Thursday, March 28, 2024

Goodies to Go! Newsletter #321


Goodies to Go ™
January 24, 2005 — Newsletter # 321

This newsletter is part of the internet.com network.
http://www.internet.com

 


Featured this week:

* Goodies Thoughts Whois W3C?
* Q & A Goodies

* News Goodies
* Feedback Goodies  
* Windows Tech Goodies  
* And Remember This

 


 

Goodies Announcement

The new Beyond HTML Goodies book
is now available!

 

Go beyond the basics
and learn how the pros add and use dynamic HTML features and advanced
JavaScript techniques. Beyond HTML Goodies demonstrates dozens of new and
different features readers can add to their existing Web pages using HTML and
JavaScript. The book starts with simple text and image tips, such as adding a
clock to a Web page or causing text to appear when the mouse moves over an
image. It gradually builds to more complex tricks, including manipulating forms
or working with cookies behind the scenes. Throughout the book, readers enjoy
Joe’s snappy style and “to the point” discussion of each “goody” in the book.

 

http://books.internet.com/books/0789727803

 

 


Goodies Thoughts – Whois W3C?


If you spend much time in the developer circles on the web then
sooner or later you’ll hear about "W3C" — The W3 Consortium. In case you wonder
who or what they are and whether or not it matters to you, I thought I’d offer a
little clarification.

In a sense, the Internet is like an anarchy. There is no governing authority
that can pass laws over what happens on the net. Certainly governments can pass
laws to restrict the things that the people they govern can do with the
Internet, by they do not have authority over the Internet as a whole. While such
unrestricted freedom is great in some ways, it could carry with it a price. If
everybody who designed things for the Internet went about things in their own
way, the value of the net as a whole would be greatly reduced because thing
would not work together as one. To unify the mechanisms of the net requires a
set of standards that everybody can work to. Standards have to be defined. Not
everybody is going to agree on what a standard should be, so somebody,
somewhere, has to be given the task of selecting and defining those standards.
That somebody (actually, some bodies) is the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C.

The World Wide Web Consortium is the group that defines what HTML tags there
will be, what XML is, etc. Essentially, the languages of the Web are defined by
W3C. Their website is
http://www.w3.org
and you can find out everything they do or have done
somewhere on that site.

There are a couple of items on their website that you might find particularly
useful. First is a program that you can use to clean up little errors in your
HTML code. This is called HTML Tidy (see

http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/tidy
for details.) The second is their HTML Validator. The validator checks your web
page’s HTML code to see if it complies with the W3C recommendations. Remember
that if your code complies, there is the highest probability that it will work
well in any browser that has also been written to conform, as most have.
 

 

Thanks for Reading!
 


 



– Vince Barnes


 


Top

Q & A Goodies


Questions are taken from submissions to our Community Mentors. You can ask a Mentor a question by going to

http://www.htmlgoodies.com/mentors
.

Q. Not to be nit-picky, but I noticed in many of the JavaScript examples
that are provided in the HTML Goodies newsletter, the following declaration is
used:
<script language="javascript">
whereas my understanding is that the proper declaration should be:
<script type="text/javascript">

A. You are not being "nit-picky". I myself am guilty of using the first
example where I should be using the second example. I guess old habits die hard.

Q. I’m trying to get some JavaScript running. I’m able to parse two vars
to a function, the third one will not work.
This is the function:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="javascript">
function nieuw(a,b) {window.open (a, b, config=’height=600,width=200,toolbar=no,
menubar=no, scrollbars=no, resizable=no,location=no, directories=no,
status=no’)}
</SCRIPT>
It’s called by:
<a href=# onclick="nieuw (‘bijeenkomsten.html’, ‘newwindow’)">Bijeenkomsten</a>
My goal is to have the screensize set by the calling function, so far i’m unable
to do that. I tried by replacing the height and width values by var’s, tried to
put the height and width into the caller, nothing works. Is it possible to do
that or not, if yes how?

A. Actually, you can do it without calling a function. Try this for your
code:
<a href="javascript:location=’bijeenkomsten.html’;
window.open(‘bijeenkomsten.html’,’Bijeenkomsten’,
‘height=600,width=200,top=10,left=10,toolbar=no, menubar=no, scrollbars=no,
resizable=no,location=no, directories=no, status=no’)">Bijeenkomsten</a>
Notice that I added two more attributes, top and left. You can determine where
to position the window as well. If you need to use the function, your call is
good, except for one possible item. Is newwindow the title of the window? If
not, replace newwindow with the title (could it be Bijeenkomsten?)
As for the function itself, remove config=.
Here it is:
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="javascript">

function nieuw(a,b) {window.open (a, b, ‘height=600,width=200,toolbar=no,
menubar=no, scrollbars=no, resizable=no,location=no, directories=no,
status=no’)}
</SCRIPT>

Q. Is there a way to use a background image without it repeating? I’d
like the bgimg to simply enlarge itself to encompass each visitor’s window,
instead of doing the tile effect

A. You are not going to be able to get the image to enlarge itself for
every resolution. In fact the site you sent has the image repeating. I even
looked at it on various resolutions and it repeated in all of them. That being
said, you can use some CSS – Cascading Style Sheet – to get an image to only
show once as a background. Here is the code you should use:

<style type="text/css">
<!– body {background-image: url(images/your_image_name.gif); background-repeat:
no-repeat;} –>
</style>
Make sure you change the path and image name to suit your situation.

Q. Is there an equivalent of ASP for Apache servers?

A. There is a third-party package that works with Apache. Check out
http://www.chilisoft.com

Q. I have a side bar on the left and then the rest of the page is where
all the content goes. The side bar just has a navigation menu. I have it where
the page is one big table and the sidebar is one cell and the rest of the page
is a cell. Well my problem is… if there is a lot of information in the right
hand cell, then the stuff in the left hand cell gets right in the middle of the
cell so everything will be even. But I want that stuff to stay at the top of the
page, regardless of how much info is in the right hand cell. Is there a way to
make it where it doesn’t automatically center itself like that?

A. You need to add VALIGN="top" to the row or cell or both. This will
make all the contents stay at the top of the cell.

 

 

 

 

Top

News Goodies


Microsoft Won’t Appeal CFI Unbundling Ruling
[January 24, 2005] A European edition of Windows without
Media Player is coming in a few weeks.

Click
here to read the article

 

IronPort Expands Security Reach
[January 24, 2005] Officials say the best protection comes not from just one
security software provider, but many.

Click
here to read the article

 

 

 


Nortel Making Noise in Asia

[January 24, 2005] Just a week after a joint venture deal in
China, the company forms one with South Korea’s LG as part of a
larger strategy to reach promising markets.

Click here to read the article

 

 

 

Compuware Strengthens Its Java Application Life Cycle
[January 24, 2005] Product enhancements to OptimalJ, Vantage
Analyzer and DevPartner provides smoother development across
Compuware’s Java enterprise suite.

Click here to read the article
 

 

 

IBM Expanding Linux on 2-Way Servers
[January 24, 2005] Big Blue fleshes out its OpenPower some more, issuing a
2-way Linux server to accommodate its 4-way machine.

Click here to read the article

 

 

 

IT Heavies Throw Weight Behind Globus
[January 24, 2005] Some of the top tech names are launching a new industry
group dedicated to commercial use of the open-source Globus Toolkit, the de
facto standard for grid computing.

Click here to read the article

 

 



Sun Challenges IBM to Port to Solaris

[January 21, 2005] Sun President and COO Jonathan Schwartz calls for Big
Blue to step up to the Solaris x86 plate.

Click here to read the article

 

 

 

The Worm in CNN’s Headlines

[January 21, 2005] A recent virus threat masquerades as a legitimate
headline pulled right from the news Web site.

Click here to read the article


 

 

IBM Magnifies Talking Browser
[January 21, 2005] Increasing government regulation and aging Baby Boomers
spark Big Blue’s continued investment in its Home Page Reader.

Click here to read the article

 

 

 


Microsoft Clamps Down on Mobile 2005 Stories

[January 21, 2005] Microsoft lawyers are attempting to force
bloggers to remove a story revealing upcoming Windows Mobile
technology.

Click here to read the article

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top

Feedback
Goodies


Did you ever wish your newsletter was an easy two way communications medium?
Ploof! It now is!
If you would like to comment on the newsletter or expand/improve on something
you have seen in here, you can now send your input to:

mailto:nlfeedback@htmlgoodies.com

We already receive a lot of email every day. This address will help us sort out
those relating specifically to this newsletter from all the rest. When you send
email to this address it may wind up being included in this section of the
newsletter, to be shared with your fellow readers.
Please don’t send your questions to this address.
They should be sent to our mentors: see
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/mentors/

Thanks again for all your feedback!
 

 

Top


 

Windows Tech Goodie of the Week:
 

Alternating Table Row Colors Sample Code

Sometimes when you’ve got a table with a lot of data in it,
it can get hard to tell which rows are which when you get to
the end of a row. That’s why you see a lot of that old wide
dot matrix paper that alternates between white and green…
it makes following a row across the paper easier. Now you’ve
got the same thing for lines of data on the screen.


http://www.asp101.com/samples/altcolors.asp

*** AND ***



Populating ASP.NET Form Validators from XML

In large web applications, maintaining form validation
criteria can become quite a chore. This article, by Robert
Walling, will take a detailed look at a validation class
that enables you to store these details in an accompanying
XML file in order to make managing them much simpler.


http://www.15seconds.com/issue/050112.htm

*** AND ***

A Code Template for a Pageable, Bi-Directional Sortable
DataGrid

Any ASP.NET developer that has had to display database data
on an ASP.NET page is likely familiar with the DataGrid Web
control. This article examines a template for building an
ASP.NET page with a pageable, bi-directional sortable
DataGrid.


http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/011205-1.aspx


 

 

 

Top


 

And Remember This . . .

On this day in…
 

On this day in…


1839
Charles Darwin was eelected a member of the Royal Society;
1908 General Baden Powell formed the Boy Scouts; 1924
Russian city of St Petersburg was renamed Leningrad; 1939
30,000 were killed by earthquake in Concepcion Chile; 1943

Hitler ordered nazi troops at Stalingrad to fight to death; 1958
After warming to 100,000,000:, 2 light atoms were banged together to
create a heavier atom, resulting in the first man-made nuclear
fusion; 1962 Brian Epstein signed a management contract with
the Beatles; 1984 Apple Computer Inc unveiled its Macintosh
personal computer;

Born today were: in 1883 actress Estelle Winwood (Goodwin);
1913
TV producer Mark Goodson; 1915 actor Ernest Borgnine;
1918 Televangelist Oral Roberts; 1919 author Nora
Beloff; 1924 English landowner, father of Diane, the 8th Earl
Spencer; 1928 English zoologist Desmond Morris; 1941
singer Neil Diamond; 1941 singer Aaron Neville; 1943

actress Sharon Tate; 1947 musician Warren Zevon; 1949
actor/comedian John Belushi; 1960 German actress Nastassja
Kinski; 1969 actress Stephanie Romanov; 1970 actor
Matthew Lillard; 1993 daughter of Howard, Ashley Jade Stern;




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