************************************************************
Goodies to Go ™
May 23, 2005 — Newsletter # 338
************************************************************
Featured this week:
Getting It Right
* Q & A Goodies
* News Goodies
* Feedback Goodies
* Windows Tech Goodie of the Week
* And Remember This…
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.
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.
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!
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.
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
***********************************
Questions are taken from submissions to our Community
Mentors. You can ask a Mentor a question by going to
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/mentors/
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?
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).
Q. 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>’);
}
A. You could try to use the eval() method like this:
eval("document.all.sp" + n + ".innerHTML=(‘<img src=pt1.gif>’)");
page. I don’t want a full size window, just a small one. Can JavaScript do
this?
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
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/primers/jsp/hgjsp_11.html and
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/primers/jsp/hgjsp_12.html — 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?
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.
News Goodies
***********************************
[May 23, 2005] The new low-power processor is designed for mobile devices.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3507081
PalmSource CEO Steps Down
[May 23, 2005] The company’s top salesman fills in as interim CEO as Nagel
leaves the mobile operating system developer.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3507001
A Standard Set For The Office
[May 23, 2005] OASIS ratifies a single schema for text, spreadsheets, charts
and graphical presentations.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3507111
Java Turns 10
[May 23, 2005] Sun, JBoss, BEA and Compuware talk about the gains,
challenges and the future of Java.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3506936
Startup Pushes 411 For Mobile Crowd
[May 23, 2005] Motorola backs a provider of directory assistance
applications for the wireless industry.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/wireless/article.php/3507021
Cox Broadband Blacks Out
[May 20, 2005] An Internet backbone problem leaves the company’s high-speed
data customers disconnected Friday.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3506886
Mandatory VoIP 911 Bills Introduced
[May 20, 2005] UPDATE: Congress moves to lead effort to turn agency
regulations into federal law.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3506741
Chase Customers Can ‘Blink’ at Register
[May 20, 2005] The bank begins national rollout of RFID-enabled charge
cards.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3506891
Google Hints at Future Products
[May 20, 2005] Google’s first ‘factory tour’ offers a glimpse into what’s
next for the search giant.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3506616
Jeeves Heads to Europe
[May 20, 2005] Ask adds another piece to its search puzzle with the purchase
of Excite Italia.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3506726
Feedback Goodies
***********************************
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:
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
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/mentors/
Many thanks for your patience with the shortened Newsletter last week. I
appreciate your support.
Windows Tech Goodie of the Week
***********************************
over DataSets in his ASP.NET web applications. Along the way he highlights
some of the more eloquent feedback and corrects some misconceptions.
*** AND ***
Building an Enterprise Service Bus to Support Service Oriented Architecture
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.
*** AND ***
Proper Case ASP.NET Sample Code
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.
***********************************
her to the British; 1701 Captain Kidd was hanged in London for piracy
and murder; 1785 Benjamin Frankilin announced his invention of
bi-focal eyeglass lenses; 1867 the Jesse James gang robbed a bank in
Richmond, MO, killing two and stealing $4,000.00; 1887 the first
transcontinental train arrived in Vancouver, British Columbia; 1922
Walt Disney incorporated his first film company, Laugh-O-Gram Films; 1945
Winston Churchill resigned as British Prime Minister; 1966 The
Beatles released "Paperback Writer"; 1969 The Who released the rock
opera, "Tommy"; 1981 NASA launched Intelsat V; 1990 the cost
of rescuing failed Savings & Loan associations was put at $130 Billion;
Taxonomy" (the naming of plants and animals) Carolus Linnaeus; 1734
Austrian physician and hypnotist Friedrich Anton Mesmer; 1883 actor
Douglas Fairbanks; 1890 English actor Herbert Marshall; 1912
actor John Payne; 1912 English actor Marius Goring; 1920 actor
Sid Melton; 1928 English actor Nigel Davenport; 1931 actress
Barbara Barrie; 1933 English actress Joan Collins; 1934
synthesizer inventor Robert Moog; 1936 actor Charles Kimbrough;
1951 Russian chess champion Anatoli Karpov; 1961 comedian/actor
Drew Carey; 1966 English actress Helena Bonham Carter; 1984
actor Adam Wylie;