Goodies to Go ™
November 1, 2004 — Newsletter # 309
This newsletter is part of the internet.com network.
http://www.internet.com
Featured this week:
* Goodies Thoughts – The Best Language
* 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 – The Best Language
Somebody asked me a question the other day, it went something
like this: "My son wants to get into computers. What’s the best language for him
to start?" My brain, of course, went immediately into logic overload — there
are so many problems with the question that I wasn’t sure where to begin!
I’m not sure what "get into computers" means. Does he want to design them,
build, repair, program, use or sell them? Perhaps he wants to climb inside one!
If I take the "language" part of the question as a clue, I could presume that he
wants either to program computers or to build web pages. I could also be that
his dad simply doesn’t understand computers enough to be asking me the right
question.
If I presume that he does mean writing code of one sort of another, there would
be a "language" involved. His original question didn’t include the word
"programming", which is probably just as well! Had he said "programming
language", I might have had to exclude HTML from the list of possible answers.
Since I run HTML Goodies it is entirely possible that he is asking me his
question with the World Wide Web in mind.
The exclusion would be because, technically, writing HTML is coding, but not
really programming. The distinction comes from the fact that a web page is
really a document, not a program. A Web browser is a program. It interprets HTML
documents. HTML is a language, however, so the distinction is very subtle. When
you consider XML, the lines get even more blurred. Do you call it an XML
"document" or an XML "script". Perhaps the distinction doesn’t matter!
PHP, Perl, JavaScript and the like are programming languages. But these are web
oriented languages. If his son wants to get into computer programming there is a
myriad of possible languages. There are those best suited for business
applications, another set for system software (such as operating systems and the
like; other language might be best for scientific applications, others for
games, graphics, animations, etc., etc., etc.!
There are so many possible answers to his question that my brain went into a
tailspin. Then a small light appeared on the horizon, and grew as my brain
settled down and finally got right down to the heart of his inquiry.
"English," I said.
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
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/mentors.
Q. How do I lose the blue line that appears round an image when I make it
a link?
A. In the IMG SRC tag add this:
border="0"
Q. Is there any way to place text on top of pictures?
A. Here is the link to see how that’s done:
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/tutors/textonimages.html
Q. I am constantly creating files (pdf or word) files that I need to show
to many co-workers. Instead of having to email everyone every time I finish a
file, I would like to upload the file to my server and have them view the list
of files online and download the ones they want. These files need to be password
protected as different people in different departments should only see files
pertaining to them. Here was my idea, create a bunch of password protected
folders on a server – one for each department, and I will upload the file to any
folder that should be allowed to view these files. Two questions: 1) I put the
files in a folder, but when I try to view the folder in a browser it tells me I
don’t have permission to access this folder (I assume because I never created an
index file). How can I set it up that I should be able to view a list of files
that are in the folder? 2) how can I create a page that will allow me to upload
files to folders using a browser?
A. I believe you are correct in that you do not have an INDEX file for
the server to show when you try to access the folder. You could create an INDEX
file with the links to the documents for downloading. I am assuming that you
have already password protected the folder? An even easier way would be to use a
password log in feature for your pages. The application would allow users to
sign up themselves and you would control which group the user should be in and
only the documents or files you allow each group or person to view. There is a
nice web application called ASPLogin. It has to run on a server that supports
ASP. For example, to make a document available to all users in a group called
‘management’, members of a group called ‘administrators’ and a user called ‘fred’
(who may or may not be in either of the groups), you would add the following
code to the top of the document:
<.%@ LANGUAGE=VBScript %>
<.%
Set asplObj=Server.CreateObject("ASPL.Login")
asplObj.Group("management")
asplObj.Group("administrators")
asplObj.User("Fred")
asplObj.Protect
Set asplObj=Nothing
%>
Any other group or person trying to see that document will not be allowed to see
it. It is a pretty slick application You can take a look here:
http://www.asplogin.com
To create a page to allow you to upload documents would call for some scripting.
This all depends on what type of server you site is hosted on. If it is a
Windows server then it will support Active Server Pages (ASP).
[See also the upload page example in our new PHP tutorials:
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/php/p12fileupload.html
– if your server supports PHP. –Ed.]
Q. I’m trying to design a personal portfolio site and need to have people
click on my thumbnails to see larger images in a new window… easy. However I
found a site that makes it hard for people to save/steal copyright materials- it
makes the new window close when it is clicked on… I can’t figure out how to do
this.
A. You could use the onClick event in the body tag. Of course they can
still steal your images because the images have to be downloaded to your PC for
your browser to display them. The body tag would look like this:
<.body onClick="window.close()">
This will only work if the window was opened using the JavaScript window.open
command.
Q. I’m making an imagemap in Photoshop. The imagemap is just made up of
housing parcels. What I want to do is have it so that if you place your cursor
on the parcel, a number will pop up. I figure I could do this by doing a
rollover graphic, but for 200+ individual parcels, that would take a long time.
Is there a simple way to have the imapemap be unclickable, but also have it so
when you place the cursor on the parcel information would popup?
A. You could use the TITLE attribute in the <A> tag.
<area href="#" shape="rect" coords="20, 43, 231, 281" title="This is parcel
number 218">
That will create a Pop Up message similar to the ALT attribute in the IMG tag.
Using "#" should it so the link does not anywhere if the user happens to click
on it.
As a side note, the TITLE attribute should be used on your actual links also.
This will help the search engines when indexing your website and help vision
impaired people that use screen readers.
News Goodies
Oracle to PeopleSoft: ‘Best and Final Offer’
[November 1, 2004] UPDATED: Oracle ups its bid for
PeopleSoft to $24 per share and drops most conditions in its
continuing quest to buy the software maker.
Click
here to read the article
Indian Telecom Adds Tyco Network
[November 1, 2004] As part of an international expansion, VSNL
will pay $130M for the conglomerate’s fiber-optic network.
Click here to read the article
Linux to Power Wind River Sails
[November 1, 2004] The company announces barrage of products to cover all
aspects of development.
Click
here to read the article
Macromedia Bids For More eBay Users
[November 1, 2004] The Web graphics software maker customizes
its content creation software to benefit the online giant’s
customers..
Click here to read the article
Avaya, Polycom Dial in Videoconferencing
[November 1, 2004] The communications software and
conferencing firm aims a joint product at enterprises.
Click here to read the article
AT&T Builds In Network Security
[November 1, 2004] The network operator enhances its managed services with
new worm and virus catchers.
Click here to read the article
Rage Against the Voting Machines
[October 29, 2004] The 21st century solution to voting problems conjures up
20th century concerns.
Click here to read the article
Cracking the Car Codes
[October 29, 2004] FEATURE: Unlikely allies are making car diagnostics
simpler.
Click here to read the article
It’s Bagle Day, Again
[October 29, 2004] Anti-virus vendors spot new strains of the fast-spreading
Bagle virus.
Click here to read the article
Rumor: EU to Nix Microsoft DRM Deal
[October 29, 2004] The proposed acquisition of ContentGuard by Microsoft and
Time Warner could make trouble with Euro regulators.
Click here to read the article
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Top
Windows Tech Goodie of the Week:
Building a Better Button Handler in ASP
http://www.asp101.com/articles/jim/buttonhandler/default.asp
This article outlines the design and implementation of a
classic ASP ButtonHandler class which functions as a utility
object for working with form buttons. In addition to making
work with multiple buttons simpler, it also allows you to
store and retrieve additional information by using a dot
delimiter in the button’s name attribute.
Top
And Remember This . . .
On this day in…
1993 European Union established
In 1991 delegates from the European Community drafted a treaty
designed to strengthen the bonds between European countries,
creating a European parliament, a central bank and common foreign
and security policies. The treaty. which was developed in
Maastricht, Holland, was signed in 2992 and took effect on this day
in 1993. At that time, the twelve signing countries were the United
Kingdom, France, Germany, the Irish Republic, Spain, Portugal,
Italy, Greece, Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. In
1995, Austria, Finland, and Sweden joined the Union. These member
nations were joined in 2002 by Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. In
addition to these 25 members, there are four candidate countries:
Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Turkey. The formation of the European
Union is quite an accomplishment, considering the centuries of wars
its members have fought with each other.
Today was also the day that in: 79 Pompei was buried by the
eruption of Mt. Vesuvius; 1512 Michaelangelo Buonarroti’s
painting’s on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican were
first exhibited; 1604 William Shakespeare’s "Othello" was
first presented; 1611 William Shakespeare’s "The Tempest" was
first presented; 1755 50,000 die in an earthquake in Lisbon;
1870 the US Weather Bureau began its operations; 1922
the Ottoman Empire was abolished; 1932 Wernher von Braun was
named head of German liquid-fuel rocket program; 1936
Mussolini described alliance between Italy & Germany as an "axis";
1939 The first animal (a rabbit) conceived by artificial
insemination was displayed; 1942 John H Johnson published the
first issue of Negro Digest; 1945 John H Johnson published
the first issue of Ebony magazine; 1951 John H Johnson
published the first issue of Jet magazine; 1952 The first
hydrogen bomb was exploded at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific; 1969
Beatles’ "Abbey Road," album went to #1 & stayed there for 11 weeks;
1970 Discotheque in Grenoble France caught fire with all its
exits padlocked & 142 die; 1976 Gilbert Is (Kiribati)
obtained internal self-governmentt from Britain; 1988 Actor
Jeff Goldblum married actress Geena Davis in Las Vegas; 1990
Sandra Miller was awarded $100 for Mike Tyson fondling her breasts;
Born today were: in 1500 sculptor Benvenuto Cellini; 1798
brewer & Mayor of Dublin Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness; 1915
English actor Michael Dennison; 1929 actress Betsy Palmer;
1935 golfer Gary Player; 1939 actress Barbara Blossom;
1942 publisher / pornographer Larry Flynt; 1942 actress
Marcia Wallace; 1944 English musician Keith Emerson; 1960
actress Elizabeth Dennehy; 1963 musician Rick Allen;
Thanks for reading Goodies to Go!
