Leveraging AJAX and JSON using Dojo Tool Kit

This article shows how AJAX calls are made using the JavaScript extensions developed by the Dojo foundation to retrieve data using the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)and displaying the results on the browser.

Krishnaswamy, Jayaram. ASPAlliance (2007). Articles>Computing>Web Design>JavaScript

Make Internal Links Scroll Smoothly with JavaScript

When they’re navigating through a long document, users often are confused or disoriented when they click a link that jumps to another location in that same document.

Langridge, Stuart. SitePoint (2003). Design>Web Design>Interaction Design>JavaScript

Manipulate XML Service Definitions with Java Programming

A Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) typically exports a range of services. For XML service modelling and subsequent consumption of those services by users (people, machines, or other services), Java technology provides powerful mechanisms to handle XML data, which in turn provides a key foundation for using SOA concepts. Dive into the practical aspects of SOA using XML and Java technology, and discover clear examples of why this seemingly complex technology is so popular.

Morris, Stephen B. IBM (2007). Articles>Information Design>XML>Java

Opening PDFs in a New Window with JavaScript

Learn how to use unobtrusive JavaScript to automatically open all PDFs in a new window.

McCarthy, Paul. Webcredible (2007). Design>Web Design>DHTML>JavaScript

Painless JavaScript Using Prototype

Prototype is an object oriented JavaScript library (written by Sam Stephenson and friends) that makes JavaScript fun. So it says on the site, anyway. Those of you who are familiar with the open source community's latest and greatest application framework, Rails, may recognise Prototype as it actually forms the backbone of Rails' JavaScript helper. However, Prototype can be used independently of Rails to aid the coding of many JavaScript doodads and Web 2.0 thingy wangles.

Webb, Dan. SitePoint (2006). Design>Web Design>DHTML>JavaScript

Setting and Retrieving Accesskeys with JavaScript and DOM

There are some things in the world of accessibility that appear, on the face of it, to be really wonderful ideas… until you scratch slightly below the service. What may seem feasible when putting together some guidelines on accessibility might not ultimately translate well to a real-world application. Hands up who can remember the last time they felt compelled to use a longdesc attribute? And what about the accesskey attribute? Oh, you have used them you say. OK, let’s back up a little and find out what went wrong here.

Lloyd, Ian. Vitamin (2008). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>JavaScript

Spell Checking HTML Forms with JavaScript and PHP  

Have you ever had to write a large amount of text into a field on an HTML form and been uncertain of just how reliable your spelling skills are? Wouldn't it be nice if HTML forms, like most other applications, had one of those handy little 'Spell Check' buttons? In this article we'll look at how easy it is to implement this functionality using a PHP/JavaScript solution called Speller Pages.

Williams, Rob. Community MX (2006). Design>Web Design>Interaction Design>JavaScript

Striped Tables Using JavaScript

Find our how to use unobtrusive JavaScript to make striped tables with different backgrounds on each row.

McCarthy, Paul. Webcredible (2007). Design>Web Design>DHTML>JavaScript

Tutorial: Introduction to JavaScript

JavaScript is an easy-to-learn programming language which can be built into Web pages, so that it executes from within the browser rather than on the web server. Intranets especially can leverage the power of JavaScript to create 'smart' Web pages which can process data and interact with the user. In this introduction we concisely look at the main programming points of the JavaScript language.

Weiss, Aaron. Intranet Journal. Resources>Tutorials>DHTML>JavaScript

Using JavaScript to Develop Interactive Self-Assessments  

Interactive self-assessments are effective tools for a variety of audiences; from determining one’s Myers- Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) or personality characteristics to self-scoring quizzes of all types for online training. Many Web sites contain such selfassessments that help customers select from among other offerings the type of product or service that meets their requirements. The strategic design and development of interactive self-assessments can also help steer customers to your specific product line or service, or even help them make the decision to buy or award a contract. This paper looks at the effectiveness of self-assessments as a business tool and the use of JavaScript for supporting the interactive elements.

Le Vie, Donald S., Jr. STC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>Web Design>Interaction Design>JavaScript

Writing Documentation and Help for Eclipse Projects and Plugins

Eclipse is an open-source community. One of its primary projects is the creation of 'an extensible development platform...for building software.' This platform takes shape in the Eclipse workbench, a Java-based IDE (Integrated Development Environment).

Sapir, Rick. KeyContent.org (2006). Articles>Documentation>Software>Java

Perma-Closing Message Boxes with JavaScript + CSS

Earlier this week I talked a bit about message boxes – how to style them and position them on your page to get them noticed. But a message that pops up every single time your website is loaded could get annoying. It’d be useful to give your users the ability to close those messages. For that, we’ll turn to our friend JavaScript.

Glazebrook, Rob L. CSSnewbie (2008). Articles>Web Design>DHTML>JavaScript

Choosing a JavaScript Framework

once you’ve decided that using a JavaScript framework is appropriate for the task you’re faced with, it can be hard to choose the one that is right for you. And to make things worse, what is right for you may not be right for your co-workers.

Johansson, Roger. 456 Berea Street (2007). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>JavaScript

How to Choose a JavaScript Framework

A JavaScript framework may not make you a better programmer, but it will make you more efficient. That alone should be reason enough to choose a JavaScript framework, or library if you prefer. Unless you decide to build your own, there are plenty of options available to developers. However, choosing the right framework can be tricky, and weeding through a mess of opinionated fanboys (myself included) is intimidating.

Reindel, Brian. d'bug (2008). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>JavaScript

The Rules of Unobtrusive JavaScript

One of the most important things to keep in mind when writing JavaScript for the Web is to make it unobtrusive, since You cannot rely on JavaScript being available.Sadly, there are many developers who do not seem to spend any energy at all on considering how to do that. Instead they choose to blindly forge ahead and assume that everybody who comes visiting will have full support for JavaScript and use a mouse.

Johansson, Roger. 456 Berea Street (2007). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>JavaScript

How to Create an Unobtrusive Print this Page Link With JavaScript

When a client requests that I duplicate functionality that should be (and is) handled by web browsers, I always try to avoid doing it by explaining why I believe it is better to leave such functionality to the browser. Most of the time I succed, but occasionally I don’t.

Johansson, Roger. 456 Berea Street (2007). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>JavaScript

Avoid the Void

There are plenty of occasions when coding JavaScript events where you simply need to call a function, for which an entire event registration model is too lengthy. The most commonly used method is to bind your event to an anchor link. The user clicks and the onclick event is fired, calling a reference to a function. Because the user isn’t actually visiting a URL, something has to be done with the href attribute.

Reindel, Brian. d'bug (2008). Articles>Web Design>Standards>JavaScript

Mastering JavaScript — Concept and Resource Guide

There is not a single interpreted language used today that causes more excitement, confusion, disdain, and conflict than JavaScript. The language is so incredibly flexible that it is difficult to separate a developer’s choice of coding style from JavaScript best practices.

Reindel, Brian. d'bug (2008). Articles>Web Design>Programming>JavaScript

JavaScript Shorthand Tips and Tricks

There is no official ECMAScript or JavaScript language feature called “shorthand”. Developers are responsible for coining the phrase, probably after realizing that terms like Ternary Condition are a bit archaic. The Mozilla Core JavaScript Guide does an excellent job of highlighting many of these shorthand techniques throughout tutorials, but I thought it best to have a definitive list all in one place.

Reindel, Brian. d'bug (2008). Articles>Web Design>Programming>JavaScript

Core JavaScript 1.5 Guide

Getting started with JavaScript is easy: all you need is a modern Web browser. This guide includes some JavaScript features which are only currently available in the latest versions of Firefox (and other Gecko powered browsers), so using the most recent version of Firefox is recommended.

Mozilla.org (2008). Articles>Web Design>Programming>JavaScript

Will You Need a JavaScript Framework on Your Next Project?

One of the pitfalls of using a JavaScript framework, especially among beginners, is the ability to quickly lose sight of what is specific to the framework, and what is specific to the core JavaScript language. However, as bandwidth constraints continue to dissolve, and browser compatibility issues erode, it makes sense to consider a framework on each project. Whether or not you actually use a framework after these considerations are made, is totally up to you.

Reindel, Brian. d'bug (2008). Articles>Web Design>Programming>JavaScript

Replacing NOSCRIPT with Accessible, Unobtrusive DOM/JavaScript

Modern user agents with JavaScript enabled will hide content contained within NOSCRIPT, and reveal it when JavaScript is disabled. User agents that do not support JavaScript will display the content within it. User agents with partial/antiquated JavaScript capabilities however interpret the element correctly and do not show the content, but when JavaScript is disabled also do not show the content - it never gets seen. This has an impact on the accessibility of the content. If your writing is targeted at modern, standards-based, compliant, and fully capable JavaScript user agents, employing the NOSCRIPT element is no problem. If the user agents among your audience are unpredictable, however, replacing the NOSCRIPT element with another mechanism becomes significant. This article looks at one such solution.

Palinkas, Frank M. Opera (2008). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>JavaScript

JavaScript Badges Powered by JSONP and Microformats

Using a bit of JavaScript, a nifty way of making remote web service calls (JSONP) and a few microformats, I can display information from one service somewhere else, leaving me with only one place to update it. In this article you're going to create a JavaScript badge that can be added to any site and which will display relationship data from a service which exposes it

Rushgrove, Gareth. Opera (2008). Articles>Web Design>Metadata>JavaScript

The Seven Rules of Unobtrusive JavaScript

I've found the following rules over the years developing, teaching and implementing JavaScript in an unobtrusive manner. They have specifically been the outline of a workshop on unobtrusive JavaScript for the Paris Web conference 2007 in Paris, France.I hope that they help you understand a bit why it is a good idea to plan and execute your JavaScript in this way. It has helped me deliver products faster, with much higher quality and a lot easier maintenance.

Heilmann, Christian. Opera (2008). Articles>Web Design>Standards>JavaScript

Using Capability Detection

Browser name sniffing, using scripts figure out which browser is used and then provide different content to them, is a widespread practice with a long history. Unfortunately these scripts are usually static, while browsers keep evolving.

Steen, Hallvord R.M. Opera (2008). Articles>Web Design>Personalization>JavaScript