Search for a string using Javascript

if (str.indexOf("Yes") >= 0)

 

This is a powerful tool. The variable str contains the text you want to search. “Yes” is an example of what you could search for. It will be >=0 if the string is found in the search.

 

Here is a good example for how to see if its a negative number.

var isnegative=number.indexOf("-")>=0? true : false ;

 

If string passed in is like  number= 10 will return true
If number = -10 then will return false.

 

While enjoying some reading of the Mozilla Developer Network docs, I have stumbled on to a bit of “best practice” techniques:

Note that ‘0’ doesn’t evaluate to true and ‘-1’ doesn’t evaluate to false. Therefore, when checking if a specific string exists within another string the correct way to check would be:

"Blue Whale".indexOf("Blue") != -1; // true
 "Blue Whale".indexOf("Bloe") != -1; // false

So my final snippet for checking if a string is in another string is as follows.

var mystring - "Yes I want to respond."; If (mystring.indexOf("Yes") != -1){console.log("They want to respond");)} 

Dynamic arrays and array techniques with vbscript classic asp

The standard vbscript array is created as so…

Dim degrees(4)
degrees(0) = “Associate in Applied Science Transfer”
degrees(1) = “Associate in Arts, University and College Transfer”
degrees(2) = “Associate in Arts, General Studies”
degrees(3) = “Associate in Science”
degrees(4) = “Associate in Technical Arts”

 

These arrays are not dynamic and need some work to add data to them. You can also create arrays by splitting strings as seen in my post about asp string manipulation techniques.

 

count = 23 ‘ set from database pull

Dim myarray()
ReDim Preserve myarray(count)

For x = 1 to count
myarray(x) =  mydynamicitemhere

Next

 

 

Dump the contents of an array to the screen for debug:

For Each item In myFixedArray
	Response.Write(item & "<br />")
Next

A two dimensional array would be achieved as so…

Dim listofslides()

ReDim preserve listofslides(4,4) ‘ sequence, filename, description, enabled
listofslides(0,0)=1
listofslides(0,1)=”image1.jpg”
listofslides(0,2)=”Description of image 1″
listofslides(0,3)=1

 

 

But if you are getting the array from an information storage system, then its super easy.

sub grabdata
        SQL_query = "SELECT * FROM MSAccess_table"
        Set rsData = conn.Execute(SQL_query)
        If Not rsData.EOF Then aData = rsData.GetRows()         
    end sub

and you use the array like this


If IsArray(aData) Then
    For x = lBound(aData,2) to uBound(aData,2) 'loops through the rows
        Col1 = aData(0,x)
        Col2 = aData(1,x)
        Col3 = aData(2,x)
        Response.Write "Row #" & x+1 & "
" Response.Write "This is the data in Column1: " & Col1 & "
" Response.Write "This is the data in Column2: " & Col2 & "
" Response.Write "This is the data in Column3: " & Col3 & "
" Next End If

Formatting currency fields using javascript

This actually uses jquery, but yo could replace the jquery with doc.getelem….

Here is a sick way to get rid of $ signs, commas and anything after decimal point.

for example: $45,000.45 becomes a clean number 45000 ready for calculations.

No, it doesnt round. just removes the change.

// strip out any $$ .00 and anything else
function stripper(who){
dirtynumber = $( who ).val();
cleannumber = parseInt(dirtynumber.replace(/[^d.]/g, “”));
$( who ).val(cleannumber);
}

Handling Events With J Query

jQuery event.target always refers to the element that triggered the event, where 'event' is the parameter passes to the function. http://docs.jquery.com/Events_(Guide)

$(document).ready(function() {     $("a").click(function(event) {         alert(event.target.id);     }); });
If the  <a> that is clicked were a game element, such as an ace card, the card could tell you "I am an ace of spades" for your code to do what ever.
$( "p" )
.html( newText )
.find( "span" )
.hover(function() {
$( this ).addClass( "hilite" );
}, function() {
$( this ).removeClass( "hilite" );
})
.end()
.find( ":contains('t')" )
.css({
"font-style": "italic",
"font-weight": "bolder"
});

Setting an event handler is not too difficult, but what about removing the event. I don’t want the user to be able to hit the button more than once and still fire the function. the only way that was working was to disable the button or hide it.  I finally found the technique that really works for me. The prop() is a powerful function with untold uses. Dealing with checkboxes seems to be something that would merit its own post. http://api.jquery.com/prop/

Here is a great way to remove a click event that you put inline:

<A href=”#” onclick=”mycoolfunk()” id=”thisbut”>my button or link</a>

$(‘#thisbut’).prop(“onclick”, null);

 

Update: I have been fighting with finding the best way to remove a click event from the button so the user cant hammer on it repeatedly. None of my solutions were working effectively in all situations: like actions on  a submit button are harder to remove than ones on a link.I couldn’t get the submit to submit to my will. I wanted to hide it onclick, not happenin. remove click event, not workin either. What the hell should I do?

Well, enter the .one()  — thats right. http://api.jquery.com/one/ The jquery docs have a function to only put one click event onto an object. This is perfect for a submit where we don’t want the user to be able to repeatedly press the figgin button cause they think everything should be so instantaneous. LOL.

 

But what about handling multiple events.  I have been looking for this for years… We have the  $( document ).on( "click", "#demo-page", function( e ) {alert(e.type)}); alerts(‘click’)

Well here’s how to handle multiple events with one on call:

 $( document ).on( "click press swipeleft swiperight", "#demo-page", function( e ){
alert(e.type); 
if ( e.type === "swipeleft"  ) {// do something only on swipeleft}
});// end doc.on funk

 

I will write up a demo page with this script so I can test it out and do stuff with events.

 

Using delegated events to allow dynamic elements to have the event handler.

Delegated events have the advantage that they can process events from descendant elements that are added to the document at a later time. By picking an element that is guaranteed to be present at the time the delegated event handler is attached, you can use delegated events to avoid the need to frequently attach and remove event handlers. This element could be the container element of a view in a Model-View-Controller design, for example, or document if the event handler wants to monitor all bubbling events in the document. The document element is available in the head of the document before loading any other HTML, so it is safe to attach events there without waiting for the document to be ready.

Lets take for example the diploma application I am working on. I have some buttons that have styles and actions that need to be called, but the buttons are not in the dom until and unless the user accesses that particular step of the application. How do I assign the events and styles to non-existing buttons. I had tried a few various solutions before I read about this. Now lets go for this approach. I will delegate the event to the form element. That way, any dynamically added elements will still get the mouseover and mouseout effects.

$(“#diplomappform”).on(“mouseover mouseout”, “[name=’stepUpButton’]”, function(e){
if(e.type==”mouseover”){
$(this).removeClass(“blackouterstrokesmall”).addClass(“boldfont blackouterstrokemedium insetborder whitetextglowtight”);
}
if(e.type==”mouseout”){
$(this).removeClass(“boldfont blackouterstrokemedium insetborder whitetextglowtight”).addClass(“blackouterstrokesmall”);
}
});

 

Sometimes if  you have a mouse over event, the mouse out event will trigger accidently too early. Peter has worked out a fix for this: make a function to call the mouse over function instead of putting an anonymous function directly into the event.
var qlinkTrigger = function() {
$(“#qlink-box”).slideDown(“slow”, function() {
$(this).clearQueue();
});
}

$(“a#qlink-trigger”).hover(qlinkTrigger).click(qlinkTrigger);

$(“#qlink-box”).mouseleave(function() {
$(this).slideUp(“slow”);
});

$(“a.close-qlinkbox”).click(function() {
$(“#qlink-box”).slideUp(“slow”);
return false;
});

ASP and VBSCRIPT string manipulation techniques

To compare two strings that should be identical match:

mystringa=”deedubs”
mystringb=”Dee Dubs”

TestComp = StrComp(mystringa, mystringb)

If TestComp <> 0 Then
Response.Write("The strings don't match")
End If

 

ASP Classic and VBScript tips, tuts links and snips  This seems to be a sick way to code arrays in asp from a string
Here is a vbscript reference pdf.

Are you trying to break a string up into smaller pieces? ASP provides an easy to use split function which lets you dice and slice a string.

Let’s say you take in a sentence and want to put each word into a different variable. So you take in

NameStr = “Mr. John Smith”

Set up the array to hold the results with

Dim WordArray

then do the split, using a space as the split indicator

WordArray = Split(NameStr, ” “)

Now WordArray(0) is equal to “Mr.”, WordArray(1) is equal to “John” and WordArray(2) is equal to “Smith”! You can use various array functions and other string functions to work with these results.

ASP String Functions

 

Best practices  Redirect a user to a location.

While I could response.write a javascript relocation, this is not best practice for security and performance, we would want to execute this code on the server side, so that it can’t be manipulated in any way by a malicious user.

<script>document.location=”myfile.asp”</script> — this is handled on the client machine after they have recieved the page. This could be messed with by a hacker, and I am not even going to give you any reasons why or how.

newUri = “http://www.mysite.com/myspecialpage.html”

 Response.Redirect(newUri) 

The only drawback is that this can’t be used after any content has been written to the page. Here is a great article from microsoft about the variables and how to use them.

 

Check if a string has letters in it.

A basic validation to see if a string doesnt have letters in it:

Set re =New RegExp
re.Pattern ="[a-z]"
re.IgnoreCase =True
re.Global =True
hasMatches = re.Test("12345abc")
If hasMatches =True
'it has letters in it.
End If

 

basic Javascript email validation

This function will check for very basic user mistakes such as @ sign and .com and stuff.

// function to validate email address
function validateEmail(elementValue){
var emailPattern = /^[a-zA-Z0-9._-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+.[a-zA-Z]{2,4}$/;
return emailPattern.test(elementValue);
}
// end email address validator

Use it like this in your code where ever you need it….

if (validateEmail(student_class_instructor_email) == false) {alert(“Error, please check the instructor email address for proper syntax.”); return false;}

 

a really bad ass way to display the error alert , especially in foundation, is to change the alert() to a prepend of the form or even the element that had the error…

alert(“Error…)
$(‘#foundationform’).prepend(“Error, please check the  email address for proper syntax.”);

if you have foundation you can use the error box built in with a close button .. just wrap it around the error message

<div class=’alert-box alert’>Error, please check the  email address for proper syntax.<a href=” class=’close’>&times;</a></div>

Loop through form elements with Javascript using modern form validation techniques.

Here are some techniques that I use to loop through a form , access the elements and validate the field.

Here is one that will look for any field with an id, and require it. Then it will display the error message using the label of the field. sick!

function checkForm() {
        // begin basic form validation
        // check for empty fields name. adress etc.
        var str = '';
        var elem = document.getElementById('golf_reg_form').elements;
        for(var i = 0; i < elem.length; i++)
        {
           if(elem[i].value=="" && elem[i].id!==""){
            var myelem = elem[i];
            dalabel = $( elem[i] ).prev().html();
            alert("Please fill in  " + dalabel);
            //$( elem[i] ).val("error");-- note "A"
            return false;
            } 

        } 

    } // end form validation funk

note “A”: — here is where you could set some responsive disclosure ui features to help user know where the error is.

<script type="text/javascript">
    function DisplayFormValues()
    {
        var str = '';
        var elem = document.getElementById('frmMain').elements;
        for(var i = 0; i < elem.length; i++)
        {
            str += "<b>Type:</b>" + elem[i].type + "&nbsp&nbsp";
            str += "<b>Name:</b>" + elem[i].name + "&nbsp;&nbsp;";
            str += "<b>Value:</b><i>" + elem[i].value + "</i>&nbsp;&nbsp;";
            str += "<BR>";
        } 
        document.getElementById('lblValues').innerHTML = str;
    }
</script>

Update: I have figured out how to access this elem[i] using jquery.

$( elem[i] ).val(“error”);

Here is how to remove the error display when the user begins to correct it.
// this is to remove an error message after the user corrects it.
function typeIn(i, a)  {

if (document.sports_recruitment_form.elements[i].className==”error”) {

document.sports_recruitment_form.elements[i].className = ” “;

}

Then I can use selectors and apply the event handler to required fields: onclick=”typeIn(this.name, this.value)”

I could use jquery to loop through the form if I wanted to have more precision selectors like choosing only checkboxes, or even only checked checkboxes.

 

Here is a great example of how to select inputs from a large form, all elements have been named in groups, and setting each one with a unique id would be a waste of time.Instead, just give the container a unique id, and then access the child elements using jquery’s powerful selectors.

<div class=”six columns disclose” id=”golfer1″>

<label>First</label><input name=”team” type=”text” size=”24″/>

<label>Last</label><input name=”team” type=”text” size=”24″  />

<label>Email</label><input name=”team” type=”text” size=”40″ />

<label>Phone</label><input name=”team” type=”text” size=”16″ />

</div>

for(var allfields=0; allfields<=$(“#golfer1 :input”).length-1;allfields++){
alert($(“#golfer2 input:eq(“+allfields+”)”).val());
}

 

This code will loop through and detect the value of any input elements within the parent container. From there we could create some validation or whatever we want to do with the data.

UPDATE: after years of practice, I have concluded that the name and id should be set as so: <label>Phone</label><input name=”Phone Number” type=”text” id=”phone” size=”16″ /> then the labels and/or placeholders could be created dynamically from the name.

// set the placeholder of every text input to equal its name attribute
$(“form :input[type=’text’]”).each(function(){
$( this ).attr(“placeholder”, $( this).attr(“name”));
});

Application Development Documentation

These  documents are necessary to properly plan and document a website, application or production project, and they are critical to successful development, launch and maintenance/updates.  Here are some examples of my work creating documentation, and my notes on what should be included in these documents.

 

 

Creative Brief

The Creative Brief is also called a site plan, depending on the project. This is the first document to be created, usually from the initial information obtained from the client or project director.

Your Creative Brief should include:

  • The Site Purpose
    What is the point of this website? And how is it going to fulfill that purpose better than any other site on the Web?
  • The Site Goals
    SMART goals can help you take a mediocre site and make it great. Once you know the goals of the site, you can plan around them.
  • The Customers
    Who is going to read this website? Try to be as specific as you can regarding your target audience. Include details like: age, hobbies, income, job title(s), and so on. You might envision different people coming to different parts of your site – that’s fine. But know who the audience is that you want to attract. And if your site is already live, you should include data on the audience that you currently have.
  • The Content
    What will be on the site? Will the content change regularly? Will you focus on selling products with product pages or focus on providing information through articles? Is your content going to be mostly text or images or multimedia? Do you have the content already created or do you still need to get it?
  • The Design
    What colors will your site be? Remember that design aesthetic varies across different demographics. So if you’re planning a website for cutting edge designers, it will have a different look than one designed for stay-at-home dads (except maybe those stay-at-home dads that are also cutting edge designers…). The design includes things like graphic elements, colors, fonts, and typography. The more you plan ahead of time, the easier the design phase will be.
  • The Timeline
    Once you have the rest of the pieces of the plan together, you should decide on a schedule. Don’t forget to include time for testing, revision, and user feedback.

Flowcharts

So far I have found that this is a good way to visualize the MVC design flow.

Use case diagram

Here is how to write an effective use case and user story.

 

What is UML use case diagram

 

 

Site Map

I’m not sure if this is the same as what I need. This Sitemap is a google search meta code for html pages.

Here is a little info about the site map, it really is just a simple diagram showing the pages and how they link together.

 

WireFrame

Sequence Diagrams

Component Diagrams

Deployment Diagram

Database Diagrams

Using custom attributes in jquery

You can use your own custom atributes to attach more information to a tag.

make a note to look into using your own tags in jquery.check out lukes hall of fame code for inspiration.

Heres a great example. I needed to mark tasks as completed or not, and using a custom attribute works well. I add the attribute “taskstatus” to be “new”, open, or “completed” based on results from a call to the database. Then I can select any task that has the attribute as so….

thetasks=$(‘#maintasklist  div[taskstatus=completed]’);

This looks for divs with my custom taskstatus set to completed, inside a container with id of maintasklist.