Friday, January 27th, 2012
Merging Columns
The sixth tables tutorial looks at how to merge two cells into one when the cells are next to one another.
Thursday, January 26th, 2012
Which DOM to use
There is now only one document object model that you need concern yourself with when it comes to interacting with the HTML from JavaScript. Back when I first wrote about the DOM there were three as two browsers had proprietary versions. I have therefore introduced new material into the top of the Which DOM to use page that both shows you what code to use in new scripts and also how you can modify my original DOM selection script to do away with the references to the document object models that are no longer needed. The earlier text of the page is still included below both as an historical reference and as an example of how scripts can be modified over time.
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
How do you add a JavaScript to your page?
How you can attach JavaScript hasn’t changed since I first wrote about it. What has changed though is which of the ways to attach it is best and where in the page to attach it is most appropriate are now completely different than they were back when Netscape 4 was still in use and 3/4 of the current JavaScript commands couldn’t be used. So I have updated the page to point out that while JavaScript can be attached in certain ways and a variety of places that most of them should no longer be used. RIP onclick.
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
What is JavaScript?
I have decided to start reviewing the content of a lot of the pages on the site so as to update those that are either outdated or where I think the wording on the page can be improved. Since JavaScript has changed significantly since I first started writing that section back in 2000 I decided that would be a good place to start. The page giving the answer to the question What is JavaScript? has now been significantly rewritten and expanded.
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
iPod – The Missing Manual
I don’t have an iPod but my son does and he’s using it almost constantly when he’s at home. So I thought that getting him to review this book for me was both a way to introduce him to writing book reviews and also to be able to provide a review of a book that I’d have otherwise been unable to review. I did give him a bit of help with the format and entered the basic information about the book but all the actual text is his.
Read more to find out what my son thinks of the book iPod – The Missing Manual
Sunday, January 22nd, 2012
Row Headings
Returning to the tables tutorials we last looked at on Sunday. When adding a table to your web page you will often need to give each row a heading to identify the relationship between the entries.
Saturday, January 21st, 2012
Table Content
With the column headings and footers in place the next step in creating a table is to add the content.
Friday, January 20th, 2012
Column Footers
While few tables have footers at the bottom of each column, the next thing in your table source after the column headings when you do have them are the footers. The reason for this is that when printing tables browsers are supposed to print the header and footer on each page and so need to know what the footer contains prior to starting to print the actual table content.
Thursday, January 19th, 2012
Column Headings
Having placed the basic HTML tags for our table into the (X)HTML in yesterday’s tutorial, this second tutorial looks at how we can start to add the content into the table. We start by placing the headings for the columns.
Wednesday, January 18th, 2012
Tables
There are a whole range of tags available for setting up the display of tabular data in your web page. This is the first in a series of tutorials on how to properly define semantically correct tables in your (X)HTML.
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
Gaps in Pseudokeys
A pseudo key in a database is a field that you have added to the data specifically to serve as a unique key so as to allow the data to be easily referenced from other tables. You should only use one where the natural key for the data is too long to make it suitable to use as a key or in the rare instance where there is no combination of fields in the table that could serve as a natural key. As such it doesn’t matter what value the pseudo key has as its sole purpose is to be unique. If having gaps in the sequence where records have been deleted matters then you shouldn’t be using a pseudo key at all.
Monday, January 16th, 2012
Filter Input, Escape Output
So many people seem to make the mistake of thinking that escaping data is a security measure that I have written this web page to explain the difference. You always need to filter your input as a security measure (as well as to ensure that you are not processing garbage) however escaping is only necessary in certain situations and only where certain conditions relating to valid data apply.
Sunday, January 15th, 2012
Image Buttons
The ninth of my tutorials on XHTML forms covers an alternative way of allowing your form to be submitted. This particular form field displays an image on the web page that acts as the submit button for the form. The position within the image where your visitor clicks is passed along with the rest of the form fields so that it is possible to have the form processing perform different actions depending on where in the image the person clicks however since the form cal also be submitted by giving the image the focus and then pressing enter having one submit image perform more than one function is not a good idea.
Saturday, January 14th, 2012
Optgroups
Where you have a selection list in your form that has a lot of op[tions in it you can break those options up into groups to make the selection list easier to use.
Friday, January 13th, 2012
Selection Lists
The eighth of the tutorials that I wrote on XHTML form fields deals with selection lists. These form fields are rather different from most other form fields because they require two different tags to define them.
