Archive for category: Random Stories

Original Source: https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/dropbox-tools/

Dropbox is a useful cloud storage, but most users do not realize that it can be way more powerful if you know how to make the most use of it. If combined with the right services, Dropbox can do…

Visit hongkiat.com for full content.

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/1stwebdesigner/~3/Ox4LMH-rGr4/

In this post, we’ve rounded up a collection of useful pure CSS code snippets for elements that are commonly used when designing and developing a website. We’ve included a few that may be less common, but might be useful for you if you are looking for a way to level up or add interest in your project.

From parallax to animations to tabs and accordions, this list should be helpful for you to refer to any time you are looking for accomplishing something in your web development utilizing only pure CSS and no JavaScript. So be sure to bookmark this page so you can refer to it next time you are looking for some guidance or inspiration.

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Slide Down Toggle

A clean and simple hidden panel that slides down smoothly when the button is clicked.

See the Pen Pure CSS Slide Down Toggle by Surjith (@surjithctly) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Animated Gradient Background

Here’s a subtle animation effect where the background gradient slowly and endlessly changes.

See the Pen Pure CSS Gradient Background Animation by Manuel Pinto (@P1N2O) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Parallax Star Background

A mesmerizing background with stars moving slowly through the night sky.

See the Pen Parallax Star background in CSS by Saransh Sinha (@saransh) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Parallax Scrolling

Some may say that parallax has come and gone, but this cool pure CSS version makes a statement that you might want to utilize in your next project.

See the Pen Pure CSS Parallax Scrolling by Keith Clark (@keithclark) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Form With SVG Radio Buttons

A simple form with radio buttons replaced with SVGs and a subtle animation.

See the Pen Form with SVG radio buttons by Angela Velasquez (@AngelaVelasquez) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Hamburger Slide Out Menu

A handy, simple slide out menu that appears when the hamburger icon is clicked.

See the Pen Pure CSS Hamburger fold-out menu by Erik Terwan (@erikterwan) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Custom Checkboxes

Nicely styled checkboxes that will give your forms a clean look.

See the Pen Pure CSS custom checkboxes by Glen Cheney (@Vestride) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Popup Modal Window

How about a clean popup modal window that doesn’t use any JavaScript? Here’s one.

See the Pen Pure css popup box by Prakash (@imprakash) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

CSS Slider

A nice looking, smooth operating content slider with animations and navigation, all in pure CSS.

See the Pen Pure CSS Slider by Damian Drygiel (@drygiel) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Glitched Text Animation

Here’s a cool glitch text animation effect that could work well for large headings.

See the Pen CSS Glitched Text by Lucas Bebber (@lbebber) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Animated Gradient Ghost Button

Want to spruce up your buttons? Try this nice gradient animation.

See the Pen Animated Gradient Ghost Button Concept by Arsen Zbidniakov (@ARS) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

One Page Navigation Menu

This is a very clean, single page website with left navigation, where each page slides out from the right without refreshing the browser.

See the Pen One Page Navigation CSS Menu by Alberto Hartzet (@hrtzt) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

One Page Vertical Navigation

Similar to the previous snippet, and by the same author, this variation loads each page as a sliding panel from the bottom, along with keyboard navigation that syncs with the vertical menu.

See the Pen Pure CSS One page vertical navigation by Alberto Hartzet (@hrtzt) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Image Slider

Another pure CSS image slider with a nifty animated transition between slides.

See the Pen CSS image slider w/ next/prev btns & nav dots by Avi Kohn (@AMKohn) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Tabs

Need some easy to code/use CSS-only tabs in your next project? Here is a good example!

See the Pen Pure CSS Tabs by Wallace Erick (@wallaceerick) on CodePen.dark

Accordion

How about an accordion instead of tabs to display your content? Thought you couldn’t do it without JavaScript? Think again!

See the Pen Pure CSS Accordion by Rau (@raubaca) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Direction-Aware Hover

Here’s a neat trick! Hover over the box from any side and it reveals something different based on which side you slid your cursor in from.

See the Pen Direction aware hover pure CSS by Fabrice W. (@FWeinb) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Horizontal News Ticker

An old-school news ticker effect without any Javascript? Yes, it can be done!

See the Pen Pure CSS Ticker (Horizontal) by Lewis Carey (@lewismcarey) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Multiline Text Cut Off With Ellipsis

This is a little specific, but still useful in the correct context. Perhaps you need equal height blog post excerpts. Do it with this pure CSS snippet.

See the Pen Pure CSS multiline text with ellipsis by Martin Wolf (@martinwolf) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Toggle Buttons

Five clean looking animated toggle buttons.

See the Pen Pure CSS toggle buttons by Mauricio Allende (@mallendeo) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Swanky Drop Down Menu

This is a really nice vertical drop down menu with great animations.

See the Pen Swanky Pure CSS Drop Down Menu V2.0 by Jamie Coulter (@jcoulterdesign) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

12 Loader Animations

Here are some useful spinners and loaders you can use for page load animations.

See the Pen Pure CSS Loaders kit by Viduthalai Mani (@viduthalai1947) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Content Filter

A very handy, pure CSS content filter with a multitude of possible use cases.

See the Pen Pure CSS content filter by Sam Gordon (@samgordon) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Swagtastic UI Stat Pop Out

A beautifully styled layout that could be used for statistics, a pricing table, or whatever your imagination comes up with.

See the Pen UI Statistic Pop Out CSS by Jamie Coulter (@jcoulterdesign) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Folder Tree

A simple folder tree without any JavaScript.

See the Pen Pure CSS Tree by Rafael González (@rgg) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Fancy Checkbox and Radio Buttons

Another variation on nicer than browser default checkbox and radio buttons.

See the Pen Pure CSS Fancy Checkbox/Radio by Rau (@raubaca) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

News Cards

This would be great for a blog post listing. Hover over a card to reveal the excerpt and read more link.

See the Pen News Cards – CSS only by Aleksandar Čugurović (@choogoor) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Peeling Sticky

Here’s a fun animation of a label that peels off on hover. How could you use this one?

See the Pen Pure CSS Peeling Sticky by patrickkunka (@patrickkunka) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Horizontal Hover Accordion

A nifty horizontal accordion that reveals content on hover.

See the Pen Pure CSS Horizontal Accordion by Aysha Anggraini (@rrenula) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Funky Vertical Accordion

Another very nicely done vertical accordion with slick animations and zero JavaScript.

See the Pen Funky Pure CSS Accordion by Jamie Coulter (@jcoulterdesign) on CodePen.dark

Animated Toggles

Another set of toggles, this time in flat and 3D versions, with unique animations for each.

See the Pen Pure CSS Toggles by Rafael González (@rgg) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Button Hover Animation

Spice up your buttons and links with this neat little hover animation effect.

See the Pen Button Hover by Katherine Kato (@kathykato) on <a href=’https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

How will you use these handy pure CSS code snippets?

We hope you will find these pure CSS code snippets useful in your future projects, and hopefully we will save you some time next time you’re looking for any of these common elements to incorporate into your development.

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abduzeedo/~3/DTmyxjanGuk/branding-full-visual-identity-la-mala-pub

Branding & Full Visual Identity for La Mala Pub

abduzeedo09.09.20

Estudio Nuar shared a beautiful branding project for La Mala Pub. Right in the heart of Palermo, La Mala Pub leads Buenos Aires nightlife. Only a few months after opening, it became so trending that generated the need for more space. In consequence, an extra space was attached and Malita was created. It was a joint work with the architecture team to design the new identity for this space and then generate all the graphic interventions and signage applications. 

La Mala in Spanish means “Bad Girl” and that’s what triggered the visual imaginary, with all these really empowered girls, a bit vintage but updated with the vibrant colors, the contemporary phrases and the spacial mood, meaning she’s from outer space. 

We created this multifaceted character who represents La Mala but also every girl who goes there. Apart from the posters, which are one of the main characters, we worked a lot on the neon signs, together with the architecture team, as they were very important taking into consideration it’s a night pub and the lighting is fundamental.

Credits

Creative Direction: Manuela Ventura y Melisa Rivas.
Architecture: Hitzig Militello Arquitectos.
Production: Crista Bernasconi.
Equipment: Krapa.
Design: Manuela Ventura, Melisa Rivas, Crista Bernasconi y Natasha Furst.
Photography: Federico Kulekdjian.
Animation: Malena Sueiro.

Original Source: https://smashingmagazine.com/2020/09/build-blog-nextjs-mdx/

Next.js is a React framework that enables you to build static and dynamic apps quickly. It is production-ready and supports server-side rendering and static site generation out of the box, making Next.js apps fast and SEO-friendly.

In this tutorial, I will first explain what exactly Next.js is and why you’d use it instead of Create React App or Gatsby. Then, I’ll show you how to build a blog on which you can write and render posts using Next.js and MDX.

To get started, you’ll need some experience with React. Knowledge of Next.js would come handy but is not compulsory. This tutorial would benefit those who want to create a blog (personal or organizational) using Next.js or are still searching for what to use.

Let’s dive in.

What Is Next.js?

Next.js is a React framework created and maintained by Vercel. It’s built with React, Node.js, Babel, and Webpack. It is production-ready because it comes with a lot of great features that would usually be set up in a “vanilla” React app.

The Next.js framework can render apps on the server or export them statically. It doesn’t wait for the browser to load the JavaScript in order to show content, which makes Next.js apps SEO-friendly and blazing fast.

Why Use Next.js Over Create React App?

Create React App is a handy tool that offers a modern build setup with no configuration and without the hassle of having to set up Webpack, Babel, and so on or having to maintain their dependencies. It’s the recommended way to create React apps nowadays. It has a template for TypeScript and also comes with the React Testing Library.

However, if you want to build a multi-page app, then you’ll need to install an extra library, as if you were rendering a React app on the server. The extra setup could be a problem, and any packages installed could increase the final bundle size of your app.

This is exactly the problem that Next.js is intended to solve. It offers the best developer experience, with all of the things you need for production. It comes with several cool features:

Static exporting (pre-rendering)
Next.js allows you to export your Next.js app at build time to static HTML that runs without a server. It is the recommended way to generate your website because it’s done at build time and not at each request.
Server-side rendering (pre-rendering)
It pre-renders pages to HTML on the server upon every request.
Automatic code splitting
Unlike React, Next.js splits code automatically and only loads the JavaScript needed, which makes the app fast.
File-system-based routing
Next.js uses the file system to enable routing in the app, meaning that every file under the pages directory will be treated automatically as a route.
Hot reloading of code
Next.js relies on React Fast Refresh to hot reload your code, offering a great developer experience.
Styling options
The Next.js framework has built-in support for Styled JSX, CSS modules, Sass, LESS, and more.

Next.js Versus Gatsby

Gatsby is a static site generator built on top of React and GraphQL. It is popular and has a huge ecosystem that provides themes, plugins, recipes, and so on.

Gatsby and Next.js websites are super-fast because they are both rendered either on the server or statically, meaning that the JavaScript code does not wait for the browser to load. Let’s compare them according to the developer experience.

Gatsby is easy to start with, especially if you already know React. However, Gatsby uses GraphQL to query local data and pages. Using Gatsby to build this simple blog might be overkill because GraphQL has a learning curve, and the querying and build time of static pages would be a bit longer. If you built this same blog twice, first with Gatsby and then with Next.js, the one built with Next.js would be much faster at build time because it uses regular JavaScript to query local data and pages.

I hope you take advantage of the power of the Next.js framework and see why it’s so much handier than some alternatives. It’s also a great choice if your website relies heavily on SEO because your app will be fast and easy for Google robots to crawl. That’s the reason why we will be using Next.js in this article to build a blog with the MDX library.

Let’s start by setting up a new Next.js app.

Setting Up

There are two ways to create a Next.js app. We can set up a new app manually or use Create Next App. We’ll go for the latter because it’s the recommended way, and it will set up everything automatically for us.

To start a new app, run the following in the command-line interface (CLI):

npx create-next-app

Once the project is initialized, let’s structure the Next.js app as follows:

src
├── components
| ├── BlogPost.js
| ├── Header.js
| ├── HeadPost.js
| ├── Layout.js
| └── Post.js
├── pages
| ├── blog
| | ├── post-1
| | | └── index.mdx
| | ├── post-2
| | | └── index.mdx
| | └── post-3
| | └── index.mdx
| ├── index.js
| └── _app.js
├── getAllPosts.js
├── next.config.js
├── package.json
├── README.md
└── yarn.lock

As you can see, our project has a simple file structure. There are three things to note:

_app.js allows us to append some content to the App.js component in order to make it global.
getAllPosts.js helps us to retrieve the blog posts from the folder pages/blog. By the way, you can name the file whatever you want.
next.config.js is the configuration file for our Next.js app.

I will come back to each file later and explain what it does. For now, let’s see the MDX package.

Installing the MDX Library

MDX is a format that lets us seamlessly write JSX and import components into our Markdown files. It enables us to write regular Markdown and embed React components in our files as well.

To enable MDX in the app, we need to install the @mdx-js/loader library. To do so, let’s first navigate to the root of the project and then run this command in the CLI:

yarn add @mdx-js/loader

Or, if you’re using npm:

npm install @mdx-js/loader

Next, install @next/mdx, which is a library specific to Next.js. Run this command in the CLI:

yarn add @next/mdx

Or, for npm:

npm install @next/mdx

Great! We are done setting up. Let’s get our hands dirty and code something meaningful.

Configuring the next.config.js File
const withMDX = require(“@next/mdx”)({
extension: /.mdx?$/
});

module.exports = withMDX({
pageExtensions: [“js”, “jsx”, “md”, “mdx”]
});

Earlier in this tutorial, I said that files under the pages folder would be treated as pages/routes by Next.js at build time. By default, Next.js will just pick files with .js or .jsx extensions. That’s why we need a config file, to add some customizations to the default behavior of Next.js.

The next.config.js file tells the framework that files with .md or .mdx extensions should also be treated as pages/routes at build time because the blog folder that contains the articles lives in the pages directory.

That being said, we can start fetching the blog posts in the next part.

Fetching Blog Posts

One of the reasons why building a blog with Next.js is easy and simple is that you do not need GraphQL or the like to fetch local posts. You can just use regular JavaScript to get the data.

In getAllPosts.js:

function importAll(r) {
return r.keys().map((fileName) => ({
link: fileName.substr(1).replace(//index.mdx$/, “”),
module: r(fileName)
}));
}

export const posts = importAll(
require.context(“./pages/blog/”, true, /.mdx$/)
);

This file can be intimidating at first. It’s a function that imports all MDX files from the folder pages/blog, and for each post it returns an object with the path of the file, without the extension (/post-1), and the data of the blog post.

With that in place, we can now build the components in order to style and show data in our Next.js app.

Building The Components

In components/Layout.js:

import Head from “next/head”;
import Header from “./Header”;

export default function Layout({ children, pageTitle, description }) {
return (
<>
<Head>
<meta name=”viewport” content=”width=device-width, initial-scale=1″ />
<meta charSet=”utf-8″ />
<meta name=”Description” content={description}></meta>
<title>{pageTitle}</title>
</Head>
<main>
<Header />
<div className=”content”>{children}</div>
</main>
</>
);
}

Here, we have the Layout component, which we’ll be using as a wrapper for the blog. It receives the meta data to show in the head of the page and the component to be displayed.

In components/Post.js:

import Link from ‘next/link’
import { HeadPost } from ‘./HeadPost’

export const Post = ({ post }) => {
const {
link,
module: { meta },
} = post

return (
<article>
<HeadPost meta={meta} />
<Link href={‘/blog’ + link}>
<a>Read more →</a>
</Link>
</article>
)
}

This component is responsible for displaying a preview of a blog post. It receives the post object to show as props. Next, we use destructuring to pull out the link of the post and the meta to show from the object. With that, we can now pass the data to the components and handle the routing with the Link component.

In components/BlogPost.js:

import { HeadPost } from ‘./HeadPost’

export default function BlogPost({ children, meta}) {
return (
<>
<HeadPost meta={meta} isBlogPost />
<article>{children}</article>
</>
)
}

The BlogPost component helps us to render a single article. It receives the post to show and its meta object.

So far, we have covered a lot — but we have no articles to show. Let’s fix that in the next section.

Writing Posts With MDX

import BlogPost from ‘../../../components/BlogPost’

export const meta = {
title: ‘Introduction to Next.js’,
description: ‘Getting started with the Next framework’,
date: ‘Aug 04, 2020’,
readTime: 2
}

export default ({ children }) => <BlogPost meta={meta}>{children}</BlogPost>;

## My Headline

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque maximus pellentesque dolor non egestas. In sed tristique elit. Cras vehicula, nisl vel ultricies gravida, augue nibh laoreet arcu, et tincidunt augue dui non elit. Vestibulum semper posuere magna, quis molestie mauris faucibus ut.

As you can see, we import the BlogPost component, which receives the meta and the body of the post.

The parameter children is the body of the blog post or, to be precise, everything that comes after the meta object. It is the function responsible for rendering the post.

With that change, we can move to the index.js file and display the posts on the home page.

Displaying Posts
import { Post } from “../components/Post”;
import { posts } from “../getAllPosts”;

export default function IndexPage() {
return (
<>
{posts.map((post) => (
<Post key={post.link} post={post} />
))}
</>
);
}

Here, we start by importing the Post component and the posts fetched from the blog folder. Next, we loop through the array of articles, and for each post, we use the Post component to display it. That being done, we are now able to fetch the posts and display them on the page.

We are almost done. However, the Layout component is still not being used. We can use it here and wrap our components with it. But that won’t affect the articles pages. That’s where the _app.js file comes into play. Let’s use that in the next section.

Using the _app.js File

Here, the underscore symbol (_) is really important. If you omit it, Next.js will treat the file as a page/route.

import Layout from “../components/Layout”;

export default function App({ Component, pageProps }) {
return (
<Layout pageTitle=”Blog” description=”My Personal Blog”>
<Component {…pageProps} />
</Layout>
);
}

Next.js uses the App component to initialize pages. The purpose of this file is to override it and add some global styles to the project. If you have styles or data that need to be shared across the project, put them here.

We can now browse the project folder in the CLI and run the following command to preview the blog in the browser:

yarn dev

Or, in npm:

npm run dev

If you open http://localhost:3000 in the browser, you will be able to see this:

Great! Our blog looks good. We are done building the blog app with Next.js and MDX.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we walked through Next.js by building a blog using the MDX library. The Next.js framework is a handy tool that makes React apps SEO-friendly and fast. It can be used to build static, dynamic JAMstack websites in no time, because it is production-ready and comes with some nice features. Next.js is used widely by big companies, and its performance keeps improving. It’s definitely something to check out for your next project.

You can preview the finished project on CodeSandbox.

Thanks for reading!

Resources

These useful resources will take you beyond the scope of this tutorial.

Next.js documentation
Next.js and MDX documentation
“Create a Next.js App”, Next.js