RockyCode

Okay, Okay, I admit it. I'm javascript challanged. As a Java developer, I've looked down my nose at paltry javascript, treating it as a "me-too" technology trying to cash in on the hype surrounding java all these years.
As a result, I've missed out on a lot of js goodies. And, with javascript entering a renaissance of sorts, combined with the wildfire-like buzz surrounding libraries such as jquery, it's high time I learn some.

I've been fooling around with a thumbnail gallery that pulls up either an associated video or image. Here is how I got the workings to work.

Have you ever had a problem with ajax requests caching in Internet Explorer. I have, and recently I came across a nicer solution than I have traditionally used. In the past, I have used a unique parameter on the url to keep IE from caching previous requests to the same url, like so:

Sometimes it is useful to be able to iterate through the fields in a javascript object and use the values kept therein for something spectacular. I've found this to be the case for POJSOs (+S = 'Script') that I pass down to the client with new-found data from the backend.

In a recent admin tool I was creating, I was using SOUIT of Javascript... apparently more than I knew how to write well. Eventually, it all worked wonderfully -- that is, until someone tried to use it in a lesser browser -- Internet Explorer. The error was thus:

Lots of websites give you the ability to copy certain pieces of text/code/something off their website in a "copy to clipboard"-type functionality. In the process of creating just such a function on a little page I was making, I wanted to make the html that was copied very tight and compact. The most annoying things were the whitespace and the newlines. Here's some javascript to strip out the whitespace between xml/html tags.

Callback functions are a nice feature of Javascript. It's nice to be able to just use a function handle to show that it should be called when a certain something completes. Sometimes, however, we want to do more than just specify a function handle. We want to pass parameters. Why? Because sometimes the callback method cares about other data that was available before the original request. Here's an example:

Jquery has some awesome event-handling abilities. The elusive ability to pass parameters into these event callbacks seems way harder than it should be. Nevertheless, I have found *a* solution. I really doubt it's the best one. I really hope it isn't.

For our view layer on our current project at work, we use JSF/Facelets + some jQuery goodness. I have found that at some times these two tech's have a hard time working with each other. I ocassionally have problems with the id's. Here's a nice little way to guarantee you id's are awesome.

What a journey of discovery! I haven't done much many-to-many relationship management in JSF. Django makes it quite easy. But at work recently, I did it in JSF. It was quite the experience, hereafter chronicled.