I have been using the YUI Selector Utility for a few months, but I just recently discovered how powerful it really is. I have been converting my imValidateForm JQuery plugin into a YUI widget. One of the validations this widget checks is whether a set of radio buttons are checked. I originally created validation object with pure Javascript. To determine whether the radio buttons were checked, I created the following code:

var flds = document.getElementsByName(‘gender’);
var nL = flds.length;
for (var j=0; j<nL; j++) {
     if (flds[j].checked) {
          ischecked = true;
          break;
     }
}

This is so verbose when compared to the YUI implementation of the same code:

var ischecked = (YAHOO.util.Selector.query('input[name=gender]:checked').length > 0) ? true : false;

Not only am I able to use the CSS3 Attribute Selector and Pseudo-classes, I can combine the two to create more succinct code. Marvelous.

I have been trying to find a YUI method that is similar to the JQuery $.each method, but the closest thing I could find for the current version of YUI is YAHOO.util.Dom.batch (YUI 3 has an ‘each’ method, but I haven’t explored it thoroughly). While this method is not as powerful as JQuery’s $.each (see example), it is still a very good replacement for a Javascript ‘for’ loop when iterating over a DOM collection.

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The JQuery $.each object accessor is probably the best method since the invention of the wheel (or at least, since Stargate SG1 was first conceived). It completely replaces the ‘for’ loop to iterate over an object. The power of this method is that it can iterate over any collection (Dom collections, associative arrays, JSON objects, etc). In general, using JQuery can make Javascript development so much easier.

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The more I use the Yahoo User Interface Library (YUI), the more I am impressed with it. I have been converting my JQuery imValidateForm plugin to a YUI widget for a project that I am working on. I ran into a scope issue when a button was clicked. I have dealt with Javascript scope issues in the past, but I did not know how to fix it using YUI.  Read the rest of this entry »

imList is a JQuery plugin that began as a way to “Ajaxally” (Adjective: Meaning to post or retrieve information without having to refresh the page) create html tables using JQuery. After creating the table plugin, I realized that I could apply much of the same functionality to any type of list that is displayed on a web page, to include: ul/ol, comboboxes, lists, and divs. The power of this plugin is it’s regular expression functionality that will allow developers to display anything they wish within a list. I have also built in a delete row capability that can, not only delete the row that is displayed on the web page, but also allow the developer to delete the record from the server (ajaxally, of course).

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Depending upon the number of elements on a page, retrieving data from a database and populating a web page with the data can be a very tedious task. In the past, I have always used server-based technologies (PHP, Coldfusion, etc) to populate a page. After growing tired of creating the structures over and over again, I decided to create a JQuery plugin that would do the work for me. Most of the page population plugins I have seen only populate form elements. The imPagePopulate plugin will not only populate form elements, it will populate any HTML element on a page.

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Prior to using JQuery, I had developed Javascript object that validated forms prior to submission. I got the basic concept (and some code) from the book, “Beginning Ajax with PHP: From Novice to Professional” by Lee Babin. I modified it a great deal. Once I began using JQuery, I converted the Javascript object to a JQuery plugin. Unlike most validation plugins which validate input on exit of the field (onBlur), the imValidateForm plugin validates the entire form once the user clicks the submit button. The plugin also handles the submission (Ajaxally, of course) and allows you to disable the submit button to prevent double-clicking.

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For years I’ve seen the calls to ‘return false’ following an onclick event, but I never realized what it was used for. Once I began using Ajax, I quckly learned why using ‘return false’ was so important. Because Ajax processes a request without refreshing the browser, I was able to see the inherint functionality of the browser when a button is clicked. The browser appears to jump to the top of the page. Adding ‘reutrn false’ after the onclick event will ensure that the browser page does not ‘jump’. Try it out.

One of my primary motivations for creating JQuery plugins is to make my life easier by enabling me to develop websites quicker. Early in my application development career (Delphi), a manager once told me, if you use a routine more than once, create a function. At the time, I had created some functions, but more often than not, I would copy/paste the same code in different places throughout the application. This revelation of creating functions was one of those “When you can pull the pebbles from my hand” moments. How interesting. What a novel idea…

There are a number of repetitive tasks that developers perform when creating web sites, especially as it relates to the gui. I was developing a web site where the owner wanted multiples lists of checkboxes on various pages of his website. On most the pages where these checkboxes appeared, the owner wanted the check boxes to have a 4-column display, but there were other pages where he wanted a 3-columns display. I got tired of copying/pasting the php/html structure from page to page, so I decided to create a JQuery plugin (imCheckBoxDB), that would layout the check box lists for me. The checkbox list is created Ajaxally. Both an id and label can be retrieved for each checkbox.
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This Plugin has been updated. See imGoogleMaps 0.9 – Multiple Addresses, Street View

Although there are other JQuery plugins that enable a developer to integrate Google maps API into websites, I wanted to create a simpler implementation, one that did not have all the options, only the basics. I think that in most situations, a website owner only wants an end-user to be able to view the owner’s address and be able to map directions to that address. In addition, I wanted a plugin that displayed a map interface that is similar to what one would see on Google Maps (auto mode) while also giving the developer the ability to style their own interface (manual mode). This plugin will also display certain Google Map errors codes. In addition, this plugin will allow you to use Ajax to retrieve an address as well as Reverse Geocoding.

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