How do websites achieve the 'Web 2.0' look and feel? [closed] - ajax

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I'm not sure that I'm using the correct language here so I will give some examples of web sites which I believe have 'Web 2.0'look and feel
https://www.yammer.com/
http://www.heroku.com/
https://foursquare.com/
http://24sevenoffice.com/
http://www.formassembly.com
They all have big text, big buttons, plus very slick and tasteful AJAX/CSS. My question is how is this look and feel assembled? Some possible ideas I have had:
. Underlying library such as jQuery/GWT
. Handled by web framework such as Rails/Django
. Coded completely from scratch
To me all the sites have sufficient similarity that there does seem to be some type of underlying common mechanism. The reason I'm asking is that as a developer I'm wondering if I can assemble a Web 2.0 looking site using some type of tool kit.

There are common frameworks and tools to help with the development, sure. You mention two of them. However, a tool alone isn't going to do it. Not unless you just entirely conform to some kind of brown-and-serve framework. (I don't know of any off-hand.)
Good look and feel comes from good UI/UX design. I'll bet that each of those example sites you gave has a talented graphic designer behind it (either on staff or contracted for making the site) who is proud of their creative work, and simply used some tools to help facilitate that work.

I have just discovered Bootstrap and this is exactly what I was looking for

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phpBB: how to customize the UI really [closed]

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This will be quite a long way to ask my question, so please bear with me, I'm really interested in your opinion and need an advice.
I would like to modify or convert an existing phpBB3 setup because my users don't like it anymore. They definitely don't like the (otherwise professional) design of the templates based on proSilver or subSilver2 - they find it boring. We're talking about young girls and boys; it's quite possible that this is the first forum they've ever wanted to use (for some of them at least). Because I maintain that forum for a quite small community I must do something with this situation, so I've started thinking about how to dress up phpBB3 and make it more lovely.
Do you know any other forum software which could satisfy our needs better, perhaps a more Web 2.0 targeted solution? Do you have any ideas how should I design a forum style that 10-15 years old people can really use and enjoy? (I'm not talking about the IT specialists of the future here.)
I know it's not about programming on the surface, but we're talking about UI design here. I ready to do quite a lot of coding if we could find a nice concept - I wonder if I should create a new phpBB3 style with custom code from scratch or something.
I don't know phpBB, but to your question on other forum software...
I have used bbPress for a large project and I was very happy with it. It shares a lot of code with Wordpress and one can easily integrate the two, and even add more sophisticated social networking features using the BuddyPress plugin.
bbPress itself is lightweight and fast in my experience. It is easy to create a completely customized experience using only HTML, CSS and a few PHP template tags. There is a plugin architecture that allows you to customize the heck out of it without modifying the core.
One drawback is that it's future within the Wordpress stable has seemed a little uncertain recently.

Any books on design website UI without referring to images? [closed]

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I'm weak enough in art,so this kind of books will really help me lot,if there is.
Typically you don't want developers to design graphics and you don't want designers to write code. Assume you have someone else creating graphics for you (or use one of the many services on the web that do this sort of thing cheaply). Just use placeholder images while you are learning; i.e. load up mspaint (or gimp or whatever floats your boat) and just make something that you can recognize.
But it is unrealistic to try to do modern webdesign using zero images. Even with some of the advanced awesomeness of CSS.
You can start by reading this book: Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
No offence, but you can't do website design without images, or even without having a strong creative/artistic streak. Now web development you can do without any creative talent, and minimal knowledge of CSS. Often the two roles blur, but you're going to have to either work with someone who does the design side, or learn how to do web design - images and all.

RapidWeaver-like editor for windows [closed]

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After seeing a friend using RapidWeaver and producing wonderful results in a few clicks, I was astonished and started searching if a tool like that exists for Windows. Unfortunately, so far my search yielded no result, so I'm writing here the criteria I'm using hoping that anybody will come up with a relevant suggestion:
WYSIWYG HTML editor
Must work (well!) on Windows (Vista/7)
Must not be web based (I don't care about webapps allowing me to create sites off of crappy templates)
Template-based (and possibly with many templates available)
Pretty flexible (nothing like Dreamweaver, but I wouldn't like being stuck with just entering text into some prebuilt templates)
Intuitive (and possibly good looking) UI
Producing standards-compliant markup (office-like HTML is not an option)
Here is what I don't care about:
Price/License (if it's commercial it's probably even better for my purpose, as if the tool is good I will want fast, quality support)
Good code editing features (when I'll get my hands dirty with the markup I want things to be looking already pretty good so I'll just have to improve certain areas based on my requirements...)
Server-side scripting (I'm handling that otherwise, for this tool I just care about the design part)
Here's a list of commonly recommended tools I consider unfit for my needs:
NVU
KompoZer
Microsoft Expression Web
Microsoft Visual Web Designer
Adobe Dreamweaver (good, but too good for my needs. At this stage, I'd prefer something quicker, even if it means having lower quality html)
Thanks in advance for your suggestions!
Probably too late, and not sure if this helps you anyway:
http://www.artisteer.com
http://www.xara.com/eu/products/webdesigner/

I am looking for a webbased text editor that supports collaboration [closed]

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I am looking for a web based text editor that supports collaboration with 2 or more people.
I am hoping to work on a fairly 'small' project with a couple other people from afar and would really like for us to be able to work on the same file at the same time and see the changes each other make in 'real time'.
Language built on is not much of an issue, would prefer to have syntax highlighting, but not really required.
EtherPad is ideal for realtime collaborative editing, much better than google docs if you're ok with strictly plain text.
Try it out here: http://etherpad.org/
I just tried out CollabEdit for comparison and it seems it really can't handle two people typing at the same time.
See also these similar questions:
How do you collaborate with other coders in real time?
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/148538/what-is-a-great-tool-for-remote-pair
What Features Should Tomorrow's Wiki Include?
google docs would be a save bet. it allows for simultanous editing.
Try out Bespin the new one from Mozilla! It is supposed to have collaboration tools built in, Though I'm not sure if all the features are available yet.
CollabEdit
I saw this linked in another question and it seems to fit the bill 100%, web-based and syntax highlighting.
Have you looked at Google Apps? Myself and two others were using the spreadsheet for planning on a project. You can see the other people moving around their curors and entering text. It's very very cool.
Look at DocSynch
I saw demo of the plugin for eclipse, i dont' remember it's name... maybe this one
Also this wiki page has a list of the collaborative editors.
I hear Mozilla's new "cloud" text editor, Bespin, looks interesting.

Sources of good, free icons/images for applications & web apps with permissive license? [closed]

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I'm interested in finding good icons/images that can be used in both 'free' and proprietary programs.
Please include a description of any license restrictions associated with the source of the icons you suggest.
I use two search engines:
IconFinder and IconLook.
If you can't find what you want, this blog post has a list of great resources.
I've used Silk Icons (http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/) on a few projects. It's covered under the creative commons license so you will have to include a link back to the site somewhere in your app.
http://www.iconarchive.com has a nice selection
I used Fontawesome to find icons.
I've had the best luck with Icon Buffet and StockIcons
A good starting point, and a nice stock icon site. Some require payment, but there are lots of free sources out there. However, one of your highest priorities for a commercial application is that it looks good enough to buy - $30 for a good set is cheap compared to the time it takes you to research and find a set, nevermind the time it'd take for you to make them yourself.
-Adam

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