For this purpose I have created a PSD template with all the needed elements already in place. You simply change the colors where possible and add your custom background image. Additionally there’s a save  area marked for including textual information in your background image.

As usual the download is free and questions or suggestions are welcome in the comments.

Sometimes you just need a quick and easy way to customize the default WordPress theme called Kubrick. The theme is based on four main images: kubrickheader.jpg, kubrickfooter.jpg, kubrickbgwide.jpg and kubrickbgcolor.jpg. If you want to only change the look and feel without touching the CSS you can simply replace these images. To easily adjust colors and styles like the drop-shadow I’ve created a PSD template with all the needed sizes, styles and guidlines set-up.

The template is based on the solid work from EduChalk.org with some adjustments for even faster customization.

Background

For projects that include mapping data geographically it’s an excellent choice to use the ModestMaps library. Modest Maps provides a great setup for displaying dynamic map data using some popular map providers like Yahoo Maps, the BlueMarbel Project or the OpenStreetMap Project. ModestMaps official website describes the thoughts behind ModestMaps as follows:

“Our intent is to provide a minimal, extensible, customizable, and free display library for discriminating designers and developers who want to use interactive maps in their own projects. Modest Maps provides a core set of features in a tight, clean package, with plenty of hooks for additional functionality.”

We use and love the library, but starting a new visualization we found ourselfs writing the same code over and over again. So we thought about creating a basic setup and wrapping it in a simple package for a more elegant way to start with a MM project in AS3. Having a base application let’s you get quickly to a first visual result and you don’t have to rewrite basic functionalities you most of the time need to include in your apps.

Features

• ModestMaps & Stamen’s Twisted libraries
• TweenLite library
• DocumentClass with the initial code to create:
  • TweenMap
  • Method to colorize the map
  • “Waiter” textfield
  • XML loader
  • Keyboard navigation
  • DoubleClick to zoom in
  • Fullscreen mode
• GUI class
• Marker class (for overlaying the map with points)
• Layer class (for overlaying the map with layers)
• XML with location examples
• SWFObject publishing setup
• Fullbrowser publishing setup

Download

The code is hosted on GITHub.com. Please remember when downloading it that it evolved from a personal need, thus some features won’t be relevant for everybody as well as the coding structure might not suit your taste. Feel free to participate in the developement by forking the repository. We’re looking foreward to review any patches you may provide and hopefully integrate them in the master. Drop us a line if you need advice on implementing or modifying it to fulfill your needs. Download the code (zip / 164kb)

Acknowledgement

Please note that only the DocumentClass.as and everything in the ch.datavisualization package is licensed under the GNU license. IMPORTANT: Please see the documentation of the external packages (com.stamen, com.modestmaps and gs.TweenLite) for their seperate licensing policy.
Some code was inspired by the superb work of Nathan from FlowingData.com.

Description

The swf-console helps you to output information about an object. It displays a small textfield utility with basic functionalities. Scroll, drag & drop and resize to be exact. It delivers two API methods to output data. It is intended to be used when you haven’t the native trace-window available (in-browser developement for example).

The console uses the analyze() function which is also available as the var_dump for AS3 snippet

Installation

1. Import the package
   import console.Console;

2. Create the console
   private var console:Console = new Console(this);

3. Add the console to the DisplayObjectContainer
   this.addChild(console);

4. Call one of the api methods in your code
   console.analyze(this);
console.print(this);

5. Display the console by pressing the space-bar
   customize this interaction by changing the key-code at Console.as #249

Download

The project is hosted on gitHub – feel free to participate and help improve the code or just let me hear your thoughts.
Download the SWF-Console ZIP here.

The var_dump for AS3 is a code snipped i use on a regularly basis to get information about an object when developping with AS3 in Adobe Flash. It contains two functions: analyze() and write(). The first is a recursive function that analyzes a given object. It uses the second function to trace out the gathered infromation. If you want to output the information elsewhere you can simply customize the write() function.

The code snippet is hosted on snipplr.com and I would be glad to receive feedback and suggestion on how to improve the code.

Description

Changes the excerpt to contain only full words and appends the permalink at the end of the excerpt. Due credits to Charles W. Stricklin and his wp-smarter-excerpt plugin.

Installation

1. Download the Plugin
2. Open the .zip file and upload the content to your plugins folder (yourdomain/wp-content/plugins/)
3. If needed customize the ‘Read on’ Text in the art-extended-excerpt.php file
4. Activate the plugin in your WordPress administration panel “Plugins”

Usage

The plugin modifies automatically the excerpt of a Post. There’s nothing you need to do in addition to activating it.

Download

For WordPress 2.1+: Artillery Extended Excerpt

Description

The Inline-Cat Plugin provides the functionality to include Posts of a Category in Pages and other Posts. It’s adopted from the great InlinePosts plugin from Aral Balkan.

Installation

1. Download the Plugin
2. Open the .zip file and upload the content to your plugins folder (yourdomain/wp-content/plugins/)
3. Activate the plugin in your WordPress administration panel “Plugins”
4. Set up your title tag for the inline Posts in Options/Inline Category

Usage

To include Posts of a Category in a Page Oor Posts simply add the ID of the Category in double sqare brackets in the content of the Page or Post. For example [[34]]

Download

For WordPress 2.1+: Artillery Inline-Cat

Description

The Tags-Class Plugin provides the Tags of Post as a space-separated String. It can easy be used to attach a class based on the Tags of the Post to any element within the Loop.

Installation

1. Download the Plugin
2. Open the .zip file and upload the content to your plugins folder (yourdomain/wp-content/plugins/)
3. Activate the plugin in your WordPress administration panel “Plugins”
4. Call the getTagsClass() function from anywhere in your Template

Usage

To integrate the String with the Tags for example as a class on a div in your Template simply call the getTagsClass() function as the class.

Download

For WordPress 2.1+: Artillery Tags-Class Plugin 0.2

Description

The Cat-Chart Plugin provides the functionality to implement a chart that visualizes the post-count of the categories. The charts are created using the Google Chart API.

Installation

1. Download the Plugin
2. Open the .zip file and upload the content to your plugins folder (yourdomain/wp-content/plugins/)
3. Activate the plugin in your WordPress administration panel “Plugins”
4. Call the getCatChart() function from anywhere in your Template

Usage

To integrate a Cat-Chart anywhere in your Template simply call the getCatChart() function.

if (function_exists('getCatChart')) {
getCatChart();
}

Download

For WordPress 2.1+: Artillery Cat-Chart Plugin 0.2