A couple of months ago a post by Leo Blanchette got to the front page of Hacker News and there was an interesting discussion on dealing with broken links and external content – the main problem being links that become out of date due to paywalls, altered content, or content getting taken down.

I’ve been running this blog since May 2008. If you’ve run a content-driven site for even a fraction of that, you know that link rot is a problem. In this post I’ll go over some of the suggestions in that thread along with some tools to use to check for broken links.

The post Solutions and Tools for Dealing with Broken Links in Web Pages appeared first on Impressive Webs.

When I visit a page, I get annoyed when I try to interact with elements while the website is still loading. Often stuff is moving around, fonts aren’t quite loaded, and it feels broken.

I know nowadays we’re obsessed in this industry with gaining every millisecond in page performance. But in a couple of projects that I recently overhauled, I added a subtle and clean loading mechanism that I think makes the experience nicer, even if it does ultimately slightly delay the time that the user is able to start interacting with my page.

The post Fading in a Page on Load with CSS & JavaScript appeared first on Impressive Webs.

When I come to the end of any given year, it’s always interesting to look back through the click-through stats for my weekly newsletter Web Tools Weekly to see which tools got the most attention.

This year wasn’t all that different from previous years. I’ve learned that clicks happen for basically one of two reasons:

The post Are These the Most Interesting Front-end Developer Tools for 2021? appeared first on Impressive Webs.

Recently I came across a CodePen demo by a developer/engineer named Jane that was Tweeted out by Šime Vidas. The demo has a neat collection of HTML and CSS tricks rolled into one that I thought was worth examining in detail.

The page displays a secret message based on specific text input. Ok, that’s no big deal, right? Well this is done using pure HTML and CSS – no JavaScript. I’ve seen stuff like this before, but I thought it would be cool to break down exactly how this works. There are a few notable things happening in the code so I’ll break down each of the parts.

The post Detecting Specific Text Input with HTML and CSS appeared first on Impressive Webs.

[Sponsored] If you’re building an app that requires delivering a dynamic experience based on the user’s location or other location-related data, a fast and easy-to-use Geolocation API will certainly come in handy. One such option is ipwhois.io. The service, which is free for small non-commercial projects that need fewer than 10,000 requests per month, is easy to integrate with your tech stack.

As usual, it’s always best to look at a few examples so you can see it in action. Their documentation is short and easy to follow, so I’ll demonstrate using the following example request:

The post A Review of ipwhois.io for Reliable Geolocation Data appeared first on Impressive Webs.

In 2022 I think it’s still important as a web developer to test your how your websites look and function when users disable JavaScript in their browser. Developing in this way used to be a cornerstone of Progressive Enhancement and can be handy on both desktop or mobile.

I still find myself wanting disabling JavaScript on pages I visit. Sometimes it’s to test a page I’m working on, but in other instances it’s simply to visit a web page that’s not functioning correctly and I want to see if JavaScript is the culprit.

The post How to Disable JavaScript in Almost Any Browser appeared first on Impressive Webs.

[Sponsored] If you’re building an app that requires a lot of user-generated content and media that needs to be processed, tagged, filtered, or otherwise manipulated in real-time, you definitely want a solution that’s fast and seamless and doesn’t get in the way of your app’s primary functionality. Filestack is a service you’ll want to consider. Here’s what Filestack offers:

The post Filestack: A File Uploader and Powerful APIs to Deliver and Transform App Content appeared first on Impressive Webs.

We can all agree it's ridiculous to suggest that we should ignore a modern tool that makes it exponentially easier to finish our work.

But as I've learned in 20+ years of writing code, there's always going to be a drawback to using any tool that "makes life easier". In this case, AI-based tools that use ChatGPT or some other AI-based foundation are similar to the frameworks we've been using for years.

The post Don’t Let ChatGPT Write Your Code appeared first on Impressive Webs.

I like to play beach volleyball here in the Toronto area. I also watch beach volleyball on YouTube, which includes a lot of live streams from the AVP league in the US. It's a fun sport that I recommend to anyone looking for a new athletic competition to follow.

In most leagues and tournaments, beach volleyball games have a 3-set format, with each set finishing when a team reaches 21 points (or higher if they're not yet ahead by 2). The third set (played if needed) will go up to 15 points (again, win by 2). Some leagues/tournaments will play all three sets up to 15. It depends on the venue, tournament, etc.

The post YouTube’s Time-Based UX Problem for Live Sports appeared first on Impressive Webs.

Extension of free health coverage to all over 70 years is good, but more needs to be done  

Attempts at controlling the weather are still in the realm of uncertainty

Inflation should not be allowed to undermine the economic momentum 

India’s efforts at peacemaking between Russia and Ukraine have limited potential

Kejriwal bail order is a reminder to CBI to dispel perception of bias

A useful drug is undone by fantastic claims about its efficacy

The U.S. presidential race is poised on a knife’s edge

Israel’s fighting three enemy militias at once highlights the pressing need for a ceasefire

The West Bengal government must enable the changes doctors want to see

The Sixteenth Finance Commission must address the concerns of high-performing States

AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal continues to surprise, also outlining his political ambitions

The idea of simultaneous elections is inherently anti-federal

The optics of the 100-day mark cannot conceal changed dynamics for the BJP

India and Pakistan need to drop their hard line stances on the Indus Waters Treaty

The spirit of the mandate of the presidential poll was clear — for change

Fact-checking cannot be an excuse to impose censorship

India’s chess double win was fashioned by its young generation of players

The Tirupati laddu issue should be limited to one of quality control

Court has done well to clarify law on online content showing child sex abuse

The Modi U.S. visit announcements will see New Delhi being put to the test

Israel is choosing war over peace, escalation over compromise 

The political divide between national parties and regional parties is clear