, I have been dabbling in many different technologies. Mainly web-based, as that is where I work most of the time. I swim through various trends, and I like to think - if one trend is not advantageous to myself or my family, I will push it aside.

Before, when communication wasn't as convenient or instantaneous as the internet allows, organization took time and effort. What we have now allows us to come together for greater causes, organize ourselves as a hive mind. 

In the outside world, where we are not in front of our screens all day, things are slow, people aren't as communicative in public, there's apathy towards politics and miseducation. It takes a long while for anything to change when you compare it to our technological advancements.

We need to adapt our lives and take full advantage of technology. Not just the internet, or your phone - there are much greater things that you've probably seen on a feed at some point today. SOME OF THESE THINGS ARE REAL.

It may seem like I am circling around my main objective. I might be, but I am trying to better explain my situation.

I grew up knowing I wouldn't be able to do a 9-5 gig inside an office all day, dressed up for some reason nobody ever explained to me. Now that I am "grown up" I still refuse to do that, and I don't do it. 

To get where you want to be shouldn't require this much money...

I work to live. I make sure I don't live to work. Even though I support my family financially, I feel it's equally important that I am there mentally and emotionally as well. So, we don't make a lot of money. We're pretty happy. A car would make things easier, and it would be nice to buy my daughter more things. It takes us folk a while to save up for a car, or a house, or even clothes. 

Ever heard the term "share the wealth"? Well if I could, I would. Wouldn't it make things a lot easier if "sharing the wealth" only required you to shell out a few bucks, and you could still make a huge difference to people? Hard working people like yourself, and maybe one day soon - when you need it, they would be there to "share the wealth" with you?

This is where CROWD-FUNDING comes in, allowing us to democratically unify our piece of the pie, and fund something awesome. Sure, there are those who take advantage - feigned charities, cancers, missing relatives - but the campaigns for the real  people can really make a difference.

My speculation:

Note: Mortgages are cheaper than rent.

If I started a crowd-funding campaign with the goal of funding my family a down payment for a house, how many people could I wrangle a couple dollars out of? I would promise to reciprocate for a good cause, as long as everyone didn't campaign at the same time.

Time to do some research.

Frameworks

There is so much to learn out there when it comes to using HTML5 and CSS, so it's always a bonus to have a nicely compiled framework to get you started.
So far, I've tried Twitter Bootstrap, PureCSS, and Skeleton.
Bootstrap has some amazing features and functionality built in. When you get the terminology right your work can really flow. One downside to Bootstrap is the size, but if it's what you need, it's totally worth it.
As for Pure, it's slightly less complicated (but doesn't offer as much functionality as it is pure CSS). Pure supplies nice clean coloured interface selections broken up into modules so you can select and use certain parts (buttons, grid, forms, base) of this framework without worrying about the bulk weight.
Skeleton has been my favourite thus far. What makes Skeleton so nice to work with is the absolute simplicity. It's meant to be styled over, and the Skeleton.css is so beautifully written, it provides you with a list of specs, which have proven difficult to find for Pure and Bootstrap alike. Although Skeleton is the most basic of these, it is built upon normalize.css, and offers forms, standard styles, 960 grid system, buttons, and everything is black and white, so you can really go hard and customize.

Breakdown:
Bootstrap: Functionality, very capable, many options and plugins.
Pure: Smooth and clean, easy to make a mock up in half hour, modules.
Skeleton: Built to be modified, simple, small, well documented.

So take your pick. Each of these have been a pleasure to work with and you can get some really amazing results while minimizing your workflow.