Goodies to Go ™
June 16, 2003–Newsletter #237
This newsletter is part of the internet.com network.
http://www.internet.com
Featured this week:
* Goodies Thoughts – Website
Reviews, Round Two
* Q & A Goodies
* News Goodies
* Goodies Peer Reviews
* Feedback Goodies
* And Remember This…
Goodies Announcement
Just in case you missed
it before, 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 – Website Reviews, Round
Two
A few months ago, we started the Goodies Peer Reviews program. It all began with
a suggestion from Peter Mole from Australia. It was such a great idea that we
asked you about it, you responded with an overwhelming "YES!", so we put a
program together and implemented it last March. There was an immediate surge of
activity, as we would expect, followed by a slow down — also as we would
expect. Then we started to notice a few things.
The biggest difficulty we seem to need to resolve relates to the reviews
themselves. When we put together the program, we had decided to allow a sort of
"free form" format to them, providing you with the flexibility to create a
review structured as you see fit. Unfortunately, this has led to the majority of
the "reviews" coming in as single paragraph, or even single sentence, comments.
This is not exactly what we had in mind!
When I commented a few weeks ago about the small number of actual reviews we
were receiving, we received feedback that highlighted three things. First, you
like the program and don’t want it to go away. Great – it won’t! Second, there
are a lot of you out there who would like to write a review but either feel you
don’t have enough technical skill yourself, or don’t know what format a review
should take, and third, we have not done an adequate job of letting you know how
this program is supposed to work, and how you can participate.
To address these last two issues, we have created new guidelines and added a
review template. We had written a few, cursory guidelines, but nothing of any
great substance. We now have a comprehensive set of instructions, a decent set
of guidelines and a review template for you to download and use as the basis for
your review. These are all due to be added to the website this evening – if
they’re not there when you look, come back in the morning and find them!.
We have made a couple of changes to the requirements for the emails you send in,
specifically regarding the subject lines. We need this for identification
purposes. Please pay careful attention to these requirements. We receive a ton
of email every day and this is the only way we can identify that you are
involving yourself in the Goodies Peer Review process.
Before I close, I want to encourage you to participate in this program. One of
my favorite expressions is "you teach best what you most need to learn." By
helping others, we learn a lot ourselves. If, on the other hand, you feel that
you don’t have the expertise to help somebody else along, let me ask you this:
do you know what you like? If you do, you have everything you need! Check out
the review template — you will see that you could easily fill it out for any
website you visit. Reviews don’t need to have lots of technical content — if
they do have it, that’s fine too. The most valuable aspect of a review is that a
fresh eye will see the site differently than its author, and can help the author
to create a site that is what their audience likes and can use. In return for
your efforts, we provide some free publicity for you and your site on one of the
web’s most popular web developers’ sites. Some people have been quite surprised
by what a little HTML Goodies exposure can do!
Hear that bell? That’s the Goodies Peer Reviews round two starting! Check out
the website!
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 out of work & learning Javascript to improve my skills, running
W2K, IE 6.0. Periodically when I try to use the sample exercises, I get an error
message saying that an object was expected. Here’s an example:
<html><head>
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 5.0">
<meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=windows-1252"> <title>IMG1</title> </head>
<body>
<center>
<FORM NAME = form1>
<IMG NAME = "IMG1" SRC= "images/dr1.jpg" WIDTH= 123 HEIGHT = 184> <BR>
<BR>
<INPUT TYPE = BUTTON Value = "Change Image" onClick =
"ChangeImage()">
</FORM>
</CENTER>
</body>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE = Javascript>
function ChangeImage()
{
document.form1.IMG1.src = "images/woman1.jpg"
}
<script/>
</html>
I get "Microsoft Jscript runtime error: Object expected" on the line that says "ChangeImage()".
I’m copying the scripts exactly. This is only one example of a problem I keep
having. Could this be because the people writing the scripts are running NN and
I’m running IE? Is it because I’m using FrontPage?
A. The problem with your script is that the ending script tag is
incorrect. Instead of "<script/>" you should have "</script>". In this
particular case have the script at the end of your document is ok, but in most
cases you should place it in the head section of your document. Good Luck on
your quest to learn new skills.
Q. Im trying to make one of those websites where you can change the
whole color-scheme of the site by clicking a link. I know Im probably going to
have to use PHP with CSS, my main question was concerning images. How do I
insert an image using an External Style Sheet. I have a few images that I want
swapped in and out, depending on which style-sheet is applied to the site. Is
that possible? If so, how can I achieve it?
A. A good reference for style switchers is http://www.alistapart.com/
They have a few articles about this. Changing images can be a little tricky,
especially concerning older browsers. You may want to test this method on your
local site before going live.
The style sheet cannot add images using the <img> tag, but it can add background
images to almost any block element, like <div>, <p>, <ul> etc.
If my business, Company ABC, has two different style sheets with different color
schemes, I might want to use different color logos. I would do something like
this in my HTML:
<div id="header">
<h1>Company ABC</h1>
</div>
and add different code in my styles…
………. in file redstyle.css :
div#header {
background: url(redlogo.gif) no-repeat;
height: 50px;
wisth: 200px; }
………. in file bluestyle.css :
div#header {
background: url(bluelogo.gif) no-repeat;
height: 50px;
wisth: 200px; }
………. and in both files:
div#header h1 { display: none;}
When the styles are switched, the background image in the "header" div is
changed, creating the illusion of different images on the page. The "display:
none;" atttibute hides the text in the <h1> of the <div> so only the images
shows through, but the text will be readable if the browser can’t handle the
style sheet.
Q. how can i
get rid of this error:
document.form1.field.value has no properties.
I have tested in ie6, nn6, and nn4, and nn4 is the only browser that gives me
this error. what can i do to get rid of it?
<html>
<head>
<script language="javascript">
function validate(){
if(document.form1.field.value.substring(0,3)=="adv")
{document.form1.action="updateadvisor.asp"}
if(document.form1.field.value.substring(0,3)!="adv")
{document.form1.action="updatestudent.asp"}
document.form1.submit()
}
</script>
</head><body>
<form name="form1" action="updatestudent.asp"
method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="ID" value="59">
<select name="field">
<option value=adv1>advisor: person1</option>
<option value=adv2>advisor: person2</option>
<option value=del1>delegate: person3</option>
<option value=del2>delegate: person4</option>
<option value=alt>alternate: person5</option>
<option value=ws1>presenter: person6</option>
<option value=ws2>presenter: person7</option>
</select>
<input type="button" value="submit"
onClick="js:validate()">
</body>
</html>
A. Netscape 4 version browsers require that you specify the selected
Index to get the value of the option selected. Try changing your function to
this:
function validate(){ num=document.form1.field.selectedIndex
if(document.form1.field.options[num].value.substring(0,3)=="adv")
{document.form1.action="updateadvisor.asp"}
if(document.form1.field.options[num].value.substring(0,3)!="adv")
{document.form1.action="updatestudent.asp"}
document.form1.submit()
}
I would also recommend that you change the onClick event in your input button to
remove the "js:" like this:
<input type="button" value="submit" onClick="validate()">
You don’t need it and it could cause some problems.
Q. I can never get an image flip to work. I try to do more than one flip
on a page, but it only flips one picture, and the rest remain the same. Also,
when I put on picture in, it was replaced by another picture. Then, when I put
my mouse over another, it changes, but it changes to the red X in the white
square, when I’ve quadruply checked to see if it was there. I just can never get
it to work. Any suggestions?
A. The best I can do is give you an example of one way to accomplish it.
Here it is:
<html>
<head>
<title>Image Flip</title>
<script language="JavaScript">
function flip(img,imgn)
{
document.images[imgn].src=img
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<a href="somepage.html" onMouseOver="flip(‘1.gif’,’pica’)" onMouseOut="flip
(‘0.gif’,’pica’)">
<img src="0.gif" name="pica" border="0"></a><br>
<a href="somepage.html" onMouseOver="flip(‘3.gif’,’picb’)" onMouseOut="flip
(‘2.gif’,’picb’)">
<img src="2.gif" name="picb" border="0"></a>
</body></html>
You will notice that when I mouse over the image it passes to the function the
image to display and the name of the img tag that I want to affect. The function
called flip is rather simple in that it uses the image array to change the image
by specifying the name of the image tag.
News Goodies
SCO Terminates IBM’s AIX License
[June 16, 2003] BREAKING NEWS: SCO Group yanks IBM’s license to use or
distribute the Unix-based AIX operating system.
Click
here to read the article
Report: FCC Competition Rules Hurting Consumers
[June 16, 2003] According to new study, low unbundled rates for Baby Bell
competitors have resulted in little consumer benefit.
Click
here to read the article
Microsoft Offers Improved Developer Tools
[June 16, 2003] Fueling its desire to keep code writers in its camp,
the software giant releases updated toolkits for .NET and Windows Embedded
systems.
Click here to read the article
TI Moves Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Closer
[June 16, 2003] Texas Instruments is introducing a coexistence packages made
up of Bluetooth and 802.11 silicon that will work simultaneously while in
the same device.
Click here to read the article
Serial Attached Technology a Fixture at CeBIT
[June 16, 2003] Adaptec, HP and Seagate team to make Serial Attached SCSI
and Serial ATA interoperable, which they believe will lower total cost of
ownership of companies that buy storage software and hardware.
Click here to read the article
Yahoo!, BT Meld Access, Content
[June 16, 2003] In a deal that mirrors its partnership with SBC, the
portal player inks a far-reaching pact with the UK’s largest ISP.
Click here to read the article
Enterasys Routers Target Regional Offices
[June 16, 2003] The network equipment maker unveils platforms that combine
WAN, VPN and firewall technologies for far-flung offices and data centers.
Click here to read the article
Priceline.com Sets Reverse Stock Split
[June 16, 2003] As an increasing number of other issues regain NASDAQ
listing compliance, Norwalk, Conn.-based online travel site backs
second-quarter guidance for a return to profitability of between 2 to 3
cents a share.
Click here to read the article
Analysts: Wi-Fi Complementary to Telecoms
[June 16, 2003] Contrary to established views that Wi-Fi will cannibalize
both wireline broadband and cellular services, analysts say the technologies
are complementary.
Click here to read the article
HP, Dell Pledge Java Support
[June 11, 2003] UPDATE: Despite Microsoft’s decision to drop
Java from the Windows OS, HP and Dell say they will continue
to ship the runtime environment as part of their OEM
agreements.
Click here to read the article
Every week a site selected each week 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
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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:
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I am so glad that you all read every piece of Goodies To Go!
Last week I had a piece in the "And Remember This" about the
Triple Crown winner Secretariat. Several people wrote in to
point out that Secretariat was not the most recent winner of
the Triple Crown, and that it has also been taken by
Affirmed in 1978 and Seattle Slew in 1977. I actually never
said that Secretariat was the most recent winner, only that
last Monday was the anniversary of that win (the section is
always "On this day in….") It is interesting though, that
as humans we read into what we see, more than is actually
there — sort of an "I know they meant this…." type of
thinking. This characteristic is particularly troublesome
for those who are into Artificial Intelligence, whose task
it is to try to make a computer "think" like a human.
I also got a lot of responses about the "Lame Personal
Website" piece. I thank you all for your kind words. I do
want to add one thing, however, for one reader in
particular. Dennis M, the "Unofficial Ruler of Cyberspace"
felt that he hade done everything in his power to make his
site lame. I checked it out. Your site is a total waste of
space, Dennis, and a total waste of all the time I spent
looking at it (about half an hour, all in!) Nice job! For
you readers who would like to see what I mean, waste a few
moments at
http://www.angelfire.com/pa/anticrust/ and
http://www.usaor.net/users/weesaul/
Top
And Remember This . . .
On this day in…
1966 US Supreme Court Decides Miranda v. Arizona
On this day in 1966, the US Supreme Court handed down its
decision in the case of Miranda v. Arizona. This decision
established that all criminal suspects must be advised of
their rights before interrogation. This landmark case
created the adjective "Miranda" and the verb "Mirandise".
Anybody who has watched any American TV cop program has
heard the "Miranda Rights": "You have the right to remain
silent. Anything you say can, and will, be used against you
in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you
cannot afford one, one will be appointed to you." Many
suspects have been freed based on the fact that the
arresting officer failed to "Mirandise" them. The rape
charges against Miranda were overturned, but he was
convicted again in a subsequent trial. After spending six
years in jail, he had four years of freedom before being
stabbed to death during a poker game in a seedy bar.
Born today were: in 1890, actor and comedian Stanley
Laurel (Arthur Stanley Jefferson) (Laurel & Hardy); 1899
opera singer Helen Traubel; 1917, news publisher
Katherine Graham (The Washington Post); 1955 actress
Laurie Metcalf (Roseanne, A Dangerous Woman, JFK, Pacific
Heights, Uncle Buck, Desperately Seeking Susan)
Thanks for reading Goodies to Go!
