The Author – Bart Busschots
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May
19
PBS 35 of x – HTML Text Input | Introducing ‘Life’
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on May 19, 2017 | 3 Comments
We’ll start this instalment by rounding out our look at QUnit – first, by taking a quick look at my sample solution to the challenge from the previous instalment, and then by introducing a simple little feature that will make this instalment’s challenge more manageable.
Next, we’ll make a start on text input in HTML forms. This time we’ll focus purely on free-form text, and then in the next instalment we’ll move on to formatted sub-sets of text like numbers, email addresses and so on.
Finally, we’ll make a start on what will be an on-going project. The idea is to combine our understanding of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, and QUnit to implement a zero-player with a really cool computer science back-story.
As usual, I’ve created a ZIP file with the files for this instalment, including a sample HTML page that demonstrates text input in action, and the files that make up the starting point for this instalment’s challenge which you can download here.
Apr
30
PBS 34 of x – More JS Testing with QUnit
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on April 30, 2017 | 3 Comments
In the previous instalment we had our first look at QUnit, an open source Unit testing framework for JavaScript by the jQuery project. In this instalment we’ll finish our exploration of QUnit with a look at a few more advanced QUnit features. We’ll be making regular use of QUnit in future JavaScript challenges.
Wrapping up our brief detour into testing a QUnit leaves us free to move back to HTML forms and more JavaScript practice in the next instalment. The aim is to slowly bring those two streams back together through a new multi-instalment project. Over the next few instalments we’ll be building up a web app that makes use of both web forms and JavaScript prototypes.
As usual, I’ve collected the code referenced in this instalment into a ZIP file which you can download here.
Dec
31
PBS 27 of x – JS Prototype Revision | HTML Forms
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on December 31, 2016 | 2 Comments
In this instalment we’ll make a start on a large topic which we have intentionally ignored until now – taking user input on the web. The way this is done is through HTML forms. It will take us a few instalments to learn all about them, so we’ll start with the basics in this instalment.
The code for the examples in this instalment has been collected into a single ZIP file which you can download here.
Dec
10
PBS 26 of x – HTML Data Attributes with jQuery
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on December 10, 2016 | 10 Comments
After our brief division in the previous instalment, it’s time to get back to learning new things. We’ll learn about data attributes – a mechanism for embedding data into HTML elements.
We’ll also revise what we learned about defining our own object prototypes to start including prototypes in our APIs.
Finally, as a practical worked example, we’ll build a better clock API for Allison’s website. Each Sunday she streams the live recording of her podcast from podfeet.com/live at 5pm at her house. To avoid timezone confusion, Allison would like a clock on that page that shows the current time at her house.
As usual I’ve packaged all the files needed for the worked example into a ZIP file which you can download here.
Nov
23
PBS 25 of x – A Case Study (bartificer.linkToolkit.js)
Filed Under Computers & Tech, My Projects, Software Development on November 23, 2016 | Leave a Comment
This instalment is a little unusual – rather than learning new topics, and then demonstrating them with a few simple examples, we’re going to look at a real-world JavaScript API, see how it works, and in so doing, reinforce what we’ve already learned, and expand our knowledge a little.
The library we’ll be examining is bartificer.linkToolkit.js, a small open source library I released over the weekend. This library bundles some functions for manipulating links in HTML documents. The two main functions of the library are to ensure that links with a target of _blank also specify a rel of noopener (for security reasons), and, to automatically make links leading out of the site open in a new tab, and denoting that fact with an icon appended to the end of the links. You can see the library in use right here on this page!
We’ll be looking at the library from three points of view – the actual JavaScript code, the JSDoc comments, and the documentation produced from those comments, and, project management.
Oct
28
PBS 24 of x – Creating a JavaScript API
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on October 28, 2016 | 4 Comments
In this instalment we’ll take our JavaScript skill up a level, learning how to write code that is designed to be re-used by ourselves or by others. When you solve a problem that you know you’ll need to solve again, it’s worth putting in a little extra effort to make your code as easy to re-use as possible. You may decide to share that code with others, or you may not, but either way, it’s in your interest to write it using some simple best practices.
Re-usable code without documentation is all but useless, so, we’ll also learn how to create great API documentation as you code. We’ll learn to do this using the free and open source tool JSDoc.
As a worked example, we’ll re-write our link fixer as an easily re-usable API, and while we’re at it we’ll also add in some extra functionality to make its behaviour more customisable, and hence, more useful to more people.
The sample files used in this instalment, as well as some needed libraries, can be downloaded as a ZIP file here. The examples assume you’ll save the files within the zip in a folder named pbs24 in the document root of your local web server.
Oct
12
PBS 23 of x – Creating Elements with jQuery
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on October 12, 2016 | 2 Comments
So far in this series we have been using jQuery to alter existing HTML elements by changing their attributes or style. In this instalment we take things to the next level, and learn how to use jQuery to create entirely new HTML elements, and inject them into the DOM, and hence, into the web page.
We’ll be working towards our first truly practical assignment in the series – a function that finds all links on a page, and if, and only if, they lead to an external page, alters them to open in a new tab, and appends an icon indicating that fact. In order to work up to that we need to learn five new things:
- How to build HTML elements with jQuery
- How to inject HTML elements into the DOM
- How to loop through each element represented by a jQuery object
- How to embed images directly into web pages using Data URLs
- How to use the 3rd-party library URI.js to interrogate URLs
There are four examples in this instalment, and a starting-point for the challenge. I’ve gathered them, and the other files they depend on, into a ZIP file which you can download here. It’s assumed that you’ll extract this ZIP file and place the five HTML files and one folder it contains into a folder named pbs23 in your local web server’s htdocs folder. The folder is particularly important because it contains a copy of the URI.js library, and if it’s not in the same folder as pbs23d.html and pbs23-assignment.html, those pages won’t work.
Sep
29
PBS 22 of X – jQuery Events
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on September 29, 2016 | 3 Comments
In the previous instalments we experimented with jQuery using the web console on our dummy page. In this instalment we’ll learn how to embed JavaScript into web pages, and, how to attach our code so it gets triggered by browser events.
This instalment includes a number of examples. You can copy-and-paste the code out of the page, but for convenience I’ve zipped up all the files and you can download them here.