Re: [PHP] php selecting multiple stylesheets
On Sun, 2010-02-07 at 23:45 -0500, Paul M Foster wrote: On Sun, Feb 07, 2010 at 11:20:18PM -0500, David Mehler wrote: Hello, I'm trying to set up a web site. This site has multiple stylesheets, one default stylesheet that should be used if the other is not chosen. The second is a high contrast stylesheet and can be selected by user's who need it. I'm also thinking of adding two more for smaller and larger font selections. My issue is I want the high contrast sheet to be used on all subsequent pages and on subsequent visits to the site by user's who have selected it. I thought of using php with this and cookies. I'm using php5 and would appreciate any suggestions, googling has shown some examples, but none are working. Thanks. Dave. There are two main PHP-centric solutions to this. First is cookies (as you described) and the second is using the $_SESSION global array. Doing this is relatively straightforward, so if it's not working for you, I see two possibilities: 1) You're not actually doing it right. 2) The users isn't pressing the Reload button after selecting the stylesheet. (My experience has been that simply redisplaying a page will not clear the cached CSS styles for that page. You must hit the Reload button. In fact, in some cases, like offices with caching webservers or proxies, an admin will have to be called in to clear the cache on the proxy/server as well.) You should be able to do something like this (I'm using SESSION variables because cookies are more complicated): ?php // Top of page session_start(); if ($_SESSION['stylesheet'] == 'enlarged_print') $css = 'enlarged_print.css'; else ... ? html ... link href=?php echo $css; ? rel=stylesheet type=text/css/ ... /html Paul -- Paul M. Foster I'm doing this on my own site, and it works like this: The stylesheets are output in a tags, so that a user can click on one to select a style, refreshing the page. In the header include, I check first to see if a new style was sent in the $_GET array, then the $_SESSION array, then finally to see if there is a stylesheet entry in the $_COOKIES array. If none is found, a default is assumed, and I write this value to both the $_SESSION and $_COOKIES array. By checking them in the order above, it lets a user pick a new one from a link, and will remember their choice throughout their current session and any subsequent visits to the site. As all the stylesheets are included in the pages with the correct link tags anyway, anyone with a compatible browser (Firefox, Opera, etc) can select the style from a drop menu directly in the browser, although it's better to use the links, as the browser doesn't remember the choice from page to page. Thanks, Ash http://www.ashleysheridan.co.uk
Re: [PHP] php selecting multiple stylesheets
On Sun, Feb 07, 2010 at 11:20:18PM -0500, David Mehler wrote: Hello, I'm trying to set up a web site. This site has multiple stylesheets, one default stylesheet that should be used if the other is not chosen. The second is a high contrast stylesheet and can be selected by user's who need it. I'm also thinking of adding two more for smaller and larger font selections. My issue is I want the high contrast sheet to be used on all subsequent pages and on subsequent visits to the site by user's who have selected it. I thought of using php with this and cookies. I'm using php5 and would appreciate any suggestions, googling has shown some examples, but none are working. in CSS there is also the concept of 'alternate stylesheets' build in. A page can basically specify as many stylesheets as it wants where one is default and all others are 'alternate'. The browser will then offer menu entries for the user to choose from. Ie in firefox you can choose the style from the menu at: View - Page Style - ... Here's how it works in detail: http://www.w3.org/Style/Examples/007/alternatives (note that this site also has alternate styles available) PHP could be used to define the default style sheet on a per user/application setting basis... stephan -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] php selecting multiple stylesheets
On Mon, 2010-02-08 at 11:18 +0100, Stephan Ebelt wrote: On Sun, Feb 07, 2010 at 11:20:18PM -0500, David Mehler wrote: Hello, I'm trying to set up a web site. This site has multiple stylesheets, one default stylesheet that should be used if the other is not chosen. The second is a high contrast stylesheet and can be selected by user's who need it. I'm also thinking of adding two more for smaller and larger font selections. My issue is I want the high contrast sheet to be used on all subsequent pages and on subsequent visits to the site by user's who have selected it. I thought of using php with this and cookies. I'm using php5 and would appreciate any suggestions, googling has shown some examples, but none are working. in CSS there is also the concept of 'alternate stylesheets' build in. A page can basically specify as many stylesheets as it wants where one is default and all others are 'alternate'. The browser will then offer menu entries for the user to choose from. Ie in firefox you can choose the style from the menu at: View - Page Style - ... Here's how it works in detail: http://www.w3.org/Style/Examples/007/alternatives (note that this site also has alternate styles available) PHP could be used to define the default style sheet on a per user/application setting basis... stephan The only problem relying only on this method is that not all browsers are compatible with it, and of those that are, none remember the choice a user makes from page to page, so they'd have to reselect it upon each page visit Thanks, Ash http://www.ashleysheridan.co.uk
Re: [PHP] php selecting multiple stylesheets
TG wrote: You could use PHP and cookies (session variables are only useful until the browser is closed, so it's not as persistant as it sounds like you may want). Persistent sessions are possible. The way I'm doing it in the CMS I am working on is via GET which saves selection in session. I can't use a selector because I tailor the web page to the style sheet and some of them require different page design (IE search bar in aside opposed to header) I don't use persistent sessions, but session is kept in cookie and you can configure it to be a persistent cookie if you want. -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] php selecting multiple stylesheets
At 11:20 PM -0500 2/7/10, David Mehler wrote: Hello, I'm trying to set up a web site. This site has multiple stylesheets, one default stylesheet that should be used if the other is not chosen. The second is a high contrast stylesheet and can be selected by user's who need it. I'm also thinking of adding two more for smaller and larger font selections. My issue is I want the high contrast sheet to be used on all subsequent pages and on subsequent visits to the site by user's who have selected it. I thought of using php with this and cookies. I'm using php5 and would appreciate any suggestions, googling has shown some examples, but none are working. Thanks. Dave. -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php Try this: http://sperling.com/examples/styleswitch1/ As far as zooming text size, most browsers are capable of this. Just make your site zoom-cooperative, such as: http://sperling.com/examples/zoom/ As far as making things high contrast, why not choose colors that are right the first time? Try this: http://webbytedd.com/c/access-color/ As far as making all of this persistent, look to using Cookies. Cheers, tedd -- --- http://sperling.com http://ancientstones.com http://earthstones.com -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] php selecting multiple stylesheets
On Mon, 2010-02-08 at 10:00 -0500, tedd wrote: At 11:20 PM -0500 2/7/10, David Mehler wrote: Hello, I'm trying to set up a web site. This site has multiple stylesheets, one default stylesheet that should be used if the other is not chosen. The second is a high contrast stylesheet and can be selected by user's who need it. I'm also thinking of adding two more for smaller and larger font selections. My issue is I want the high contrast sheet to be used on all subsequent pages and on subsequent visits to the site by user's who have selected it. I thought of using php with this and cookies. I'm using php5 and would appreciate any suggestions, googling has shown some examples, but none are working. Thanks. Dave. -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php Try this: http://sperling.com/examples/styleswitch1/ As far as zooming text size, most browsers are capable of this. Just make your site zoom-cooperative, such as: http://sperling.com/examples/zoom/ As far as making things high contrast, why not choose colors that are right the first time? Try this: http://webbytedd.com/c/access-color/ As far as making all of this persistent, look to using Cookies. Cheers, tedd -- --- http://sperling.com http://ancientstones.com http://earthstones.com There is a good reason for having different stylesheets that use differing colour systems. For example, some people with learning difficulties benefit from yellow text on blue backgrounds, as apparently those colours together are better at capturing a users attention for longer durations. This is often coupled with other layout changes such as narrower width text blocks to aid readability. Thanks, Ash http://www.ashleysheridan.co.uk
Re: [PHP] php selecting multiple stylesheets
Ashley Sheridan wrote: There is a good reason for having different stylesheets that use differing colour systems. For example, some people with learning difficulties benefit from yellow text on blue backgrounds, as apparently those colours together are better at capturing a users attention for longer durations. This is often coupled with other layout changes such as narrower width text blocks to aid readability. It's also not a bad idea to have a layout designed for small computer screens, 1024x is what most of my style sheets are designed for but one is designed for 800x. There are still some people with small displays, and horizontal scrolling really sucks. -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] php selecting multiple stylesheets
On Mon, Feb 08, 2010 at 10:22:07AM +, Ashley Sheridan wrote: [...] in CSS there is also the concept of 'alternate stylesheets' build in. A page can basically specify as many stylesheets as it wants where one is default and all others are 'alternate'. The browser will then offer menu entries for the user to choose from. Ie in firefox you can choose the style from the menu at: View - Page Style - ... Here's how it works in detail: http://www.w3.org/Style/Examples/007/alternatives (note that this site also has alternate styles available) PHP could be used to define the default style sheet on a per user/application setting basis... stephan The only problem relying only on this method is that not all browsers are compatible with it, and of those that are, none remember the choice a user makes from page to page, so they'd have to reselect it upon each page visit yes, it can't be relied on it. I made the primary method for configuring the theme an user setting in the application. This setting is very easy to implement as it just defines the theme that is shown first and without 'alternate' attribute in each page header (unaware browsers will take this too as its the standard syntax). All other themes are then added in a row with the 'alternate' attribute set. So that all themes available in the program are always advertized to the browser. The goody is that users can quickly change the theme if they feel a need to do so right in the heat of the moment. It wont permanently modify their setting. Its perfect to just try themes at any place in the application or to do something specific with a different theme... the page doesn't reload (in firefox), so one can even change the theme in the middle of filling a form... very flexible. As far as I've seen unaware browsers just ignore the 'alternate' lines, so there's no harm. stephan -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] php selecting multiple stylesheets
Hello Everyone, Thank you for the various positions and suggestions. I'm going for either cookies or sessions, your examples have given me much to check. For this situation I should probably have mentioned I need to keep this as simple as possible, so features like a user login system and cms i'd prefer to avoid for these circumstances. I am going to implement browser detection as my user's will use both firefox and IE probably ie6 through 8. For firefox you can use view, page style to switch stylesheets, but in ie if there's no drop down box or links on the page for switching styles it can't do it, is that correct? Thank you all, i'm going to look at the many links sent and keep at this until i get it. Dave. -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
[PHP] php selecting multiple stylesheets
Hello, I'm trying to set up a web site. This site has multiple stylesheets, one default stylesheet that should be used if the other is not chosen. The second is a high contrast stylesheet and can be selected by user's who need it. I'm also thinking of adding two more for smaller and larger font selections. My issue is I want the high contrast sheet to be used on all subsequent pages and on subsequent visits to the site by user's who have selected it. I thought of using php with this and cookies. I'm using php5 and would appreciate any suggestions, googling has shown some examples, but none are working. Thanks. Dave. -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] php selecting multiple stylesheets
On Sun, Feb 07, 2010 at 11:20:18PM -0500, David Mehler wrote: Hello, I'm trying to set up a web site. This site has multiple stylesheets, one default stylesheet that should be used if the other is not chosen. The second is a high contrast stylesheet and can be selected by user's who need it. I'm also thinking of adding two more for smaller and larger font selections. My issue is I want the high contrast sheet to be used on all subsequent pages and on subsequent visits to the site by user's who have selected it. I thought of using php with this and cookies. I'm using php5 and would appreciate any suggestions, googling has shown some examples, but none are working. Thanks. Dave. There are two main PHP-centric solutions to this. First is cookies (as you described) and the second is using the $_SESSION global array. Doing this is relatively straightforward, so if it's not working for you, I see two possibilities: 1) You're not actually doing it right. 2) The users isn't pressing the Reload button after selecting the stylesheet. (My experience has been that simply redisplaying a page will not clear the cached CSS styles for that page. You must hit the Reload button. In fact, in some cases, like offices with caching webservers or proxies, an admin will have to be called in to clear the cache on the proxy/server as well.) You should be able to do something like this (I'm using SESSION variables because cookies are more complicated): ?php // Top of page session_start(); if ($_SESSION['stylesheet'] == 'enlarged_print') $css = 'enlarged_print.css'; else ... ? html ... link href=?php echo $css; ? rel=stylesheet type=text/css/ ... /html Paul -- Paul M. Foster -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] php selecting multiple stylesheets
You could use PHP and cookies (session variables are only useful until the browser is closed, so it's not as persistant as it sounds like you may want). You could also have a system where users log in and they can save their preferences on their user account settings. What you may also look into is using Javascript (which can also set and retrieve cookies) and with a good Javascript library like jQuery, it should be relatively easy to dynamically switch style sheets. Here's an example of a jQuery based stylesheet switcher: http://www.kelvinluck.com/assets/jquery/styleswitch/toggle.html Click the styles1, styles2 and styles3 links. Also, there are JS scripts for adjusting font size, so you may not need a completely different stylesheet. But it would mean having well designed HTML that will scale nicely with the font change. Or you could just have a different stylesheet, as you mentioned, so you know it will look exactly how you want. You can see an example of a font size JS here: http://www.joomla-beez.com/ Keep clicking the links in the upper right and you can continue to increase or decrease the size quite a bit, not just one step. I know this is a PHP list but I think a client side script may work better in this case. -TG - Original Message - From: David Mehler dave.meh...@gmail.com To: php-general@lists.php.net Date: Sun, 7 Feb 2010 23:20:18 -0500 Subject: [PHP] php selecting multiple stylesheets Hello, I'm trying to set up a web site. This site has multiple stylesheets, one default stylesheet that should be used if the other is not chosen. The second is a high contrast stylesheet and can be selected by user's who need it. I'm also thinking of adding two more for smaller and larger font selections. My issue is I want the high contrast sheet to be used on all subsequent pages and on subsequent visits to the site by user's who have selected it. I thought of using php with this and cookies. I'm using php5 and would appreciate any suggestions, googling has shown some examples, but none are working. Thanks. Dave. -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
