Welcome to mixKylie...
mixKylie started life as a small section of my personal website and has since grown
to be the most comprehensive source of information about Kylie's music on the web.
Although mixKylie has been designed to be user friendly, there are a number
of features of the site that you can learn more about here.
Navigation
Navigation around the site is controlled mainly using the navigation panel on the left
of each page. In addition, each page allows you to go 'up' through the sections via the links
at the top of each page and another collection of links to the various sections and pages
appears at the bottom of each page. You can also search the site using the search box
available on every page or the advanced search features available on the search page.
mixKylie Registration and Options
Some advanced features of mixKylie are only available to registered users. It is
free, quick and easy to register and, once logged in, you can not only
access features such as the customisable complete mix list (which
is only available to registered users), but also choose how to use/view the site.
In addition, you can post any information you have about particular releases or tracks on
the track/release information page (click the release or track name on the discography
or complete mix list pages).
Once logged in, you can visit the My Settings page to customise
your mixKylie experience. In addition, the updates panel on the home page will only show
the site updates since your last visit. Please note that the site uses temporary cookies on
your computer to use these extra features.
Options available on the My Settings page include whether to always show details of the
last 5 or 10 updates to the site rather than just the updates since your last visit, whether
to show the submenus on the navigation bar and whether to widen pages if appropriate (see below).
You can also choose whether to login automatically on future visits (enabled by default).
In addition, the options panel on the home page allows you to choose whether
to show the intro page ('splash screen') on future visits. This feature is not dependent on registering
but does need cookies enabled in your browser.
Page Sizes
Although the pages on the site are fixed width, designed to be viewable at 800x600 resolution,
some pages would benefit from a higher resolution display. If the width of your screen if 1000
or above, you can view the Discography
and Complete Mix List pages at a wider width to view the information in a clearer format.
There are two ways to do this. Either:
- click the icon in the navigation bar to widen a particular page
- select the 'always widen pages if possible' option on the My Settings page - this will make
sure that relevant pages are always shown at the maximum size but does require you to be
a registered user of the site
Web Standards - XHTML and CSS
The site is fully compatible with the W3C XHTML 1.0 Transitional specification. This means
that it works as intended in any browser that supports the standard, such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla
and Opera.
The site makes extensive use of Cascading Style Sheets to provide its layout and
look-and-feel. They also allow the use of hidden menus such as those on the
Discography pages.
Most modern browsers now implement CSS, so you shouldn't have any problem viewing the site. If
your browser is not CSS compatible, you will still be able to view the site, but you will not see it as it is meant to look.
The typeface of choice is Tahoma. If you want to see the site exactly as it was created, you should
make sure you have this font installed.
Other Technologies
Other 'technologies' used on the site include PHP, MySQL, Javascript and RealOne.
PHP and MySQL power the new fully customisable Complete Mix List and
discography pages and work behind the scenes. However, to make
the most of the site you need to make sure that Javascript is enabled in your browser, and that
you have the RealOne Player installed. Download RealOne Player now!
(make sure you get the free version unless you want to pay!).
Javascript is an integral part of the site, enabling the use of dynamically changing
pages. For example, it is used:
- on the title page to provide the news ticker
- on the title page to give personalised site update information (see above)
- again, on the title page to disable the option above and always show the last 5 or 10 updates
- to allow wider page views on suitable monitors (see above)
- to provide interactive quizzes
- to present Kylie track information in the step back in time section
- to provide the 'skip intro page' feature (see title page)
- to provide the some aspects of the Complete Mix List (most is now handled by a combination of MySQL and PHP)
- to provide the open/close Quick Links lists on the Discography pages
- to provide the larger cover images on the Discography pages (click the small version to display a large version in a pop-up window)
- to provide the submenus on the navigation bar
RealOne is used to provide streaming sound/video clips:
Donations - Become a Gold Member!
Support mixKylie by donating £3 or more via PayPal and become a Gold member at the same time. More details here.
That's it, I think...!
I hope you enjoy your visit! Come back regularly for more updates.
Want to contact me? Use the contact form.
If you would like to link to mixKylie from your own Kylie-related site,
please feel free to
use the banner below (and link to http://www.mixkylie.co.uk)
