Boilerplates are usually very handy when starting new web projects as they provide an instant

HTML5 Bones is a boilerplate for HTML5-powered websites including the most-required stuff (normalize.css, html5shiv, etc.) in the markup.

Besides the markup, it is very well commented which works as a useful guide for anyone new into HTML5.

It simply shows the usage of HTML5 markup including header, section, article, footer and more (there is also an example of video as well).

Forward is a fresh e-commerce application (that is in the alpha stage) built with PHP and using MongoDB for storing data.

The application is free, open source and built with developers in mind makes with easy custom coding, powerful templates and expressive syntax.

It has a REST-like API for interacting with every feature from orders to customers or products.

Thanks to MongoDB, the capabilities of the store is not limited to the default database schema and it is a breeze to have new fields/structures for everything.

Design of the storefront can be changed with a powerful templating engine (Smarty 3) and the backend is built with Bootstrap.

We all know the iOS folder interface: “clicking a folder changing the opacity of other elements and displaying the contents inside a sliding element”.

App-Folders is a jQuery that mimics that behavior and works on both desktop + mobile browsers.

Folders can include any HTML element (images, text, video ,etc.) and each folder gets its own URL that makes direct-linking possible.

The look/feel doesn’t have to be iOS-like but it can be themed completely for creating attractive layouts (check demo).

Mobile_Detect is an open source PHP class for detecting mobile devices.

It uses the User-Agent string combined with various HTTP headers in order to detect the mobile environment.

The class can easily understand whether the platform is mobile, tablet or desktop.

Also, functions exist for detecting whether it is iPad, iPhone, Android, Blackberry, etc.

And, we can even drill-down to the versions of the platforms and browsers if needed.

It has a huge library of devices (including Nook, Nexus, Kindle, Archos..) and browsers for a stable detection.

Few weeks ago, EmailCraft, an e-mail/newsletter design and markup service, has contacted me asking whether their service can be reviewed at WRD.

I thought this was a chance to offer another nice freebie to WRD readers and try the service which I was aware of for a long time.

EmailCraft gifted their “Design & Markup” package (priced $178). I was also in need of a newsletter design for a project I was part of (ioDeck) and ordered a design-markup for it.

The brief was simple: “a slick newsletter to share any upcoming features with few screenshots and details”. The output is pretty nice, we’ll be using it regularly and want to share it considering you may want to as well. Here it is (click for full version):

The communication with the EmailCraft team was great and they created 2 different templates to choose from.

I selected the one above and requested few revisions. They were so responsive and quickly replied to the changes I asked for (all the process took only few days).

In the past, I have used PSD to HTML services and this was the first time for an e-mail markup service.

Imho, it makes so much sense as designing newsletters is a pain considering each e-mail client has its own rules and things are much worse compared to crafting HTML-CSS for websites (btw, the template above is compatible with all major e-mail clients/platforms).

P.S. The template is completely free to be used in personal and commercial projects with no attributions. It is only not allowed to redistribute the template.

SoundCloud is an awesome application with a huge music library and it has multiple ways for integrating any selected tracks to websites.

Stratus, a free-to-use and jQuery-powered widget, offers an alternative and tight integration with a player that can sit in the bottom or top of web pages.

The widget accepts any number of tracks, sets, users or groups to play, can be set to auto-play and has an optional animation on initial load.

There are controls for volume, sharing, commenting/favoriting and a pop-up player link exists so that users changing pages won’t lose the tracks.

Besides mentioning the tracks/sets as a list, adding a custom class to any SoundCloud link also works (handy for websites with lots of SoundCloud links) and the player can be skinned with CSS.

CSS sprites are perfect for minimizing the number of requests made to load the images and improving loading speed.

However, for a sprite with many images, it takes time to create the sprite image and the CSS rules.

SpriteMachine is a very straightforward web application for automating the sprite generation process.

Just upload the images in a .zip file, choose the sprite image orientation (horizontal or vertical) and there you are.

One great thing about the app is, it also asks whether the rules generates should be in CSS, SCSS or SASS.

F.A.Q. pages are the most standard way online for informing and guiding users to help them find the answers to their questions about the service/app.

phpMyFAQ is a pretty stable and open source PHP F.A.Q. application that has many features for building a good F.A.Q. system.

A powerful admin interface exists for managing the categories, entries,  users and also viewing the stats.

It is possible to enable users to ask or answer questions and comment to them or keep it admins-only.

There is an advanced search system empowering users to locate the related answers with ease.

The F.A.Q. page has some ready-to-use modules like “most popular, latest or sticky questions”.

Its look and feel can be customized with HTML-CSS, interface has multi-language support and all questions-answers can be exported as a PDF (with automated table of contents).

If we purchase a domain from a company who doesn’t offer free DNS management and want to customize its DNS records (like pointing MX records to Gmail), that’s when a solid DNS service is needed.

EntryDNS is a completely free DNS management service which allows any number of domains and records being created.

It has support for providing free DNS addresses for dynamic IPs as well (with the domain emtrydns.org).

And, there is a REST API for modifying DNS records which is useful for integrations with 3rd party apps.

Framote is a URL sharing application with an important difference compared to alternative URL shortening services (like bit.ly, TinyURL); it loads the URLs “live “inside an iframe.

This way, the unique Framote link generated is not bound to a single URL but can be changed anytime by the creator and everyone watching that link will see the updated page instantly.

The app is great for testing web pages on multiple devices as it removes the need to refresh pages or load new pages on each device one-by-one.

Also, using Framote, making presentations or guiding remote users about the usage of a website can all be possible.

The create Framote URLs can be with or without password protection and it is possible to see the number of users connected.