All Articles

Synopsis: What used to be true doesn't always remain true. One of the frequently asked JavaScript questions I used to be asked was: "How can I read and write to a text file?" - this article describes one answer based on Google Gears

Techniques: AIR, Google Gears, Google, AJAX, offline browser access

Synopsis: First steps into Ajax and GWT, describes whats been happening on irt.org recently and work done elsewhere

Techniques: Google, BT Beta, Eclipse, GWT, Betwixt, AJAX

Synopsis: How to use JavaScript to control sound only Flash movies to add interactive sound to a conventional web site without the need for Flash graphics.

Synopsis: The whole of chapter 6 from "Beginning JavaScript", by Paul Wilton, published by Wrox Press, ISBN 1861004060

Synopsis: Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce) has proliferated on the Web in the last few years. XML is touted to accelerate this growth further. The advantages XML offers to businesses, developers, and customers are discussed. Applications to various business domains are provided. Issues that prove obstacles to effective deployment of XML in E-Commerce, along with suggested solutions, are pointed out. By Pankaj Kamthan and Hsueh-Ieng Pai

Synopsis: Bouncing balls, geometry and physics - geometry and physics in JavaScript by Marco Brandizi

Techniques: Mathematics, geometry and physics, Dynamic HTML, layer, all

Synopsis: The notion of "correctness" in authoring documents for the Web is important. Extensible Markup Language (XML) allows various levels of flexibility to the author during document production. Tools and techniques that can lead to XML conformance are discussed. Written by Pankaj Kamthan

Techniques: XML, XML Conformance, XML Well-Formedness, XML Validation, XP, RUWF, XML Spy, XmetaL, XML4C, XML4J, DOMit, STG Validator

Synopsis: Extensible Markup Language (XML) documents consist of entities that are content placeholders. Different types of entities serve a number of different functions, in different contexts, and use different ways to point to the data that they hold. Syntax and semantics of XML entities are discussed by Pankaj Kamthan. Examples of their use in various scenarios and applications are given.

Techniques: MathML, XML, DTD, Entities, XHTML

Synopsis: This article shows how to include a multi-dialogue form all on one page. The working example presented in this article will show how to split a form into several parts, but display each part form on the same page without requesting the next form from the server, and allow the user to go back and amend any of the previous forms without losing data already entered. This article will also introduce techniques for coping with the W3C Document Object Model (DOM) which is supported by both Internet Explorer and the upcoming release of Netscape Navigator. Written by Martin Webb.

Techniques: JavaScript, Form, document.layers, document.all, W3C DOM Level 1, W3C DOM Level2, DOM nodes, getElementById, removeChild(), hasChildNodes(), createRange(), selectNodeContents(), appendChild(), createContextualFragment(), innerHTML, document.write(), DOM ranges

Synopsis: Humour

Techniques: Jokes

Synopsis: Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an important step towards creating a standard platform for graphics on the World-Wide Web (Web). Pankaj Kamthan discusses the motivation for SVG, along with its advantages, applications in various contexts, and issues concerning its deployment.

Techniques: Graphics for the Web, Raster Graphics, Vector Graphics, Scalable Vector Graphics, SVG, SVG Rendering, Optimization, Security and Grammar

Synopsis: Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) is an Extensible Markup Language (XML) vocabulary for describing mathematical notation, capturing both its structure and content. The current state of MathML in lieu of other technologies is discussed by Pankaj Kamthan. A variety of examples are presented.

Techniques: MathML, Issues, Authoring, software, Mathematical Markup and Semantics, XML, SMIL

Synopsis: This article, by Abby Beifeld, demonstrates how to get around the limitations of HTML selection lists by using HTML tables in their place. The article shows how to highlight table rows as they are selected and display the results for the selected item on the same page. The example provided will work in MSIE 4+ and Netscape 4.x browsers.

Techniques: DHTML, Dynamic HTML, JavaScript, tables, frames, highlighting rows in tables

Synopsis: Have you ever wondered about the different types of images used on websites? Or more importantly, what kind of web images to use for your own website? In this tutorial written by Ian Gan, we'll try and give you a clear picture of commonly used web formats and how you can apply them to your own website.

Techniques: Image formats, Bitmap, Vector, compression, lossless, lossy, bit depth, DPI, GIF, JPEG, PNG, SVG, file sizes

Synopsis: This article addresses a problem that most developers eventually hit - how to keep control of a pop-up window when the main window changes location.

Techniques: window, opening a pop-up window, pop-up window, open(), focus(), window name, close(), naming a window, targeting a named window

Synopsis: As we have already seen in previous articles, scripting events can add a needed flair to your web pages without the hassle of using a plug-in. In this article, Ryan Detert will introduce you to you some of the brand-new Internet Explorer 5.0 specific drag-and-drop events.

Techniques: Drag and Drop, Internet Explorer 5.0, Event handlers, target and source events, ondragstart, ondrag, ondragenter, ondragover, ondrop, ondragleave, ondragend, clearData(), effectAllowed, dropEffect, setData(), getData()

Synopsis: Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a meta-language for the World-Wide Web (Web) that has been applied to several diverse domains of society. The current state of XML and related initiatives, separating possibilities (rigor) from popularizations (hype), are discussed by Pankaj Kamthan. Caveats in deployment of XML are pointed out with the help of case studies in synchronized multimedia and electronic commerce (E-Commerce).

Techniques: Markup Languages, Structure, XML, Extensibility, Data/Object view Semantics, Authoring, Rendering, XML Case Studies, SMIL, E-Commerce

Synopsis: This article, written by Martin Webb, will attempt to solve one of the most annoying problems that developers come across when developing with DHTML - How to place a dynamic (visible/invisible) layer relative to a table cell, or, how to position an absolute layer relatively.

Techniques: DIV, SPAN, DHTML, Layers, positioning, relative, absolute, events, visibility, offsetLeft, offsetTop, posLeft, posTop, left, top, width, clientWidth, clientHeight, scrollLeft, scrollTop

Synopsis: David Gardner discusses DHTML (Dynmaic HTML), and what it is. Showing how to manipulate images and layers on the screen in both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer

Techniques: DHTML, Nestcape Navigator 4, <layer>, Internet Explorer 4 and 5, Dynamic content, Dynamic movement, cross-browser DHTML, resources

Synopsis: This document explains why you, as a Web page author, should not try to prevent Web browsers from displaying textual links underlined and image links with borders around them. It also discusses common mistakes in setting (suggesting) colors for textual links. In special cases, it might actually help users if you "tailor" link presentation; there are both HTML and CSS methods for that. The beauty of textual links is explained and compared with the drawbacks of non-textual links and pseudo-links like buttons. Finally we present various ways of "animating" or otherwise enhancing links without destroying their natural beauty. By Jukka Korpela.

Techniques: Links, normal, underlined, borders, colors, visited links, emphasis, no-underline, hilighting, flags, image links, maps, JavaScript, Java, forms, animation

Synopsis: Y2K has come and gone. This article discusses Y2K issues still present in JavaScript, and describes how to code around them. By Martin Webb

Techniques: JavaScript, date, getYear(), setYear, getFullYear(), setFullYear(), lastModified, getCorrectYear()

Synopsis: Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a standard for marking up data in a structured manner. Styling the content of XML documents so that it can be presented to a Web browser is therefore desirable. Viability of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in styling XML documents is discussed. Examples from a variety of XML applications are included. By Pankaj Kamthan

Techniques: XML, Extensible Hypertext Markup, CSS, Cascading Style Sheets, DTD, MathML, Mathematical Markup, SVG, Graphical Markup, Extensible Stylesheet Language, XSL, XSL Formatting Semantics, XSL-FS, XSL Transformations, XSLT

Synopsis: Jukka Korpela describes "Requests For Comments" (RFCs), their usage , history and relevance to internet developers

Techniques: RFC, Request For Comment, For Your Information, FYI, STD, Standards, IETF, W3C

Synopsis: Ryan Detert continues the series on events and event handlers in both Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. This time covering the mouse events

Techniques: Events, Event Handlers, onclick, ondblclick, onmousedown, onmouseup, onmousemove, onmouseover, onmouseout

Synopsis: Netscape Communicator and Microsoft Internet Explorer offer an incredible amount of versatility. Events, their handlers in particular, have given web pages a more robust, interactive environment. In this article Ryan Detert explores event handlers available since JavaScript 1.2 it has been possible to capture and even cancel key presses.

Techniques: Events, Event Handlers, Capturing a Key Press, Cancelling a Key Press, onKeyDown, onKeyUp, onKeyPress

Synopsis: Ryan Detert goes a little bit crazy! See him in 3D color with the help of MetaCreation and Intel with the new MetaFlash 3D camera

Techniques: MetaFlash 3D Camera, MetaCreation, Intel, Hardware, 3D, Pictures, Web

Synopsis: XML namespaces provides a method for qualifying element and attribute names used in Extensible Markup Language (XML) documents by associating them with namespaces uniquely identified by Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) references. The motivation for XML namespaces, along with their internal workings are discussed by Pankaj Kamthan with the help of various examples. Specific applications are included.

Techniques: XML Namespaces, Qualified Names, Explicit and Default Declarations, Uniqueness, Attributes, Authoring, MATHML, SVG, Translating XML to XHTML, XSL, Metadata, RDF

Synopsis: HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), the definitive markup language for the Web, is inflicted with various limitations. To resolve those, HTML has been reformulated as XHTML (The Extensible Hypertext Markup Language) 1.0, which is a vocabulary based on XML (Extensible Markup Language) 1.0 syntax. An introduction, from the author's viewpoint, is given. Issues of XHTML 1.0 syntax and semantics, transition from HTML to XHTML 1.0, and XHTML 1.0 authoring, rendering and validation are discussed by Pankaj Kamthan

Techniques: XHTML, SGML, HTML, XML, XHTML Syntax and Semantics, XHTML DTDs, XML Namespaces, XHTML Namespaces, HTML to XHTML, HTML Tidy, HTML-Kit, Amaya, XML Spy, Mozquito Factory, Validating XHTML, Rendering XHTML

Synopsis: Internet Explorer has evolved a significant amount since its version 3.0 was introduced a few years back. Dynamic HTML is equipped with its own hierarchy, programming languages, you name it. You can almost run your computer with it. Now what if we took the DHTML in IE and used it to re-create IE. Is this possible? Of course it is. Ryan Detert shows how using the new HTML Applications (HTA's) that Internet Explorer 5.0 now supports.

Techniques: HTML Applications, HTA, ID, applicationName, border, borderStyle, caption, icon, maximizeButton, minimizeButton, showInTaskBar, singleInstance, sysMenu, version, windowState, commandLine Method, HTA Web Browser, DHTML, JScript

Synopsis: Martin Webb and Jan Ehrhardt revisit for the third time frames and how to redirect access to individual frames to a correctly framed version using JavaScript fixing problems found in Micorsoft Internet Explorer 3.01 for the Mac and various versions of Opera.

Techniques: JavaScript, frames, images, location, frame name, search property, browser bugs, browser features, printing frames, multiple frame redirection, Opera, MSIE3.01 for the Mac

Synopsis: The latest versions of Netscape Communicator and Microsoft Internet Explorer offer an incredible amount of versatility to the programmer compared to the browsers of yore. Events, their handlers in particular, have given web pages a more robust, interactive environment. Explorer's latest version, 5.0, is the best equipped with event handlers, as you may handle any event from printing to pasting. In this article Ryan Detert explores events in both Netscape Communicator 4.0 and Explorer 4.0+

Techniques: Events, Event Handlers, event bubbling, releaseEvents(), routeEvent(), handleEvent(), enableExternalCapture(), disableExternalCapture()

Synopsis: How can you automatically jump to another field once the current field has been competed. For example, when entering a telephone number into separate one character sized form fields? Why you might want to do this is not important. How to do it, caused a fair bit of head scratching here at irt.org when asked to raise to the challenge. This article explains the reasons why it isn't as easy as it might first appear, and shows a fully working example at the end. By Martin Webb.

Techniques: text form field, length, focus, blur, onKeyUp, value property maxlength, size, alert, prompt, modal, non modal, dialogues

Synopsis: The main purpose of HTML is to enable web authors to specify structural information about their pages - for example tables, paragraphs, images and so on. However, it also provides a way of adding information about the page and its content. Such information is known as metadata, and is added through the use of the <META> tag. By Michael Bednarek.

Techniques: metadata, META tag, description, author, keywords, robots, NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW, HTTP-EQUIV, Expires, Pragma, Cache-Control, no-cache, refresh, URL

Synopsis: Martin Webb demonstrates how to use Macromedia Fireworks - a graphics package - to create client-side image maps using client-side JavaScript.

Techniques: Macromedia, Fireworks, Graphics, Images, JavaScript, HTML, Image Maps, Rollovers, Sliced Images

Synopsis: So you want to use nice gifs instead of those ugly looking gray buttons to submit and reset your form? No Problem - just use form type=image. Or is there more to it than that? - Rafal Koszyk

Techniques: form, submit, reset, type, image, links, onSubmit, onReset, event handlers

Synopsis: The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a standard for interfacing external programs with the Web servers. In absence of appropriate security measures, CGI scripts can present a variety of security problems to their host. Solutions are suggested by Pankaj Kamthan to minimize these problems, and even eliminate them in certain cases.

Techniques: CGI, SSI, privileges, security, NOBODY, wrappers, CGIWrap, SBOX, suEXEC, Apache, tainting, Shell, back ticks, pre-built CGI scripts

Synopsis: Ryan Detert runs through the fundamentals of JavaScript.

Techniques: Global and local variables, Arrays, for loops, the Trinary Operator, Modulus, document.write(), Casting, Precedence, images

Synopsis: By Janus Boye. Wouldn't it be cool, if we could have a simple hypertext system on our PDA's? Imagine being able to enter a meeting in your calendar, and having that linked to the address of the meeting in your address book, plus linked to your meeting notes, and an email you received about the meeting.

Techniques: PDA's, hand held devices, Hypertext

Synopsis: Have you ever been to a site where words or sentences are composed of what appear to be two blended colors? Ever wondered how on earth to do it without using a fancy program or wracking your brain trying to figure out which letter should be what color to generate a nice blend in straight HTML coding? Well in this tutorial Ryan Detert plays around with some of the more advanced features that JavaScript offers, as well as some advanced techniques in order to get a nice shading effect.

Techniques: JavaScript, text, font, color, gradients, Gourad shading, hexidecimal numbers

Synopsis: Apache is a powerful and widely-used World-Wide Web (Web) server. One of its strengths is that the modules that it is made of are customizable according to the user's requirements. Pankaj Kamthan discusses the benefits and the process of customization, along with a brief introduction to some useful modules.

Techniques: Apache, Modules, Standard, Customizing, Configuring Apache

Synopsis: With Internationalization your Java applications can be adapted to various languages and regions without code changes. The term internationalization is abbreviated as i18n, because there are 18 letters between the first 'i' and the last 'n'. Support for new languages does not require recompilation or code changes! Written by Azzam and Kaesar Alnijres.

Techniques: Java, Internationalisation, i18n, properties files, Locale object, ResourceBundle, JDK

Synopsis: ActiveX is Microsoft's patented Windows technology that allows you to load a type of applet into your web browser. These applets are very much the same as Java Applets and can add an incredible amount of dynamics to your web page - By Ryan Detert.

Techniques: OLE, ActiveX, ActiveX Components, OBJECT, PARAM, VBScript

Synopsis: A World-Wide Web (Web) server is a program that provides information to the client on request. One of the most powerful and widely-used Web server in use today, Apache, is discussed by Pankaj Kamthan.

Techniques: Apache, Binary, Source, Operating Systems, Compiling, Installing, Running, Linux, Windows, Macintosh, Support, Limitation

Synopsis: This article, by Janus Boye, will first cover the exciting functionality that SVG brings to the Web, then discuss the advantages of being an XML-based graphics format, and then finally some words and predictions about the future of SVG.

Techniques: SVG, Scalable Vector Graphics, images, XML, W3C working draft, PGML, DOM, XLink, XPointer

Synopsis: E-commerce over the World-Wide Web (Web) is a rapidly evolving and proliferating field. Establishing an electronic store (e-store) makes selling on the Web a reality. Pankaj Kamthan discusses issues involved in deploying an e-store, using the software PerlShop as a prototype.

Techniques: Tools, E-Store, Shopping Cart, PerlShop, Catalogs, Security, Payment Methods

Synopsis: In this article Jason Nugent describes a counter that can be run as a Server Side Include. Essentially that means writing a Perl script that will run each time the page is loaded and its output will contain a line of text indicating how many people have seen the page.

Techniques: Counter, Perl, Server Side Include, SSI

Synopsis: Jukka Korpela describes why you should be wary about using country flags to indicate text in different languages

Techniques: flags, languages, nationaility, symbols, ISO 639

Synopsis: The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a standard for interfacing external programs with the Web servers. Under testing conditions, such as computationally-intensive tasks or large number of concurrent users, CGI scripts can degrade in performance. Reasons for this behaviour are pointed out and solutions are suggested by Pankaj Kamthan.

Techniques: CGI Performance, CGI Optimization, Perl, Tools, I/O Buffering, Reverse DNS Lookups, Non-Parsed Headers, NPH, Client-Side Processing, State Persistence Using Cookies, Coprocessing, mod_perl

Synopsis: The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a standard for external gateway programs to interface with HTTP servers. CGI libraries simplify the task of writing CGI scripts. The use of one widely used CGI library, CGI.pm, is discussed in detail by Pankaj Kamthan.

Techniques: CGI Libraries, cgi-lib.pl, CGI Lite, CGI :: * Modules, CGI.pm

Synopsis: Here is something novel: using JavaScript to make your web experience more enjoyable, when you decide, and with what you want to do - rather than site specific JavaScript code that performs what the web author wants to do. In this article Martin Webb describes the basics behind bookmarklets.

Techniques: JavaScript, Bookmarks, Favorites, JavaScript URLS, links, javascript:, bookmarklets, void, frames

Synopsis: The constantly evolving JavaScript language can hold several surprises for the unwary or JavaScript beginner, which can cause carefully crafted code to fail on other browsers and older versions of JavaScript. Martin Webb illustrates JavaScript coding best practices learnt over several years experience.

Techniques: JavaScript introduction, CSJS, SSJS, JScript, DHTML, Standards, Documentation, books, JavaScript Support, Disabling and Enabling JavaScript, Tools, JavaScript Guidelines, Objects, Properties, Methods, Events, JavaScript Best Practice

Synopsis: Ben Allen shows how to use a JavaScript to display a Book of the Day, which links to you Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com affiliate program.

Techniques: JavaScript, Client Side, DHTML, Dynamic, HTML, images, layers, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, affiliate, book, bookstore

Synopsis: Searching for information is one of the most common activities on the Web. However, it can also be one of the most frustrating to carry out. Pankaj Kamthan describes some of the basics behind searching and provide recommendations that could improve the outcome and the experience. The nature of information, which is the search object, is also discussed.

Techniques: Obstacles, Views, Search Engines, Gateways, Techniques, Metadate, RDF

Synopsis: Server-side includes (SSI's) extend and introduce implicit dynamism in HTML documents, and can be a useful alternative to CGI's in certain cases. Use of SSI's, and their extensions in the Apache WWW server, XSSI's, are described. Applications SSI's and XSSI's are given. Written by Pankaj Kamthan

Techniques: Server-Side Includes, SSI, Extended Server-Side Includes, XSSI, Editing, Environment Variables, Directives, config, echo, exec, flastmod, fsize, include, Configuration, Debugging, printenv, set, if, elif, else, endif, Variable Substitution, XBitHack, Applications of XSSI's, Concerns, Performance, Security

Synopsis: This article, by Ryan Detert, will show you how to detect client-side browser versions and redirect the client to a web page that is best supported by their browser. And of course, all of this will be done using Microsoft's VBScript

Techniques: Visual Basic Scripting, VBScript, capturing key presses, capturing mouse coordinates, Chr(), UCase(), event, keycode, XOR, offsetX, offsetY, x, y, onClick, onMouseMove, onKeyPress

Synopsis: Ha Quach explains how to use the Perl crypt() function to create random and recursive crypted passwords for both Unix and Win32 systems

Techniques: crypt(), Unix, Win32, Perl, salt keys, passwords, cryption, rand()

Synopsis: This article, by Martin Webb, will demonstrate how to get the best image manipulation techniques out of each browser, using a mixture of Frames, Images, Floating Frames, Tables, Layers, JavaScript, DHTML and Microsoft's Multimedia effects. The completed working example of a slide puzzle presented at the end of the article will work on all Microsoft and Netscape browsers as far back as Netscape Navigator 2 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.

Techniques: JavaScript, images, frames, tables, IFRAME, DIV, SPAN, multimedia effects

Synopsis: Have you ever been to a site where words or sentences are composed of what appear to be two blended colors? Ever wondered how on earth to do it without using a fancy program or wracking your brain trying to figure out which letter should be what color to generate a nice blend in straight HTML coding? Well in this tutorial Ryan Detert plays around with some of the more advanced features that JavaScript offers, as well as some advanced techniques in order to get a nice shading effect.

Techniques: JavaScript, text, font, color, gradients, Gourad shading, hexidecimal numbers

Synopsis: Ryan Detert describes how to use VBScript to capture key presses and mouse button clicks events

Techniques: Visual Basic Scripting, VBScript, capturuing key presses, capturing mouse coordinates, Chr(), UCase(), event, keycode, XOR, offsetX, offsetY, x, y, onClick, onMouseMove, onKeyPress

Synopsis: Tarique Sani describes how to set-up the Apache server as for single and multiple virtual domains

Techniques: Linux, Apache, server, configuration, httpd.conf, access.conf, srm.conf, Virtual Domains, ifconfig, route, IP Aliasing, httpd, HTTP

Synopsis: This article covers how time is slowly becoming a first-class citizen of the Web. Written by Janus Boye this article covers three exciting technologies that have come out in the last two years: SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language), ASF (Advanced Streaming Format) and HTML+Time (Timed Interactive Multimedia Extensions).

Techniques: SMIL, Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language, ASF, Advanced Streaming Format, HTML+Time, Timed Interactive Multimedia Extensions, time-based media content, multimedia, streaming content

Synopsis: In this article, by Pankaj Kamthan, the risks involved in E-Commerce (E-Commerce) on the World-Wide Web (WWW) that lead to breach of privacy and loss of trust are addressed. Ongoing efforts to tackle these risks are outlined.

Techniques: E-commerce, Risks, Business Practices, Information Protection, Transaction Integrity & Security, Privacy and Trust, WebTrust, TRUSTe, P3P

Synopsis: Martin Webb describes how to create a simple JavaScript Tool that can be used to automate the production of encoded name/value pairs to be used when passing data from one page to another

Techniques: form data, Method, GET, POST, encoding data, name/value pairs, escape, handcrafting URL data

Synopsis: Over twelve well explained articles Andrew Shatwell develops an online bulletin board using Cold Fusion.

Techniques: Cold Fusion, BBS, Bulletin Board Service, database, forum, messages, threads, opening, posting, replying, cancelling posts

Synopsis: Internet and the World-Wide Web (WWW) have opened new vistas in Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce). Pankaj Kamthan discusses the prospects and concerns that this medium provides from the viewpoints of Business-to-Consumer and Business-to-Business commerce.

Techniques: E-Commerce, ecommerce, Electronic Commerce, Businesses, Consumers, Web Presence, Timelessness, Communication, Networking, Information, Services, Sales, Marketing, Advertising, Privacy, Security, Competition, Quality, Searching, Efficiency, Cost Reduction, Timelessness, Inventory Control, Security, Interoperability, Models

Synopsis: This article, written by Andrew Shatwell, will show you how to create a Cold Fusion script that will export information from your database and deliver it to the user in a Word document using the RTF format.

Techniques: Cold Fusion, Microsoft Word, RTF, Rich Text Format, CFQUERY, CFCONTENT, CFOUTPUT

Synopsis: Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 offers a powerful line of DHTML commands and functions. We previously covered many of the Visual Filter effects in our article, Testing IE4's Visual Filters. This time we return to the one main Visual Filter that we left out: Lights.

Techniques: Microsoft Internet Explorer, filters, multimedia, lights, visual effects,AddCone, AddPoint, ChangeColor, ChangeStrength, Clear, MoveLight

Synopsis: Hints and Tips to make your Web pages more pleasurable to your visitors - by Paul Rundle, Pankaj Kamthan and Martin Webb

Techniques: Java, Sounds, Images, Animated GIFs, Logo's, Color, Guestbooks, Page Length, Counters, Links, Clocks, Status Bar, Proprietary and obsolete HTML tags

Synopsis: Java applets are one type of Java programs that can be displayed within a WWW browser that supports Java. Advantages of using applets for the purposes of teaching and learning are discussed by Pankaj Kamthan. Guidelines for developing educational applets are suggested. Technological and pedagogical issues involved are pointed out. Prototypical examples are given as applications.

Techniques: Java Applets, Education, Resources, Applications

Synopsis: Written by Ben Allen - An article on using META tags to create a page transition

Techniques: MSIE4, HTML, Web, Page, META, tag, tags, site, transition, filters

Synopsis: Tarique Sani describes how to configure IP Masqerading and a simple Internet Firewall to allow you to set up your Linux machine as an Internet Gateway

Techniques: Linux, Internet, Gateway, IP Masquerading, netcfg, Firewalls, ipwadm

Synopsis: Use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is an important approach towards separating 'aesthetics' from content and structure of HTML documents. Pankaj Kamthan discusses two methods of editing CSS files using the powerful and widely used Emacs editor.

Techniques: CSS, Cascading Style Sheets, Emacs, HTML editor, CSS editor, CSS Module, CSS Mode, CSS Validation, CSS1 and CSS2 properties

Synopsis: In this article, Janus Boye will briefly define what a portal actually is, give a short history of the portals, review some of the current portals, and finally give a short suggestion of where the portals might be heading.

Techniques: Web Portals, Search Engines, History, Future, Market Share

Synopsis: One of the more common features shared by most sites is the "What's New" page. This page can contain anything from news and press releases, to listings of new features that have been added to the site that week. But implementing a weekly "What's New" page can be a daunting task.

Techniques: Automating What's New, date object, self modifying links, forms and drop down boxes

Synopsis: In this article, Pankaj Kamthan discusses how one can readily manage packages on Linux-based platforms using the RPM. We assume the reader has some background in using UNIX-like operating systems, preferably Linux. The ideas presented here carry over to other UNIX-based platforms which support RPM.

Techniques: Linux, Installing Packages, RPM, Red Hat software, Querying, Upgrading, Verifying, Installing and Uninstalling packages

Synopsis: Tarique Sani explains how to set up a DNS server on your Linux machine

Techniques: Linux, Domain Name Server, DNS, DNS lookup

Synopsis: The introduction of proprietary methodologies to induce "dynamic effects" in otherwise static documents have led to a state of chaos on the World-Wide Web (WWW). Pankaj Kamthan discusses the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1, an application programming interface (API) for HTML and XML documents, which brings order by standardizing these efforts.

Techniques: DOM, Document Object Model, W3C Recommendation, Objects, node, child, descendent, element, leaf, method, parent, root node, sibling

Synopsis: Netscape have released a developer preview version of their new internet client - Gecko. Martin Webb reports on this new release

Techniques: WWW, Internet Client, Gecko, Netscape, mozila.org, Open Source, W3C rcommendations

Synopsis: Electronic payment (E-Payment) systems are an integral part of electronic commerce (E-Commerce) on the World-Wide Web (WWW). Pankaj Kamthan discusses the significance of one method of electronic payment, a credit card, how they can benefit businesses and consumers, limitations of their use, and the means of making them accessible on the WWW.

Techniques: E-commerce, E-payment, credit cards, merchant banks

Synopsis: Janus Boye describes in a new article on Cold Fusion, Allaire's cross-platform Web application development system, how to update and edit data from a web page.

Techniques: Databases, Cold Fusion, edit data, update data, SQL, CFIF, CFQUERY, CFOUTPUT, CFLOOP, CFELSE, CFUPDATE

Synopsis: Using DHTML, and specific to Windows users, Internet Explorer 4.0 offers developers access to a variety of filters that can be applied to images and text.

Techniques: Multimedia in Microsoft Internet Explorer, Visual Filters, Cascading Style Sheets, JavaScript, Alpha, Blur, Chroma, Drop Shadow, Flip Horizontal, Flip Vertical, Glow, Gray, Invert, Mask, Shadow, Wave, Xray, Transition Filters, Blend, Reveal, Page Transition Filters

Synopsis: It is important that the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) document you create conforms to the corresponding Document Type Definition (DTD). Selected online and offline HTML validation techniques are discussed by Pankaj Kamthan. Updated to include a reference to a GUI version of HTML Tidy, CYAN an online interface to HTML Tidy, and information about Optimization with HTML (UN)Compress, and HTML-Kit.

Techniques: Validation, HTML, syntactical, semantical, spelling, stylistic, bandwidth, W3C HTML Validation Service, CYAN, HTMLChek, Weblint, HTML Tidy, HTML-Kit, Doctor HTML, Emacs and Weblint

Synopsis: An Intranet uses the technology of the Internet for dissemination, sharing and enhancement of information internal to an organization. Advantages of an educational intranet are discussed and some applications are suggested by Pankaj Kamthan.

Techniques: Intranets in Education, benefits, applications, information sharing, information dissemination

Synopsis: GNU Emacs is one of the most widely used and powerful editors today. The task of formatting HTML files can be greatly simplified by using editing modes available for HTML. Pankaj Kamthan briefly describes the use of editing mode html-helper-mode, supported by the modes tempo, and hilit19.

Techniques: Emacs, Unix, Linux, HTML editing

Synopsis: Following on from the successful "Why bother with JavaScript?" article, Janus Boye initiates a "Why use CSS?" article. CSS - has its time come, or is it still an emerging technology?

Techniques: CSS, Cascading Stlye Sheets, Aural Style Sheets, Browser support, HTML, content, style

Synopsis: The issue of representing Japanese language characters on the World-Wide Web (WWW) can pose various challenges. In this article, Pankaj Kamthan presents some possible solutions, and discuss their advantages and limitations. We restrict ourselves to Windows 95/NT and UNIX/X-based platforms.

Techniques: Japanese Language, Operating Systems, Browsers, World-Wide Web

Synopsis: The issue of rendering Chinese language characters on the World-Wide Web (WWW) can pose various problems due to their varied support in different operating systems and different browsers. In this article, Pankaj Kamthan presents some possible solutions. We restrict ourselves to Windows 95/NT and Unix/X-based platforms.

Techniques: Chinese Language, Operating Systems, Browsers, World-Wide Web

Synopsis: Written by Ben Allen - An article on making a picture gallery using JavaScript

Techniques: JavaScript, Client Side, Images, Picture, Gallery

Synopsis: If you ever need to keep users from accessing portions of a browser-based form, these handy tricks in DHTML and JavaScript are just what the doctor ordered.

Techniques: HTML 4.0, JavaScript, Netscape Layers, Disabling form elements, forms, elements, write protect, disabled property, hidden document content, hidden forms

Synopsis: Pankaj Kamthan presents two solutions - one on the client-side, and the other on the server-side - to the problem of including the date of last modification of an HTML document. Limitations of these approaches are also pointed out.

Techniques: Date & Time stampimg, lastModified, SSI, Server Side Includes, *.shtml, #echo, #include, Client Side JavaScript, JavaScript source files, Perl, finding and renaming files

Synopsis: Dr Tarique Sani tells you how to configure DHCP on your Linux Server

Techniques: Linux, Red Hat 5.0, Configuring DHCP, DHCP

Synopsis: Exploring the depths of JavaScript and its idiosyncrasies with v4 browsers, Martin Webb arms you with everything you need to know to build and control the placement of JavaScript pop-up windows.

Techniques: JavaScript, pop-up windows, centering windows, window properties, writing into windows

Synopsis: Wing Lu shows how to delete files using Perl, and provides a simple trick to eanble you to recover files from a trash directory.

Techniques: Perl, files, create, delete, unlink, link, rename, rmdir, recovering trashed files

Synopsis: Martin Webb and Jan Ehrhardt revisit frames and how to redirect access to individual frames to a correctly framed version using JavaScript

Techniques: JavaScript, frames, images, location, frame name, search property, browser bugs, browser features, printing frames, multiple frame redirection

Synopsis: Written by Janus Boye - the Web is moving in many different directions, this article attempts to cover only a few of these different directions.

Techniques: Web communities, Browser Fragmentation, adavances in Technology, Usability

Synopsis: Jason Nugent shows how to combine a form with a Perl script to enable visitors to leave their email addresses in a file on your server, which can then be used with yet another Perl program to send out a regular newsletter

Techniques: Perl, CGI-BIN, Forms, email, newsletters, writing and reading files on the server

Synopsis: Janus Boye introduces Cold Fusion - a dynamic way to update and maintain web pages based on entries within a database

Techniques: Cold Fusion, CFML, database, dynamic pages, server side maintenance, CFQUERY, CFOUTPUT

Synopsis: Written by Ben Allen - An article on using DHTML to display a temporary page whilst an image - or the rest of the page continues to load.

Techniques: JavaScript, Client Side, DHTML, Dynamic, HTML, images, layers

Synopsis: In this third Linux article, Dr. Tarique Sani describes configuring the server and window client, and how to add resources.

Techniques: Linux, Red Hat 5.0, Connecting to Internet, modems, PPP, Xwindows, X dialers

Synopsis: WWW - How It All Begun - by Janus Boye

Techniques: World Wide Web, history, hypertext

Synopsis: Michael Bednarek concludes his HTML series - this time discussing HTML forms, their elements and what they can be used for

Techniques: HTML, forms, form fields, mailto:, cgi, GET, POST, MIME Type, ACTION, ENCTYPE

Synopsis: The following question was posed by a visitor to irt.org:

Why bother with Javascript, which assumes someone has a browser capable of using it, when you can do the same thing in your cgi?

- this article covers the ensuing conversation by the team at irt.org

Techniques: JavaScript, client side processing, HTML, cgi, server side processing, security

Synopsis: Lawrence Elliot introduces VBScript to irt.org, describing the major difference between VBScript and JavaScript, and describing how to include VBScript in a web page

Techniques: VBScript, MSIE, Syntax, Operations, Functions, strings, Arrays, ActiveX, VBScript FAQ

Synopsis: Martin Webb describes how to use the positioning abililties of Dynamic HTML to create dynamic positioning, dynamic 'tooltips', placement, movement, and clipping effects

Techniques: DHTML, Dynamic HTML, JavaScript, Layers, DIV, SPAN, layers, clipping, style, all, zIndex

Synopsis: Dr Tarique Sani tells you how to connect your Linux Machine to the Internet in three ever increasing simpler methods.

Techniques: Linux, Red Hat 5.0, Connecting to Internet, modems, PPP, Xwindows, X dialers

Synopsis: Michael Bednarek describes how to use tables and frames to layout web pages on the screen.

Techniques: HTML, HTML 4.0, frames, framesets, tables, rows, columns, table cells

Synopsis: In this 2nd article Dr Tarique Sani holds your hand through creation to your first Java Applet.

Techniques: Java, Java Tutorials, Java Getting started

Synopsis: Stephen Saunders describes how to use the mouse event handlers in Java 1.0

Techniques: Java, Mouse Event Handling, events, methods, mouseUp(), mouseDown(), mouseMove(), mouseDrag(), mouseEnter(), mouseExit(), graphics, getGraphics(), drawLine()

Synopsis: In this article on P3P - the platform for privacy preferences project - Janus Boye tries to explain what P3P has to bring to the Web community.

Techniques: p3p, platform for preferences preferences

Synopsis: Dr Tarique Sani holds your hand through Red Hat5.0 Linux installation, configuration and some more

Techniques: Linux, Red Hat 5.0, Linux Getting started

Synopsis: This article written by Jason Nugent will discuss the mechanisms most often used in Perl scripts to store data out to the filesystem so it can be used again at a later time. Once your data is in a file on the server, other programs may access it, you can manipulate it, graph it, or do just about anything you want with it.

Techniques: reading and writing files, file handle, open(), read, write, append, flock(), locking files, die, $!, print, close

Synopsis: Dr Tarique Sani holds your hand through JDK installation, configuration and creation to your first Java application

Techniques: Java, Java Tutorials, Java Getting started

Synopsis: Josh Sahrmann continues with the Photoshop series - resizing images to reduce download time

Techniques: Resizing images, downloading images, .gif, .jpg, image formats

Synopsis: Dynamic HTML, or DHTML, promises many things to Web developers, but as we've learned from the past, DHTML has its limitations (namely, different versions of the Document Object Model). This series of articles explores the basic concepts of DHTML and provide you with examples to try out in both IE and Netscape 4.

Techniques: DHTML, Dynamic HTML, Objects, CSS, Cascading Style Sheets, Positioning, all object, layer object, layer, div, span, ilayer, innerText, outerText, innerHTML, outerHTML, styles, altering content, text rollovers

Synopsis: Michael Bednarek continues the HTML series this time covering server side image maps and adding sound to your pages

Techniques: HTML, images, gif, jpeg, img, LOWSRC, background, client side image maps, map, area, usemap, sounds, bgsound, embed

Synopsis: Introducing a new section on Graphics, Josh Sahrmann kicks off with a article on Photoshop - the popular graphics application

Techniques: graphics, software, image layers, filters

Synopsis: A list or urls to web graphics resources - maintained by Swati Sani

Techniques: graphics, resources, free, logos, banners

Synopsis: This article, written by Graeme Williams, introduces you to the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI.) The WAI is about providing guidelines that web authors should follow in order to make their pages more accessible for people with disabilities and more useful to indexing robots.

Techniques: HTML, HTML 4.0, Web Accessibility Initiative, WAI, Cascading Style Sheets, CSS, Tables, ACCESSKEY, SUMMARY, ALT, TITLE, LONGDESC

Synopsis: Michael Bednarek continues with the series of HTML articles describing HTML tags which allow you to manipulate the appearance of text on the screen, and how to create hyperlinks to link to other Web pages.

Techniques: HTML, bold, italic, text alignment, left, centre, right, strike, superscript, subscript, underlined, headings, fonts, unordered list, ordered list, links, anchors, JavaScript links

Synopsis: Josh Sahrmann describes how using WebObjects application can make developing internet databases easy!

Techniques: WebObjects Developer, HTML, Java, Webscript

Synopsis: Jason Nugent continues the CGI/Perl series of articles - this issue dicusses Server Side Includes and CGI Security

Techniques: SSI, Server Side Includes, config, include, echo, fsize, flastmod, exec, errmsg, sizefmt, LAST_MODIFIED, DOCUMENT_NAME, DOCUMENT_URI, DATE_LOCAL, SERVER_NAME, cgi, cmd, Apache, .shtml, .shtm, .sht, security, HTTP_REFERER

Synopsis: Starting a new series of articles on Databases - Josh Sahrmann describes how to create a simple internet database using either Microsoft Access or FileMaker Pro.

Techniques: Database, Access, FileMake Pro, HTML

Synopsis: How to create a Home Page - written by Gary Ransom - a complete guide and tutor, a set of hints, tips, selected links and help

Techniques: create a home page, make a home page, home page help, home page tutor, home page guide, create a web page, make a web page, web page tutor, web page guide, create, make, help, guide, tutor, design, publish, home page, links, hints, tips

Synopsis: This article on XSL, written by Janus Boye, tries to explain what XSL has to bring to the Web community.

Techniques: xsl, dsssl, xml, style, css

Synopsis: Michael Bednarek introduces a new series of Beginner HTML articles

Techniques: HTML, HTML 2.0, HTML 3.0, HTML 3.2 HTML 4.0, BODY, HEAD, TITLE, BR BGCOLOR, TEXT, color numbers and names

Synopsis: See how you can use JavaScript to enhance your Thank You page to let the user know that what they sent is exactly what you received.

Techniques: JavaScript, CGI, forms, thank you page

Synopsis: Keith Drakard takes you through the various steps needed to make a JavaScript solitaire game.

Techniques: Game, images, image src, Image(), image replacement, setTimeout, solitaire

Synopsis: Keith Drakard takes you through the various steps needed to make a really fancy background fader.

Techniques: fancy, background, fader

Synopsis: Written by Jason Nugent. In this article, the detailed steps required to extract the information that is sent to your CGI program is described. The article is fairly Perl intensive, but hopefully the examples will make it easy enough to follow.

Techniques: CGI, GET, POST, Perl variables, scalars, arrays, Hashes, Associative Arrays, $ENV, QUERY_STRING, REQUEST_METHOD, CONTENT_LENGTH, Regular Expressions, form parser script

Synopsis: Written by Martin Webb. When you want to create a JavaScript Midi Hifi system that will enable midi or wav files to be played as if they were a on a CD player. This article which appears on Developer.com includes complete play, stop and pause control, and single play, cycle play and random play. You can even view the time played, time remaining, track time and total time.

Techniques: Netscape LiveConnect, LiveAudio, EMBED, midi, wav, MASTERSOUND, object arrays

Synopsis: Written by Michael Bednarek. It is possible to position elements on the page in both Microsoft and Netscape's implementation of Dynamic HTML. By dynamically altering the positions of elements over time, we can create simple animation effects. In this article you will learn how

Techniques: Microsoft Layers, Netscape Layers, DHMTL, DIV, Style, top, left, document.all, document.layers

Synopsis: Written by Paul Rundle. In this article we introduce you to layers compatible with both NN4 and MSIE4. You will learn how to show images and text using layers. Layers enable you to position text or pictures anywhere on the page. The layers shown in this example are compatible with both NN4 and MSIE4, however the section on altering the contents of layers is only suitable for MSIE4, as NN4 does not provide support for innerText, outerText, innerHTML and outerHTML layer properties.

Techniques: Microsoft Layers, DHMTL, DIV, Style Sheets, CSS, STYLE, absolute position, relative position, visibility, layer properties, innerText, outerText

Synopsis: Written by Josh Sahrmann. This article introduces the basic concepts about the LAYER tag introduced in Netscape Navigator 4. How to overlap text and images, and how to embed html from another document inside the current document.

Techniques: Netscape Layers, DHTML, LAYER, ILAYER, positioning layers, Layer source

Synopsis: Written by Janus Boye. RDF - the Resource Description Framework - is a foundation for processing metadata; it provides interoperability between applications that exchange machine-understandable information on the Web. RDF emphasizes facilities to enable automated processing of Web ressources. RDF metadata can be used in a variety of application areas.

Techniques: RDF, XML, Meta Data, authoring, publishing, cataloging, PICS, Site Maps, Dublin Core

Synopsis: Have you ever wanted to link your site up with others using a web-ring, where people can click on an image to go to the next or previous site in the ring? Web-rings traditionally require server side programming, this article describes how to combine JavaScript and HTML to allow one person to manage the complete web-ring for as many sites that you require.

Techniques: Beginners introduction to JavaScript, functions, objects, forms

Synopsis: Written by Jason Nugent. This article was born out of a need to assimilate Janus Boye's CSS FAQ into an article so people interested in beginning development with style sheets could have a reference in order to get started. It is hoped that after this article is read, you will have a better understanding of what CSS is, how it works, and how it can benefit your site.

Techniques: Presentation, style tag, Cascading Style Sheets, CSS, ID attribute, CLASS attribute

Synopsis: A link up with Michael Bednareks' SiteCreator Channel has been arranged. There are currently five JavaScript Beginner Articles available on Michael Bednareks' SiteCreator Channel. If you find the existing articles hard to follow then these will be just the thing for you.

Techniques: Beginners introduction to JavaScript, functions, objects, forms

Synopsis: Have you ever wanted to display a different page in another language for non-English visitors to your site? This article explains how, in Netscape Navigator 4 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 4, you can trap which language the visitors browser is using and then show them either a pre-translated version of your page. For Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 the article also shows how to use page transitions to disolve a document into the translated document.

Techniques: navigator, language, browserLanguage, substring, RevealTrans, transitions, setTimeout

Synopsis: Janus Boye takes a look at MathML a new W3C Recommendation and explains why we might want to use it on our web pages.

Techniques: Mathematics, MathML, XML, RDF, EzMath plugin

Synopsis: This article describes advance uses of the mailto: protocol. It describes five working examples that you can use for your own purposes: i) using a link, ii) To: Cc: and Bcc:, iii) using a form, iv) multiple mailing using a form.

Techniques: links, links array, mailto:, to=, cc=, bcc=, onClick, forms, href, radio buttons, check boxes, select options, action, method, enctype, text/plain, click(), setTimeout(), onSubmit

Synopsis: Dr. Tarique Sani concludes the Java series on the KTN applet. Includes the complete source code for the KTN applet.

Techniques: paint(), start(), stop(), destroy(), run(), mouseEnter(), mouseExit(), mouseDown()

Synopsis: Jason Nugent continues with the new series of articles on CGI scripting.

Techniques: form, action, method, get, post, perl, encoding, print

Synopsis: Have you got files on your web space that people can download? Do you want to count how many times they are downloaded? This article discusses how to keep count of how many times a file is downloaded. Using a combination of image or floating frame replacement, this utility loads a CGI image to increment a counter. You obviously need to have a CGI image counter for this to work - most people do - either from your ISP or from a third party.

Techniques: Images, files, forms, counters, swapping images, floating frames,

Synopsis: This article discuses timezone offsets, which can be used to display the time anywhere around the world.

Techniques: GMT, Date, getTimezoneOffset, setTime, getTime, setTimeout, MSIE 3 fiddle, am, pm, forms

Synopsis: This article was brought about by a discussion in the usenet newsgroup news:comp.lang.javascript about the failings of the previous article Intelligent Password Verification. The majority of this rework is down to Peter Landgren, who took three attempts to come up with a solution for MSIE 3, but who got there in the end :)

Techniques: form, password, hidden, location, image, onError, onLoad, document.images, image source, floating frame

Synopsis: Dr. Tarique Sani continues with the growing series of articles on Java. This article *actually* includes some Java code for the KTN Applet.

Techniques: Java Applet, source code

Synopsis: Jason Nugent returns this time with the first in a new series of articles on CGI (Common Gateway Interface) Scripts. This article introduces CGI, the benefits, the drawbacks, and the language of choice: Perl.

Techniques: CGI, Perl

Synopsis: Written by Janus Boye. If you're designing data-hungry sites, especially for intranets, you should be getting excited about XML, because in XML, you'll be able to create and respond to much richer set of data elements. That will in turn let you build more individualised dynamic sites and pages. For example, your site's users could access information across databases and types of data without having to rely on a search engine.

Techniques: XML, HTML, XSL, CSS, SGML, CDF, OSD, ICE - Aghhhh! TLA overload!

Synopsis: For NN4 and MSIE4 browsers, this article illustrates how you can complete a form and send the data entered via email to another person, who can load up the email in their browser and actually see the form as entered. This 'copy' form can then be updated and emailed to another person, and so on.

Techniques: JavaScript *.js source files, src, action, mailto:, method, action, forms, enctype, name/value pairs, submit, onclick(), reset(), subject, hidden

Synopsis: Written by Dr. Tarique Sani. Describes a basic Java Applet skeleton using the set of methods that provide the basic mechanism by which the browser interfaces to the applet to control its execution.

Techniques: init(), start(), stop(), destroy(), paint(), update(), repaint()

Synopsis: Written by Janus Boye. Math is power. So says one of the many ads on the Internet. JavaScript has the power, to do all functions that are on a normal pocket calculator, and even a few more.

Techniques: Math, random(), round(), NaN, isNaN(), sin(), cos(), tan(), acos(), asin(), atan(), E, LN10, LN2, LOG10E, LOG2E, PI, SQRT1_2, SQRT2, abc(0), atan2(), ceil(), exp(), floor(), log(), max(), min(), pow(), sqrt()

Synopsis: This article demonstrates how to show a popup calendar that you can use to select a valid date and then pass this main to the original window. The calendar is shown in month format, and enables you to pick the year or the month to be displayed. Not only that, but if the popup calendar is reshown it remembers and reshows the previous display.

Techniques: window, open, location, href, opener, dates, forms, selectedIndex, calendar, year, month, day, self, close

Synopsis: Dr. Tarique Sani starts the first in a new series of articles on Java and how to use it to enhance your pages.

Techniques: Java, Applet, param, value

Synopsis: Jason Nugent describes a technique to speed up the loading of rollover images, without disrupting the ability to view the document.

Techniques: Images, image src, document.images, onLoad, image rollovers, onMouseOver, onMouseOut

Synopsis: Written by Michael Bednarek. With the advent of Dynamic HTML, we have been able to do a lot more with our scripts. Everything on the page becomes an object to be manipulated. In this article, you will learn how to change a page's style sheet on the fly.

Techniques: Get_Cookie, Set_Cookie, styleSheets, Layers, <LAYER>, <ILAYER>, JavaScript *.js files, SRC, VISIBILITY, styleSheets[], layers[], JavaScript 1.2

Synopsis: Have you ever come across a web site, that refuses to accept the fact that you don't take cookies? This article will describe how to utilise cookies in your web site without forcing cookies on your visitors.

Techniques: Get_Cookie, Set_Cookie, Delete_Cookie

Synopsis: This article describes how to transfer data from a form on one page to a form on another page.

Techniques: form, search string, unescape, escape, encoded characters, check boxes, radio buttons, select options, split(), replace()

Synopsis: The vast majority of password protectors rely on the visitor knowing the name of the file, which is used as a password. However, if you get it wrong you get an error message saying file not found. The Intelligent Password Verifier uses a subtle approach, by first attempting to load an image file as the entered password, if the JavaScript detects that the image did not load, i.e. it was not found, then it displays a password invalid message.

Techniques: form, password, hidden, location, image, onError, onLoad, document.images, image source

Synopsis: Shows how to create a dynamic Family Tree that you can navigate around. It uses arrays to hold the data to be displayed in the Family Tree. The example included uses the British Royal Family to demonstrate the varying amounts of information that can be held.

Techniques: Frames, objects, document.open(), document.write(), document.close(), dates, age, date of birth, onMouseOver, onMouseOut, dynamic content, this

Synopsis: Illustrates a method for sorting tables dynamically. The first method uses the search property of the location object to reload the document, which is extended to demonstrate a generic solution for all tables. The second method shows the new data binding facility available in Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.

Techniques: Tables, sorting, data binding, search parameter, objects, sorting objects, text files

Synopsis: How to jazz up those boring old image highlights that the majority of us have on our web pages.

Techniques: images, onMouseOver, onMouseOut, color, colour, browser safe palette, setTimeout, fade, glow, eval, clearTimeout

Synopsis: Describes JavaScript Events and Event Handlers, explaining what they are and what we can do with them. It also includes a complete list of the events supported in each release of JavaScript.

Techniques: events, event handlers, onAbort, onBlur, onChange, onClick, onDblClick, onDragDrop, onError, onFocus, onKeyDown, onKeyPress, onKeyUp, onLoad, onMouseDown, onMouseMove, onMouseOut, onMouseOver, onMouseUp, onMove, onReset, onResize, onSelect, onSubmit, onUnload

Synopsis: When you want users to be able to get a bird's-eye view of your site, a site map is the way to go. Its featured in Developer.com: http://www.developer.com

Techniques: In the words of Developer.com "This JavaScript solution is one of the fastest and easiest you'll find."

Synopsis: This article brings together the last few articles, to produce a page that shows all data regarding any date entered: full date, age, events, birthstone, Zodiac star sign, Chinese year, lottery numbers and random colors. As an added extra it also includes images of birthstones, zodiac star sign and the animal associated with the Chinese year.

Techniques: Images, Dates, Frames, location search property

Synopsis: This article describes how to merge all the calendar events and holidays calculated in the three different articles Born of the 4th of July, Easter and The 3rd Saturday in November into one object array. We will also show how to sort the array in JavaScript 1.1 browsers, and how to simulate an array sort using linked lists.

Techniques: Arrays, Dates, Sorting

Synopsis: This article shows how to sort arrays using the JavaScript 1.1 array sort method. It also describe the different options available during sorting, and how to sort arrays for browsers that don't support the sort method, or where the sort method does not work correctly.

Techniques: Arrays, makeArray(), array length, new, object, sort, compare, bubble sort, toString, prototype

Synopsis: Keith Drakard takes you through the various steps needed to make a JavaScript "Simple Simon" game.

Techniques: Game, images, image src, Image(), image replacement, setTimeout, random numbers, Math, ceil

Synopsis: This article will describe how to calculate the date of Easter Sunday, "held on a variable Sunday in March or April". This date will then be used to calculate other religious dates dependent on Easter Sunday.

Techniques: Easter, padout, year, month, day, getMM, getDD, getMMDD, accumulated days in the year, leap years, adding or subtracting days from one date to get another

Synopsis: This article describes how to select random numbers from a range, to produce a selection of lottery numbers. As an added bonus it shows how to also randomly show a background color.

Techniques: Random numbers, empty arrays, images, table background color

Synopsis: Describes how to calculate the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and last weekdays of any month. This will then be used to calculate the dates of various variable Calendar Events or Holidays.

Techniques: Day of the Week, Nth Day, makeArray, Leap Year, calendar events, holidays

Synopsis: Jason Nugent describes how to validate form fields using the new JavaScript 1.2 Regular Expression methods. He also describes a method for older browsers

Techniques: Form, onSubmit, this, indexOf(), Regular Expressions, RegExp, replace, split, match, search

Synopsis: This article shows how to display events and birthdays for any specific date. For birthdays it will use JavaScript *.js source files as data files to hold each months birthday data.

Techniques: Holiday events, religious events, birthdays, born today, dates, object arrays, javascript *.js source, src files, data file, scripting script

Synopsis: Describes how to show the year of the chinese calendar that a date falls in, including the dates and days for the year.

Techniques: Chinese New Year, Chinese branches, Chinese stems, Chinese animal, tables, arrays, dates, year, month, day

Synopsis: This article calculates the zodiac sign that a date falls in, including the dates and days for the year, along with the birthstone associated with the month.

Techniques: Horroscope, star sign, zodiac, birth stone, arrays of data, date, days, months, years, range of dates

Synopsis: This article demonstrates how to calculate the day of the week of any date, and using this information retrieves the relevant line from "Monday's Child". It also shows how to show the full date for any given date.

Techniques: Day of the week, Math, floor, date, days, months, years, age, HowOld

Synopsis: This article describes how to calculate the age in years, months and days of someone who supplies their birthdate.

Techniques: Date, days, months, years, age, HowOld

Synopsis: This article demonstrates how to work with dates prior to 1970 and after 1999 without using the inbuilt Date object. It will describe how to pass this information to another frame or to another document.

Techniques: Date bugs, Calendar, months, days, years, leap years, arrays, data input, forms, options, selection, text input, slectedIndex, passing form references, onSubmit, ACTION, validating, parent, frame, search, location, href, substring

Synopsis: Describes a method whereby one dropdown menu will effect the contents of another dropdown menu, for ALL JavaScript enabled browsers.

Techniques: frames, onSumbit, parent, location, href, selectedIndex, menus, objects, options, floating frames, IFRAME

Synopsis: Describes how to create a multiple keyword search facility - without using frames

Techniques: objects, object array, splitting text, search, keywords, multiple, replace, text, string, toUpperCase, object properties, finding, found, action, form, ?, substring, location, href

Synopsis: Summary of the more useful online JavaScript and JavaScript related resources

Techniques: documents, tutorials, references

Synopsis: Describes how to split nested strings

Techniques: split, length, array, replace, while, break, string, substring, indexOf, function overridding, JavaScript1.1

Synopsis: Describes how to split strings, and how to split strings in JavaScript 1.0. Also describes how the two methods can be combined to provide a script suitable for all browsers.

Techniques: split, length, array, while, break, string, substring, indexOf, function overridding, JavaScript1.1

Synopsis: Describes methods associated with the String object, how to use them to find characters or strings within strings, to replace characters and portions of text, to change the case and to alter the style and formatting of text.

Techniques: length, charAt, indexOf, lastIndexOf, split, substring, replace, iteration, toLowerCase, toUpperCase, upperFirst, upperInitial, arguments, big, blink, bold, italics, small, strike, sub, sup, fixed, fontsize, fontcolor

Synopsis: Describes how to display and manipulate the current time, show the difference between two dates, show a countdown to and from a specific time and date, and how to trigger an event after a delay.

Techniques: date, time, hours, minutes, seconds, year, month, date, day, UTC(), counters, countdown, countback, setTimeout(), Millennium countdown

Synopsis: Describe how to use a select dropdown menu to control images, and, for those browsers that can, how to find out image properties.

Techniques: image, select, form, floating frames, onClick, onLoad, JavaScript1.1, browser version checks, image properties, name,src, lowsrc, height, width, border, complete, hspace, vspace, prototype, window size, screen size

Synopsis: Describes how to show different images within the same document, how to show different background images within the same document, how to control images within frames, and how to present an image slide show.

Techniques: image, location, search, href, substring, img, body, background, src, frame, target, onLoad, setTimeout, integer, string, preloading

Synopsis: Describes how to show images and text at random, how to show one of several forms randomly, refer to random banner adverts, random urls, random background color and images, how to generate a random questionnaire, and random frames.

Techniques: Math.random(), rnd(), rand(), seconds, getSeconds, %, modulus, images, forms, arrays, windows

Synopsis: Covers scrolling text within a text box

Techniques: form, text, onSubmit, onClick, scrolling, setTimeout, substring, timer, buttons

Synopsis: Describes some of the more interesting things that can be achieved with forms created with HTML

Techniques: forms, submit, cancel, enctype, method, action, target, events, hidden, validation, overriding form attributes, *.js source files, floating frames

Synopsis: Covers some advanced uses of dropdown menus: adding an additional entry passed from another page, and locating an entry based on a value entered in a text field.

Techniques: forms, options, select, drop down menu, search, ?, substring, selected, arrays, onClick, onSubmit, onChange, JavaScript1.1, toUpperCase, indexOff

Synopsis: Explains how to open sibling windows, and how to pass it information.

Techniques: window, open, search, location, substring, indexOf, ?, javascript:, functions, array, objects, split, strings, JavaScript1.1, onBlur, focus

Synopsis: Describes the differences between Text Strings and String Objects, and how to cope with these differences.

Techniques: string, text, object, array, protocol, toString, method, function, ==, =, comparison, equal, toLowerCase, array, properties

Synopsis: Automate Check Boxes, i.e. their production, interrogation, setting and clearing, and how to find the value of Radio Buttons

Techniques: Form, checkbox, onClick, checked, unchecked, eval, true, false, toString(), reset()

Synopsis: Describes how to highlight portions of an imagemap, uses two different methods, plus an alternative for MSIE

Techniques: image, imagemap, onMouseOver, onMouseOut, usemap, map, status, history, go, floating frames

Synopsis: how to store information from a form as a cookie, and how to retrieve the information and place it back in the form.

Techniques: indexOf(), Get_Cookie, Set_Cookie, form, elements, text, select, radio, checkbox, eval(), substring(), find and replace, unescape(), checked, selectedIndex

Synopsis: How to add simple forward and back navigation between documents

Techniques: location, href, indexOf, substring, comments

Synopsis: Describes how to interrogate the time display different images, and two sample clocks

Techniques: conditional expression, getHours, getMinutes, getSeconds, images, image object, time

Synopsis: Describes how to create your own form spinner object

Techniques: onLoad, client-side image maps, conditional expression, usemap, forms, text box, Coordinated Universal Time, Temps Universel Coordonn�', UTC, HREF

Synopsis: Redirect visitors from your old pages to your new location

Techniques: onLoad, setTimeout, refresh, location, href

Synopsis: Describes multiple select options, and how to add, remove and replace options

Techniques: onSubmit, onClick, onBlur, onFocus, onChange events, forms, options, selections, images, add remove, replace

Synopsis: Using form selection options to change location of browser

Techniques: onSubmit, onClick, onBlur, onFocus, onChange events, forms, options, selections, images, buttons

Synopsis: Further enhancements to Highlighted images, including an enhanced browser detector, and framed toolbars

Techniques: images, onMouseOver, onMouseOut, onClick, *.js src files, preloading images, detecting browser, status bar messages

Synopsis: Display random banners one after another with links to the appropriate document

Techniques: images, floating frames, setTimeout, objects, arrays, random, location

Synopsis: Use a cookie to record the last time the visitor visited your page, and combine it with the previous Automating NEW! article.

Techniques: cookies, dates, Date.UTC, getYear, getMonth, getDate, substring

Synopsis: Describes how to use a text box and/or a button to change various frame locations.

Techniques: frames, forms, onClick, onSubmit, button, top, parent, sibling frames

Synopsis: Read the links[] array of another frame.

Techniques: Netscape, frames, links[], array, href, onLoad

Synopsis: Stops direct access to pages that should be visited through frames.

Techniques: frames, location, search string, conditional expression, parent

Synopsis: Changing the location/content of a floating frame.

Techniques: Internet Explorer, frames array, floating frames, location

Synopsis: Microsoft slipped the support of the SRC attribute into the <SCRIPT> tag in version 3.02 of Internet Explorer.

Techniques: SRC, Internet Explorer, function, document.write

Synopsis: Automatically highlighting articles as NEW!, and then automatically unhighlighting them later.

Techniques: Date object, Date.UTC, function return

Synopsis: Enhancements to the previous Highlighting Images article. Updated to include MSIE and NN 4.

Techniques: Images, onMouseOver, onMouseOut, detecting browser, SRC

Synopsis: Describes how to overload the arguments of a JavaScript function.

Techniques: JavaScript, function, array, arguments, elements

Synopsis: Creates Top | Next | Last | End links for navigation within a large document.

Techniques: JavaScript, automation, Anchor, Name, function, HREF

Synopsis: Highlighting images. Updated to include MSIE and NN 4.

Techniques: Images, onMouseOver, onMouseOut, onClick, detecting browser

Synopsis: Referencing source files using either the JavaScripts SRC attribute or IE3.0 floating frames.

Techniques: SRC, Floating Frames, HTML

Synopsis: JavaScripts not worthy of their own page.

Techniques: Frames, Mailto, Dates

Synopsis: Explanation of JavaScript Searching.

Techniques: Frames, JavaScript, Arrays, Objects, Forms, Frames, Tables

Synopsis: Demonstration of navigation tools.

Techniques: Frames, JavaScript, Arrays, Objects, Forms

Synopsis: Demonstrations of different calendar displays.

Techniques: JavaScript, Functions, Arrays, Tables, Floating Frames, Windows