Creative Web Specialist - An online portfolio and resource site of Warren Buckley

I create sexy websites

Welcome to the home of Warren Buckley's blog a
Creative Web Specialist, who works mainly with Opensource .NET CMS Umbraco to create clean sexy websites that are content managed.

This blog is mainly used for my own perosnal web snippets and things I learn along the way when using Umbraco, but if you find anything useful to read whilst you here then great!

Welcome to Creative Web Specialist - enjoy

Latest Posts

Hello all,
This will be a very brief blog post this evening as I have made an update to my Twitter Umbraco Package from a request from a tweet I received from Nisse Bryngfors.

His request was as follows

@warrenbuckley just tried the twitter package for umbraco.Great!Is there any way to display people you follow,instead of just your own feed?

I decided this was so easy to implement, I would make this quick update to my package and release it as soon as possible.

I have reposted the instructions below for people who didnt use my previous version.

This package installs the following files:

  • bin/CWSHelperTwitter.dll
  • xslt/CWS_twitterStatus.xslt
  • /usercontrols/Installer/CWSTwitter/cwsTwitterInstaller.ascx

The installer usercontrol cwsTwitterInstaller.ascx is used to modify the /config/xsltExtensions.config
to setup my custom XSLT extension to allow us to modify the strange format of the twitter date format.

The actual package installs the following into umbraco:

  • Macro: [XSLT] CWS:Display Twitter Status
  • XSLT: CWS_twitterStatus.xslt
Author
Warren Buckley

Hiya,
Well this blog post is tell you all about my good friend Sam Marks website Quilo that I have been working on.

Me and Sam used to work together for a few years at a company called Momo Web Communications and after both leaving there and progressing our careers we recently got back in touch to do a great skill swap. What we decided to do was that I would build the XHTML, CSS and put into onto a CMS platform (obvioulsy Umbraco) for him to easily update and edit his site, in return he agreed that he would redesign my blog for me. So watch this space very soon for my site update - all I can see its going to be very different from what it is now!

So heres a very quick rundown of what I done in this project

  • Handcode the XHTML templates and the appropiate CSS required from the Photoshop design Sam gave me
  • Use jQuery to create a semi-transparent image caption that slides up when you rollover the image
  • Use jQuery to create a feature slider, which slides panels horizontally to view new content
  • Use the Umbraco opensource .NET CMS solution to allow Sam to update his site easily with new content
  • Create an XSLT script to use in Umbraco, to show Sams latest tweet from Twitter

 

Quilo - Feature Slider Screenshot

Author
Warren Buckley

Hello all,
This evening I have decided to create a nice quick package to help use Gravatar easily on your umbraco blog/site. There have been snippets on other blogs to help you achieve this, I have just created two XSLT Extensions to use in your XSLT and an example XSLT file to show how you can use the helpers.

If you haven't heard of Gravatar before, it is a service that allows you to upload an image so you can have a globally recgonised avatar on the web that is associated to your email address. The most useful scenario is on your Umbraco blog to display Gravatar images of visitors who have left comments, but you may think of some other creative scenarios you may want to use it in.

This is my Gravatar
Warren Buckleys Gravatar

Author
Warren Buckley

Hello all,
I thought I would tell you all how I use MSN Messenger to update my Facebook Status, which allows me to tell people what I am doing quickly and easily without logging into Facebook and being distracted too much.

OK first of all create a twitter account , if you dont know what twitter is, well its a service that is used to tell people what you are upto, just like the status section in Facebook.

Once you have created your Twitter account the next thing to do is to add an appliaction to your Facebook profile that allows you to update your Facebook status whenever you post an update to Twitter.

This application is called TwitterSync, simply follow the instuctions for TwitterSync and you will have this working in no time.

Now you have your Facebook Status syncronished to your Twitter status, you can post from your mobile phone to twitter using m.twitter.com or desktop widgets or whatever you prefer.

Hello all this is my first package for 2008. I have created a quick XSLT package to allow you to display your latest twitter status’s on your website/blog.

For example here is my twitter page where you can see what upto or thinking.

This package installs the following files:

  • bin/CWSHelperTwitter.dll
  • xslt/CWS_twitterStatus.xslt
  • /usercontrols/Installer/CWSTwitter/cwsTwitterInstaller.ascx

The installer usercontrol cwsTwitterInstaller.ascx is used to modify the /config/xsltExtensions.config
to setup my custom XSLT extension to allow us to modify the strange format of the twitter date format.

The actual package installs the following into umbraco:

  • Macro: [XSLT] CWS:Display Twitter Status
  • XSLT: CWS_twitterStatus.xslt

My Skill Set

This is a quick list of my skill set to date

  • XHTML
  • CSS
  • Photoshop (Slicing)
  • XSLT
  • ASP.NET
  • Umbraco .NET CMS

My del.icio.us

My Last.FM

I am listening to:

  • Chloe Dancer/Crown Of Thorns by Mother Love BoneMother Love Bone7 Sep 2010, 20:04
  • Naïve by The KooksInside in/Inside Out7 Sep 2010, 20:01
  • Good Vibrations by Gym Class HeroesThe Road Mix: Music From The Television Series One Tree Hill Vol. 37 Sep 2010, 19:58
Warren Buckley is an umbraco MVP 2008/2009 Warren Buckley is an umbraco level 1 certified developer

Photo of Warren Buckley Warren Buckley is a Creative Web Specialist based in Leigh on Sea, Essex , UK.