Replacing social sharing buttons with javascript-less alternatives

Social sharing widgets slow down page loading For every public facing site there comes the moment where its content has to be shared in social media. We all know the dreaded "Like" or "Tweet" buttons on many sites or blogs. They not only compete for the reader's attention but also for screen real estate and … Continue reading Replacing social sharing buttons with javascript-less alternatives →

On URL accuracy, versioning and the immutable-redirect pattern

So you have this requirements: serve content (might be a static file or a dynamic page) under a URL make it cacheable by defining appropriate HTTP expiration headers yet, the content might change - serve it under a new URL the old URLs should still be valid but show the new content In my current … Continue reading On URL accuracy, versioning and the immutable-redirect pattern →

Speeding up development by splitting a webapp into parts

I love tagfiles: they feature a well known syntax (EL from JSP), they allow for reusable UI components, they are well supported by my favourite IDE and, most importantly, modifications are instantly visible because the servlet container does not have to restart. At least in theory, because reality often looks different: after a few edits … Continue reading Speeding up development by splitting a webapp into parts →

HTTP: The importance of declaring non-cachable resources as such

It works fine with Chrome and it fails on an Android 2.3 browser - the page is performing an XmlHttpRequest to the server for a resource that just changed for sure and yet it gets back an older version. That's the result of a. the browser assuming a resource is cachable even if no Etag … Continue reading HTTP: The importance of declaring non-cachable resources as such →

Internet Explorer, zooming and resize events

My current project (cat4trad) for the European Parliament, which involves heavily GWT and javascript in bringing a seamless user experience to translators, we frequently run into issues with different browsers. The one I run into today was about a window resize event not being detected by IE8 and IE9. This simple test should always print … Continue reading Internet Explorer, zooming and resize events →