bubble-ability
not the gum kind, not the 90′s dot com kind, the javascript event kind!
quick reference post today, i found a handy chart while reading through Apress Ajax Patterns and Best Practices. This graphic, in the chapter about the decouple navigation pattern (post to come, perhaps), charts the ability to bubble-ability and “cancel-ability”, in a cross browser fashion, so you can limit yourself to event triggers that work!
(c)2006 Apress/thanksdontsuemeplease
(note: i’m pretty sure onmousdown/onmousmove are typos, missing an ‘e’)
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"modal window" window model less than perfect
As you may have noticed, Ive been writing alot about Javascript recently. Mostly, because I’ve been reading alot about javascript recently. I’m working on a project that involves my first real brushes with AJAX, besides the word itself being thrown around all willy nilly. Everything is being built from scratch with ASP.Net 1.1, no anthem.net, no atlas. Just Michael Schwarz’s Ajax.Net Pro.
The whole thing really is pretty sharp. I’m not going to give a tutorial of how to work it, though I cannot recommend the documentation on michael schwarz’s page…pick up pragmatic ajax.
This commentary is more about designing ajax applications than how to build them. More than anything, the whole “stay within the page” model, and using div overlays as dialog boxes in a “modal window” fashion.
Overall, I dont like it. I like inline editing, and so far in this app, we havent had any of it. TONS of places it could be used, but the application IA didnt call for it. Everything was placed in div-overlay dialog boxes. And since the content varies, the we need more and more methods to create a custom dialog box for each modal window.
Generally speaking, if there is any kind of delay on the callback, the dialog box gets munged. If you click on the trigger to launch it more than once, the effects could be disasterous on the page. Too much mouse input is required. Its an abuse of an application window model in a web-based application, and it just doesnt work for me.
I’m looking forward greatly for the sunset meeting on this project. It was the first AJAX project design for the IA, and the first AJAX app for me and the other developer. LOTS of learning for all of us…what works, what doesnt, and what do do for the future. Our next app is going to be incredible, so long as our sunset meeting is productive.
Some good reads:
AJAX wireframing (PDF Warning)
Matthew Miller’s Blog about ‘Too Much Ajax’
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more javascripting awesomeness
I recently pseudo-raved about the javascript capabilities of Aptana. I quickly turned and realized…while the concept is awesome, the execution only goes halfway…mostly thanks to the crap-tastic performance of a java-based IDE.
Well, this morning, i discovered one more reason why I’ll quietly wish that I could do all of my development, not just the stuff i do at home on the side, on my mac. I was catching up on Thomas Furch’s blog, and noticed that he made a post about a bundle for textmate that gave it support for prototype AND scriptaculous. It even does inline wiki searches, so you can pull up docs on the functions you want to use from script.aculo.us, using Ctrl+Shift+H. hot.
I’ve already admitted, at least twice, that one of the primary reasons for switching to mac was textmate for web development. Obvoiusly, I’m a happy camper all the way around with my mac experience but its things like this that make me breathe a sigh of relief. Why arent PC application developers doing anything to make my life easier? Why do I spend all day fighting with Visual Studio 2003? Why do I wait for acrobat to crash my browser? Because I’m used to it. Maybe my mac experience isn’t that great, it’s just better than my crappy pc interactions.
I’m gonna shut myself off before i turn into another mac fanboy. But definately check out the budle, and textmate if you somehow havent yet. Features abound in the screenshot below!
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products dont kill people, people kill people.
verdict: on windows, aptana is slow and clunky. shame, too, because my comparably spec’d core duo iMac runs it nearly flawlessly…and it provided the most efficient javascript development experience I’ve ever had. A task that I was dreading for a week and a half was…well..to quote chris pirillo “more less sucky”.
The real reason for my commentary today has to do with alot of people who are commenting and digging aptana, which i think is great for the product promotion. over 2000 diggs at the moment for an article claiming that aptana is a “Dreamweaver killer“. I dont want to get started on my “anti product-killer” rant right now, but the fact of the matter is that this product wont ever kill dreamweaver for the same reason microsofts zune isn’t going to kill the ipod. community. products that are built around a community of users are practically impossible to kill because you not only have to offer a better product, but an incentive to leave all of your friends and make new friends. I dont know about you, but that doesnt sound like something I’m interested in doing any time soon.
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calling all freelancers
the next 6 months have the potential for a lot of work to cross my keyboard…most of it, out of the scope of things that I can do on my own. I’m looking to team up with sharp, creative, driven individuals who are experienced but also are interested in learning new things. Designers shouldnt hesitate to contact me, though, most of the work is technology oriented. Skills needed include:
- valid xhtml
- css (tableless layouts
- javascript
- ajax
- php
- asp.net
- actionscript
- jsp
- really…anything tech. cant hurt to try, and I’m always looking for smart folks to work with.
have any of the above in your portfolio? send resume/links/a friendly message my way. use my handy contact form.
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