Goodies to Go ™
December 29, 2003–Newsletter #265
This newsletter is part of the internet.com network.
http://www.internet.com
Featured this week:
* Goodies Thoughts – The Finest Choice
* Q & A Goodies
* News Goodies
* Goodies Peer Reviews
* 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 Finest Choice
Who am I to ignore synchronicity when it jumps up in my face?
Nobody — that’s who! So when I suddenly get a series of questions all about the
same topic, it tells me it’s time to talk about it again in the newsletter.
The series of questions in question have been about choices. Basically, what is
the best way to provide a choice for my visitor, such that they choose one, and
only one of a series of options? There are several ways to code this type of
choice offering. You could provide a text box in which your visitor types their
choice. That’s a bit tough to validate, though. You could provide a drop down
(also known as a pop-up) list box. The options in the selection list would begin
with "Choose One" and continue with the three required choices. You would then
write a little JavaScript to verify that a selection has been made and that the
first option ("Choose One") is not the selected option. In this particular case,
this would be a good method. Alternatively, you could provide some checkboxes.
Then you would write some JavaScript to ensure that one, and only one, of the
checkboxes has been checked. These are all reasonable options but there’s
another one which may be the simplest and most elegant of all. It’s the radio
button.
Named for the buttons on a car radio that choose a station to listen to (and,
obviously, move you off the previous selection) "radio buttons" are a group of
buttons such that when you click on any one, all the others in the group are
automatically unclicked. This means that one and only one of the buttons can be
clicked. Technically, they’re called an "option group", but "radio buttons" is
the name used commonly by the aficionado. If you set one of the options as the
default, or pre-selected, option, then you wouldn’t need any further validation
on the selections. Your site visitor would automatically select one and only one
of your options.
Let’s take a look at a couple of samples (remember to check our note under "Q&A"
below about code samples in this newsletter):
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Radio Button Example</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="ouraction.cgi">
<p>
<input type="radio" name="color" value="red" checked>Red
<input type="radio" name="color" value="yellow">Yellow
<input type="radio" name="color" value="green">Green</p>
<p>
<input type="radio" name="number" value="one" checked>One
<input type="radio" name="number" value="two">Two
<input type="radio" name="number" value="three">Three</p>
<p>
<input type=submit VALUE="Submit">
<input type=reset VALUE="Reset">
</p>
</FORM>
</BODY>
</HTML>
This example is a complete page that will accept the users input and send it to
a CGI script called "ouraction.cgi". (For more about CGI see
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/perl/cgi-tutorials/ and for more about forms, see
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/tutors/fm.html)
Now let’s take a look at those radio buttons.
There are two groups shown here, which will help to illustrate how one group is
differentiated from another. The first group looks like the choice I was talking
about earlier. There are three buttons defined by — input type="radio" — as
radio buttons. They are collected into a group by the fact that they all have
the same name. In our example, they all appear on the same line on the form.
This is for our convenience only. It doesn’t matter where on the form the
members of the group are placed, only that they all have the same name. When
passed to the CGI script, there will be a data item named "color" having a value
of "red", "yellow" or "green". In this example, the first option for color has
been marked as "checked". This means that this option will be filled in on the
form when the form is presented to the browser, and makes this the default. Thus
"color" has been given a default value of "red".
The second group is similar to the first, except that it is called "number", has
options for "one", "two" or "three" and has a default value of "one".
Simple! And when it comes to a variety of options, the simplest is usually the
finest choice!
In closing, I want to wish all of you a "Happy New Year!" I hope this is a great
one for you, and I hope that you continue to add your gems to the web that has
become my source for answers to all my questions.
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. I’m having trouble
with adding spaces on my website. I usually use Internet Explorer 6.0 for the
internet. As was suggested, I also downloaded Netscape Navigator 7.0. When I
view my site in Internet Explorer the space code " " doesn’t show up as
those letters, but as a space. But, in Netscape the space code " " doesn’t
show up until the very last time it is used.
A. The space codes in the problem area are not followed by a semicolon,
whereas the spaces in the areas that are working have the required semicolon —
" ". Add the missing semicolons and you’ll get spaces instead of code.
Q. I want to add a link on my pages that would allow my visitors to go
back to the last page they were looking at, no matter which page it was (like
the "Back" button, but a hyperlink). How do I code this?
A. You can use a piece of JavaScript that works just like the browsers
back button. Code it like so:
<a href="javascript:history.go(-1)">Go Back</a>
Q. Do you use href to open a link in a new window?
A. Yes you do. You add the target="blank" for a new window. Code it like
so:
<a href="http://www.somewhere.com" target="_blank">Somewhere</a>
Q. I’m having problems getting my style sheets to work in Netscape, they
work beautifully in IE. The version I’m running is Netscape communicator 4.7.
A. Netscape 4.7 has major problems coping with the complicated CSS. So
welcome to the club! The best thing you can do is to keep trying workarounds to
make the site look OK for both browsers.
Q. I am trying to set up a form. Is there a way to force the "To:"
address? I’ve set up the action="mailto:###", but when I test the form my email
keeps opening with all the text filled in, but the "To:" space is blank.
A. The problem is the newer browsers don’t support e-mail forms. You have
to use a server side script. Your web host may have something you can use. Also,
take a look at:
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/articles/emailforms1.html and
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/articles/emailformphp.html
Q. Is there a way to create a menu of hyperlinks over an image? I want a
text menu over my left margin images without having to create image links.
A. Use the image as the background of a table cell and place the links in
the table cell.
Q. When making an ordered list, is there a way to make the numbers of the
ordered list bold without making the entire content of the ordered list bold?
A. Yes, put bold tags around the li tags. <b><li></b>
News Goodies
PCTEL, MSI Seek Wi-Fi End-around
[December 29, 2003] UPDATE A joint offering promises to turn
the PC into a Wi-Fi access point for other home or office
computers.
Click
here to read the article
Open Source Part of Clark Campaign’s ‘Platform’
[December 29, 2003] Tech volunteers for Democratic presidential hopeful
Wesley Clark will release open source applications this week as politics and
the Internet continue to grow.
Click here to read the article
2003 a Big Year for Small Businesses
[December 29, 2003] As you gear up for 2004 and attempt to forecast how
technology will impact your business, we thought it would be helpful to take
look back at the stories that topped the SmallBusinessComputing.com charts
in 2003.
Click here to read the article
Infosys Maps RFID Plan
[December 29, 2003] The Indian IT consultant launches a new supply chain
management service.
Click here to read the article
US Airways, Expedia Settle Dispute
[December 29, 2003] Online travel site and the airline apparently resolve
differences over booking fees.
Click here to read the article
Mini Storage Drives Poised to Make Waves
[December 26, 2003] FEATURE: Already a favorite in Asia, USB
flash drives are becoming a consumer favorite in the U.S.,
but explosive growth is stymied by a lack of awareness and
security concerns.
Click here to read the article
Toshiba Tweaks Ailing PC Division
[December 26, 2003] Sink-or-swim time for the electronics company’s
troubled computer division.
Click here to read the article
Outlook: Paid Inclusion Needs to Change its Ways
[December 26, 2003] Jupiter Research looks at the market outlook for the
paid inclusion search model, and finds plenty that needs fixing before
growth returns to the sector.
Click
here to read the article
Sun’s Cobalt Line Officially Gone
[December 26, 2003] The last of the low-priced Cobalt line has been
phased out in favor of its flagship Sun Fire line.
Click here to read the article
2003: Back From the Brink
[December 24, 2003] Two years after the dot-com fallout, IT began to claw
its way back in 2003. Our editors present the Top 10 stories/trends that
shaped the year and will influence the year to come.
Click here to read the article
Every week a site is selected for review. Each week,
reviews of the previous week’s selected site are chosen for
publication on the HTML Goodies website.
The current week’s selected site is published in Goodies To
Go and in the Peer Reviews section of the website.
Current contact email addresses for submitting your site and
for submitting reviews are published in Goodies To Go.
If you would like to have your site reviewed, sign up for
the Goodies To Go newsletter in the Navigation Bar on the
left side of this page.
For full details about this program, see
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/peerreviews
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 will help 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
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/mentors/
For those who are missing Peer reviews: we are once again
revising the Peer review program in the hopes of creating a
workable solution. The current plan is to move the new Peer
Review pages into place in the new year. All those who have
been selected for reviews in the past will be featured in
the new pages. The new method will make it much easier for
your peers to provide feedback and much easier for us to
handle the publication side of things. "Watch this space!"
It’s coming soon!!
Thanks for all the feedback about the home town pictures
that I mentioned in GTG#264. Judging by the number of
responses it seems as though there’s a little project
brewing here! More to come!
Thanks again for all your feedback!
Top
Windows Tech Goodie of the Week:
Tell A Friend ASP.NET Sample Code
http://www.asp101.com/samples/tell_a_friend_aspx.asp
Here’s an ASP.NET version of our classic "Tell a Friend" script.
It not only illustrates sending an email, but also includes some
interesting ASP.NET form validation and even some basic regular
expression usage.
Top
And Remember This . . .
On this day in…
1845 Texas Became 28th State
Having accepted annexation six months previously, the Republic of
Texas entered the Union on this day in 1845. Americans led by
Stephen F Austin had settled in the thinly populated territory of
Texas after Mexico gained independence from Spain. When the number
of Americans exceeded the number of Mexicans in Texas, it declared
its independence from Mexico electing Sam Houston president of the
new republic. Texas also sought entry into the Union, but formal
action was delayed because of disputes concerning slavery. When
Congress finally agreed to the annexation and Texas entered the
Union as a slave state, the action caused a deepening of the
disagreement over slavery and also set off the Mexican-American war.
Today was also the day that: in 1170 Archbishop Thomas Becket
was assassinated by four knights of King Henry II; 1852 the
first Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) opened in Boston;
1885 Gotleib Daimler patented the bicycle; 1937 the Irish
Free State became Eire; 1940 Germany began dropping
incendiary bombs on London; 1955 Barbara Streisand, at age
13, made her first recording ("You’ll Never Know"); 1975 11
killed and 75 injured by a terrorist bomb in La Guardia Airport, New
York; 1982 Jamaica issued a Bob Marley postage stamp; 1983
US withdrew from UNESCO; 1991 China Airlines Boeing 747
crashed into a mountain at Taipei; 1997 Hong Kong began
chicken slaughter to prevent bird flu; 1997 Russia agreed to
build a nuclear power plant in China for $3Bn;
Born today were: in 1721 mistress of French King Louis 15th,
Madame Pompadour; 1800 inventor of the vulcanization process
for rubber Charles Goodyear; 1809 British PM William
Gladstone; 1876 Spanish musician Pablo Casals; 1908
actress Claire Dodd; 1920 Swedish actress Viveca Lindfors;
1928 English actor Bernard Cribbins; 1931 English actress
Barbara Steele; 1936 actress Mary Tyler Moore; 1938
actor John Voight; 1941 English musician Ray Thomas (Moody
Blues); 1946 singer Marianne Faithful; 1947 actor Ted
Danson; 1951 actress Yvonne Elliman; 1959 comedienne
Paula Poundstone; 1967 son of Elliot Gould and Barbara
Streisand Jason Gould; 1968 son of Carlo Ponti and Sophia
Loren Carlo H.L. Ponti Jr.
Thanks for reading Goodies to Go!