Not much if anything has changed in the past year or two, and we&#39;re still dealing with a lot of the same browsers from then, so you should not change your practice.

`&lt;link&gt;` is preferred in all cases over `@import`, because the latter blocks parallel downloads, meaning that the browser will wait for the imported file to finish downloading before it starts downloading the rest of the content.

You can see this in great detail here:

http://www.stevesouders.com/blog/2009/04/09/dont-use-import/

So, while `@import` may be convenient, that&#39;s all it offers. If you really want to take advantage of fast loading times, use the minimum number of stylesheets (probably one in most cases), write good CSS with efficient selectors (the usual stuff), minify it, and use a `&lt;link&gt;` tag.

___

This was going to be a comment but it got too long:

Instead of `@import` (I know it *is* very convenient), you should combine the files into one when your site goes live. You shouldn&#39;t be tweaking at that point anyways, and there are a number of tools to help minify it. Personally, using PHP, I have a config file where I define all the CSS files that are written to a separate CSS file (the one I will reference in the `&lt;link&gt;` tag), then if the cached version is old (either determined manually or automatically), it combines/minifies them and writes the content to the &quot;cache&quot; file, and returns a timestamp query string to append to the CSS file name to force a fresh download.

If you are using PHP as well, I highly recommend [cssmin](http://code.google.com/p/cssmin/), it can parse stylesheets for `@import` and pull the content into one file, as well as handle all aspects of minification.

When designing REST API is it common to authenticate a user first?

The typical use case I am looking for is:

* User wants to get data.  Sure cool we like to share! Get a public API key and read away!
* User wants to store/update data... woah wait up! who are you, can you do this?

I would like to build it once and allow say a web-app, an android application or an iPhone application to use it.

A REST API appears to be a logical choice with requirements like this

To illustrate my question I&#39;ll use a simple example.

I have an item in a database, which has a **rating** attribute (integer 1 to 5).

If I understand REST correctly I would implement a GET request using the language of my choice that returns csv, xml or json like this:

    http://example.com/product/getrating/{id}/

Say we pick JSON we return:

    {
      &quot;id&quot;: &quot;1&quot;,
      &quot;name&quot;: &quot;widget1&quot;,
      &quot;attributes&quot;: { &quot;rating&quot;: {&quot;type&quot;:&quot;int&quot;, &quot;value&quot;:4} }
    }

This is fine for public facing APIs. I get that part.

Where I have tons of question is how do I combine this with a security model? I&#39;m used to web-app security where I have a session state identifying my user at all time so I can control what they can do no matter what they decide to send me.  As I understand it this isn&#39;t RESTful so would be a bad solution in this case.

I&#39;ll try to use another example using the same item/rating.

If user &quot;JOE&quot; wants to add a **rating** to an **item**

This could be done using:

    http://example.com/product/addrating/{id}/{givenRating}/

At this point I want to store the data saying that &quot;JOE&quot; gave product {id} a rating of {givenRating}.

Question: How do I know the request came from &quot;JOE&quot; and not &quot;BOB&quot;.

Furthermore, what if it was for more sensible data like a user&#39;s phone number?

What I&#39;ve got so far is:

1) Use the built-in feature of HTTP to authenticate at every request, either plain HTTP or HTTPS.

This means that every request now take the form of:

    https://joe:joepassword@example.com/product/addrating/{id}/{givenRating}/

2) Use an approach like Amazon&#39;s S3 with private and public key: http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/designing-a-secure-rest-api-without-oauth-authentication/

3) Use a cookie anyway and break the stateless part of REST.

The second approach appears better to me, but I am left wondering do I really have to re-invent this whole thing? Hashing, storing, generating the keys, etc all by myself? 

This sounds a lot like using session in a typical web application and rewriting the entire stack yourself, which usually to me mean &quot;You&#39;re doing it wrong&quot; especially when dealing with security.

EDIT: I guess I should have mentioned OAuth as well.

Securing REST API without reinventing the wheel

I&#39;ve come up kinda dry as to **why** -- at least in the .Net Framework -- it is necessary to use an `XmlNamespaceManager` in order to handle namespaces (or the rather clunky and verbose `[local-name()=...` XPath predicate/function/whatever) when performing XPath queries. I **do** understand why namespaces are necessary or at least beneficial, but **why** is it so complex?

In order to query a simple XML Document (no namespaces)...

    &lt;?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot; encoding=&quot;ISO-8859-1&quot;?&gt;
    &lt;rootNode&gt;
       &lt;nodeName&gt;Some Text Here&lt;/nodeName&gt;
    &lt;/rootNode&gt;

...one can use something like `doc.SelectSingleNode(&quot;//nodeName&quot;)` (which would match `&lt;nodeName&gt;Some Text Here&lt;/nodeName&gt;`)

*Mystery #1*: **My first annoyance** -- If I understand correctly -- is that merely adding a namespace reference to the parent/root tag (whether used as part of a child node tag or not) like so:

    &lt;?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot; encoding=&quot;ISO-8859-1&quot;?&gt;
    &lt;rootNode xmlns=&quot;http://example.com/xmlns/foo&quot;&gt;
       &lt;nodeName&gt;Some Text Here&lt;/nodeName&gt;
    &lt;/rootNode&gt;

...requires several extra lines of code to get the same result:

    Dim nsmgr As New XmlNamespaceManager(doc.NameTable)
    nsmgr.AddNamespace(&quot;ab&quot;, &quot;http://example.com/xmlns/foo&quot;)
    Dim desiredNode As XmlNode = doc.SelectSingleNode(&quot;//ab:nodeName&quot;, nsmgr)
...essentially dreaming up a non-existent prefix (&quot;`ab`&quot;) to find a node that doesn&#39;t even use a prefix. *How does this make sense?* What is wrong (conceptually) with `doc.SelectSingleNode(&quot;//nodeName&quot;)`?

*Mystery #2*: So, say you&#39;ve got an XML document that uses prefixes:

    &lt;?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot; encoding=&quot;ISO-8859-1&quot;?&gt;
    &lt;rootNode xmlns:cde=&quot;http://example.com/xmlns/foo&quot; xmlns:feg=&quot;http://example.com/xmlns/bar&quot;&gt;
       &lt;cde:nodeName&gt;Some Text Here&lt;/cde:nodeName&gt;
       &lt;feg:nodeName&gt;Some Other Value&lt;/feg:nodeName&gt;
       &lt;feg:otherName&gt;Yet Another Value&lt;/feg:otherName&gt;
    &lt;/rootNode&gt;

... If I understand correctly, you would have to add both namespaces to the `XmlNamespaceManager`, in order to make a query for a single node...

    Dim nsmgr As New XmlNamespaceManager(doc.NameTable)
    nsmgr.AddNamespace(&quot;cde&quot;, &quot;http://example.com/xmlns/foo&quot;)
    nsmgr.AddNamespace(&quot;feg&quot;, &quot;http://example.com/xmlns/bar&quot;)
    Dim desiredNode As XmlNode = doc.SelectSingleNode(&quot;//feg:nodeName&quot;, nsmgr)

... Why, in this case, do I need (conceptually) a namespace manager? 

******REDACTED into comments below****

**Edit Added:**
My revised and refined question is based upon the apparent redundancy of the XmlNamespaceManager in what I believe to be the majority of cases and the use of the namespace manager to specify a mapping of prefix to URI:

When the direct mapping of the namespace prefix (&quot;cde&quot;) to the namespace URI (&quot;http://example.com/xmlns/foo&quot;) is explicitly stated in the source document: 

    ...&lt;rootNode xmlns:cde=&quot;http://example.com/xmlns/foo&quot;...

what is the conceptual need for a programmer to recreate that mapping before making a query?

Why is XmlNamespaceManager necessary?

First I know the title says this is a duplicate question as asked [here][1], [here][2], and [here][3]. Everything I read on this topic is over two years old. A lot has changed in that time period so are the same thoughts still advisable? 

Here is an example, I use @import inside a stylesheet to bring in my reset CSS and a couple other styles. Should I change that from `@import` to `&lt;link&gt;`? According to this [article][4] I should use link. So I ask other developers, what is truly the best way as to date (August 25, 2011)  


  [1]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2236601/why-import-is-not-advisable-to-link-css
  [2]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1022695/difference-between-import-and-link-in-css
  [3]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1478997/import-or-link-for-importing-stylesheets
  [4]: http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html

@import vs link

<p>First I know the title says this is a duplicate question as asked <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2236601/why-import-is-not-advisable-to-link-css" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>, <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1022695/difference-between-import-and-link-in-css" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>, and <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1478997/import-or-link-for-importing-stylesheets" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>. Everything I read on this topic is over two years old. A lot has changed in that time period so are the same thoughts still advisable?</p>
<p>Here is an example, I use @import inside a stylesheet to bring in my reset CSS and a couple other styles. Should I change that from <code>@import</code> to <code>&#x3C;link></code>? According to this <a href="http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">article</a> I should use link. So I ask other developers, what is truly the best way as to date (August 25, 2011)</p>


I&#39;ve got a div and apply `:before` and `:after` an image as content. That works perfectly. Now I would need to apply a background image so it does repeat as the `div` resizes, but it does not seem to work. Is background image on `:before` and `:after` supposed to be working?

The current code:

HTML:

    &lt;div id=&quot;videos-part&quot;&gt;test&lt;/div&gt;
CSS:

    #videos-part{
        background-color: #fff;
        height: 127px;
        width: 764px;
        margin: -6px 0 -1px 18px;
        position: relative;
    }
    #videos-part:before{
        width: 16px;
        content: &quot; &quot;;
        background-image: url(/img/border-left3.png);
        position: absolute;
        left: -16px;
        top: -6px;
    }

:before and background-image... should it work?

Here&#39;s my HTML: 

    &lt;select id=&quot;ddlProducts&quot; name=&quot;ddProducts&quot;&gt; 
        &lt;option&gt;Product1 : Electronics &lt;/option&gt;
        &lt;option&gt;Product2 : Sports &lt;/option&gt;
    &lt;/select&gt;


I want to make the name of the product (i.e. &#39;Product1&#39;, &#39;Product2&#39; , etc) bold, and its categories(viz. Electronics, Sports, etc) italicized, using CSS only. I found an old question that mentioned it&#39;s not possible using HTML and CSS, but hopefully, there&#39;s a solution now.

How to style the option of an html &quot;select&quot; element?

How to change the style of child element when there is hover on parent element. I would prefer a CSS solution for this if possible. Is there any solution possible through :hover CSS selectors. Actually I need to change color of options bar inside a panel when there is an hover on the panel.

*Looking to support all major browsers.*




Style child element when hover on parent

I&#39;m currently sending html formatted emails from PHP&#39;s mail() function and checking them simply to make sure they are showing up as HTML (formatting aside, I&#39;m well aware that the formatting will vary (probably drastically) from client to client). They are displaying as HTML in the Apple Mail client as well as on my iPhone. However, Gmail simply refuses to display it as HTML as all. And by that I don&#39;t mean it is formatted incorrectly, it just simply isn&#39;t using HTML it appears.

The weird part is that an img from a &lt;imG&gt; tag is being loaded, but that&#39;s about it... is it that I&#39;m mostly using divs for layout and that&#39;s too new for Gmail or something (vs tables)?

As far as CSS and what not goes, viewing the raw source shows the following:

    &lt;html&gt;&lt;head&gt;&lt;style&gt;body { background-color: #F2F2F2; font-family: Arial; color: #5C5C5C; font-size: 11pt; } a { color: #46AAFF; text-decoration: none; } #container { width: 750px; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; } #header { float: right; padding: 3px; height: 30px; } #header a { color: #666666; margin-right: 10px; } #mainBody { padding: 20px; background-color: #FFF; border: 1px solid #DADADA; border-radius: 3px; } #imageArea { border-top: solid #E8E8E8 1px; margin: 15px; } #singleImageArea { width: 250px; padding: 15px; } #singleImageArea p { float: right; line-height: 30px; width: 130px; margin-top: 20px; } #footer { padding: 10px; color: gray; } #footer p { text-shadow: 0px 2px #FFF; font-size: 10pt; } #footer a { color: #ADADAD; float: right; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; } #footer img { width: 35px; height: 23px; padding: 10px; float: left; } &lt;/style&gt;&lt;/head&gt;&lt;body&gt;&lt;div id=&quot;container&quot;&gt;&lt;div id=&quot;header&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://appname.local/login/&quot;&gt;Login&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/d
     iv&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear: both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div id=&quot;mainBody&quot;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Hi Josh Holat!&lt;/h1&gt;You&#39;ve sent a request to &lt;strong&gt;reset&lt;/strong&gt; your appname password. Just click the link below &lt;em&gt;(or copy and paste it into your browser)&lt;/em&gt; and follow the instructions to set a new password. The link will expire in one hour.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://appname.local/sb/reset-password/?r=2768af61698fcde9c04f9449351575d6bfe6d720&quot;&gt;http://appname.local/sb/reset-password/?r=2768af61698fcde9c04f9449351575d6bfe6d720&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;If you feel this request was submitted in error, don&#39;t worry; you can safely ignore this e-mail and your password will not be changed.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Much Love,&lt;br/&gt;Us&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!-- #mainBody --&gt;&lt;div id=&quot;footer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://appname.local/images/email/footer_sb.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;copy; 2011 appname, Inc. All Rights Reserved &lt;a href=&quot;http://appname.local/sb/legal/&quot;&gt;Legal&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://appname.local/sb/contact/&quot;&gt;Contact&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://s
     tagebloc.local/sb/developers/&quot;&gt;Developers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://appname.local/sb/blog/&quot;&gt;Blog&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!-- #footer --&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!-- #container --&gt;&lt;/body&gt;&lt;/html&gt;



As well as:

        Delivered-To: appname@gmail.com
    Received: by 10.229.40.2 with SMTP id i2cs133298qce;
            Sun, 28 Aug 2011 14:29:08 -0700 (PDT)
    Received: by 10.42.152.199 with SMTP id j7mr4419937icw.417.1314566947950;
            Sun, 28 Aug 2011 14:29:07 -0700 (PDT)
    Return-Path: &lt;_www@joshholat.local&gt;
    Received: from joshholat.local (arh2281.urh.uiuc.edu [130.126.70.193])
            by mx.google.com with ESMTP id w3si6800550icz.109.2011.08.28.14.29.06;
            Sun, 28 Aug 2011 14:29:06 -0700 (PDT)
    Received-SPF: neutral (google.com: 130.126.70.193 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of _www@joshholat.local) client-ip=130.126.70.193;
    Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=neutral (google.com: 130.126.70.193 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of _www@joshholat.local) smtp.mail=_www@joshholat.local
    Received: by joshholat.local (Postfix, from userid 70)
    	id 775063662E01; Sun, 28 Aug 2011 16:29:06 -0500 (CDT)
    To: Josh Holat &lt;appname@gmail.com&gt;
    Subject: Password Reset Request
    X-PHP-Originating-Script: 501:Email.php
    From: appname &lt;noreply@appname.com&gt;
    Content-type: text/html
    Message-Id: &lt;20110828212906.775063662E01@joshholat.local&gt;
    Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2011 16:29:06 -0500 (CDT)

I&#39;m confused as to why third party clients would show it fine but Gmail simply ignore it?

HTML formatted email not showing up at all in Gmail but is in other mail clients

How can you select the first and the last `TD` in a row?

    tr &gt; td[0],
    tr &gt; td[-1] {
    /* styles */
    }

How to select first and last TD in a row?

Following up on [this question regarding reloading a module][1], how do I reload a specific function from a changed module?

pseudo-code:

    from foo import bar

    if foo.py has changed:
        reload bar


  [1]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/437589/how-do-i-unload-reload-a-python-module

How to reload a module&#39;s function in Python?

My Python library just changed it&#39;s main module name from `foo.bar` to `foobar`. For backward compat, `foo.bar` still exists, but importing it raises a few warnings. Now, it seems some example program still imports from the old module, but not directly.

I&#39;d like to find the erroneous `import` statement. Is there any tool that allows me to trace imports and find the culprit without wading through all of the code?

Trace Python imports

I know the issue of circular imports in python has come up many times before and I have read these discussions. The comment that is made repeatedly in these discussions is that a circular import is a sign of a bad design and the code should be reorganised to avoid the circular import.

Could someone tell me how to avoid a circular import in this situation?: I have two classes and I want each class to have a constructor (method) which takes an instance of the other class and returns an instance of the class.

More specifically, one class is mutable and one is immutable. The immutable class is needed
for hashing, comparing and so on. The mutable class is needed to do things too. This is similar to sets and frozensets or to lists and tuples.

I could put both class definitions in the same module. Are there any other suggestions?

A toy example would be class A which has an attribute which is a list and class B which has an attribute which is a tuple. Then class A has a method which takes an instance of class B and returns an instance of class A (by converting the tuple to a list) and similarly class B has a method which takes an instance of class A and returns an instance of class B (by converting the list to a tuple). 

How to avoid circular imports in Python?

I have a folder for my client code, a folder for my server code, and a folder for code that is shared between them

    Proj/
        Client/
            Client.py
        Server/
            Server.py
        Common/
            __init__.py
            Common.py

How do I import Common.py from Server.py and Client.py?

Importing from a relative path in Python

I have an existing python module with a dash in its name, foo-bar.py

Changing the module name is something I would prefer to avoid as the module is shared, and I would have to chase down all the places it is used so that my special case will work.

Is there a way to load a module whose name contains the typically forbidden &#39;-&#39;?

(I do understand that this isn&#39;t a best practice. But for this situation I would prefer not to redesign and test a much larger set of applications.  Also I don&#39;t think my corporate masters would approve of my taking the time to implement such a change.)

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	L84	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Css	Wesley Murch	View Answer on Stackoverflow

@import vs link

Css Problem Overview

Css Solutions

Solution 1 - Css

Why is XmlNamespaceManager necessary?

Securing REST API without reinventing the wheel

Attributions