Featured this week:
*
Goodies Thoughts
–
A Taste of the Web
*
Q
&
A Goodies
*
Discussion Goodies
*
News Goodies
*
Feedback Goodies
*
Windows Tech Goodie of the Week
*
And Remember This
…
A Taste of the Web
The daughter of a friend recently came to be brimming with pride over her
recent entry into the wonderful world of Web Development.
"
She
’
s so
excited,
"
her Dad went on to say,
"
even though it
’
s not really Web
development
–
she
’
s just put some photos up on her
‘
MySpace
’
space.
"
It made me wonder: if a young teenager came to me and asked if he could get
a taste of what it
’
s like to drive a car, would it be wise for me to take
him to the Monte Carlo Rally and toss him the keys to a Ferrari, or would it
be wiser for me to take him to an empty field and sit beside him in an old
car?
I have talked of this quite often before, but I feel the need to keep up the
banner march
—
Web Development is the process of developing the Web
(meaning, of course, the World Wide Web.)
It does not refer to a particular
method of doing so, it refers to all methods of doing so.
The Web is
developing every time something is being added to it.
When my friend
’
s
young daughter put her pictures up on MySpace, she most definitely
contributed to the development of the Web.
She was being a Web Developer.
I know people who can do amazing things with technologies such as PHP and
.Net, people for whom sophisticated HTML, JavaScript and CSS make up the
starting point, not the destination.
These people impress me greatly with
their skills and with their products.
My friend
’
s daughter impresses me
every bit as much.
Personally, I learned to walk quite a while before I learned to run.
I
remember that when I look at her first efforts.
As we all know, technology
develops quickly these days, and when I look at her pictures, her first
taste of
"
going public
"
on the Web, I am humbly reminded that she is now
embarking on a journey whose destination I can hardly even imagine.
I am along for the ride, however, and am enjoying every moment of it!
Thanks for reading!
–
Vince Barnes
************************************************************
Q
&
A Goodies
***********************************
Questions are taken from submissions to our Community
Mentors. You can ask a Mentor a question by going to
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interpreting code examples in this newsletter as actual HTML code instead of
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If you cut and
paste to try out code examples, please remember to remove the periods.
Wherever we intend you to use
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.
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in your code, the example will show
"
<
..
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In this way, you will be safely able to use a global edit to change
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to
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Thanks to all of you for your patience with this; if this
technique creates an undue problem for you however, please let us know via
our feedback address (see Feedback, below).
*** This question was submitted to our Mentor Community.
The answer was provided by one of our Mentor Volunteers
Q. I have recently made an e-mail form with the help of the tutorial on the
site, and my form is made up entirely of text boxes. However, I find that
the text boxes are ugly.. I would like the borders of them to be a different
colour, so they do not have that
"
grey shadow
"
look. I know it is possible
to change the colour of them, as I have seen it done on another website, but
how can I do it on mine?
A. The easiest way to do it is to set up a style for the
"
input
"
in you
style sheet, since you are only using text boxes. The following will also
apply to any radio buttons or checkboxes that may be in the form. If you add
them later, you may want to set up a class. But for now, add this to your
style
sheet:
input { border: 1px solid black; }
You can use change the pixel size, or switch from solid to dashed. For
colors, you can use the text names that are available, or the hexidecimal
(#000000).
*** This question was submitted to our Mentor Community.
The answer was provided by one of our Mentor Volunteers
Q. How do I make a link from a popup window close the popup window and link
back to a page of the main web site?
A. To refer back to the window that opened the popup you would use the term
"
opener
"
.
I would suggest that you create a function in your popup to load
the page into the main window and then close the popup.
The function could
look like this:
function LoadPage(linkid)
{
opener.location.href=linkid
self.close()
}
You can then call this function and pass the page you want to load into the
"
opener
"
window as a value like this:
<
.a HREF=
"
#
"
onClick=
"
LoadPage(
‘
mypage.html
’
)
"
>
Click Me
<
./a
>
or:
<
.a HREF=
"
javascript:LoadPage(
‘
mypage.html
’
)
"
>
Click Me
<
./a
>
The second example might be better because IE5.0 has a problem when you use
the
"
#
"
sign to void the link.
You can also reference function in the
"
opener
"
window from the popup by prefacing the function name with the term
"
opener
"
like this:
opener.function_name()
As you can see you can reference just about anything in the main window as
long as you preface it with
"
opener
"
.
*** This question was submitted to our Mentor Community.
The answer was provided by one of our Mentor Volunteers
Q. I have created on a development site thru
"
Dreamweaver/UltraDev
"
,
information which our project team are copying to another application. The
challenge we face is to have the information on the development presented as
a hard copy, with page breaks and hopefully in the same format (colors and
all). So far all we have done is to copy and paste the information into a
word document, but we are losing most of the original format.
A. Using CSS you can set the where the page breaks are when printing your
web page. If you are doing this within a company in which everyone is using
the same browser you may get away with it with few problems. Not all web
browsers recognize this particular attribute. I believe IE 5 and above and
Netscape 6 and above will recognize it. The CSS attributes
"
page-break-before
"
and
"
page-break-after
"
. Both instruct the printer to
begin printing a new page, with the difference being before or following the
element the attribute is applied to. For instance if you apply the attribute
within the H1 tag like this:
<
.style
>
h1{ page-break-before: always; }
<
./style
>
The printer will start a new page before every H1 tag.
*** This question was submitted to our Mentor Community.
The answer was provided by one of our Mentor Volunteers
Q. Hello, I have a link question.
On my site I have the link color scheme
to be black, which works well on the left bordered side of my page, but not
on the right side which has a black background.
Is there anyway to change
the color just one or two links without changing the color of all the links?
A. Using CSS and assigning a class to each link you can use different colors
and other attributes to whichever links you want. For instance if you want
one of your links to be black and another to be white you would set up a
style sheet like this:
<
.style type=
"
text/css
"
>
a.one:link {color: #000000}
a.two:link {color: #FF0000}
<
./style
>
Place the style between the
<
.HEAD
>
tags.
Now apply the class to the actual
links in your HTML like this:
<
.a class=
"
one
"
href=
"
default.html
"
>
This link will be black.
<
./a
>
<
.a class=
"
two
"
href=
"
default.html
"
>
This link will be red.
<
./a
>
*** This question was submitted to our Mentor Community.
The answer was provided by one of our Mentor Volunteers
Q. Is there anyway that I can make multiple frames load at a time without
using a form, and using just a regular link?
A. There are a couple of different ways you can accomplish this.
The first
example uses
"
inline javascript
"
to load two frames (in both examples you
need to specify the name of the frame that you want the documents to load
in):
<
.a href=
"
#
"
onClick=
"
parent.frame_name1.location=
’
page1.html
’
;parent.frame_name2.location=
’
page2.html
’
"
>
Click
Me
<
./a
>
The second example uses a function that is passed the documents to load when
you click on a link:
<
.script type=
"
text/javascript
"
>
function Doframes(page1,page2)
{
parent.frame_name1.location=page1
parent.frame_name2.location=page2
}
<
./script
>
<
.a href=
"
#
"
onClick=
"
Doframes(
‘
page1.html
’
,
’
page2.html
’
)
"
>
Click Me
<
./a
>
*** This question was submitted to our Mentor Community.
The answer was provided by one of our Mentor Volunteers
Q. I was wondering how to have information filled our on a form sent
directly to a e-mail address? If this is possible how can I implement it
into my website?
A. It does not work very well when you try to email a form directly to an
email address.
Usually what happens when the attempt to submit the for is
their email client will pop up without the information from the form in the
body of the email.
You should use a serverside language such as Perl PHP or
Asp to process the form and email it to you.
[
Take a look also at:
and
—
Ed.
]
*** This question was submitted to our Mentor Community.
The answer was provided by one of our Mentor Volunteers
Q. I want to design a home page which display different images each time it
loads. There will be 6 main images to be shown all will be displayed one by
one and when 6th image will be displayed, the first image will come again.
A. There are so solutions many available. It all depends on what type of
technology you want to use. My best suggestion is to do a search on Google
or Yahoo for
"
javascript image rotator
"
. You will find about 10000 hits.
Most of them probably even have a demo so you can see what it will look like
before you try it.
Discussion Goodies
***********************************
Have you seen the discussion forums on the HTML Goodies website?
It
’
s a
great place to get help from others who, just like you, are developing web
pages.
Many different topics appear in the forum, and a new one will appear
if you create it!
Here
’
s a sample of recent topics:
PHP installation on webserver:
need to debug:
Textarea and execCommand:
.pdf files:
Creating a string array:
News Goodies
***********************************
Google Wants Your Gigabytes
[
March 7, 2006
]
Google wants to be the world
’
s better, bigger hard drive.
Read the article:
PHP Framework Begins to Take Shape
[
March 8, 2006
]
First preview version of application framework for PHP is
released.
Read the article:
TI Drags Down Techs
[
March 7, 2006
]
Disappointing guidance from Texas Instruments sent chip
stocks to a 3% loss on Tuesday.
Read the article:
New Intel Platforms
‘
Sooner Than You Think
’
?
[
March 7, 2006
]
System makers are gearing up for Intel
’
s
‘
Core
microarchitecture.
’
Read the article:
Intel Previews Future Mobile Chips
[
March 8, 2006
]
Intel
’
s Santa Rosa will be a more powerful mobile platform.
Read the article:
Microsoft All Aboard For App Transfer
[
March 7, 2006
]
The software power buys Apptimum to help customers move
applications from older to newer PCs.
Read the article:
Feds Continue Spam Porno Crackdown
[
March 7, 2006
]
New Hampshire woman faces up to 15 years in jail following
guilty plea.
Read the article:
Yahoo Opens The API Floodgates
[
March 7, 2006
]
Portal is set to release APIs for photo, calendar, shopping
and MyWeb 2.0.
Read the article:
Cisco Secures Electric Eye Buy
[
March 7, 2006
]
Cisco buys a video surveillance specialist with a mind for
IP networks.
Read the article:
NBC Universal Buys iVillage
[
March 7, 2006
]
NBC says the sale
‘
turbo charges
’
its online efforts.
Read the article:
Feedback Goodies
***********************************
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Ploof! It now is!
If you would like to comment on the newsletter or expand/improve on
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Please don
’
t send
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They should be sent to our mentors: see
Thanks for all your feedback!
Windows Tech Goodie of the Week
***********************************
Accessing and Updating Data in ASP.NET 2.0: Filtering Database Data with
Parameters
In this article we will examine how to declaratively filter the results of a
SQL query using parameters in a SqlDataSource. We
’
ll see examples of how to
use hard-coded filter values, and well as examples with filter values taken
from the querystring and other Web controls on the page. Read on to learn
more!
*** AND ***
Database-Connected Auto-Navigation Login Sample
This sample shows you how to create a database-driven login system that
directs each user to the appropriate page automatically when they login.
*** AND ***
Update to the ServiceBroker for the Perfect Service
Ambrose Little provides updated code for the ServiceBroker for his extremely
popular article series on creating the
‘
Perfect Service
’
.
And Remember This
…
***********************************
1669 Eruption of Mt. Etna Began
Europe
’
s most active volcano, Mt. Etna, began to erupt on this day in 1669.
The eruption, which continued for the next few weeks, killed more than
20,000 people and left many thousands more homeless.
Mt. Etna is the 11,000
foot tall, dominant geological feature of the Island of Sicily off the
southwestern corner of Italy.
The first signs of the eruption gave warning
to the residents to leave, but most chose to remain behind, thinking that
they could do something to save their city.
Ash and poisonous gas emissions
killed 3,00 people living on the slopes of Mt. Etna, and were so voluminous
the they fell on parts of southern Italy, over 100 miles away.
Residents of
the city of Catania attempted to divert lava flows by using iron rods and
farm implements.
Though it took several weeks to reach the city, the lava
killed about 17,000 residents as it buried Catania. Fourteen other towns and
villages were destroyed in the eruption, leading to some 27,000 people being
left homeless.
Today was also the day that in: 1876 Alexander Graham Bell received the
patent for the telephone; 1908 Cincinnati Mayor Mark Breith stood before
city council and announced that
"
women are not physically fit to operate
automobiles
"
; 1917 the first jazz record,
"
Dixie Jazz Band One Step
"
,
recorded by Nick LaRocca Original Dixieland Jazz Band, was released by RCA
Victor in Camden NJ; 1933 the game
"
Monopoly
"
was invented; 1962 The Beatles
made their broadcasting debut on BBC radio; 1967 Teamsters Union president
Jimmy Hoffa began an eight year prison sentence for defrauding the union and
tampering with a jury (sentence was comuted on December 23, 1971); 1971
IBM
’
s PC-DOS version 3.1 was released; 1989 Iran dropped diplomatic
relations with Britain over Salman Rushdie
’
s book
"
The Satanic Verses
"
; 1994
the US Navy issued their first permanent order assigning women on combat
ship;
Born today were: in 1875 composer Maurice Joseph Ravel; 1914 movie director
Morton DaCosta; 1930 English photographer, Earl of Snowdon, Anthony
Armstrong-Jones; 1934 Weatherman/TV Personality Willard Scott; 1942 Disney
COE Michael Eisner; 1942 gospel singer/make-up consumer Tammy Faye Bakker;
1945 actor John Heard; 1958 comedian Rik Mayall; 1961 actress Mary Beth
Evans;
*************************************************************
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’
s family of online services for IT insiders
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IT MANAGEMENT
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