When we heard that RSPCA Australia were looking to have their website redeveloped, we instantly knew that the project was for us (we both love animals: Jaymis actually has a pet, Cal’s apartment doesn’t allow for one).

Working very closely with the RSPCA Australia online team, we created a brand-new original layout, with a focus on cleanliness, readability and style. Navigation was constructed with a focus on simplicity and inherent findability.

All content is managed using the favourite MODx content management framework, which made deployment an absolute breeze.

I hope they help someone, somewhere, with a CSS problem.

So hence, some interesting/useful resources on the subject:

Get Images Attached to a Post: Requires functions.php hacking, gets attachments from the database, rather than through brute force search of the post content.

Get the first image from the wordpress post and display it: Requires some functions.php hacking, searches the actual post text, and has the advantage of getting the first actual image in the post, rather than the first image uploaded and associated with the post.

Simple Image Grabber Wordpress Plugin:

Also interesting: Related Posts with Thumbs plugin.

Working with a complex design, we constructed some of the best-looking html and css we’ve ever done. Sprinkled with some jQuery to drive the menus, and some other assorted delights, super sexy!

Mink runs using MODx which makes editing the pages a snap!

Norpoint is a specialist superannuation and consulting firm providing complete self managed superannuation fund (SMSF) solutions.

Oxygen Kiosk worked with our long-time design partner Alex Just Creative to implement this stylish website quickly.

Spectrum Worldwide approached Oxygen Kiosk and our design collaborator, Alex Just Creative, to provide them with an entirely new website as they were undergoing major changes within their business and needed their website to reflect this.

We worked with Alex to create what has been a fantastic success: the tired, table-based design has been replaced with valid xhtml and css, the content has been rewritten from the ground up, and importantly, the content management system has been replaced with the ultra-modern MODx that allows Spectrum Worldwide staff the flexibility they demand in posting new content to their site.

We are especially proud of their portfolio page which we constructed using a smattering of jQuery and other magic.

Hopefully, some of you will learn from my mistakes!

We worked closely with Angelika from North Sydney Yoga not only to implement the design (using the incredible MODx Content Management Framework) but also to help her and her team of yoga professionals learn how to utilise the web in new and exciting ways.

It’s understandable that this can happen. Plugins are generally designed to allow functionality without any template editing, and automatically including CSS and JS means that your plugin can look “right” to most users. However, we believe that plugins which include this kind of code should have “Developer Friendly” options, which allow you to turn off these includes and keep full control over how your site is styled.

A specific example: The PXS Mail Form plugin is a simple, light WP plugin which looks for code and replaces it with, yes, an email form. It’s getting rather old (last update was 2005), and there are mail form plugins with greater functionality, but PXS wins over the newer, flashier ones because of this simple feature:

It allows you to turn this extra CSS off.

Of course, a developer who’s smart enough to know they don’t want multiple lightbox.js versions embedded in their template or style declarations in their content is probably smart enough to also know how to hack it out of the plugin responsible, and we’ve done so on many occasions. This causes problems for upgrading though, we have to document these changes and remember to re-apply them whenever the plugin is upgraded, which makes more work for us, and more expense for our clients.

So, whenever we can, we try to use plugins which either don’t do these “unfriendly” things, or give us the option to disable them. So this is a list of plugins we’ve discovered which are Developer Friendly:

PXS Mail

Lippsinc Bridal is a new bridal entertainment booking company, run by Bondi resident and professional corporate dj Joseph Smith. Joseph approached Oxygen Kiosk after a recommendation from a friend - he wanted a new website to showcase the many acts he had on his books.

The new site is sexy - white and greys combine the wedding aesthetic with the modern, dance-music oriented vibe of his existing company, Lippsinc Entertainment.