Tools we can use to update/fix broken CSS and HTML?

ChancyRat

It's been a long time since I've posted here, but my love of my site is still going strong. However I know it's filled with poor or broken HTML and CSS. I'm at a loss as to how to fix it all, since I caused the problems to begin with by (a) not knowing any coding myself and (b) starting the site from scratch. I just started generating code by pulling in snippets from elsewhere and playing with it. Many of you over the years gave me great code content and also fixed code along the way. I think the problems inherent in the code now require a much more serious fix strategy.

I am still untrained in CSS and HTML, and given this, can anyone direct me to the right tools given the SM platform? A friend who doesn't know SM has told me to "start over" and refactor the code. She suggests React or Vue tools, She also asks if I could use Bootstrap or Google Material. I would appreciate SM experts plopping me into the right tools for the right job. Thanks.

ChancyRat

BTW, is it still the case that SM does not allow javascript?

Allen

No, javascript is not allowed.

Think I found your site. You'll have to be more specific where you see a problem.

ChancyRat

Hello Allen! Nice to "see" you again, so glad you are still here and active. At the moment I can't pinpoint anything broken.* But my site is a hodgepodge of primitive HTML before CSS came into focus (in my brain, anyway), and then CSS in some blocks on some pages, and then some CSS in the main core Customization code for all pages (when there ought to be a lot more, so that CSS isn't sprinkled unevenly through individual pages), and then some attempts at focusing on CSS as much as possible in some galleries, and then someone telling me to code for HTML 5, and then I don't have any scaling capability for mobile use. The last time I asked for help on something (and I can't find that in dgrin at the moment), a comment came back that my code in general is very broken. So all in all I assume my site needs a drastic overhaul at the core of it, rather than superficial fixes for spot problems. Make sense?

(The reason I asked about JS is because the on-line tools I see all appear to require it, including Vue, Bootstrap, and React. Is there an on-line tool that will help ID and fix problems when I can't input JS?)

You were such a help years ago, Allen! I can't thank you enough for that.

*This isn't precisely accurate. There are a bunch of things SM has evolved over the last few years that made changes I don't want (and I will ask about them individually at some point), but these are separate from the more foundation-code-level issues I'm wanting to address now.

Hikin' Mike

@ChancyRat said:
... SM has told me to "start over" ...

Good idea.

She suggests React or Vue tools, She also asks if I could use Bootstrap or Google Material.

None of those tools are available in SM. Just the tools from SM.

ChancyRat

@Hikin' Mike said:

@ChancyRat said:
... SM has told me to "start over" ...

Good idea.

She suggests React or Vue tools, She also asks if I could use Bootstrap or Google Material.

None of those tools are available in SM. Just the tools from SM.

Hi, Mike, another old "face"! Nice to see you. It was not SM who told me to start over, it was a sort-of friend who doesn't know SM's system.
So when I ask whether there's an external tool (and I understand React, etc., are not workable), I mean, is there an external tool to use where JS or the lack thereof won't interfere with plugging in my CSS and HTML for a given page or block, and then see what's broken? I recall using something like this at one point.... problem code would turn red ...

Hikin' Mike

Well, I use 'Visual Studio Code' to code HTML/CSS, so I guess you can call that an external tool. Visual Studio is basically a glorified text editor, like Notepad, Notepad++ etc. There are no plugins for SmugMug.

If you're having lots of issues now, it's probably a good idea to start over.