Rob Gravelle

Calling an JavaScript Object’s methods is not always as straightforward as you might expect. Not only are there several ways of doing so, but each may result in the method behaving in different and even unexpected ways. It’s all part of the flexibility that is inherent in JavaScript. In today’s article, we’re going to look […]

Some Client-side Validation Libraries Validation is one of the most important aspects of web form design. It can make the difference between gaining a fan or customer and having them leave in frustration. I’ve talked about validation best practices before, but I only alluded to how easy it is to add uber-useable and handsome looking […]

The RangeError, TypeError, and URIError JavaScript Error Types JavaScript divides runtime errors into six separate error types. The benefit to us as developers is that we can more accurately pinpoint exactly what kind of error we’re dealing with. In the Handling JavaScript Errors by Type article, we learned how to distinguish between different error types […]

In the last few weeks, I’ve come to realize how a person could want to access an object’s private attributes and methods. I needed to run some unit tests on a script to make sure that it was error free. The trouble was that all the functionality that needed testing was private to a larger […]

Have you ever noticed that every programming language seems to have its own set of naming conventions? While some languages have a lot in common, others just seem to exist in a world of their own. I’d like to share with you some naming conventions for JavaScript. Along the way, I’m going to interject some […]

JavaScript developers have several options for creating an Object in JavaScript, from the Object() method to Object literals to constructor functions, there are a lot of ways to get the job done. This article will present a few choice Object creation Patterns that, for the most part, make use of the prototype property to share […]

In The Three Models of Web Form Validation, I stated that validation plays a dual role of protecting your data and site from bad data, as well as a guide to your users’ goal of submitting the form in as painless and quick a manner as possible. The focus of both that and this article, […]

There are four major error types in programming: compile errors, logic errors, input/validation errors, and runtime errors. Error catching in code is usually limited to the latter two types. It would be nice if you could handle your own logic errors at runtime, but sadly, there is no such code construct yet. As for syntax […]

Guide to the SyntaxHighlighter JavaScript Library SyntaxHighlighter is used by all sorts of information technology-oriented sites to display source code or specially formatted text. It was originally created in 2004 and is still maintained by Alex Gorbatchev. Since then, it has undergone several transformations between version 1 and 3. The latest version has not been […]

The HTML5 canvas is a bitmap element for rendering graphics, drawings, and images on the fly using JavaScript. The canvas 2D API contains an arsenal of functions that give you the ability to draw pretty much anything you like on the canvas. But then the problem is, how much do you know about graphics and […]

One of the big differences between Classical (Object-Oriented) and Prototypal inheritance is that the former has an elegant mechanism for referring to the parent using the super keyword. It’s often used in constructors to initialize the parent class with the supplied input parameters. Another common usage is to extend parent functionality in the child class. […]

Node.js is part runtime environment and part library for building network applications using server-side JavaScript. It uses Chrome’s JavaScript runtime engine to execute JS code directly without the need for the browser sandbox. You may recall an article that I wrote about Aptana’s server-side JavaScript for their Jaxer server. By all accounts, it looks like […]