Access Key, HTML Accesskey Generated by JavaScript

One of the great advantages of using first letter of the link text as access key is that it can be generated by code. Conventional wisdom states that it should be done server-side. Bad that it is much easier with JavaScript.

Tverskov, Jesper. Smack the Mouse (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>JavaScript

Battle of the Wizards: Dojo Vs. Microsoft

Two wizards are compared. One client script from DOJO and the other server component from Microsoft. Both fo them work exceedingly well in IE 7.0. Dojo wizard looks smashing.

Krishnaswamy, Jayaram. DevShed (2007). Articles>Computing>Programming>JavaScript

Crossing Borders: JavaScript's Language Features

JavaScript is often ridiculed as the black sheep of programming languages. The development tools, a complicated and inconsistent document object model for HTML pages, and inconsistent implementation in browsers contributes to that sentiment. But JavaScript is much more than a toy. In this article, Bruce Tate explores JavaScript's language features.

Tate, Bruce. IBM (2006). Design>Web Design>DHTML>JavaScript

Curbing JavaScript Dependency

JavaScript can be used as an enhancement, but too often it ends up rendering a page unusable to people who don't run it. There are a number of good reasons why it might not be running in a given browser, and pages should never depend on it. MSG is a 'flavor enhancer,' with one slight problem -- some people are allergic to it. Most people don't seem to care much either way, but a small number of people seems to have bad reactions to it. If you ask people in the industry who sell it, they'll tell you it's quite safe, but there are others who claim that it's potentially lethal to some (very, very few) people.

Seebach, Peter. IBM (2001). Design>Web Design>Programming>JavaScript

Exploring Footers

With old-school table layout methods, vertical positioning is a piece of cake. With CSS layout, it's a piece of something else. New ALA contributing writer Bobby van der Sluis shows how to regain control of footers and other vertically positioned layout elements via CSS, JavaScript, and the DOM.

van der Sluis, Bobby. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>CSS>JavaScript

Heading Navigation Greasemonkey User Script

This is a Greasemonkey user script to enable heading navigation in Firefox. Headings can either be navigated by the heading level, for example, all h2 elements, or by any level.

Juicy Studio (2006). Design>Web Design>DHTML>JavaScript

How to Validate Forms with JavaScript

Discover why and how you should use unobtrusive JavaScript to validate forms.

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

If I Told You You Had a Beautiful Figure...

Lay out images consistently across your site using a liitle clever JavaScript.

Gustafson, Aaron. List Apart, A (2007). Design>Web Design>Graphic Design>JavaScript

The Importance of Maintainable JavaScript

JavaScript is hip again; there’s no doubt about it. But if you’re starting to get down and dirty with it, there’s no excuse not to keep it clean.

Heilmann, Christian. Vitamin (2008). Articles>Web Design>Programming>JavaScript

Increasing Form Usability with JavaScript

It's easy to increase the usability of forms using JavaScript - find out how.

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

Integrate XForms with the Google Web Toolkit, Part 1: Introducing GWT's JavaScript Native Interface

This four-part series demonstrates how to use the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) and XForms together to create a dynamic Web application.

Galpin, Michael. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>Ajax>JavaScript

JavaScript 101, Part 1: The Basics

One of the primary aspects of effective web experiences is interactivity. Although most Flash developers will try to state otherwise, the reality of the fact is that the majority of non-standard interactivity, that is interactivity beyond what the broswer provides automatically, is driven by JavaScript. Over the last few years the acceptance of both standards and some new JavaScript technologies such as XMLHttpRequest, or AJAX to the masses, has opened up a whole new realm of possibilites that have helped to bring JavaScript back into the mainstream focus as an important and leading-edge technology. The purpose of this series of articles is to introduce newcomers to the concepts and fundamentals of JavaScript, so that you can begin to leverage the power of this technology in your own web projects.

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

JavaScript and Progressive Enhancement

Learn about JavaScript and how it can be used to progressively enhance your site.

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

JavaScript Basics for Prototyping

I know there are a good number of designers out there afraid of anything that smells of programming (basically, if it's not plug and play, it's not being used). I completely understand. Dealing with CSS rending across browsers is bad enough already. Because prototypes are all about making an interface 'look' like it works, the dabbling we're going to go over here is actually a process that's amenable to designers (especially those with programming skills that started off as just rudimentary hacking skills). CSS is the domain that most of the new crop of web designers are most comfortable with and so the functions we're going to go over are ones that manipulate, for the most part, the styles of our elements.

Hale, Kevin. Particletree (2006). Design>Web Design>Prototyping>JavaScript

jQuery Crash Course

As developers, we have more and more JavaScript libraries to choose from and, of course, the option not to use any at all. Over time, we each tend to favor one method of coding over another. For those who'd like to learn more about jQuery, one of the more popular libraries, here's a crash course written with code-savvy web designers in mind.

Smith, Nathan. Digital Web Magazine (2007). Design>Web Design>Programming>JavaScript

JSON Basics

These are the golden days of JavaScript, which was warily used in the not too distant past because of the browser wars (still being waged). With enhancements to JavaScript in recent years and the advent of AJAX, interest in Javascript has taken a new turn, a turn for the better. Early on with AJAX it was recognized that there was a contender for XML for handling data which was stable, faster, and portable. This was the beginning of JSON. This article gives you a good explanation.

Krishnaswamy, Jayaram. DevShed (2007). Academic>Computing>Ajax>JavaScript

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

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