One of the website that I love is facebook. I’m not talking about the social network, well I like this social network, but I prefer twitter and linkedin for “professional use”, but this is another question, because I’m talking about the design.:)

The use of web 2.0 effects and Ajax make this web site on of my favourites.

With this tutorial I will explain you how to create a message mail system like Facebook.

For make this we need to create some files.

1. The index file with the mail form.

2.The mail.php file that process the form and send the mail, using the simple function mail() of php.

3.A css file .

4.Jquery, naturally.

5.An other Javascript, called Ajax.js, to interact with ajax, php and jquery.

Surely you can put all in one file, but, for a better understanding and to have a clean code, I prefer to use different files for each one.

Well first of all you can see a demo of this page here, for logical reason I’ve deleted my mail from the source code, / you can use your mail to test the script) this is the only thing that you need to change before use the source code, the rest is ready for use.

OK, start with this tutorial.  First we need to create the form page and link to this page the jquery and ajax,js script, so this is the code :

<div>
<div id=”response”>

</div>
<form id=”formail” action=”" method =”post”>
<label>Name : </label>
<input type=”text” name=”name” id=”name” />
<label>Your mail :</label>
<input type=”text” name=”mail” id=”mail” />
<label>Subject : </label>
<input type=”text” name=”subject” id=”subject” />
<label>Text :</label>
<textarea name=”text” id=”text” cols=”40″ rows=”10″></textarea>
<input type=”submit” value=”send mail” id=”sendmail” name=”sendmail” />
</form>
</div>

</div>

The div called response, will be util for the validation and the text message after send the mail( or to get the error if the mail script doesn’t work), this div is really important don’t forget this.

Now we need to style this, you can style the form as you want, but the only important thing is that the div response must be in display none :

#response{display:none;}

Is better if you style this and the form, it will look more pretty this is the complete css that I’ve used :

body{
background: #E7E7DC;
font-size: 13px;
font-family: arial;
}
#wrap{
width: 800px;
background: white;
margin: auto;
padding: 10px;
}
#wrap h1{
padding: 10px;
border: 1px solid #ccc;
background: #f8f8f8;
}
.mail{
width:500px;
margin:auto;
}
#formail{
width: 500px;
margin: auto;
}
#formail label{
display: block;
margin: 10px 0;
}
#text{
background: #f8f8f8;
}
#sendmail{
margin-top: 20px;
display: block;
}
#response{
display: none;
border: 1px solid #ccc;
background: #FFFFA0;
padding: 10px;
width: 450px;
}

This is the style of the page, now it comes the nice part, the php and the ajax, this will be funny! Let’s go and create the mail.php page, with this code :

<?php
$mail = $_POST['mail'];
$name = $_POST['name'];
$subject = $_POST['subject'];
$text = $_POST['text'];

$to = “yourmail@domain.com”;
$message =” You received  a mail from “.$mail;
$message .=” Text of the message : “.$text;

if(mail($to, $subject,$message)){
echo “mail successful send”;
}
else{
echo “there’s some errors to send the mail, verify your server options”;
}
?>

Ok, let me explain this:

Firs I create the variables that will contain the froms data values :

$mail = $_POST['mail'];
$name = $_POST['name'];
$subject = $_POST['subject'];
$text = $_POST['text'];

With the variable $to, I store the mail where I want that the mail will be sended( my mail), this is the only thing that you must change to make works the script.

The $message variable get  the mail and the text of the sender, and put in the body of the mail message.

Finally , with tha mail() function from php I send the mail. I’ve used an if because, if the mail doesn’t work you will know.

The mail function is really simple and accept some parameters, the mail where send, the subject and the message of the mail.

You can read all from the official page of php.

Now is the time of the ajax.js. This is the complete code :

$(document).ready(function(){
$(“#sendmail”).click(function(){
var valid = ”;
var isr = ‘ is required.’;
var name = $(“#name”).val();
var mail = $(“#mail”).val();
var subject = $(“#subject”).val();
var text = $(“#text”).val();
if (name.length<1) {
valid += ‘<br />Name’+isr;
}
if (!mail.match(/^([a-z0-9._-]+@[a-z0-9._-]+\.[a-z]{2,4}$)/i)) {
valid += ‘<br />A valid Email’+isr;
}
if (subject.length<1) {
valid += ‘<br />Subject’+isr;
}
if (text.length<1) {
valid += ‘<br />Text’+isr;
}
if (valid!=”) {
$(“#response”).fadeIn(“slow”);
$(“#response”).html(“Error:”+valid);
}
else {
var datastr =’name=’ + name + ‘&mail=’ + mail + ‘&subject=’ + subject + ‘&text=’ + text;
$(“#response”).css(“display”, “block”);
$(“#response”).html(“Sending message …. “);
$(“#response”).fadeIn(“slow”);
setTimeout(“send(‘”+datastr+”‘)”,2000);
}
return false;
});
});
function send(datastr){
$.ajax({
type: “POST”,
url: “mail.php”,
data: datastr,
cache: false,
success: function(html){
$(“#response”).fadeIn(“slow”);
$(“#response”).html(html);
setTimeout(‘$(“#response”).fadeOut(“slow”)’,2000);
}
});
}

What i’ve done? let me explain :

I suppose that you know the $(document).ready function of jquery, I’ve explained in the previous tutorial, create an animated menu with jquery.

When #sendmail, the submit button of the form,  is clicked will start the validation of the form, this is important try always to validate your forms, expecially for the breakballs(usually called spammer…), so the first part of the script validate the form and if on of the input value is under 0 this will stop the script and return an error like in this image

the text that appears is stored in the #response div, for this reason I said that is important and not only for this.

var valid = ”;
var isr = ‘ is required.’;
var name = $(“#name”).val();
var mail = $(“#mail”).val();
var subject = $(“#subject”).val();
var text = $(“#text”).val();
if (name.length<1) {
valid += ‘<br />Name’+isr;
}
if (!mail.match(/^([a-z0-9._-]+@[a-z0-9._-]+\.[a-z]{2,4}$)/i)) {
valid += ‘<br />A valid Email’+isr;
}
if (subject.length<1) {
valid += ‘<br />Subject’+isr;
}
if (text.length<1) {
valid += ‘<br />Text’+isr;
}

To validate the mail, I’ve used a regular expression( thanks to Juan Carlos )

if (!mail.match(/^([a-z0-9._-]+@[a-z0-9._-]+\.[a-z]{2,4}$)/i))

if you try to write 2 mail addres, this will not works, or if you use white space in the mail field the validation will stop the script. You can try simply leaving white the various fields to understand how it works. All of the error in the validation will appears in the response div, that will appear with a fadeIn effect.

if (valid!=”) {
$(“#response”).fadeIn(“slow”);
$(“#response”).html(“Error:”+valid);
}

The second part of the script is for create the datastr variable, that will store the value from the form and send in the ajax request, and make appear again the #response div, yes how I said is important ejejeje, like the facebook style, that say that the message is sending.

else {
var datastr =’name=’ + name + ‘&mail=’ + mail + ‘&subject=’ + subject + ‘&text=’ + text;
$(“#response”).css(“display”, “block”);
$(“#response”).html(“Sending message …. “);
$(“#response”).fadeIn(“slow”);
setTimeout(“send(‘”+datastr+”‘)”,2000);
}

In the final  part I’ve used a “return false“, so when you click on the submit button this doesn’t do nothing, well it seems that the button doesn’t do nothing, but the reason ts that the rest of the work is done by ajax and the function send :

function send(datastr){
$.ajax({
type: “POST”,
url: “mail.php”,
data: datastr,
cache: false,
success: function(html){
$(“#response”).fadeIn(“slow”);
$(“#response”).html(html);
setTimeout(‘$(“#response”).fadeOut(“slow”)’,4000);
}
});
}

This is the “core” of the script, this will call the $.ajax function of Jquery, give it the parameters and call the mail.php file, finally get the response of the mail.php, and return this in the response div, and after 4 seconds the text fade out.

This script is inspired ,how I said, from facebook message system and it works at the same way, you can use on your own and change or modify the source code.

Demo of the script

Download directly the script.
I hope is useful , you can use the comments and let me know what do you thing.

If you know something to improve the script, let me know pls.

Bye !!

Another amazing effect used today in the web 2.0 is the text reflected, another classical sign of a 2.0 web graphic. Usually is used in the logos design, but not only.

I will show you how to do this effect in few simple steps with photoshop. First of all, after opened the program, create a new document 500*300 of dimension and blank background. Choose the Type toll and write your text, for this example I’ve used Georgia like font and a dimension of 48pixels, but you can do this in the way that you prefer. The image now is something like this :

text reflection with photoshop

Duplicate the text level, you can do this from the level menu – duplicate layer or directly from the layers windows, right click on the layer and choose duplicate. With the new duplicated layer selected go to the edit menu and choose – transform -flip vertical, and drag down the level (with the move tool ) until the down limit of the first level, like this image :

duplicat level and drag down

Add a layer mask to the duplicated level , clicking on the 3º button from the left, down in the layers window.

add a layer mask

Now choose the gradient tool, and in the palette color choose black to white and trace a vertical line that start from the lower point of the duplicated level until the start of the text of the original level, look the image to understand what I want to say :

gradient tool

The results will be this

And finally low the opacity of the layer to 30% and that’s all!

The text reflection is ready. This effect is applied to the photoshop fire text tutorial, in the final part to make the reflection.
Hasta Luego!

Well … after the tutorial to make fire text with photoshop, In this tutorial I’ll show you how to make a badge with Photoshop.

The are is a tipical graphic elements of the web 2.0, a lots of site use the badge. Usually I see that are used a lots in the Header of the pages, some in the logos, with reflection text, anyway, this give to your website a little touch of 2.0.

If you don’t want to make your own badge but you want something like “download and use”, you can download a fantastic badge sets, psd source included, from Dezinerfolio, a great blog with a lots of free resource, one of my favorite blog.

Open Photoshop and create a a new document 300*300 px with blank background.

From the Tools Palette, choose the Polygon tool, and use these settings :

badge 2.0

Now draw the badge usig #dc0b0b like first color now you have this :

badge

Now go to blending options (right click on the layer in the layers window) and use these settings :

Drop shadow opacity 50% , distance 5 spread 0 size 15

Bevel and emboss size 2 soften 0 direction up

stroke size 5 position inside color #FFFFFF

And this should the result :

badge settings

Now we need to create the blur on the top of the badge. With the elliptical marquee tool, make a selection in the top left corner of the badge and create a new layer from the layer menu :

Switch the main color to white and select the gradient tools and from the gradient color menu choose foreground to transparent and trace a line from the top left corner to the bottom right corner of the badge, after deselect all, ctrl +d and apple+d in mac, go to the layers window and low the opacity to 35% and fill to 75%, this should be the results :

badge

Finally you can personalize the badge on your way :

badge 2.0 with photoshop

Enjoy!

With this tutorial I want to show you how to create a text on fire using photoshop. First of all open your photoshop and create a new document 400 *400 pixel. with a black background and white text on. I’ve used the fonts Impact and a font size of 36px , but you can use another fonts or dimension. ok let’s go now and create the fire text!

Write your text using white color for the text.

text on fire

Now duplicate the text layer from the menu layer – duplicate layer. Now go on the level window and deselect the original layer, so we can see only the new duplicated layer, like this :

hide original text layer

Now go on layer menu and select : merge visible, so we will have only two layers, the original text and another layer from the background and the copied layer, this last is the layer were we will work on.

merge visible layer

Now rotate the canvas using the menu : Image – image rotation – 90 º CCW.

rotate canvas

Now is time to use the Photoshop filters. Go to Filter -Stylize – Wind and apply this settings :

wind filter photoshop

Reapply the filter another 2 times, with ctrl+f or command +f if you are using a Mac, until you will have an image like this :

the wind filter

Now rotate again the image, on 90º CW to reput the text on original position and apply the Filter blur – Gaussian blur with a radius of 1.5, or more it depend how do you want the fire effect), here the settings of the blur filter :

blur filter settings

Apply this filter another time and we have this image :

blur filter photoshop

Now it’s coming the more personalized part .. So we’re going to use the liquify Filter, the results depend on your “hands” , this effect is to make the Flames, so use the filter at better, you can learn something about this filter at this links. This is my image with the flames.

flames

Now go to the menu : image – Hue/Saturation and apply this settings (remember to click on colorize):

hue settings

The results will be something like this :

text fire hue settings

Now duplicate the level and , in the new level, reapply the HUE/SATURATION but this time without click on colorize and use these settings :

hue/saturation

Now with this new level selected go in the window levels and choose , from the select menu,Color Dodge (always with the background copy selected).

merge levels

You will have an images like this

fire

Now show the original text layer, and go to blending options ( right click directly form the layer window and choose blending options), and apply a gradient (I’ve used grey to black) and outer glow and inner glow, better if you use yellow like color for this last inner and outglow. Finally you will have something like this :

fire text photoshop

And this is the fire text!

But we can do something better now. We can make this text more web 2.0, adding some nice effect used today in web 2.0.

For example a reflection and create something like this :

fire text 2.0

On the next tutorial I will explain how to create this reflection effects.

Hasta Luego!