Build Custom Templates for Your Data-Driven Web Sites

Most developers dread dealing with HTML tables and cells to build their Web sites. For one thing, tables make it difficult to modify the site later or to change its appearance. Discover some basic techniques for writing Web sites that you can later re-skin by using templates during the site's initial creation. Also, learn why you should use data-driven techniques for your own Web sites.

Ramirez, Ken. IBM (2008). Articles>Web Design>Databases>SQL

Build Web apps with ThinWire and Java code, Part 2: Using the SplitLayout Class

With ThinWire, an open-source development framework, you can build Web applications that look and feel like desktop applications. In this five-part series, you'll learn how to develop rich Web applications using ThinWire and Java. In Part 2, you learn to use the SplitLayout class in conjunction with your own layout management code to dynamically change the layout of a ThinWire GUI based on the current size of the Web browser window.

Baldwin, Richard G. IBM (2007). Design>Web Design>Server Side Includes>Java

Building the Front End: Craft Intelligent and Intuitive Front Ends for Ajax Applications

With Ajax still one of the industry's hottest buzzwords, more and more applications are being built with Ajax technologies. However, it's not always easy to build a good application. This article focuses on how to build intuitive, easy-to-use Ajax-driven applications.

McLaughlin, Brett D. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>User Interface>Ajax

Call SOAP Web Services with Ajax, Part 1: Build the Web Services Client

Implement a Web browser-based SOAP Web services client using the Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) design pattern.

Snell, James. IBM (2006). Articles>Web Design>Programming>Ajax

Check Your PHP Code at Every Level With Unit Tests

Test-driven development and unit tests are the latest way to make sure your code is behaving as you expect through changes and refactoring. Find out how to unit test your PHP code at the module, database, and user interface (UI) level.

Herrington, Jack D. IBM (2006). Design>Web Design>Server Side Includes>PHP

Compiling Hamlets

Rene Pawlitzek continues to advance the Hamlets framework, which extends Java servlets and enforces the separation of content and presentation. In this article, he proposes a new refinement: a method of compiling Hamlet templates that can improve application performance.

Pawlitzek, Rene. IBM (2006). Articles>Information Design>Server Side Includes>Java

Convert Atom Documents to JSON

Converting an Atom document to JSON might, at first, appear to be a fairly straightforward task. Atom is, after all, just a bit of XML and XML-to-JSON conversion tools are widely available. However, the Atom format is more than just a set of XML elements and attributes. A number of subtle details can make proper handling of Atom difficult. This article describes those issues and demonstrates a mechanism implemented by the Apache Abdera project to convert Atom documents into JSON and produces a result that is readable, usable, and complete.

Snell, James. IBM (2008). Articles>Web Design>XML>Ajax

Convert XML to JSON in PHP

With the growing popularity of Web 2.0, a new data interchange format called JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is emerging as a useful way to represent data in the business logic running on browsers. Learn how PHP-based server programs can convert XML-formatted enterprise application data into JSON format before sending it to browser applications.

Nathan, Senthil, Edward J Pring and John Morar. IBM (2007). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Ajax

Cross-Browser Web Application Testing Made Easy

'Test on multiple browsers' has been a mantra ever since there have been multiple browsers to test on. Testing them all--especially these days--is impossible. But you can come a lot closer than you may think. In this article, learn a variety of techniques for cross-browser testing, from the very thorough to the quick and dirty. The choice you make will depend on your resources, but this is an issue you can't ignore.

Fruhlinger, Joshua A. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>Programming>Testing

Crossing Borders: Continuations, Web Development, and Java Programming

This article explores continuations, the technique behind frameworks like Smalltalk's Seaside. Continuation servers make it much easier to build Web applications by offering a stateful programming model without giving up the scalability inherent in statelessness.

Tate, Bruce. IBM (2006). Articles>Web Design>Server Side Includes

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

Debunking the Myths of User Interface Design

The software development industry is relatively young, rapidly evolving, and surprisingly little is automated. It is therefore an intensely human and social endeavor, having all the phenomena characteristic of any cultural activity -- communication issues, organizational issues, customs, values, fashions, and myths. It brings out the best and the worst in people. Personalities determine much of what happens. It is more like making movies than engineering cars. Software development would benefit greatly from extensive study by sociologists, anthropologists, and clinical psychologists. As we await such analyses, let's document some beliefs embedded in the culture of software development, specifically about user interface design. This article identifies a series of cultural myths and presents realistic conclusions from my extensive experience in user interface design.

Smith, Paul. IBM (2001). Design>User Interface>Programming>Organizational Communication

Default Mapping for Annotated XML Schema

The IBM DB2 Viper release brings many new XML-related (and non-XML) features. One such feature is the annotated XML schema decomposition that allows you to decompose their XML documents into relational tables. The annotated XML schema supports various mapping constructs that allow you to map elements/attributes defined in the XML schema to table-column pairs in the relational schema. For large XML schemas consisting of many XML schema documents, manual annotation can be a cumbersome task. Get an introduction to the tool, DefaultAnnotater, that allows you to create default mapping and a default relational schema into which corresponding XML documents can be decomposed. This article provides a good starting platform for not only trying out the new function, but also further enhancing the mapping in a given XML schema.

Pradhan, Mayank. IBM (2006). Articles>Information Design>XML

Design Basics

The design principles presented here combine traditional wisdom with extensions to address the evolution of future interfaces. Existing design principles are based on our own experiences in user interface design, on the design experiences of others, and on insights from linguistics and psychology. We have extended these design principles to address evolving interfaces that will provide a more friendly appearance and behavior in the future. The increasing use of 3-D and real-world representations as well as the blossoming popularity of the Internet and the World Wide Web have strongly influenced these progressions.

IBM (1999). Design>Graphic Design>Information Design

Designing Web Content for Mobile Browsers

Because of the limited display area and processing power, mobile computing devices cannot efficiently render Web content that has been designed for a standard desktop browser. As a result, Web content that is to be viewed, or interacted with, on a mobile device should be designed with these limitations in mind. This article provides general guidelines for the creation of such content, with the ultimate goals of optimizing information display and enhancing human-computer interaction.

Cotton, James and Patrick Commarford. IBM (2005). Articles>Web Design>Wireless Web

Develop a Dojo-Based Blog Reader

In this article, the authors put your newly gained knowledge into practice by starting the development of a simple Dojo and Atom-based blog reader.

Shachor, Gal, Ksenya Kveler and Maya Barnea. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>Server Side Includes>Ajax

Develop an Ajax-Based File Upload Portlet Using DWR

File upload is a basic function of today's Web portals. In this article, authors Xiaobo Yang and Rob Allan describe how to develop an Ajax-based file upload JSR 168-compliant portlet using DWR (Direct Web Remoting). DWR is an ideal Ajax framework for Java developers that dynamically generates JavaScript based on server-side deployed Java classes. You will learn how you can use DWR to retrieve file upload progress from the portal server.

Yang, Xiabo and Robert Allan. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>User Interface>Ajax

Developing with Apache Derby -- Hitting the Trifecta

Along with creating a database schema and populating tables with data, being able to selectively modify data is one of the most important skills necessary for a database developer. This article teaches you how to selectively delete or update data in an existing table and how to modify the structure of an existing table. To perform data modifications on a more complex database schema, you'll learn about embedded subqueries, both scalar and table, with data update and data insert operations. You'll also find out how to delete and modify data in complex schemas using the Apache Derby database.

Brunner, Robert. IBM (2006). Design>Web Design>Server Side Includes>Databases

Ease of Instant Messaging: How the use of IBM Lotus Sametime Changes Over Time  

This article discusses the results of surveys that indicate the IBM Lotus Sametime instant messaging product is a successful 'walk-up-and-use' application, requiring little documentation and no training. Users achieve a commercially significant level of performance within three months. In addition, over a much longer period, users continue to develop their skills (chat behaviors), social networks (chat partners), and attitudes toward the technology (reasons for using IM). This combination of attributes — ease of learning and sustained development of skills and strategies — is unusual in Human-computer interaction, and poses some unique challenges for creating a product that experienced users continue to find useful and usable.

IBM (2004). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>User Interface>Instant Messaging

Embedding Hamlets

The open source Hamlets framework can help aid your Web development and properly separate content from presentation. The OSGi framework provides an excellent tool for development on embedded devices. Together, the two frameworks work as a team to provide browser-based interactivity to the humblest gadgets -- such as the lowly coffee maker. Read on to find out how it works.

Rene Pawlitzek. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>Embedded>Java

Enterprise Architecture Essentials, Part 6: Manageability

Organizations today face the challenge of two important enterprise architecture requirements: the need for agility and the overhead of regulatory governance. These requirements can be seen as mutually antagonistic -- if business processes must be flexible, then governance of those processes may be difficult. This article, part six in a six-part series, explores the notion of using manageability as a key enterprise architecture (EA) quality attribute to solve this problem. EA development is an ongoing process, and the central idea of this article is that by applying manageability as an EA attribute, the organizational processes, systems, and software become manageable.

Morris, Stephen B. IBM (2007). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Regulation