Speed up RapidWeaver sites and reduce the delay between your page loads, minimizing browser requests and enhancing your user's web experience. Create fluid and smooth transition between your website's pages, speed up your sites and lower bandwidth without changing anything on the server.

NOTE: I have yet to test this stack in the wild.
* Text is 98% Yuzool original copy.

Some years ago, I purchased ourGlass from One Little Designer. This was some time before Foundation came along with integrated page loaders. I used ourGlass exactly once. I wasn't impressed by it. 1LD obviously became dissatisfied with ourGlass too because it has just been replaced with Loaderz.

Loaderz is a completely different kettle of fish. It is simple to use, flexible, versatile and comes with 10 different animated loaders.
Flexible? A page loader appears when a page is loading and disappears when it's ready for viewing, right?
Well Loaderz is different. It can, of course, be set up to do exactly what you'd expect it to do, i.e. the above. But what if you've got a video banner on the page that takes an extra second or two to actually play the video? With Loaderz, you can set the length of time that the loading animation should be displayed.

Or let's say that you have a video on your page that's set to display when the page is scrolled down, or a stack that connects with a database and takes some time to load…
… drop Loaderz onto your page, drop your content into it and Loaderz will display an animation until the content has loaded.


Stack settings

Testing – Load Forever (useful for the setup process)
Hide On – Page Load, After Set Time
Position – Fixed, Inline (Wraps Content)
Z-Index – Couldn't count the default number of 0s!
Background – Off, Colour, Gradient, Image
Padding
Opacity
Show Loading Text
Loader Type – 10 animation options – the screenshot above displays 'Android Material' and 'Rotating Circle With Image' You can add your own image, or logo.
Size – Loader Height in px
Max Width – Loader Width in %
Colours – 1,2 and 3
Percentage – Percentage Of Inner Circle

Loaderz is a great option for both page and content loader animations. It is highly configurable and you're likely to see it on one of my next sites.

A few days ago, Joe Workman 'finally' released the videos recorded at the Weaver's Space Conference. The conference took place between September 1st and 3rd and many people, both participants and non participants have been impatiently awaiting the video's release and I've just been able to review them.

This year's conference was as big a success as that from 2016, with many compelling talks on subjects that will interest all RapidWeavers. Don't worry if, like myself, you were unable to visit the conference, you can still get access to the sessions by visiting the conference website.

I just took a look at the 2017 videos and I must say that I'm glad I did. They present a thousand kilos• of valuable information.
So let's take a look at what you'll be getting if you subscribe…

I was a little surprised that the videos aren't presented in chronological order, but that doesn't reduce their value. Here, in the order that they took place, is what I saw.

Day One

Creative Insights With Nick Cates. Nick has some of the cleanest RW themes on the market and during this session he explains how he goes about designing a website and why his sites are so effective. The key to a great site, as we all know, is its presentation and Nick explains how to grab (and hold) a visitors attention.
Of course, Nick couldn't get through the session without plugging Cartloom and used it for many examples, but hey! The Cartloom site is a great, effective site.
Nick also demonstrates three other sites and explains in detail why they are presented the way they are. Watch and learn.

Stacks: Novice To Pro With Isaiah Carew. You work with Isaiah's Stacks regularly, but do you really know how to get the most out of them. On the forums, we often hear how slow RW is. In this session Isaiah demonstrates what is slowing you down, why it happens and – most importantly – how to cure the problem. I assure you that I've already begun to follow his advice and even JW got to learn something new! Watch and learn.

A To Z Of Building Forms With Joe Workman. Joe's session is aimed primarily at Foundation users and he explains in detail how to build effective forms. I've observed myself, that a number of Foundation users don't really lay their forms out, but simply drag the form fields one below the other. Joe not only addresses this shortcoming, but then goes on to explain each of the form stacks in detail. And at the end of the session, there's a 'Geheimtip' a secret tip just for the conference visitors. Watch and learn.

SEO And Meta Data With Brett Carmichael. Brett begins his session by explaining the ins and outs of SSL and just how it will affect all Weavers in the very near future. He then goes on to give you detailed instructions for adding Meta Data to your site. Learn how to leverage the power of not only Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. but also Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. If you're not an SEO expert, get ready to take notes and take screenshots of this session. Watch and learn.

Day Two

Artful Web Design With Elizabeth Martinez. If you regularly visit the Weaver's Space, or take part in the weekly hangouts, you'll have encountered Elizabeth. If you've ever followed the links to the websites that she builds, you'll have been struck by how beautifully designed they are. Elizabeth's websites really are works of art. But not only do they look great, they are also extremely functional. Follow Elizabeth's session and learn the thought process behind her sites. Watch and learn.

Modern Web Imagery With Greg Barchard. We all know Greg from Chillidog. Chillidog supplies Weavers with Plugins, Stacks and hosting that is aimed especially at RW sites. Greg is also a great source of information for all things regarding servers. Specifically IP Servers. Probably the one thing that slows down the delivery of our websites is image content. Greg takes a look at how to reduce image size and how to deliver your images faster, he also previews a new stack. Watch and learn.

Design Every Element With Marten Claridge. We all know Marten. He provides Weavers with creative stacks and is the man behind StackCentral – a list of all stacks and stack developers – the place to go, if you're looking for something specific. Marten is also a gifted web designer. During his session Marten explains why the attention to detail is so important. The session is slow to take off, because Marten actually builds a complete webpage with you. But hang in there – the resulting page is amazing! Watch and learn.

Forms With MachForms With Dave Hidding. Dave's is a very specialised topic. Forms. Intricate forms. Weavers have a number of options for creating detailed forms, but sometimes those options are just not sufficient. If you need something more complicated, then you'll need an external solution. Dave demonstrates how to use and implement MachForms. Watch and learn.

Building an Online Course With Mathew Mitchell. Mathew's is also a very specialised session. During the session Mathew explains which applications he uses for his educational web content and how he makes his sites available the specific students taking part in the courses. He also goes into detail about how he structures his courses and – most importantly – why he structures them the way he does. Watch and learn.

Day Three

Common Sense & Pragmatism Andrew Tavernor. Andrew is probably the most pragmatic person that I know. Do you design your website with your user in mind, or do you just open up RW and begin piecing pages together? Andrew's session helps us to understand our visitors, how they approach a web interface (or life in general) and how to cater for said users. If you really want to target your audience, get ready to take notes! Watch and learn.

Managing Project Resources With Paul Russam. Paul's websites will always grab your attention and this is because Paul pays great attention to detail – not only to his websites, but also to his data structure. I have seen a great number of computer users that fill their desktop with files. Some even use the waste basket to store files. Paul gives just as much attention to the structure of his RW projects as he does to their presentation. In this session he demonstrates the tools he uses to manage a project so that each single file may easily be found. Watch and learn.

Professional Client's Areas With Jon Hawkins. Besides its developer, Jon is possibly the person that knows Total CMS better than anyone else on this planet. CMS isn't just about editing a web page's content, it's also about content accessibility. In this session Jon demonstrates how he creates the user interfaces that allow his clients to interact with their sites. Get ready to be amazed. Watch and learn.

Stacks: Pro to Developer With Isaiah Carew. At some point every Weaver has asked her/himself if it's possible to build the stack that does exactly what she/he wants. In this session Isaiah demonstrates just how easy it could be for those that have an even limited understanding of CSS/HTML. Isaiah takes apart an existing stack for us and explains each of its components. He then goes on to change the stack's function and turn it into a completely new stack. Watch and learn.

Email Design With Joe Workman. For years people have wanted to design email newsletters with RapidWeaver. Joe workman's suite of Email stacks now makes the creation of newsletters within RW possible. In this session, Joe takes a look at all of the Email stacks and gives numerous valuable tips for creating the perfect email with your favourite application. A Specialised Topic? Only suitable for Business Mails? Absolutely not! What about those emails that you send out to family and friends at Christmas and Thanksgiving, Dhu'l-Hijjah, or Songkran, etc.? Watch and learn.

Each of the video sessions is around 45 minutes in length and each is guaranteed to give you valuable tips that will either speed up your work process within RapidWeaver, help get your message across to your website visitors more effectively, or give you deeper understanding of what's going on (or what should be going on) behind the scenes.

Back in February, 2015, I compared five sets of stacks that allowed time-based publishing with RapidWeaver. One of the best of those stacks was Advanced Publisher from Tsooj Media. Advanced Publisher is now even better than before. It has been rewritten and improved by Will Woodgate and has been housed within the S4S stables.

You've prepared an article that you don't wish to appear until August 25th, or you have a special promotion that is only available between September and November and only during business hours. Or maybe you have student's examination results, or study material that should only be available to a specific student, or group of students…

Advanced Publisher from Stacks4Stacks is a suite of five PHP based stacks which will allow you to publish time sensitive content at specific times, or when a URL query is fulfilled.
Because AP is PHP based your content will never be loaded unnecessarily. It will never appear within your code until it is requested. This means that advanced users and hackers can not view your unpublished content until the defined time range has been reached, or the specific URL query has been requested.
The inclusion of the AP Secret stack gives you the option of supplying unique content to unique visitors. You can also create your own tabbed content using AP Secret, to ensure that your pages load faster.

Stack settings

A single Advanced Publisher Base stack must be present on the page containing your AP content, preferably above the other AP stacks. The AP Base stack allows you to set the time zone that your scheduled data will appear in. The time zone can be set to 'Webserver', 'Predefined' or 'Custom'. Predefined gives you a choice of locations from each time zone around the world – including the half and quarter hour steps of some locations. If you choose custom, you can enter the zone manually, e.g. Asia/Kathmandu.

The AP Base Stack can refresh the pages content every n minutes and also has options to display or hide the preview in RapidWeaver and to display the publishing details so that there will be no surprises if you'd forgotten that a previous promotion, or article was on your page. It's interesting to note that the publishing details also include the server's PHP version.

The AP Days Stack is for stacks that you wish to be displayed on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; Mondays to Fridays, or Fridays to Mondays, for instance. The settings panel contains checkboxes for the days of the week that content is to be published on.

AP Days also has a choice of settings to publish content on Even Days, Odd Days, the First Day of the Month, Last Day of the Month, Month Days (with settings for up to four separate days), Particular Month Days (with settings for the range of days) and, as with all of the Advanced Publisher Content stacks, an option to display alternative content outside of the publishing dates.

The AP Time Stack supplies the options for your publishing timeframe. This can be set to
Full Date. Full Date can be set to Display: Not Until (Start Date), Between and Only Before, With a Date and Time Range for each of those settings.
Repeatable Date has the same settings.
Hours and Minutes also has the above settings, but is restricted to a Time Range
Months also shares the above settings, but is restricted to months.

The AP Weeks Stack will allow you to publish content during different weeks. You may choose Odd Weeks, Even Weeks, Week(s) with options for up to four different weeks, Weeks (Not Until), Weeks (Between) and Weeks (Not Before).

The AP Secret Stack will allow you to publish stacks that are only accessible when a URL query is fulfilled. This means that you may either add a specific link to your page to display your hidden content, or you could give your user a page link to access specific content within your page.
The stack settings allow you to define a Secret Key and a Secret Value. Only when both are contained within the URL e.g. ["?secret_key=secret_value"], will your content be revealed.

Note: AP stacks can be nested to further refine your publishing dates. Hence, if you wish your content to appear during weeks 32 and 33, but only between the hours of 9–5, you can carefully nest your AP stacks to fulfil this wish.

Advanced Publisher 4 has been greatly improved over the previous version. Everything that was missing in version 3 has now been added. As Will himself says: It's like having a personal assistant for your website!

No, no, don't get me wrong; RapidWeaver isn't finished – not by a long shot. I mean the S4S stack, Curtains. Originally developed as Fancy Image by Tsooj Media, Curtains has now been rewritten by Will Woodgate and released as a free stack.
However, that is not to say that Fancy Intro is going away; it will be appearing on the S4S site soon with many new features.
LorumUtility is also a Tsooj Media stack that has been reworked and is now clothed as an S4S stack. Read more below.

Curtains is an animated splash screen for your more informal site. As you can see below, upon loading the site an overlay appears which will slide out of view to reveal the page below.

Curtains is simple to use, but first you'll need a suitable image – so off you trot to Photoshop, or your favourite image editor and divide your image into two halves.
In Photoshop this is simple – drag a vertical guide into your image and you'll find that it will magnetically anchor itself to the centre of the image when it arrives there.
Hit 'C' for crop and crop the either the left, or the right half with the help of the guide. Save the cropped half and undo the last action – repeat the process for the second half.
When saving, set the jpg compression to around 4, or 5, then drag the images onto ImageOptim, JPEGmini etc, to further reduce the size.

You are now ready to drag Curtains into your Stacks page. Drop it at the top of your page so that it can load as the first stack. Now drag the left and right 'drapes' that you just created into the image wells and you're finished. Or not quite…
… In the stack's container, you'll see an intro text. Replace the text with your own greeting.

Stack settings
Start Delay sets the time that the splash screen will be displayed before the Headline fades and the curtains open.|
Fade Speed and Slide Speed can be set independently.
Cookie Expiration. It's often annoying to see the same animation every time you return to a website. Cookie Expiration can be set to n days (default), or changed to hours, preventing Curtains from reappearing during the defined period of time.
Asynchronous Mode. If async is set, the Curtains script is executed asynchronously with the rest of the page, i.e. the script will be executed while the page continues the parsing. If async is not set, the Curtains script will be executed when the page has finished parsing.
Overlay Style. The default setting is CSS Gradient. The Options are Dragged and Dropped, or Warehoused images.
Tile Images to Fill Drape. If your images are smaller than the page, they may be tiled.
Text Colour, Text Shadow Text Size, Bold Curtain Text and Italicised Curtain Text are all self explanatory.
Curtain Shadow is activated by default.

Now you're set to go!
Why the Curtains Icon is a shower head, I can't say, but Curtains is a free stack and you don't look gift horses in the mouth!
You can watch the animation above again by reloading the page.

Now for something entirely different…
You may (or may not) have wondered about the dummy text in the animation above. I'm going to tell you about it anyway!

LorumUtility
When building a new website, whether for yourself, or for a client, it's an advantage to be able to see what the layout will look like when filled with various text formatting and images. LorumUtility will assist you by quickly adding dummy content to your page.
Now, as every standard text, or paragraph stack already contains some form of Ipsum text, I asked myself why on earth I would need a stack that does exactly the same, but is otherwise useless?

Because LorumUtility is extremely versatile.
When you drag LorumUtility onto a Stacks page, you will simply see the word 'Paragraphs' in edit mode and when you switch to preview, you will find five paragraphs of the standard and complete Lorum Ipsum text (seldom beginning with 'Lorum Ipsum').
You can choose between 14 Ipsum Dictionaries, ranging from Bacon Ipsum to Yorkshire Ipsum. Cockney Ipsum is sadly missing, but here's Cupcake Ipsum:

Marzipan halvah caramels carrot cake sugar plum bear claw chocolate bar jujubes croissant pie liquorice macaroon sweet roll brownie dessert tootsie roll icing pastry muffin fruitcake tart donut cheesecake candy canes oat cake gummies soufflé dragée tiramisu gummi bears topping sweet cookie lemon drops caramel corn pudding apple pie powder biscuit danish chocolate cake candy ice cream toffee jelly wafer jelly-o cake chupa chups jelly beans gingerbread sesame snaps cotton candy lollipop cupcake applecake chocolate bonbon marshmallow soufflé apple pie sweet caramels brownie sugar plum biscuit bear claw cupcake danish applecake cake caramel corn tart lollipop marzipan!

But LorumUtility doesn't stop here. It doesn't just allow you to add n number of Paragraphs, but also Blockquotes, Headers, Images (CSS and Photos), Ordered and Unordered Lists, a Paragraph with n words, a Sentence with n words, or n number of words without punctuation.

LorumUtility Formatting will allow you to set the Colour Definition, Font Definition – Inherited, or Custom, Font Size, Paragraphing – Size; Inherited, or Custom and the Text Alignment.

If you are pressed for time and need to demonstrate a new website layout, LorumUtility will allow you to do so speedily and efficiently. You can effortlessly generate a variety of different content elements, with the option to either use the styling inherited from your RapidWeaver theme, or experiment with custom styling applied to the written content. There is no limit to the number of LoremUtility stacks that can be used on the same webpage.
The Javascript that generates the text will load a different wording from your chosen dictionary every time the page is reloaded.