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JavaScript for the masses
As you may be aware Scott Hanselman’s 2009 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows came out yesterday. If you are like me you end up pooling through the list especially the new stuff to see if there is something cool that somehow you missed.
I found an item on the list that answers something I think I have been looking for (but not for me), but before I go on I need to give you some background (as usual).
Kevin D. Wolf (aka ByteMaster) and I have been talking over the last several months on all things Ajax. We’re...
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jQuery-UI visual studio intellisense (vsdoc) file
If you’ve ever tried to use jQuery UI with Visual Studio, you’ve run into a JavaScript parse error and you lose JavaScript intellisense in Visual Studio. I wasn’t exactly sure of the issue until I read someone’s advice (who was just trying to get the datepicker working) to simply include a dummy jquery-datepicker-vsdoc.js file. So I did this for the jquery-ui.js file and lo and behold, no JavaScript parsing errors, and I had intellisense for everything EXCEPT jQuery UI.
Anyway, I dug around and couldn’t find one… so I created the beginnings of one. What you get is very core level...
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Better JavaScript class generation
For years, I have been espousing how great Script# is. I often do an advanced MS ASP.NET Ajax client talk and end it with a Script# talk. Mainly because I think that the idea of learning the nuances of JavaScript OO techniques can be a little confusing. It’s really the challenge (All you need to do is search the archives of my blog and you’ll see my own confusion on this topic).
I think many web developers can wrap their heads around building the functionality, but making something private/public/static can get a little confusing. Especially if you are used to using...
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The two ways one writes JavaScript code..
I think sometimes in the past I have been guilty in my presentation on JavaScript (JS) of not defining for myself who my audience is. Actually I know that I’ve done a poor job of this. You see there are 2 ways to write JavaScript code. Something that I knew, but recently realized the importance of.
OO Baby
If you are building your own controls then you are all about building things in an OO manner because it helps you in the areas on manageability. You may or may not be testing your components with automated/unit test tools...
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CodeRush/Refactor Pro refactors Javascript too
I just saw an article talking about a new Ruby product from JetBrains. One of the side effects of this product is that they offer refactoring support for JS code. <yawn />
I had to chuckle a bit. I guess my love affair with the Developer Express’ Code Rush/Refactor Pro (CR/RP) addin continues to pay off… I’ve had refactorings for JavaScript AND HTML/ASP.NET markup for about a year (and they added it a long time ago). If you didn’t know that… now you do (they keep finding new places to add refactorings… it seems like nearly every file in your...
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Client-side Scripting 101 Part 2: JavaScript OOP Basics
[Sorry this took so long to get out… I have been distracted by Windows 7 and am working between 2 OS’ on 1 machine… Win7 is now my primary OS and I didn’t have this post here… that and I’m now twittering doesn’t help either] Ok, since in the first version of my last article I referenced the "prototype" property, it felt natural to begin by talking about JavaScript OOP basics. Now, I’m not going to try to define all the terms that usually get associated with the type of OOP used in JavaScript ("JS" hereafter). I want to...
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Client-side Scripting 101 Part 1: The Reasons
[Welcome to my multi-part tutorial on. I know I did an introduction earlier in the month, but before we dig in deep into this I thought it would be good to get a few questions out of the way.]
Why is this (Client-side Scripting) all that important to me?
You may be thinking "Hey Jay, my company bought Telerik/Component Arts/Component One/{fill in some other ASP.NET tools suite} and it seems to do everything I need and more. I can see some places where a little client-side code is helpful, but it’s not that important, is it?"
Well, I’m definitely not one to...
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C# Style Attributes in Script#/Javascript
[If you aren’t knee deep into Script# or JavaScript this post might not make any sense. If you are into BDD (or TDD) you might want to read further to see some ideas I’m playing with. If you write TDD tools for running tests... please read further... ]
[NOTE (For Joe Only): Joe, yes, this is a "shiny stuff" post; some day it might have a practical use at which point I’ll write a non-alpha geek version of this post which will be a tutorial of how to use this to make your life easier.]
One of the things I’ve been looking...
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Script# - Literal feature... How did I miss this one?
Today, I’m doing some work with Script# and I ran into the one thing about Script# that I don’t like: there are a few areas where Script# just isn’t able to perform some task. This happens a lot when you are developing Atlas (MS Ajax) components instead of using Nikhil’s ScriptFX client library.
Today I ran into one of those areas. Specifically I needed to dynamically add/remove options from a select element. In JS this is a breeze for me, but Script#'s SelectElement’s options array is defined as a dictionary which doesn’t allow for adding elements. In the process of...
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Tampa Code Camp 2008 Wrap up
Yesterday I had an excellent day at the Tampa Code Camp. My wife gave me a vacation day from the family (thank you!) which makes for a good day that I can just hang out catch a couple sessions, speak, and connect with a few other geeks. I have attached my slides and sample projects to this post (the sample solution requires that you have Script# installed). I also attached my MS Ajax Cheat sheets as well. Normally that would be all that I would put up here, but there were some additional things that happened as a...
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Multiple threads to improve UX (User Experience)
Shawn (of TUX -- BTW, we have a TUX meeting coming up tomorrow night) pointed me to a pretty cool article yesterday. It’s the End Bracket in this months MSDN Magazine. You can read it online here. Perry (my boss and also of TUX) and I have been talking about some things related to our ASP.NET app’s reporting module (among other things) that additionally got me thinking. This is pure theory (and potentially a really strange idea)... I admit this up front, but I’m going to throw it out for all to see (and potentially make fun...
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PDC2008: Reactions to ASP.NET 4.0 upcoming features presentation
I’m listening/watching this video on Channel9 which is on the ASP.NET 4.0 preview. Scott Hunter is the main presenter (at least at the beginning). This will probably be a little different of a post by me... Web Forms Did he say "HTML Standards Compliant?" (cool!) ClientIDs will be controlled by us (no more mangling... Hurray!) Moving away from table-based controls and using CSS2 adapters (sort of... invisibly) URL Routing (yawn... We have this...
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Tampa UX (TUX) First Meeting Tomorrow Night (Sept. 10th, 2008)!
Since we are still waiting on the website to go live (it will be at http://www.tampaux.org once the files get copied up), here’s some detailed info on the TUX meeting tomorrow ay 6:30 (for food) with the actual meeting starting around 7:00pm (we should be done around 9:00pm) Here’s Answers Systems (where we’re meeting) on Virtual Earth That address is 4029 Tampa Rd, Oldsmar, FL 34677-3206. Basically, if you are coming from Tampa, take Hillsborough Ave. to Oldsmar. We’re the bullding (on the same side of the street) just past the McDonald’s that...
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TUX Update... (AKA I missed something)
MSDN Premium Subscription is up for grabs I forgot to mention this yesterday. Bill Reiss our resident MVP is giving away an MSDN Premium Subscription. So if you come you have a chance at getting it. Multi-location BTW, we are working toward being multi-location, so if you are in another state in the US (probably more of an East Coast thing) or in Florida, one of our goals is to make our meetings available via streaming (but only to groups... sorry you won’t be able to just dial up our stream from your desk at home)
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Writing Better JS Components
Perry (my boss... a developer/manager... he codes and manages) and I have been having a recurring conversation lately. One that keeps bringing to my mind a product that I knew about when I worked for ZAC Catalogs (way back in the day). I would daresay that none of you had even heard of it (although we did pick it up as a result of Xtras carrying it, so maybe a few of you knew about it). I believe it was a called "MFC DataGrid Wizard" or something like that. Anyway what it did was build a custom DataGrid component for...
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DLRScript 0.55 released for Silverlight2 Beta2
[UPDATE: I forgot to add the link to the project - http://www.codeplex.com/dlrscript/]
It took a bit of time for this release. In the end I had to take everything a step back (as well as there are probably a few "mid thoughts" in here as the release of SL2 Beta 2 caught me a bit by surprise... actually the changes to the DLR caught me more by surprise).
The step back is that we no longer get script code lines when there are issues. I’ll try to bring this feature back, but right now if it breaks, you’ll know it via an...
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MS MVC Thoughts
[NOTE: I haven’t quite had much of a chance to look at the new Preview 4, so take this as someone nearly informed. I haven’t read about anything in the Preview 4 that changes what I’m going to say. Also, remember that I am the admin/editor of the blog site which is Alt Alt.NET... so testability/mockabilty doesn’t really resonate with me.] I know it’s shocking that I would have something to weigh in on MS MVC, but I do. For those who don’t know. I took some issue with Ayende’s "leaky abstraction" back in my CodeBetter days (they had...
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Tampa User eXperience (TUX) User Group is coming September 10th, 2008…
I am proud to announce that I and a couple other guys are starting User Group that revolves around User Experience (or UX) in the MS tools eco-system. The other guys are Shawn Cady, Perry Panagopoulos, and Bill Reiss (MVP) [Bill always gets his MVP props].
I could give you all their backgrounds, but I’ll make them do it at the first meeting. I’m sure Papa Fish (aka www.devfish.net) the local MS Dev Evangelist (my Blog Father) Joe Healy will be around (at least for the first meeting).
TUX' Focus
Our focus will be on the "now" of Ajax and how it...
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Types of Silverlight2 apps
I want to go on record for a prediction. I believe when the dust settles with Silverlight2 (SL2, hereafter), we will have 2 major types of apps. To me this is fairly obvious, but if all you did was look at SL2 tutorials you would get a different view altogether. You see all the tutorials that exist out there show you what I think is the preferred way: a single application that lives in the browser as a plugin. I also see another SL2 type of app: the SL2 enhanced Ajax App. Seriously, there will be those who will...
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Cool ScriptManager stuff I missed...
So the last week or so I have been doing some heavy handed UpdatePanel development (stuff where I needed to fix an existing form that needs help to support an UpdatePanel or stuff where I needed to do something special while the page was posting back asyncronously).
In the midst I discovered some cool mechanisms that I missed!
For instance you can determine whether the current request is an async request by doing something like this:
1: ScriptManager sm = ScriptManager.GetCurrent(Page);
2: if (sm != null && sm.IsInAsyncPostBack)
3: {
4: ...
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Script#: Events/Delegates in an Atlas/MS Ajax style script
First of all if you don’t know what Script# is, it is a C# language variant available in VS2005/2008. The difference is that it can be used to create JavaScript. The compiler produces an assembly (usable in other Script# projects) and a set of JS files (a release and a debug version). Nikhil Kothari (the author) also has 2 script frameworks you can target: Nikhil’s framework, and the "Atlas"/MS Ajax (aka MS ASP.NET Ajax) framework. There are difference in what you can do when using the "Atlas" framework. Event Limitations Let me start with a quote...
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Necessary Evil??
I want to write today about the 300lb Gorilla that none of us really wants to talk about. I'm talking about the people we use to find new jobs. As you may be aware I closed down IntraDynamics, LLC (well, I have greatly curtailed my company's offerings),and got a new job (at Answers Systems, Inc.)
I was "exchanging notes" with my new boss regarding the process and discovered some things (none of this is surprising, but you may want to think about it next time you are pursuing a new job).
I had two recruiters that were aware of my interview...
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DLRScript update
I have begun working on DLRJScript-JavaScript compatibility. I was actually successful running my first externally created JavaScript -- EcmaUnit 0.4 (which is a small JS testing framework). I did have to make a couple modifications.
I’m becoming aware of the size of this job though. I’m currently porting a Mozilla-compatible XmlHttpRequest object which I think will work with all the major Ajax frameworks. I’m not sure which Ajax Framework I’ll actually target as the first on to run. I could stick with the man and make it work with the MS Ajax client library, I could go with Prototype that so...
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DLRScript 0.5 Notes...
As you may or may not have seen, over the weekend I released a new version of my DLRScript project. It’s coming along. It adds 3 things: File loading via the src attribute, better exception reporting for DLRJScript(it shows you what line of script code failed), and improved DLRJScript performance. File Loading I could probably write a bunch on this (and probably should in another article). Basically I am dynamically loading content (script files) from the server. I also extended HTML a bit in that you can now use the same script tag to load...