Greetings everyone,

Humble apologies for the delay on this update but it could not be avoided. This update covers the following topics:


RESIZE MUSIC PLAYER OPTION REMOVED FROM PROFILE TWEAKER

As some of you are aware, MySpace revamped the music player on band profiles last month. Unfortunately, the new music player is not compatible with the Band Profile Tweaker codes in the Super EZ Profile Tweaker which allowed you to resize the music player. Applying the resize code would typically result in a music player that was cut off on the right and bottom sides. Even more exasperating was that this cutoff view apparently only applied to U.S. MySpace users. Outside of the U.S., the resize music player code still actually worked which then led to some confusion about whether the code was working or not. Thanks goes to those to whom I requested to send me screenshots to help get this all straightened out. (I live in Canada.)

To the best of my knowledge, a new playlist option was introduced along with the revamped music player that is still only visible to U.S. MySpace users which makes the old resize music player code unusable. And there is no point in writing up a new resize music player code (assuming that is possible) until MySpace globalizes the playlist features in the music player. This was supposedly forthcoming and I waited a month for it to happen but, as of this writing, it's still not in effect. I can't wait any longer so I've decided to remove the resize music player code from the Profile Tweaker.


NEW! PLACE YOUR HEADER BANNER ABOVE MYSPACE AD

Some have been asserting for quite a while on the MySpace forum that only band profile users were permitted to place a custom header banner ABOVE the MySpace ad. For this reason, I've always been reluctant to include this feature in the Header Banner Maker in the Super EZ Profile Tweaker for fear that those with regular MySpace profiles would get in hot water (and possibly get their profiles deleted) for placing a custom banner above the ad. I've since investigated this thoroughly and have come to the conclusion that there is no evidence whatsoever that regular MySpace users are not permitted to place a custom banner above the MySpace ad. A close reading of the MySpace Terms of Use agreement indicates that as long as the MySpace ad is still visible on the page then everything should be fine.

Hence, I've reworked the Header Banner Maker in the Super EZ Profile Tweaker to include an option to place your custom header banner ABOVE the MySpace ad (i.e., place the header banner at the very top of your page). A number of you have emailed me about this and I'm happy to announce that this is now in effect. Simply download the latest version of the Super EZ Profile Tweaker to have this new option. This may be of particular interest to those with band profiles.

(And for those of you who don't know what the Super EZ Profile Tweaker is, please see this page...)


ALL IRON SPIDER/ROB THUNDER MYSPACE LAYOUTS UPDATED TO CORRECT POSITIONING OF MUSIC PLAYER

And finally, all Iron Spider/Rob Thunder MySpace layouts have been updated to correct the positioning of the music player which includes both the personal music player on regular profiles and the MP3 player on band profiles. To fix the positioning of your music player, simply return to my site(s), get the updated layout code and replace your currently installed layout code with that.

Iron Spider MySpace Layouts
http://www.ironspider.ca/adv/myspace/

Rob Thunder MySpace Layouts
http://robthunder.com/

Also, you should be advised that I don't always post to my blog about every little tweak I make to my layouts. I'm kind of fussy about my layouts so I've noticed over the years that I'm often fixing stuff that most other people wouldn't even care about. (I would sometimes get emails asking me, 'I don't get it. What did you fix!?'... *chuckle*...) So if you do ever notice anything wonky about your Iron Spider/Rob Thunder layout, the first thing you should do is return to my site(s) and reinstall the layout code to see if I've already fixed it.

That's it. I hope this post finds you well. :o)

~ Rob



Translation: There are some gray areas regarding no-nos on MySpace that no one seems to know about. ... 

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Greetings everyone,

Just a quick note... Reports are coming in that the search box dropdown menu appears to be stuck in the open position (you can see it on my profile as well). This is a MySpace bug and has nothing to do with my layout codes. You can see the bug in effect here on my test page which currently has no layout codes installed on it whatsoever.

So we'll just have to wait for MySpace to fix this.

Alright then, have a good one!

~ Rob

Well it looks like MySpace made some more changes to the new navigation bar. After some preliminary testing, there's some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that it is now possible to remove the blue background from the navigation bar (e.g., Home, Mail, Profile, etc) in Internet Explorer 6. So now everybody is on the same page (pardon the lame pun) in that department.

The bad news is the navigation bar hide code no longer works. For those using a header banner, this may mean that your header banner is out of position again. Yeah I know.. *groan*.. (Don't shoot me. I'm only the layout maker.) But now that the navigation bar displays correctly in IE6, it's possible that I will discontinue support for hiding the navigation bar altogether as it appears that MySpace is intent on showing it on all profiles.

Okay that's it for now. I'm going to have breakfast and then afterwards I'm off to my MySpace Layout Makers Anger Management class. I'll be back in a little while with further updates and some quick copy-and-paste code fixes.



...heh heh... Just kidding, just kidding. I'm good. Everything's cool...



See?

~ Rob


UPDATES

Okay all of the following resources have been updated to be compatible with the July 3rd changes:


Rob Thunder's Guide to Making MySpace DIV Layouts

The hide navigation bar code inserted in the example layout in this ebook will simply be ignored however I removed that code and I altered the text in the opening Notes section to avoid some confusion. The latest copy of the ebook is now available for download. And for those who don't know what I'm talking about, clickey here...


Rob Thunder MySpace DIV Layouts

All Rob Thunder DIV layouts have now been updated to correct the vertical positioning of the layout. The plain white and plain black DIV layouts were unaffected although you may want to reinstall the updated code to avoid any future conflicts. The 3 column DIV layouts typically would display the MySpace navigation bar which would then cause the top of your DIV layout to overlap on top of it. The vertical positioning of the music player was also thrown out of whack. To correct all this, simply return to the DIV layout generator you got your code from, generate some new layout code and replace your currently installed layout code with that.

Sorry but I don't have a quick copy-and-paste code fix for this. It wasn't feasible in this situation.


Super EZ Profile Tweaker

The Profile Tweaker has now been updated. The most significant change is that I've removed the option to hide the MySpace navigation bar from the Header Banner Maker. If your header banner is out of position then download the updated version of the Profile Tweaker, generate some new header banner code and replace your currently installed header banner code with that. Also, I corrected an error (Heavens to Murgatroyd! I made an error! Yes it happens...) in the Comment Box Maker where you might now see an extra empty white box appear directly before the Reset button in your custom comment box. Sorry about that. That's been fixed now. If you see this problem with your custom comment box, contact me here and I'll see if I can help you fix that without having to reinstall the custom comment box code altogether.


Iron Spider MySpace Layouts

All Iron Spider MySpace layouts are essentially unaffected by the July 3rd changes. The only difference is that if you used a layout that hid the MySpace navigation bar, that feature won't work anymore. The navigation bar will now show (Home, Mail, Profile, etc). Other than that, nothing wacky appears to have happened. (If you have a header banner installed, see the Profile Tweaker section above.)

However... I am hereby officially announcing that the..


MySpace Navigation Bar Hide Code Will No Longer Be Supported

After closely studying the MySpace base profile code, it is quite apparent that MySpace DOES NOT want us to hide any part of the new MySpace navigation bar hence I am officially discontinuing support for this. All Iron Spider layouts should be updated by tomorrow afternoon to reflect this change.


Okay that's it.

Now I'm off to L.A. to have lunch with Tom to see if he's considered my proposal to surrender the presidency of MySpace over to me. (Hmmm.. the song 'Dreamer' by Supertramp suddenly comes to mind. Gee I wonder why...?)

:o)

~ Rob

LAST UPDATED: July 5th, 2008 - 8:09 AM Eastern


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Alrighty then, for those who aren't aware of exactly what happened recently to MySpace and everyone's profiles, all the details are spelled out in Tom's blog.

In a nutshell, some major changes were made to the MySpace profile header which is the part at the top of your page that has the banner ad, the Google search bar and the navigation bar.

After working furiously for the past few days, I'm pleased to announce that all my layouts and resources, including the Profile Tweaker and the DIV layout ebook have been updated to be compatible with the new MySpace profile header.

Here are the details and some quick copy-and-paste code fixes:


Iron Spider MySpace Layouts

All Iron Spider MySpace layouts are now updated to be compatible with the new MySpace profile header. The most significant change you will see by installing the updated layout code is that the new navigation bar will display the link colors compatible with your layout.

ALSO...

Be advised that as of this writing, it is not possible to remove the blue background from the navigation bar in Internet Explorer 6 without using a div overlay. I'm working on a code for this although it will be complex to install. If the blue background bugs you, a much easier solution is to simply remove the navigation bar altogether.

Here is the code to:


Remove the new Navigation bar and blue background

<style>.HIDE_NEW_NAV_BAR_AND_BGCOLOR {}div div table td div {display: none;}div.clearfix table td div div {display: block;}div.clearfix table td div, td, .rail tr {background-color: transparent ! important;}</style>

Copy-and-paste this code into the end of your 'About me' box (or Band Bio box if you have a MySpace music profile).

And how do you get to your MySpace account home page if there's no navigation bar? Easy. Just click on the MySpace.com logo next to the 'Shortcuts' menu in the Google bar. :o)

PLEASE NOTE: We are not permitted to remove the Google bar as this is a violation of the MySpace Terms of Use agreement.


(Messed-up Search and Navigation Bar in Firefox)

UPDATE: This glitch no longer appears to be in effect but I'm leaving the description and the code fix here just in case it pops up again-

If you're using an Iron Spider MySpace layout and you're viewing it in Firefox, you may have noticed that the MySpace.com logo and the new Shortcuts menu are not displaying on the same line as the Google Search box and the whole thing is basically kind of spread out and messed up. I first noticed this around noon Friday (Eastern). If this glitch is affecting your profile, it can be fixed by using the following copy-and-paste code:

<style>div[id=shortcuts], div[id=shortcuts] div {margin-left: 0px ! important; padding-left: 0px ! important;margin-right: 0px ! important; padding-right: 0px ! important;}div[id=shortcuts] select {margin-left: 20px ! important;}</style>

Copy and paste that code into the end of your About Me box (or your Band Bio box if you have a music profile).


Super EZ Profile Tweaker

The Super EZ Profile Tweaker is now updated to version 0.8 which is fully compatible with the new MySpace profile header. All link removal licensees are urged to return to the Profile Tweaker download page and download the latest version. Changes in version 0.8 include corrections for the positioning of the header banner (if you have one installed). To correct the positioning of your header banner, you have only to download the latest version and use it to generate a new header banner code.

OR...

For a quick fix, use the following..

HEADER BANNER CODE FIX

<style>.profileWidth {margin-bottom: 140px ! important;}table table td.text table .bannerDIV {top: 170px;}</style>

Copy-and-paste the above code into the bottom of your About Me box (or your Band Bio box if you've got a music profile). This will work fine for the default banner size (800 x 130). If you used a custom banner size -particularly if the height is larger or smaller than 130px, you may have to tweak the numbers in the code a little to get the banner positioned correctly. For example, if your banner is 145 pixels high, you may need to change 'margin-bottom: 140px' to 'margin-bottom: 155px' and 'top: 170px' to 'top: 185px', etc. Just change the numbers. Don't touch anything else in the code. But really, if it comes to that, you're better off just downloading the latest update to the Profile Tweaker and then using the Header Banner Maker in that to automatically take care of all the fine tuning.


Rob Thunder's Guide to Making MySpace DIV Layouts

The only issue I can see with the Rob Thunder DIV Layouts ebook is the vertical positioning of the DIV layout. This is controlled by the vertical positioning of the Wrapper DIV. The default  code for the vertical positioning of the Wrapper DIV is-

margin-top: -80px;

Change that to:

margin-top: -50px;

..and everything should be fixed up fine.

The ebook is now updated to be completely compatible with the new MySpace profile header. Effective immediately, you can return to the download page and get the updated version of Rob Thunder's Guide to Making MySpace DIV Layouts.


Rob Thunder MySpace DIV Layouts

All Rob Thunder MySpace DIV layouts are now compatible with the recent changes made to the MySpace profile header. As with the old layouts, the navigation bar (Home, Mail, Profile, etc.) will continue to be hidden while the Google bar will be displayed. Sorry but I don't have a one-size-fits-all copy-and-paste code fix for these as it would be a little too complex (I'd have to post several codes and a truckload of instructions). The best thing to do is to simply return to robthunder.com, get some fresh layout code and replace your currently installed layout code with that.

Okay that's it.

~ Rob

LAST UPDATED: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 - 3:19 PM Eastern

Greetings everybody,

Last Thursday, I started receiving reports that custom comment boxes were no longer functioning on MySpace profiles. This was due to recent changes MySpace.com made to the base code.

The Comment Box Maker in the Super EZ Profile Tweaker has been updated with the correct fully functioning comment box code. All Link Removal Licensees should return to the download page and download the latest version of the Profile Tweaker (version 0.7).

And for those who don’t know what the Profile Tweaker is, please see how to make a professional MySpace layout in just a few minutes...

That’s it.

Have a good one!



~ Rob

Hello everybody,

Word is that the MySpace footer which runs across the bottom of the default MySpace template and looks like this:

About | FAQ | Terms | New Privacy | Safety Tips | Contact MySpace | Report Abuse | Advertise | Jobs | MySpace International

©2003-2007 MySpace. All Rights Reserved.

...is now mandatory. That is, we are no longer permitted to hide these links or the copyright notice.

Why there is no mention of this in the MySpace Terms of Use agreement or why there is no advisory on the ’Profile Edit’ page similar to the one we see about not hiding the MySpace advertisements, I can only speculate.

Perhaps MySpace doesn’t want to make a big deal about imposing too many restrictions on how users may customize their pages (which is one of the biggest advantages we have here over Facebook). Which then leads me to believe that the people who actually got their profiles deleted for not displaying the footer links --yes this is starting to happen-- were also engaging in other prohibited activity on MySpace like spamming the network and whatnot.

Once again though, this is pure speculation.

I myself only heard of this through sheer chance because I happened to be looking through the MySpace forum last week on a completely unrelated matter and I noticed a recent post stickied by a forum moderator regarding ’bottom links’. Also, I’d like to mention that people have been using Rob Thunder DIV layouts (all of which formerly hid the MySpace footer) for the past year and a half and no one has ever emailed me about getting their profile deleted for hiding the MySpace footer.

Be that as it may, I have decided to fully comply with this ’no-hiding-the-footer’ rule and as a result, all Rob Thunder DIV layouts and all Iron Spider MySpace layouts have been updated to display the footer.

ALL USERS of Rob Thunder layouts are urged to update their layout codes by running through the layout generators at robthunder.com, getting the new layout code and replacing your currently installed layout code with that. (Be advised that the plain black overlay and the plain white overlay have the MySpace footer links built right into the layout, i.e., they appear in the right column under the ’MySpace Stuff’ heading. Below that you’ll see the required MySpace copyright notice appear at the bottom of the menu in the right column.)

As for Iron Spider layouts, most of them formerly displayed the MySpace footer by default but not all of them. If you’re using an Iron Spider layout, go to your profile and scroll to the bottom of the page. If you do not see this:

About | FAQ | Terms | New Privacy | Safety Tips | Contact MySpace | Report Abuse | Advertise | Jobs | MySpace International

©2003-2007 MySpace. All Rights Reserved.

...then you are using an OLD Iron Spider layout that hides the MySpace footer. You should return to the page at Iron Spider where you got your layout from, get the NEW updated layout code and replace your currently installed layout code with that.

Alright then, that’s it...

Have a good one!

~ Rob

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Hello everybody,

Just so you know, yes, I’m aware of a recent glitch that is preventing the backgrounds (including "Contacting" boxes) from displaying correctly on band profiles. This also affects the display of any header backgrounds inserted using the Super EZ Profile Tweaker.

This is a result of a recent filter (or possibly glitch, not going to wait to find out) on MySpace.com which converts all plain single quotes to curly single quotes like the kind you see in Wordpress blogs or Microsoft Word. Curly quotes don’t work in HTML/CSS codes so this is why the problems with the backgrounds are happening.

I’m currently fixing all my layouts (and the Profile Tweaker). Updates will be posted here.

~ UPDATES ~


ALL IRON SPIDER LAYOUTS UPDATED

All Iron Spider layout codes have now been updated and fully tested on a band profile in all major web browsers including Internet Explorer 6 & 7, Firefox 2, Opera 9 and Safari 3. If the glitch described above affected you, you have only to return to my site, retrieve the updated layout code and replace your currently installed layout code with that.

One casualty of this process is that those who are on Macs using Internet Explorer 5 -which is a very old version of Internet Explorer no longer officially supported by Microsoft- will probably still have problems because in your case, single quotes are required in CSS background url declarations.

However, according to the W3C current browser statistics, only 1.7% of internet users still use Internet Explorer 5 and only 4.7% of those are on Macs so -if my math is correct- this will ultimately only apply to 0.0731% of users out there. Humble apologies but there is nothing I can do for those few of you who are in this situation except kindly suggest that you upgrade to Safari or Firefox.


SUPER EZ PROFILE TWEAKER UPDATED

The Super EZ Profile Tweaker has now also been updated to correct the recent ’no backgrounds’ glitch described above. All official Link Removal Licensees are urged to download the latest version of the Profile Tweaker. The link to the download page is in the thank you email I sent you.

For everyone else who has no idea what I’m talking about, please see this page at my site.

Okay that’s it for today. :-)

~ Rob

Alrighty then, here we go again...

MySpace.com recently made some changes to their default code which affected a lot of layouts including all the free MySpace layouts at ironspider.ca.

Typically what you would see is the Extended Network table displaying narrower than all the rest of the tables. In some cases, you would also see the Extended Network text jammed up against the left border.

All my layouts have been updated to correct these glitches. To update your layout, you have only to return to my site (link above), get the updated layout code and replace your currently installed layout code with that.

OR...

You can use one of these...

QUICK COPY-AND-PASTE CODE FIXES

(Copy-and-paste the applicable code into the bottom of the 'About Me' box on your 'Profile Edit' screen)

For all Professional MySpace layouts, use this code:

<style>table table table .blacktext12 {width: 342px; margin-left: 7px}</style>

For all Chromatic Table layouts, use this code:

<style>table table table .blacktext12 {width: 347px; margin-left: 7px}</style>

For any other Iron Spider MySpace layouts, use this code:

<style>table table table .blacktext12 {margin-left: 7px;}</style>

Be advised that none of this applies to you if you're using one of my layouts on a band profile (band profiles don't have an Extended Network box so don't worry about it).

Likewise, all my MySpace DIV layouts are unaffected by any of the above mentioned code changes recently made by MySpace.com.

That's it. Have a good one!

Alrighty then, same deal as yesterday.

All the gradient backgrounds in the Chromatic Table Layouts series at ironspider.ca are now seamless. This means that if you use one of these layouts on a profile that is spread out of proportion with big images, videos and whatnot, the background image will repeat horizontally without looking tiled.

If you're not really fussy, all you have to do to update your page is to visit your profile and then hold down the Shift key on your keyboard while clicking on the Refresh/Reload button on your browser.

However, the CSS positioning of all the backgrounds in these layouts were updated as well so to fully update your profile, you should return to my site, get the updated layout code and replace your currently installed layout code with that.

~ Rob

Okay, so I finally abandoned my original vision with respects to my Professional MySpace Layouts series. My original intent back in the day when these layouts were first created was to try to induce (read: armtwist) MySpace users to go for a classier look and not spread their profiles out to kingdom come by inserting extra-wide images and videos.

Some of you went with this agenda while others did not but still thought these layouts were cool and used them anyway. This then made for some awkward looking profiles because there were times when people spread their profiles so wide that the background images ended up having to repeat horizontally (for which they were not originally designed).

This has been corrected, i.e., all the backgrounds in these layouts have been modified to make them seamless. If you're using one of these layouts, you don't have to install any new codes or anything to update your profile. All you have to do is visit your profile page and do a 'hard' refresh in your browser (hold down the Shift key on your keyboard and then use your mouse to click on the Refresh/Reload button on your browser). This will make sure your profile is not still caching the old background images.

I'm currently working on making the Chromatic Table Layout backgrounds completely seamless as well although this will be a little trickier. The ETA on this will be sometime tomorrow afternoon (if all goes well).

Alrighty then, have a good evening! (or afternoon / morning, depending on where you are...)

:o)

~ Rob