************************************************************
Seasonal ShoppingThe madness is here again!
Each year at this time all the malls around here get filled to the brim with
people buying gifts for the holiday season.
If you are brave or foolish
enough to be one of them, you can expect to be jostled, hustled, squeezed
and treated to a variety of similar unpleasantries.
What
’
s more, you can
expect to be parking almost as far from the mall as you live, and if you
have to bring large purchases out to the car to relieve your tired arms
while you are only halfway through your list, there
’
s a risk they won
’
t be
there when you return.
OK!
So maybe that
’
s just a touch too cynical a look at it, but it does
indicate how I fell about shopping at this time of year.
I don
’
t like malls
at the best of times, but when they
’
re crowded they are particularly bad.
The second best thing to do about it is to complete your shopping tasks by
the end of August!
The best, however, is, as you will have guessed, to shop
from the comfort of your keyboard.
Shopping from the web is, in my humble opinion, absolutely the best way to
go.
"
But it
’
s so risky,
"
I hear from the peanut gallery.
Here, then, are a
few of my thoughts about web shopping.
This is THE best way to shop
–
when you need help, it
’
s right there.
If you
want to find out more about a product you don
’
t have to ask a kid who
started working in the store that morning, you can go right to the
manufacturer and ask them.
As to price, once you have selected your
product, you can compare hundreds of vendors at light speed using one of the
many price monitoring search engines.
It is secure.
The top source for stolen credit/debit card numbers is
restaurants. Next come over the counter stores.
The Internet is actually
quite a way down.
It
’
s convenient.
It
’
s always open, there are no lines (queues), there are
no parking problems and nobody cares if I don
’
t shower or get dressed before
shopping (assuming I
’
m the only one home, that is!!)
There are no hustlers or pickpockets around my computer, and I can verify
the identity of everyone I do business with.
Without waiting or traveling anywhere I can have items gift wrapped, a
message attached and the gift delivered right to the recipient
’
s door.
Oh yes, the web is a wonderful place in so many ways!
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 have a problem with JavaScript programs.
A lot of times I create
variables and then when I try to use them I get an error saying that they
are undefined.
Why is this?
Here is an example of when this happens:
<
SCRIPT LANGUAGE=
"
JavaScript
"
>
function part1()
{
var a = 1;
}
function part2()
{
if (a == 1)
{
document.form.textbox.value =
"
The variable worked, finally!!!
"
;
}
}
<
/SCRIPT
>
<
/HEAD
>
<
BODY
>
<
FORM NAME=
"
form
"
>
<
INPUT TYPE=
"
RADIO
"
NAME=
"
why_doesnt
"
VALUE=
"
the_variable_work
"
onClick=
"
part1();
"
>
<
INPUT TYPE=
"
BUTTON
"
VALUE=
"
Variable work?
"
onClick=
"
part2();
"
>
<
INPUT TYPE=
"
TEXT
"
NAME=
"
textbox
"
VALUE=
"
If the variable worked, a message
would appear here.
"
>
<
/FORM
>
If I write this in a document and click the button, an error message comes
up saying that it is undefined.
I
’
ve tried creating the variable directly
from the event handler, renaming the variable, using checkboxes instead of
radio buttons, and nothing works.
I have tried putting an alert box in the
function and it comes up so I know the function is executing.
It just won
’
t
remember the variable.
A.You are declaring a as a variable from within a function. This makes it a
local variable that is only accessable by that function.
You can make it a
global variable that is accessable by any function by declaring it from
outside any functions, but still between the script tags. Usually global
variables are declared before the first function for the sake of clarity,
but they can be declared from anywhere between the script tags, just not
inside a function. Here
’
s your script with a as a global variable:
<
SCRIPT LANGUAGE=
"
JavaScript
"
>
var a = 0; // declares a as a global variable and initializes it to 0
function part1()
{
a = 1; // the function sets the global variable a to equal 1
}
function part2()
{
if (a == 1)
{
document.form.textbox.value =
"
The variable worked, finally!!!
"
;
}
}
<
/SCRIPT
>
<
/HEAD
>
<
BODY
>
<
FORM NAME=
"
form
"
>
<
INPUT TYPE=
"
RADIO
"
NAME=
"
why_doesnt
"
VALUE=
"
the_variable_work
"
onClick=
"
part1();
"
>
<
INPUT TYPE=
"
BUTTON
"
VALUE=
"
Variable work?
"
onClick=
"
part2();
"
>
<
INPUT TYPE=
"
TEXT
"
NAME=
"
textbox
"
VALUE=
"
If the variable worked, a message
would appear here.
"
>
<
/FORM
>
Q.I have several pages on my web site that are totally independent, i.e.
there are no links to them. These pages contain information that I might
want to look at from another computer. But I don
’
t want others to be aware
of them. Is there any way for a casual visitor, or even a hacker, to learn
the names of these pages? The names are not obvious, and there
’
s no way a
person could guess at the names. I have a page called /index.html, which is
the page a visitor gets to by typing in the domain name.
A.If a page is on the internet, the serch engines will eventually find it
and index it into it
’
s database. Unless you take some measures to tell the
search engines not to index the page. Using the ROBOTS.TXT file you can tell
search engines which folders and file to index and not to index. It is a
small text file that sits in the root of your web directory. The following
page will explain in detail about the file.
Put all of the files that you do not want the search engines to index into
one folder and name that as a disallowed folder in the ROBOTS.TXT file.
Another option would be to password protect a folder and place all of the
files in that folder. Your web host probably offers a password protected
folder and they set it up for you.
[
See also
—
and, btw, if there
are really NO links to the pages
&
there is an index page in the directory
with them, as you describe, there will be no way for the search engines or
casual visitors to find them (although somebody with physical access to a
machine you had been using to view them could find them in the browser
’
s
history, unless you cleared it).
A hacker would have to hack their way into
your system to find them.
–
Ed
]
I
’
m trying to set up an email form.
How do I send form data to an email
address instead of a file?
My email form just brings up outlook; how do I
get it to send email directly?
When I get data to me email address it is in
an attachment with an
"
.att
"
extension
—
what is this and how do I read
it?
How do I get my email form data to be formatted as text instead of
being full of stuff like
"
1=on
&
2=on
&
3=Better+Management
"
?
A.To get rid of the .att extension (and formatting problems) add
enctype=
"
text/html to the form tag like so:
<
form action=
"
mailto:somebody@somewhere.com
"
method=
"
post
"
enctype=
"
text/plain
"
>
NOTE, HOWEVER:
Version 6 (and above) browsers do not support email forms
(action=
"
mailto:
…
etc.) Instead, it is necessary to use CGI scripts (PERL,
CGI Shell Scripts, PHP etc.)
Alternatively, if your server supports
FrontPage extensions, there is a
"
WebBot
"
in FrontPage that automatically
handles sending form data to an email address (as an option to, or in
addition to saving it to a file.)
[
See also
–
Ed.
]
How do I make three tables all on the same line with a space between them?
A.You make one large table at 100 percent width and a border of zero, with
one row then add your three tables in the large tables
<
td
>
tags. Play
around with the
<
td
>
widths to get the size you need. You can add a couple
<
td
>
tags with the code
&
nbsp; which is just a blank space to make some
space between the 3 tables. Here is a example of the code:
<
table summary=
"
large table
"
align=
"
center
"
width=
"
100%
"
border=
"
0
"
cellspacing=
"
0
"
cellpadding=
"
0
"
>
<
tr
>
<
td width=
"
30%
"
>
<
table summary=
"
Menu Table
"
width=
"
100%
"
border=
"
1
"
cellspacing=
"
0
"
cellpadding=
"
0
"
>
<
tr align=
"
center
"
>
<
td
>
Menu
<
/td
>
<
/tr
>
<
/table
>
<
/td
>
<
td width=
"
5%
"
>
&
nbsp;
<
/td
>
<
td width=
"
30%
"
>
<
table summary=
"
Main Table
"
width=
"
100%
"
border=
"
1
"
cellspacing=
"
0
"
cellpadding=
"
0
"
>
<
tr align=
"
center
"
>
<
td
>
Main
<
/td
>
<
/tr
>
<
/table
>
<
/td
>
<
td width=
"
5%
"
>
&
nbsp;
<
/td
>
<
td width=
"
30%
"
>
<
table summary=
"
New Menu Table
"
width=
"
100%
"
border=
"
1
"
cellspacing=
"
0
"
cellpadding=
"
0
"
>
<
tr align=
"
center
"
>
<
td
>
New Menu
<
/td
>
<
/tr
>
<
/table
>
<
/td
>
<
/tr
>
<
/table
>
[
See also
–
Ed.
]
Q.I am new to Javascript. I have been researching a way to unselect a
number of checkboxes once a specific checkbox is clicked and vise-a-versa.
A.Here is a example that I put together for someone else (you could replace
the radio buttons with form buttons and it would work the same.)
<
html
>
<
head
>
<
title
>
Check All
<
/title
>
<
SCRIPT LANGUAGE=
"
JavaScript
"
>
function checkall(formid,obj)
{
len=formid.ckb.length
for(i=0;i
<
len;i++)
{
if(obj.value==
"
Check All
"
)
{formid.ckb
[
i
]
.checked=true}
if(obj.value==
"
Uncheck All
"
)
{formid.ckb
[
i
]
.checked=false}
}
}
function onlyone(fldobj)
{
alert(fldobj.name)
}
<
/SCRIPT
>
<
/head
>
<
body
>
<
CENTER
>
<
FORM NAME=
"
myform
"
>
<
INPUT TYPE=
"
checkbox
"
NAME=
"
ckb
"
onClick=
"
onlyone(this)
"
>
Checkbox One
<
BR
>
<
INPUT TYPE=
"
checkbox
"
NAME=
"
ckb
"
onClick=
"
onlyone(this)
"
>
Checkbox Two
<
BR
>
<
INPUT TYPE=
"
checkbox
"
NAME=
"
ckb
"
onClick=
"
onlyone(this)
"
>
Checkbox
Three
<
BR
>
Check All
<
INPUT TYPE=
"
radio
"
NAME=
"
chka
"
VALUE=
"
Check All
"
onClick=
"
checkall(this.form,this)
"
>
Uncheck All
<
INPUT TYPE=
"
radio
"
NAME=
"
chka
"
VALUE=
"
Uncheck All
"
onClick=
"
checkall(this.form,this)
"
>
<
/FORM
>
<
/CENTER
>
<
/body
>
<
/html
>
{See also
–
Ed.
]
***********************************
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:
sniffer:
Text Formatting:
Validation of dynamically generated form!:
Problems with tables :
IE just doesn
’
t understand:
***********************************
ICANN’s Small Step Toward .Asia[
December 6, 2005
]
ICANN
’
s board of directors is saving the final word on
.xxx and its proposed .com agreement for another day.
Read the article:
[
December 6, 2005
]
The new machines, which can scale up to eight cores or 32
threads, aim to cut down server sprawl in data centers.
Read the article:
[
December 2, 2005
]
Microsoft makes browser adjustment to avoid infringing
plug-in patent.
Read the article:
[
December 5, 2005
]
The latest update to the hosted PLM software features an
Ajax-style UI, code-free customization and compliance tools.
Read the article:
[
December 5, 2005
]
The professional open source vendor climbs further up the
stack with the addition of technology that handles information traffic.
Read the article:
[
December 5, 2005
]
Enhancements to people search make it easier to find
connections.
Read the article:
[
December 5, 2005
]
The rivals issue new management programs to help
customers control important data on their computer systems.
Read the article:
[
December 2, 2005
]
The streaming video market seems to have matured
—
at
least in terms of its audience.
Read the article:
[
December 2, 2005
]
The chipmaker may not match the
"
Intel Inside
"
marketing
campaign, but a strong product lineup could lead more buyers to ask for
AMD-based systems by name.
Read the article:
[
December 2, 2005
]
The top 18 percent of spenders are driving nearly half of
all online buys.
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:
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
Thanks for all your feedback!
***********************************
Examining ASP.NET 2.0’s Site Navigation – Part 2This article is one in a series of articles on ASP.NET 2.0
’
s site navigation
functionality. Part 2 explores programmatically accessing site map data
through the SiteMap class, and includes a thorough discussion of the
SiteMapPath (breadcrumb) control.
Although dealing with checkboxes isn
’
t difficult, it can be confusing. This
sample code illustrates a number of different ways to use both the HTML
checkbox form element and the ASP.NET Checkbox control. In addition to
showing you how to set them up, it also covers how to retrive data from each
of them.
The purpose of this article is to show how to use an AutoSuggestBox control
to add
‘
Google Suggest
’
functionality to your ASP.NET application. The
AutoSuggestBox control encapsulates all the complex functionality and only
requires developers to specify the datasource that provides the suggestions
to load.
***********************************
1917Mont Blanc Exploded
In the harbor at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in Canada, at 8:45 in the morning,
the French munitions ship Mont Blanc collided with the Norwegian ship, Imo.
At the time, the Mont Blanc was loaded with high explosive munitions,
intended for the war effort in Europe.
The collision ignited picric acid in
the cargo.
The crew attempted to alert the harbor personnel to the danger
of the cargo on board, but their warnings fell on deaf ears.
The fire
department arrived, parking their equipment next to the ship as it brushed
the harbor wall, setting it ablaze.
Spectators gathered to watch the
burning ship.
The ship exploded with a massive, blinding white burst,
instantly killing 1,800 and injuring 9.000 more.
200 were permanently
blinded by the flash.
The north end of the city of Halifax, including 1,600
homes was completely destroyed.
the explosion shattered windows up to fifty
miles away, and could be heard for twice that distance.
It is deemed the
most devastating explosion of the pre-nuclear age.
Today was also the day that in:
1240Bhatu Khan led the Mongols in
the destruction of Kiev;
1534Quito Ecuador was founded by the
Spanish;
1768the first edition of Encyclopedia Britannica was
published;
1833HMS Beagle set sail from Rio de la Plata with Charles
Darwin aboard;
1865the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution was
ratified, thereby abolishing slavery (at least, making it illegal);
1877the first edition of the Washington Post was published;
1877Thomas
Edison made his first sound recording;
1912China voted in favor of
Universal Human Rights;
1921The Anglo-Irish treaty was signed,
giving Ireland dominion status and partitioning off Northern Ireland;
the New York City Council agreed to build the Idlewild Airport,
later named John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, New York;
1956Nelson
Mandela and 156 others were arrested for political activities in South
Africa;
1982IRA bomb attack killed 17 in a Northern Ireland disco;
Nelson Mandela was transferred to the Victor Vestor prison in
Capetown;
1995Michael Jackson collapsed while rehearsing for an HBO
special
Born today were: in
1421King Henry VI of England;
1792King
Willem II of the Netherlands;
1822US pencil maker John Eberhard;
actor William S. Hart;
1918endoscope inventor Harold
Hopkins;
1920musician Dave Brubeck;
1924actor Wally Cox;
actor King Moody;
1932boxing promoter Don King;
1943English musician Mike Smith (Dave Clark 5);
1952actor Terence Knox;
actress Gina Hecht;
1954actor Miles Chapin;
1956musician Peter Buck;
1966(or 76?) actress Lindsay Price;
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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