************************************************************
Getting It Right
I remember watching a documentary some time ago, that showed a bird that had
learned to pick up stones and throw them at eggs to crack their shells,
allowing the bird to eat the contents of the eggs.
The commentator pointed
out that this is the only bird we know of that uses a tool to accomplish a
specific task.
I pondered for a while, the learning process this species had to go
through.
At some point, it must have had the inspiration to pick up a stone
and drop it.
My guess is that it had to have been really lucky on that
first try, and cracked the egg; otherwise, why would it try again?!!
It had
to have repeated the process many times over, gradually learning that
throwing the stone with a jerk of the head yielded a higher rate of success
than merely dropping it.
There also had to be a whole bunch of them around
at the time, so that the species could learn the process, rather than just a
few individuals.
And as I pondered, I thought about how close that learning process is to the
way we learn to build websites.
We, however, have the distinct advantage on
knowing in advance that we will be going through a learning process, and
that failures are an anticipated part of that process.
This enables us to
fast track through
—
acquiring skills at a much faster rate than the bird
does; which is probably why the birds still can
’
t build websites!
Once inspired, the bird marveled at its initial success.
So should we, no
matter how humble the success might be.
The only requirement for continued
success at that point is to continue.
It is not necessary, or even
desirable, to try to learn it all at once.
Instead, learn one new thing and
incorporate it into an existing effort.
Next learn another, and so on.
There is a great danger of becoming overwhelmed by failures if there are too
many detailed items in the project for each to be learned in succession.
In this process, it is less important to get it all right than to get it
done.
Getting it right comes with time, and is a naturally occurring
feature of a repeated process.
Keep those websites coming!
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
I am constantly creating files (pdf or word) files that I need to show to
many co-workers. Instead of having to email everyone everytime 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:
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).
Is there a way of naming spans partly with a variable? I.e. insted of
doing this:
document.all.sp1.innerHTML=(
‘
<
img src=pt1.gif
>
’
);
document.all.sp2.innerHTML=(
‘
<
img src=pt1.gif
>
’
);
document.all.sp3.innerHTML=(
‘
<
img src=pt1.gif
>
’
);
document.all.sp4.innerHTML=(
‘
<
img src=pt1.gif
>
’
);
document.all.sp5.innerHTML=(
‘
<
img src=pt1.gif
>
’
);
document.all.sp6.innerHTML=(
‘
<
img src=pt1.gif
>
’
);
document.all.sp7.innerHTML=(
‘
<
img src=pt1.gif
>
’
);
document.all.sp8.innerHTML=(
‘
<
img src=pt1.gif
>
’
);
is there any way like:
for( var n = 1; n
<
9; n++)
{
document.all.sp + n + .innerHTML=(
‘
<
img src=pt1.gif
>
’
);
}
You could try to use the eval() method like this:
eval(
"
document.all.sp
"
+ n +
"
.innerHTML=(
‘
<
img src=pt1.gif
>
’
)
"
);
Q.I want to have a small window open when someone clicks a link on my
page.
I don
’
t want a full size window, just a small one.
Can JavaScript do
this?
A.Since you will probably have more than one link on a page you should set
up a function in your head section of your document that will be used by
multiple links.
You can pass the html page you want to load in the window
to the function when the link is clicked on.
With window.open() you can set
the
width, height, postion and other attributes.
Here is an example:
<
.script language=
"
javascript
"
>
function OpenWin(linkid)
{
NewWin=window.open
(linkid,
"
newwin
"
,config=
"
width=200,height=250,location=no,status=no,directories=
no,toolbar=no,scrollbars=no,menubar=no,resizable=no,top=30,left=30
"
);
NewWin.focus()
}
<
./script
>
The variable
"
linkid
"
contains the page you want to load.
This was passed
to the function when the link was clicked on.
Then in the body section of
your document your link could look like this:
<
.A HREF=
"
javascript:OpenWin(
‘
somepage.html
’
)
"
>
Apples
<
./A
>
You would wrap the link around the word that you want to click on for more
info.
The HTML Goodies site does have a tutorial on window.open()
(see
and
—
Ed.)
Q. I have been working on trying to come up with a better menu for my index
page. I used Sothink DHTMLMenu to generate one. I have it working, but it
takes quite a while for the menu to load. What is my problem?
I can
’
t see your menu, but I can make a couple guesses. You have a bunch
of images that need to load to make the menu work. The browser looks for
them when you do your mouseover, which means calling the server and asking
for the image, and repeating the process for each image. My first guess is
you could fix your problem with a preloader, so the images are already in
the browser cache. Here
’
s an example of a preloader:
// preload images
var an_image1 = new Image(151,37);
an_image1.src =
"
images/navigation/options_home_over.jpg
"
;
var an_image2 = new Image(151,37);
an_image2.src=
"
images/navigation/easement_over.jpg
"
;
var an_image3 = new Image(151,37);
an_image3.src=
"
images/navigation/mutual_over.jpg
"
;
This is a JavaScript that declares a variable as an image and specifies the
size so the browser doesn
’
t have to figure it out, and then give the
variable a value consisting of a URL.
My second guess is that your images are large and taking a long time to
download. Keep them small, like 3k each, or even eliminate them if you can.
Get rid of the
"
best viewed at
"
message. No visitor will change their screen
setting just for your site, nor take the blame for he site not working at
their screen setting. You just have to make it work at different sizes.
***********************************
AMD Extends Geode Line[
May 23, 2005
]
The new low-power processor is designed for mobile devices.
Read the article:
[
May 23, 2005
]
The company
’
s top salesman fills in as interim CEO as Nagel
leaves the mobile operating system developer.
Read the article:
[
May 23, 2005
]
OASIS ratifies a single schema for text, spreadsheets, charts
and graphical presentations.
Read the article:
[
May 23, 2005
]
Sun, JBoss, BEA and Compuware talk about the gains,
challenges and the future of Java.
Read the article:
[
May 23, 2005
]
Motorola backs a provider of directory assistance
applications for the wireless industry.
Read the article:
[
May 20, 2005
]
An Internet backbone problem leaves the company
’
s high-speed
data customers disconnected Friday.
Read the article:
[
May 20, 2005
]
UPDATE: Congress moves to lead effort to turn agency
regulations into federal law.
Read the article:
[
May 20, 2005
]
The bank begins national rollout of RFID-enabled charge
cards.
Read the article:
[
May 20, 2005
]
’
s first
‘
factory tour
’
offers a glimpse into what
’
s
next for the search giant.
Read the article:
[
May 20, 2005
]
Ask adds another piece to its search puzzle with the purchase
of Excite Italia.
Read the article:
***********************************
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 helps 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
Many thanks for your patience with the shortened Newsletter last week.
I
appreciate your support.
Thanks for all your feedback!
***********************************
More On Why I Don’t Use DataSets in My ASP.NET ApplicationsScott Mitchell continues his discussion on why he prefers using DataReaders
over DataSets in his ASP.NET web applications.
Along the way he highlights
some of the more eloquent feedback and corrects some misconceptions.
In this article, Joseph Poozhikunnel defines an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
that can be created to support any Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
adopted by an organization.
The type of ESB required could vary as there is
no
"
one size fits all
"
, therefore the article examines a few of the
mechanisms available that could be adopted to implement an ESB.
This is an ASP.NET version of ASP 101
’
s classic ASP Proper Case sample.
It
was originally written to provide a simple alternative to VB
’
s StrConv
function which was unavailable in VBScript.
Now that ASP.NET have given us
access to full blown VB, the sample includes the StrConv method for
comparison.
And Remember This …***********************************
On this day in
…
1430Joan of Arc was captured by Burgundians at Compiegne, who sold
her to the British;
1701Captain Kidd was hanged in London for piracy
and murder;
1785Benjamin Frankilin announced his invention of
bi-focal eyeglass lenses;
1867the Jesse James gang robbed a bank in
Richmond, MO, killing two and stealing $4,000.00;
1887the first
transcontinental train arrived in Vancouver, British Columbia;
1922Walt Disney incorporated his first film company, Laugh-O-Gram Films;
1945Winston Churchill resigned as British Prime Minister;
1966The
Beatles released
"
Paperback Writer
"
;
1969The Who released the rock
opera,
"
Tommy
"
;
1981NASA launched Intelsat V;
1990the cost
of rescuing failed Savings
&
Loan associations was put at $130 Billion;
Born today were: in
1707Swedish botanist and the
"
Father of
Taxonomy
"
(the naming of plants and animals) Carolus Linnaeus;
1734Austrian physician and hypnotist Friedrich Anton Mesmer;
1883actor
Douglas Fairbanks;
1890English actor Herbert Marshall;
1912actor John Payne;
1912English actor Marius Goring;
1920actor
Sid Melton;
1928English actor Nigel Davenport;
1931actress
Barbara Barrie;
1933English actress Joan Collins;
1934synthesizer inventor Robert Moog;
1936actor Charles Kimbrough;
Russian chess champion Anatoli Karpov;
1961comedian/actor
Drew Carey;
1966English actress Helena Bonham Carter;
1984actor Adam Wylie;
The original home of HTML tutorials. HTMLGoodies is a website dedicated to publishing tutorials that cover every aspect of being a web developer. We cover programming and web development tutorials on languages and technologies such as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. In addition, our articles cover web frameworks like Angular and React.JS, as well as popular Content Management Systems (CMS) that include WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. Website development platforms like Shopify, Squarespace, and Wix are also featured. Topics related to solid web design and Internet Marketing also find a home on HTMLGoodies, as we discuss UX/UI Design, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and web dev best practices.
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