Goodies to Go ™
October 21, 2002–Newsletter #203
This newsletter is part of the internet.com network.
http://www.internet.com
Featured this week:
* Goodies Thoughts – Text Editors: The
Hand-Coder’s Friend
* Q & A Goodies
* News Goodies
* Feedback 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
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Text Editors: The Hand-Coder’s Friend |
Essentially, there are two ways you can put web pages together. They can
either be hand-coded, meaning that the writer/programmer writes out all the HTML
code, JavaScript, etc. by hand, or generated, whereby a generator program of
some sort is used, such as Dreamweaver or FrontPage. The latter, by the way,
also includes all the "WYSIWYG" (What You See Is What You Get) editors like
Microsoft Word or Publisher along with the various "wizard" type generators that
generate a finished page based on a series of questions (these are often
"features" buried in other programs, though they can also be stand-along
programs.)
The task of creating pages by hand coding can become quite complex. Hard core
hand-coders develop working techniques to assist them in this endeavor (if you
take a look at Feedback Goodies below, you will see an example explained by
Wolfgang Wohlkinger) that frequently involve the use of advanced text editors.
If you’ve tried to use Notepad for this you’ll know that it requires remembering
the fine points of the syntax you need and having a very keen eye to spot those
typos. Today I thought I’d share with you a little about my own favorite text
editor, point you at a couple of others (as have both Wolfgang and Keith
Marshall in the Feedback Goodies, below) and give a couple of tips about text
editors in general.
My particular favorite editor comes from Ian Mead at IDM Computer Solutions.
inc. (see
http://www.idmcomp.com ) and is known as UltraEdit. My good friend Scott
Clark, a very accomplished webmeister, favors Notetab Pro from Fookes Software
(as does Keith Marshall, below) (see
http://www.notetab.com )
These are both terrific products and sold at bargain prices. Which one to choose
is strictly a matter of personal preference. I suggest you download and try out
both, then buy the one you favor.
What sets these products apart, for our purposes, is that they recognize web
programming language formats, syntax, tags, etc. and display code in a variety
of colors to depict the nature of the code elements. Simply stated, HTML code is
in one color, JavaScript in another, comments another and so on. They have tag
lists that enable you to select a tag by name and insert the code where you need
it. For example, if I look at the HTML tag list and select Table, I get
<TABLE></TABLE> inserted where my cursor was when I clicked. The list serves
also as a reminder or prompt of the tags that are available to you.
UltraEdit recognizes a lot of different programming languages and can easily be
extended to understand more. I find this to be an advantage as I use quite a
variety myself, but can continue to use the same tool. UltraEdit and Notetab
both have excellent global search and replace capabilities that con work on a
single or on multiple files. This is very convenient when you have to track down
all references to a URL which has just changed, for example.
There are many, many features in these programs — far too many for me to
mention here. We may add a software tools section to the HTML Goodies site soon.
When we do, that would be the place for a more comprehensive review.
Text Editors allow you to "Save As" using a variety of filename extensions.
While exact mechanisms vary from editor to editor, the basic principle is that
you choose File / Save As and type in a filename and extension or type the
filename and select the extension from a drop down list. Notepad assumes you
want to save a text file (filename.txt) unless you put double quotes around the
name ("filename.html") Recent versions of Notepad also allow you to Save As,
select All Files from the file type drop down and type in any extension you want
(without the double quotes.)
Also note that you can configure which text editors to use in your browser. In
the Internet Explorer (v 5 or 6) you go to Tools / Internet Options / Programs
and select which program you want to use for an editor. The same applies to
FrontPage (Tools / Options / Configure Editors) and most site management
products.
A good text editor will save you a great deal of time and heartache!
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 know that it is possible to use external JavaScripts on a webpage by
using the SRC attribute in the <SCRIPT> flag. Is there anyway to use an external
HTML document on a webpage?
A. Yes, you use a server side include. This tutorial explains it.
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/ssi.html
Q. My "submit" button says "SUBMIT QUERY". How can I make it say
"SUBMIT"?
A. You’ll see this in the submit button tag: value="submit query". Change
submit query to whatever you want on the button.
Q. My question deals with how to integrate our website with our
Merchant Account "Authorize.Net". As a relative newbie to html programming and
e-commerce the instructions provided by Authorize.Net have me swimming in total
confusion. They do provide some examples which I am able to decipher but they do
not exactly show me how to integrate the code into the webpage. Also, I will
have multiple products to sell and I do not understand how to differentiate the
products from each other by description and price so that the credit card
processor will know how to process!
My web host provides a free CGI shopping cart script download. Is this the
answer to my problems or will this create more problems? Any help you can
provide would be greatly appreciated as I am under deadline pressure from the
credit card companies to present a working website for their review and
approval.
A. Is it my understanding that you do not have a shopping cart now? If so
then you should probably set one up. I am not sure how much you do know about
what happens behind the scenes of a web site that can process orders.
Authorize.Net takes information from your site and processes it to create an
order form so that they can verify credit cards. You select what you want to buy
and by clicking a button and the web site remembers what you want by storing the
information in cookies. Then when you are finished and want to check out you
click another button that takes you to a form to fill out your ording
information like name, address and credit card info. When you click on the final
button to complete the order, this is where Authorize.Net comes in. That button
is coded so that it sends the information to an address that Authorize.Net has
supplied you that looks like this:
FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="https://secure.authorize.net/gateway/transact.dll">
This now checks to make sure that the credit card is valid and may even ask for
more information. Every time you click a button on a web site, it is programmed
to have some kind of action. It may be to send it to another page that will
create an email and send it. In this case it sends it to another page on another
site that processes the information.
You have to supply the form for all this to happen. A shopping cart will do this
for you. When you set up the cart it may even ask you for the link that
Authorize.Net supplied you. You enter the address into a form and it may set it
up automatically, but I don’t know what your host offers for a shopping cart.
Q. In going to different web pages trying to learn html better, I
found that some are copy write protected…..when I try to right click on it, it
won’t show you the html. I would love to know that code so when I build my site
(I make graphics and don’t want others to steal them), I can put that in.
A. They used a JavaScript to disable the right mouse button. They’ve also
irritated their visitors by taking away the whole right mouse button menu, so
they also can’t go forward or back, add a bookmark, etc. by this method which
may be how they prefer. What’s more, you can defeat this block just by using
menus or keyboard shortcuts to view the code. Annoying your users is always bad.
The only way to be sure you’ve protected your images is to put a copyright mark
on in such a way that it’s tough to remove, like clear across the middle of the
image. Besides, the chances anyone will steal your images for commercial use are
almost nil. The likelihood and consequences of getting caught are too great.
Q. I would like to know the proper approach to run simultaneous
JavaScripts such as in the following scenario. I would like a "rain effect"
script (called from a .js file) over top my entire web page with underlying
rotating images scripts, sliding texts scripts, other animation scripts, etc. ie.
items that appear to be rained on. On top of the raining effect, I would to
place other JavaScripts (scripts within or outside of the page coding), animated
gifs, pictures, etc. that are "dry" i.e. …kind of a layering wet/dry scenario.
A. When running multiple scripts on one page you need to insure that the
different scripts do not use the same variable and/or function names. If they do
then you will have to change those that conflict. If you need to have multiple
scripts start when the page loads the best way I have found is to use
the onLoad event in the BODY tag to call both of them making sure you separate
them with a semicolon.
Like this:
<BODY onLoad="function_one();function_two()">
Q. When using a table, is it possible to launch an HTML Document in
another cell?
A. Yes, use a server side include to fill in the cell. Try this tutorial:
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/ssi.html.
Q. What I want to do is put a drop down menu on my website and the
choices in the menu will be .wav files that will play on the website like an
embedded sound. I know how to make a drop down menu and how to embed a sound in
to the background but I don’t know how to put these 2 together.
A. There might be a neater way I don’t know of, but you could have the
form action launch a new window with the page being determined by the user’s
choice, and embed the WAV in that. Perhaps you could have the new page not open
a HTML page, but call for the WAV file directly, and you build the URL from the
value of the option list. This is said without having tried these solutions.
There is also the problem that it won’t work if the user has pop up windows
blocked.
*** Mentor Spotlight ***
Eric Fergusson
At HTML Goodies we wish to express our sincere gratitude to our mentors.
All the time our mentor spend reading, researching and answering questions sent
in to our Mentor Community is provided voluntarily by our mentors. On occasions,
we like to throw a spotlight on a mentor so that you can get to know more about
them and so that we can all show our appreciation.
Eric Fergusson is a prolific responder, providing many, many solutions every
week. Says Eric:
"I’ve been working in web design since 1997. I’ve worked freelance and as the
webmaster for a corporate site. My expertise is first in HTML, but I also use
CSS and JavaScript, and I normally make my own graphics. I hand code and believe
in the KISS principle. My personal site is at
http://www.celticfringe.net
News Goodies
IBM Unveils New PowerPC (The Next Mac?) CPU
[October 14, 2002] IBM confirms that its 64-bit Power4 server processor
architecture will reach the desktop — the Apple Mac desktop, according to
industry gossip — in mid-2003, with the new PowerPC 970: a 1.8GHz,
single-CPU-core variant boasting native support for both 32- and 64-bit code and
a whopping 6.4GB/sec system bus..
Click here to read the article
.NET Framework SDK 1.1 Beta Goes
Public
[October 14, 2002] Microsoft has upgraded the Visual Studio.Net Framework SDK
(code-named ‘Everett’) and converted the program to public beta.
Click here to read the article
Partners Bet on Microsoft Tablet
[October 11, 2002] A host of IT firms, from chip producers to computer makers to
software developers, hope the debut of sleek platform next month will jump-start
a stalled market.
Click here to read the article
XDocs An Adobe Wake-up Call
[October 10, 2002] Officials need look no further than the Internet
Explorer-Netscape Browser War to figure out how hard Microsoft will push its
XDocs on a .pdf world.
Click here to read the article
Here’s something new for you……
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.
** Wolfgang Wohlkinger offers these tips:
Thanks for your newsletter.
Some more tips for creating HTML documents.
1. In Windows Explorer, after navigating to the folder where you want to create
your file, you can create an HTML file by either right-mouse clicking in the
files pane and selecting New | HTML Document or from the menu bar selecting File
| New | HTML Document.
2. I suggest you create a shortcut to Notepad.exe in your SendTo folder (which
can be found in the Windows folder). This then allows you to right-mouse click
your newly created file in point 1 above. Choosing "Send To" from the resulting
menu will show a list of places to send your file to. Notepad will then be one
of those listed. Select this and your newly created file will then be opened in
Notepad. Now you can just save any work done without any concern for the
extension. (Note in Win 2000 or XP this is even easier. Just choose "Open with"
when right-mouse clicking the file.)
An alternative method if you use IE: Double click the file and it will open in
IE. Now select View | Source and your document will open in Notepad. Just a
warning if you do this: Once you have opened a file like this don’t repeat this
method unless you have closed the file otherwise you will open multiple copies
of this file and you could easily wipe out your work.
3. Step 2 could be done with any text editor. There are two excellent free
editors available that do (in my humble opinion) a better job than the Notepad
supplied by Microsoft. These are:
Notepad+ which you can download from: http://www.mypeecee.org/rogsoft/ or search
for "Notepad+" (use the quotes) in Google.
ConTEXT which you can download from: http://www.fixedsys.com/context or search
for "ConTEXT" (use the quotes) in Google.
I am sure there are other good editors too. I use these two and have grown to
like them both.
Amongst the advantages that these have over normal Notepad are that they can
open larger files (restriction not in Win2000 or XP) and that you can see line
numbers. Very useful when coding JavaScripts. ConTEXT also color codes the HTML
(plus many other languages such as PHP, JavaScript, Style Sheets, etc.). But
these are just some of the advantages.
4. Whatever editor you use, a good way to work is to have your HTML file open in
both the browser and your favorite editor simultaneously. Using the Alt-Tab key
you can flip between the two programs. Using the editor you add or change
something in the HTML file. Make sure you save your work and then flip to the
browser and click the Refresh button to view your handiwork. Flip back to the
editor make more changes, save and flip back to the browser to view (after
refreshing) the changed page.
While I realize, not everyone wants to work as above, but I hope my tips are
useful to someone. 😉
And Keith Marshall suggests:
I have a favorite alternative to the traditional Windows Note Pad.
Even though most developers may already know about this, NoteTab has a freebie
version and pro versions for download. Its easy to use, yet powerful. You can
make it create most common tags for you.
http://www.notetab.com
And Remember This . . .
On this day in…
1948 First High-Speed Fax
In case you thought they only came out a few years ago, the first high speed
radio fax transmission occurred on this date in 1948. RCA sent the entire novel
"Gone With The Wind" from a radio station to the Library of Congress — all 1047
pages of it — in an impressive two minutes twenty-one seconds. The rate is the
equivalent of about a million words per minute. And speaking of radio firsts,
this date also saw the first trans-Atlantic radio transmission in 1915. They
called from Arlington, VA to the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
1956 Carrie "Princess Leia Organa" Fisher was born on this date to mother
Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher. Probably best known for her role as
Princess Leia (did you know her last name was Organa?) in the Star Wars movies,
Carrie has an extensive CV that includes the books "Postcards from the Edge" and
"Surrender the Pink" as well as such movies as The Blues Brothers, When Harry
Met Sally, Austin Powers International Man of Mystery, Drop Dead Fred,
Heartbreakers, Scream 3 and many others.
1805 Nelson defeats Napoleon at Trafalgar
Admiral Lord Nelson defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet under Napoleon
Bonaparte at the Battle of Trafalgar off the coast of Spain on this day in 1805.
Nelson raised the famous message "England Expects That Every Man Will Do His
Duty" on his own ship, the Victory, as he divided his 27 ships into two
divisions against the combined fleet of 33 French and Spanish ships. He won a
decisive victory, sinking 19 of the enemy ship without losing any of his own in
five hours of fighting. 1,500 of his men were killed, however, and he himself
was shot in the chest by a French sniper. He died below decks half an hour
before the end of the battle. It was reported that his last words, on hearing
that victory was about to be theirs, were "Now I am satisfied. Thank God I have
done my duty." He was dubbed the "savior of the nation" since it was no longer
possible for Bonaparte to invade Britain, and a column topped by his statue was
erected, and still stands, in the square renamed "Trafalgar Square" in London’s
West End.
Thanks for reading Goodies to Go!
