Featured Articles Archive - 2009

This index covers all the new articles featured on our Web site. Many of the articles are contributed by our readers, others by freelance writers. Your words could be read — and your voice could be heard — by tens of thousands of our visitors and subscribers to our newsletter. Sound interesting? Submit your article today:

[The difference between the two methods is that articles submitted using the Open Publishing Initiative are generally shorter than the freelance articles, and the author does not receive monetary compensation. Freelance submissions are accepted upon receipt of a signed freelance contract. The freelance author does receive compensation.]

• Freelance submissions
• Open Publishing Initiative

XML and PHP Simplified

J. Leidago Noabeb simplifies and demystifies the use and application of XML and the DOM.

Creating a ASP.NET Contact Form

Learn how to create an ASP.NET contact form that will allow you to capture specific information, validate form fields using client and server side languages and then send the results to specified recipient(s).

Data Filtering with PHP

This article explores some of the new data filtering functions that became available in PHP 5.

Theming Your CMS Without Tearing Your Hair Out

This month Ernest Lilley looks back at his adventures in learning to create themes/skins for websites in the hopes of saving others some pain, if not work.

Make Prettier URLs with Apache's Mod Rewrite

Sukrit Dhandhania discusses how to use .htaccess to make user and search engine friendly URLs for your web applications.

Testing your DTD XML Schema Validation

A key ingredient of successful testing is the separation of the component that you are testing from the rest of the process or application. This article explains how to perform your DTD XML schema testing outside of the application that runs it.

Consuming a Web Service using ASP.NET Ajax

A web service is a platform-independent software component that is based on the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and contains a group of functions that are packaged together for use in a common framework throughout a network. Read on to learn how Web Services can be consumed using ASP.NET Ajax.

Thickbox 3.1

Continuing our series on various implementations of Lightbox, this article discusses another library, namely Thickbox, which can be used to display modal dialog boxes.

User Personalization with PHP: The Admin Section

The final installment of our series on User Personalization with PHP focuses on the Administration of the bookmark application.

Debugging JavaScript: Beyond Alerts

Today, JavaScript can be written, debugged, and even tested using frameworks' built-in functionality or by specialized software. In today's article, we'll begin examining some of the latest ways of debugging your JavaScript code.

Getting Started with URL Rewriting with Apache

The Apache web server has a number of very useful and powerful features, one of which is the ability to rewrite URLs. Using the mod_rewrite module, Apache allows you to create short or fancy looking URLs transparently. This article discusses how to enable, configure, and tweak mod_rewrite in your Apache installation.

Kicking the Tires on Your Next CMS

Confused about which Content Management System (CMS) is right for you? Ernest Lilley helps you break Content Management Systems into distinct groups, based on how much time, money, and effort you can put into the project.

User Personalization with PHP: The Final Scripts

User Personalization with PHP" examines the last scripts that make up the main section of the application. In particular, it covers how to add , remove and change bookmark information.

Prevent Browser Caching of Dynamic Content

Today we'll be discussing the use of Ajax in client-side caching. It's really a two pronged topic: first, it is beneficial for performance to cache the data once it's been downloaded because it minimizes server calls; second, you have to be able to force the browser to refresh some content when a server call is made. This article will concentrate on the latter.

Greybox, Lightbox Part 2

Greybox offers another use of Lightbox that other implementations can't brag about. Learn how to display a website or web page in a div, using Greybox.

User Personalization with PHP: The Home Page

Learn how to build an online bookmark system. By creating your own, you have full control over your application, which allows you to tweak it to suit your needs.

Debugging JavaScript: Handling Runtime Exceptions

The Error object provides a number of properties to help you display more meaningful error messages to the client and more useful debugging information to you, the developer. In this article, we'll go over how to use the Error object to handle runtime exceptions.

Basic Authentication with Apache

Apache can be configured to protect either the whole website or just certain sections of it. Learn how to create users and set up a user authentication system so that when someone goes to a protected section of your website they are asked to enter a username and a password.

CMS: A Look Back and The Way Ahead

Web content has gone through many different phases since the first html document went online in 1990. Learn how content management systems have evolved since their first appearance, what's hot now and where to find podcasts to get familiar with the lingo and get up to speed fast.

Introducing jQuery

This article is the first in a series discussing jQuery - an open source JavaScript library, its features and how easily it can be integrated with Ajax and the ASP.NET MVC Framework to build applications that are rich, interactive and responsive.

Debugging JavaScript: Understanding JavaScript Error Messages

One of the most pervasive criticisms about JavaScript is that it's painfully difficult to debug. The good news is that you don't have to be intimidated or turned off by JavaScript. In this article, we will be taking a look at the types of errors that you are likely to encounter in JavaScript development and how to minimize the chance of them cropping up in your code.

User Personalization with PHP: User Registration

Part four of our series on building an online bookmark system covers the registration script, which is responsible for admitting new users to our system.

Shedding Some Light on Lightbox

The first in a new series, this article discusses how to display large images on your website, on demand, without increasing load time.

Comet Programming: the Hidden IFrame Technique

In the "Comet Programming: Using Ajax to Simulate Server Push" article, we learned how to use XMLHttpRequest long polling to refresh page components and keep cached data in synch with the server. Today's technique, sometimes called a "Forever Frame", relies on a hidden IFrame.

User Personalization with PHP: User Login

Part 3 of User Personalization with PHP: Beginning the Application discusses securing the login page, to make it as difficult as possible for attackers to break the application.

On-Demand JavaScript Explained

As JavaScript Frameworks and user JS libraries become increasingly commonplace, download times can become a real turn off to users. There are times where dynamically loading scripts and other resources can be of great benefit. In this overview of on-demand JavaScipt, we'll go over the basics of how it's done, as well as look at some tools that allow you to take advantage of On-Demand JavaScript right away.

Form Validation using jQuery

There are as many ways to implement form validation as there are opinions of the best way to do it. This article discusses client-side validation using jQuery's validation plugin.

User Personalization with PHP: The Verification Code

Part two of our series on User Personalization with PHP looks at user authentication. User authentication simply means verifying that a particular user has the right to access a part of our application. Read on to learn more...

Prototypal Inheritance Explained

Newcomers to JavaScript often misunderstand its object oriented style. This short tutorial explains how JavaScript implements object inheritance and how you can use it to your advantage.

Comet Programming: Using Ajax to Simulate Server Push

Comet is a Web application model that enables Web servers to send data to the client without having to explicitly request it. This article will examine one method of implementing Comet called Ajax Long Polling and demonstrate how it can be used to create event-driven Web apps.

Adobe AIR Programming: Working with Windows - Advanced

This tutorial explains how to use advanced methods for creating 'Windows' in the Adobe AIR platform.

Building a Client-Side Ajax Cache: Caching Algorithms

Relying on the browser's cache to store Ajax data has distinct limitations. A better solution may be to create your own cache management class. In this installment we'll be covering some caching mechanisms, as we build upon our cache management class.

Adobe AIR Programming Unleashed: Working with Windows

The Adobe AIR platform supports applications developed with HTML, Ajax, Flash, PDF, or virtually any combination thereof. This tutorial show you how to create 'Windows' in Adobe AIR.

User Personalization with PHP: Beginning the Application

In this tutorial we will build an online bookmark system. This will be used to create a database for storing all our URL's and their descriptions. By creating our own, we have full control over our application, allowing us to tweak it to suit our needs.

Django for the Impatient: The Finishing Touches

This is the second part of a two-part series. The previous installment covered the basics of building the blog using Django. In this installment, we'll put the finishing touches on it.

Creating Custom Error Pages on Apache Servers

It's almost inevitable that on any given Web site someone, at some time, is going to be directed to a nonexistent URL. This tutorial will show you how to use a simple script to make the situation a bit easier on your visitors.

Django for the Impatient: Blog Building Basics

Django bills itself as "the Web framework for perfectionists with deadlines." In this two-part series we'll put ourselves on a deadline and see how fast we can produce a simple blog using Django

Introducing the ASP.NET Ajax Frameworks

Ajax is a popular technology that is used in many different ways on the World Wide Web. It has become a technology of choice for building fast and responsive user interfaces. This article takes a brief look at the features of some of the more widely used ASP.NET Ajax frameworks.

Windows Forms: Applications

Applications have special support in Windows Forms. They can discover and use a wide variety of information about the system and environment in which they are executed. This tutorial focuses on these topics in depth, beginning with defining what an application actually is.

Building a Client-Side Ajax Cache

As we create Web sites using dynamic content, we should consider the issue of whether or not to cache some of our data, just like other page content. This two-part series shows how to build a client-side cache management system using the Prototype JavaScript Framework.

Using Dojo for Client-Side Validation

Client-side form validation is quick and reduces the load on the server. This tutorial explains how to use the Dojo JavaScript library for these types of validation in order to enhance your form processing.

Apache Basics, Visited

The Apache Web server is a highly specialized software application used to serve billions of Web pages daily. The Apache Web server is the single most used Web server on the Internet today. In this article, we look at how to configure the program.

Introduction to AJAX Technologies

If you're not familiar with the technology or are new to AJAX, it's important to take some time and understand where AJAX fits into the big picture of Web development. This article helps bring you up to speed with AJAX's place in your Web development toolbox.

Functional JavaScript

In this article, we explore the Function object and learn about its role in a lesser known style of coding called Functional Programming. We focus on the Functional Programming concept of using Higher Order functions to improve code modularity.

Marketing 2.0: Gaming, Widgets, Blogging, RSS, Podcasts and More

A shift in demographics has pushed a post-dot-com generation to seek an online experience with an emphasis on entertainment. With the number of people growing up with gaming, it can be a familiar way to teach new concepts.

How to Use the 'AddThis' Social Bookmarking Service

Social Bookmarking has become an important way of driving traffic to your site. You can choose from a variety of scripts, but you'll soon run into maintenance issues. There's an easier way, an all-in-one script, by AddThis.

The New Vessels: The New Language of Marketing 2.0

The new vessels, which include blogs, games, social networks, and other Web 2.0 mechanisms, involve listening, cultivating, and participating in the continuous dialogue among customers.

An Introduction to 3D

3D models are created by manipulating polygon meshes and molding them into objects, characters and scenes. Even if you don't have formal art training that goes beyond the few classes you took in high school or college you can still do great work in 3D.

Overview of Popular JavaScript Frameworks - ASP.NET AJAX

In this last installment of the JavaScript frameworks overview series, we'll be highlighting the main features of Microsoft's ASP.NET AJAX Framework, including controls, JavaScript Type extensions, asynchronous communications, and debugging capabilities.

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