Well, I succeeded in removing four images from the index page. But I replace those with a couple of hundred lines of javascript. Meh, what’re you gonna do. Went a little nuts with jQuery. I changed the forgot password link to do a little switchToggle animation. I also replaced the original qrisper leaderboard ad, which used to be a simple onclick/onmouseover event, with a snazzy sliding panel.  I think it gets the message across, don’t you?

But I didn’t stop there with the javascriptin.  I wasn’t happy with just having the recent answers in the left column.  So I added a cool accordion function, this time using prototype/scriptaculous.  I saw another version using jquery but I liked this one better.  I think it’s pretty neat.  Except I couldn’t figure out how to set the max height for the content (that’s why the recent answers heading isn’t sitting flush against the bottom).  I decided to leave it as is since it doesn’t look that bad.

The problem with the accordion function, however, is that as soon as the user clicks on on of the recent answers links, the page will load and the recent answers column will reset back to the bottom.  Not very user-friendly.  So I figured I’d add a dash of ajax and make the recent answers links load on the screen without a page refresh.  I found another handy tutorial on Nettuts that did just that.  But the source code appears to have gone through a number of revisions, with the final version incompatible with the current versions of IE7 and Safari.  Looks great on Firefox though!

All of these javascript functions were weight my site down.  So I looked into ways to optimize the handling of my source codes.  Initially, I was using Google’s Minify to minfiy my code.  But then I discovered that Google also hosts most of the popular javascript libraries.  So instead of attaching a copy of those files, you can link to Google hosted copies.  Those are already minified and could potentially provide a speed boost if your users already have a cached copy of the library, which most people probably do.  You can find all of the details at Google’s AJAX libraries API.

With the addition of all of the new fancy effects, I also decided that qrisper would no longer support IE6.  So I created a redirect page for those poor souls still using that wretched browser.  I’ve been using IETester to test qrisper on IE6.  Worked pretty well.

Decided to take a breather on the php to focus on the interface.  Actually, the php issue was interface related so I guess what I really mean is focus on making qrisper a bit flashier looking.

The landing page was getting a little noisy so I decided to put the registration into a modal window. I used jquery and followed a tutorial from yensdesign.com.  Implementation was pretty straightforward. One thing I want to tinker with is the location of the window.  It looks a bit off-center…I noticed that on the tutorial as well.  If anyone can see the reason why, please holler (code below).

function centerPopup(){

        var windowWidth = document.documentElement.clientWidth;
	var windowHeight = document.documentElement.clientHeight;
	var popupHeight = $j("#popupSignup").height();
	var popupWidth = $j("#popupSignup").width();

	$j("#popupSignup").css({
		"position": "absolute",
		"top": windowHeight/2-popupHeight/2,
		"left": windowWidth/2-popupWidth/2
	});
}

I’m using jquery with prototype so I needed to make sure that I included jquery’s noconflict clause and change the $ variable for all jquery scripts (hence the $j).  There’s so much information out there about jquery that it’s hard not to use it.  But now that I have the power, I need to be responsible and practice restraint.  qrisper’s getting a little large around the waist from overindulging on all of those image files. Found this site on web optimization, telling me that qrisper needs to go on a  diet.

Also added a little feedback button…meh…looks alright.  The button made me realize that I’m digging myself into a trap.  I am maintaining slightly different versions of the same page.  Which version the users see depends on whether or not they’re logged in.  Decided that I could probably use a php if statement to swap out includes depending on whether or not a session id exists.

Wanting to trim the fat further, I went to clean up my css files and optimize them with a few new tricks I learned.  Big mistake that was.  Spent a few hours fixing all of the damage I caused.  I found the tips from David’s old blog.  Actually found a number of good resources…a few of which I used to fix a few issue that had been bugging me.