Vision Master Designs » Javascript Frameworks

Tutorial : Auto Completer using Prototype, Script.aculo.us

Michael — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 13:35:43 +0000

How many of you have always dreamt of creating an Auto Suggest Box. I bet everyone must have seen one of these somewhere or the other. if you use Gmail to send mails, you might recall that while typing the To address, Gmail shows a probable list of users from your address book. Nowadays most of the modern browsers also have this Auto Suggest control built in them, i.e when the user begins to type in a text box, a menu appears below the text offering completion suggestions.

Today I am going to teach you how to create an Auto Suggest Box using Prototype, Script.aculo.us. The script.aculo.us auto suggest box (autocompleter) replicates this control, but gives the developer control of the probable suggestions.

Index

Page 1 : Introduction and
Page 2 : Auto Suggest Box (local)
Page 3 : AJAX Auto Suggest Box (remote via PHP/MySQL)

Demo & Source Download

Type out the name of the states of U.S.A.
Local Auto Suggest Box Demo : Click Here
Remote Auto Suggest Box Demo : Click Here

Download Source Here

Problem Statement

Lets try creating an Auto Suggest Box which displays the states of America as the user begins to type a state’s name in the text box.

Solution

Before using any functions, first we need to make our HTML page i.e how the suggestion box is going to look.

Create an empty HTML file.
First, to take the input of any state name from the user we need an input box.
Second, we need a container to display all the probable suggestions i.e different names of states according to User input.

Lets create these right now.
```
    
    
    
    
```
Now that we have designed our suggestion box, its time to implement the Auto Suggest Box method. Since this method is readily available as a part of Script.aculo.us, we need to include the scriptaculous file, and since scriptaculous depends on prototype, we need to include the prototype file to our HTML document. Type following code inside the tag.
```
	
    
    
```

The HTML page should look something like this.

    
    
    
    
    Untitled Document

Now that we have a HTML page ready, preview it. Obviously it won’t work yet. We still have to define the AutoCompleter function.

There are 2 ways to achieve our goal. Script.aculo.us’s Autocompleter comes in two flavors.

Autocompleter.Local : The local array autocompleter. Used when you’d prefer to inject an array of autocompletion options into the page, rather than sending out Ajax queries.
Ajax.Autocompleter : Which relies on a remote server to give it suggestions, making an AJAX Request whenever suggestions need to be retrieved.

Now both have thier Pros and Cons. I`ll explain each one of them and how they can be used.

Tutorial : Introduction to AJAX in Ruby on Rails with Prototype, Script.aculo.us

Michael — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:40:43 +0000

Heya,
After a long time I had the time to update my blog. I have been working on my project presentation for the past 2 weeks. The entire presentation was developed in Flash CS3 coded in ActionScript 3. It was ages since I had used Flash and I was quite astonished how it had changed over the years. I`ll be soon posting some tutorials on Flash, so do keep an eye out

Anyways apart from being a bit off-topic, This tutorial deals with AJAX implementation in Ruby on Rails 2. While I was learning RoR, I had lot of issues of properly having AJAX implementation in my projects. This tuorial is for those people out there.

In this tutorial, I`ll just show some very simple Script.aculo.us Animation Implementations in RoR.
View Demo

Introduction

First off, if you followed my RoR tutorials, you should know that RoR has AJAX support built in to it. It uses the Prototype Javascript Library along with Scriptaculous.

Step 1 – Create new RoR Application

First create a new RoR application. Edit the database.yml file as well. If you are new to RoR, then visit Tutorial : Developing your First Ruby on Rails 2 Application

Step 2 – Create a Controller

After creating the new application, we need to create a controller. lets call the controller ajaxfunctions. I hope you guys know how to create a controller.

    ruby script/generate controller ajaxfunctions index

The above code will create a controller called ajaxfunctions which will have a method called index, respectively index.rhtml OR index.html.erb will be created inside the view/ajaxfunctions folder.

Step 3 – Editing the view file

Once you open it, you`ll notice that its empty. This is our template, basic HTML would suffice. So type out an html page here or you can use the one below.





Untitled Document

Great. Now firstly, to implemenet AJAX in RoR , we need to initialize it.

Initializing the Ajax code

You must include the javascript code in your view template file (i.e index.rhtml in our case) for the Ajax functions to be available in that view. The best place for this is in the tag.

You can either use

<%= javascript_include_tag :defaults %>
We`ll be using this. Using this allows for quicker downloads since the script can be cached by the browsers.
This is the output in the HTML page.
```
...





...
```
<%= define_javascript_functions %>
This pastes all of the required Javascript code right into your view which increases your page size by ~20KB.

Different AJAX Helpers used in View Files

RoR creates the AJAX code for you via helper codes. Firstly

Defination:
What is a Helper ?
Helpers (“view helpers”) are modules that provide methods which are automatically usable in your view. They provide shortcuts to commonly used display code and a way for you to keep the programming out of your views. The purpose of a helper is to simplify the view. It’s best if the view file (RHTML/RXML) is short and sweet, so you can see the structure of the output. Nitty-gritty details are best left to helper methods and partials, where they can be parametrized and used repeatedly.

Note : We can call AJAX via 2 methods i.e 1) Using a button and 2) Normal Links. Then we can add the arguments through which we can achieve to have cool visual effects or perform serious AJAX operations.

AJAX Helpers

button_to_function(button_value, *args, ∓block)
Returns a button that‘ll trigger a JavaScript function using the onclick handler. All of these go into the body tag of the view file. You can use the visual_effect function to specify any visual effects

Example :
This will show a button with the value “Greeting”, upon clicking will show a alert box with “Hello World!” inside.
```
<%=button_to_function "Greeting", "alert('Hello world!')" %>
```
This will display a button with value “Fade”, upon clicking will fade in or fade out the element ‘fade_text’ (It can be a div element with id=fade_text).
```
<%=button_to_function "Fade", visual_effect(:toggle_appear, "fade_text", :duration => 0.5)%>
```
link_to_function(name, *args, &block)
Intead of a button, if you want to implement AJAX functionality using a text link. You can use this helper.
Returns a link that will trigger a JavaScript function using the onclick handler and return false after the fact.

Example :
This will show a “Greeting” link, upon clicking will show a alert box with “Hello World!” inside.
```
<%=link_to_function "Greeting", "alert('Hello world!')" %>
```
This will display a “Slide Me” link, upon clicking it will slide in or out the element ‘slide_text’ (It can be a div element with id=slide_text).
```
<%=link_to_function "Slide Me", visual_effect(:toggle_slide, "slide_text", :duration => 0.5)%>
```

Helper for Animation

visual_effect(name, element_id = false, js_options = {})
Returns a JavaScript snippet to be used on the Ajax callbacks for starting visual effects.

Example :
This will show a “Highlight” button, upon clicking will highlight the element which is specified.
```
<%=button_to_function "Highlight", visual_effect(:highlight, "element_id_name",:startcolor => '#ffff99', :endcolor => '#ffffff')%>
```
This will display a “Grow” link, upon clicking it will grow the specified element_id_name
```
<%= link_to_function "Grow", visual_effect(:grow,"element_id_name",:direction => "center",:duration => 1)%>
```

I would really suggest to go through Script.aculo.us WIKI to know more about every effect and their parameters. All of these effects can be used with RoR. For Example I have attached the code for the demo file.

Code for the Demo File

View Demo





AJAX
<%= javascript_include_tag  :defaults %>




<%=button_to_function "Greeting Alert Me", "alert('Hello world!')" %>


Actions with paragraph using buttons
<%=button_to_function "Fade", visual_effect(:toggle_appear, "fade", :duration => 0.5)%>
<%=button_to_function "Slide", visual_effect(:toggle_slide, "fade",:duration => 1)%>
<%=button_to_function "Highlight", visual_effect(:highlight, "fade",:startcolor => '#ffff99', :endcolor => '#ffffff')%>


This is test, This is test

This is testing....

Lorum ipsum blablasadadada


Actions with Green Box using links
<%= link_to_function "Toggle Fade", visual_effect(:toggle_appear, "s1", :duration => 0.5)%> ||
<%= link_to_function "Fade with wobble","new Effect.Fade('s1', { transition: Effect.Transitions.wobble })" %> ||
<%= link_to_function "Grow", visual_effect(:grow,"s1",:direction => "center",:duration => 1)%> ||
<%= link_to_function "Shake", visual_effect(:shake,"s1",:distance => "30",:duration => 1)%> ||
<%= link_to_function "Morph to Red box", visual_effect(:morph,"s1",:style => "{background: '#f00',color: '#fff',width: '200px'}" )%> ||







Drag Action with Blue Box

<%= draggable_element("s2", :revert => true) %>
DRAG ME

Tutorial : Installing Ruby on Rails 2 in Windows Vista/XP
Tutorial : Developing your First Ruby on Rails 2 Application
Tutorial : Basics on Ruby on Rails 2 Model, Controller and Views and Routing
Tutorial : Create a blog using Ruby on Rails 2. (Part 1 – Relationships)
Tutorial : Create a login system in Ruby on Rails

Tutorial : AJAX interface/menu using jQuery/PHP

Michael — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:24:34 +0000

Hello Guys,

I have been busy with college lately, since this is my last year in college, I need to do a very cool project to get some good marks . Anyways that doesn`t mean I won`t be postin tutorials here . Want to present your data using AJAX/PHP/MySQL by just coding few lines ? Well here it is. This tutorial teaches you how to present data using AJAX (using jQuery) with some neat effects. We can use PHP/MySQL to store the data and call it. In this tutorial I`ll teach you how to do so with PHP. So lets begin !

You can check the demo HERE.
You can download these files HERE

Index

Create the HTML page – index.html
Create the PHP File – boo.php

HTML Page

Our HTML file will contain the javascript as well as the CSS styles embedded within it. We can also create the effect by creating individual files for each i.e one for javascript functions and the other for the CSS. Anyways in this tutorial, both of them will be embedded within the html page. Now First fire up your favourite HTML editor (Personally I love Dreamweaver CS3).

We will be using The jQuery Framework – jquery.js. If you want to know how the jQuery Framework works then do visit Exploring Javascript Frameworks : jQuery 1.2.6.

Step 1 – The CSS

Lets add our css first. First create a new HTML file, call it interface.html.
The following is the css code.

The CSS is pretty straight forward.

#page will be assigned to a div, which will hold our menu and other divs
#menu is the CSS to display our menu tabs.
#loading is the CSS to display the AJAX loading image.
#outcontent is the container to contain .content

Put the above code inside the HEAD tag of interface.html. So interface.html will look something like the following.





interface.html

The above is the HTML page interface.html with the CSS defined in it.

Step 2 – The HTML

Ok! Since now we have coded the CSS, lets create the HTML divs inside interface.html.

Inside the BODY tag lets create a div which will contain the menu and the subsequent divs.

Then we`ll create the menu Tabs.


    
    
    
             About
            Portfolio
            Contact

Now we need a container to display our Loading text and our content, so we`ll create 2 divs and lets put these divs inside another div called outcontent. The following is how it`ll look.

interface.html





interface.html







             About
            Portfolio
            Contact





LOADING

The page should look something like the following

Step 3 – Add the Javascript Magic !

This page would do for static pages, but we are making an AJAX powered page ! Its time to add the magic.
First if you have read the Exploring Javascript Frameworks : jQuery 1.2.6 post, it should not be a problem.

First lets link to the jquery library

Next lets open the script tag again and add the following code. The following code is pretty explainatory. I have added a lot of comments to show what each and every line does.

Voila ! thats it.

Our Final interface.html page





interface.html

 







             About
            Portfolio
            Contact





LOADING

Exploring Javascript Frameworks : jQuery 1.2.6

Michael — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:03:28 +0000

Hey guys,

You might be wondering where the hell are the Rails Tuts ! But before that, some of you might have read the Tutorial : Introduction to AJAX with PHP, if you think coding AJAX is tough, think again ! Recently I have been doing a lot of research about different javascript frameworks which will help me ease AJAX and I came across JQuery and Prototype. It seems they were very commonly used by lot of people. Not only that, these frameworks, besides just providing AJAX they have a lot of cool features. So I decided to explore them.

This post explores some neat tricks I could do using jQuery ! So read on guys if you wanna learn

Index

What is jQuery ?

Ok ! If you have read Tutorial : Introduction to AJAX with PHP, you will notice what a pain it is to code using javascript. Imagine the same same function to be performed by writing just 5 lines…this is what jQuery can help us achieve.

It is a set of functions written in javascript, to make our life easier.
For Example



Base page for content

The above javascript function will load the contents of a.html to our div with id=contentArea. Imagine doing the same with normal AJAX functions, it would take anything not less than 10 lines of code. Anyways lets see how can use jQuery to minimize our load.

Download jQuery

First lets download the javascript framework from jquery.com. Since we plan to develop and do a lot testing, download the jQuery 1.2.6 (97kb, Uncompressed).

Download the jquery-1.2.6.js file and save it.

Everytime we want to use jQuery, we need to include the above script in our HTML files. You can do so as shown below i.e add between the head tags.

 
 
 
 
 Untitled Document

Playing with jQuery ?!

Like I showed you in Page 2. 3 lines of code in javascript using jQuery can do stuff which is far more than 10 lines of code in javascript without jQuery.
Anyways I am going to show you some neat tricks you can do using jQuery. The basics ofcourse !

The basic code

Like I said, you need to include the basic javascript library file if you want to use jQuery features.

ready function

The following code shows jQuery equivalent code to the javascript function

 // normal javascript
 

// equivalent in jQuery

What it does :
Both the code alert the user with a message box, having msg “abc”.

click function

 
 Have to specify the function for links you want alert to show


 
 All the links will alert

What it does :

Normal Javascript -Displays alert box, if a links is clicked. In normal javascript, we have to write a call to the clickme() function on every link to show alert box.
jQuery – All the links will show alert box on click since
$(“a”).click(function () {//function }); where “a” refers to all anchor tags.
If you want to specify any one particular tag, then
$(“a#1″).click(function () {//function }); where alert box will only be displayed when a link with id=1 is clicked.

add class

$(“div#foo”).addClass(“test”);
The above code will add the class test to div with id=foo. You can add css styles using this piece of code.

html code

$(“div#foo”).html(“Hello World”);
The above code, will update div with id=foo, with Hello World. This is more like
obj.innerHTML = “Hello World” where
obj = document.getElement(“foo”);.

For more information, I suggest you read this Frequently Asked Questions.

Now lets move to the next page and create some effects !!

jQuery Effects ! ?

Yup thats right, jQuery has some neat effects up its sleave.

The code for the above effects..






FADING...
Lorem epsom sied van heity rath mapark to ratham. Msgyht raspiem maks vem iey tor sto fo rtem leom. Marks maxi umlion tor pion skim quedrtem lorespiortium.




SLIDING...
Lorem epsom sied van heity rath mapark to ratham. Msgyht raspiem maks vem iey tor sto fo rtem leom. Marks maxi umlion tor pion skim quedrtem lorespiortium.

Pretty cool huh ! just 3 lines of code and viola !
jQuery also gives the ability to create a custom animation.

Animate

The code for the above is





Animate ME !

You can read more documentation about these effects http://docs.jquery.com/Effects.

Well I have covered most of the usual functions people use with jQuery. Use your imagination to create stunning webpages. you can visit http://www.visionmasterdesigns.com since it is jQuery powered.

But hold on guys ! Be sure to check out the next part where we will be exploring another famous javascript framework “Prototype“.

Cya

Found this tutorial really useful, you can click here to donate.

Vision Master Designs » Javascript Frameworks

Tutorial : Auto Completer using Prototype, Script.aculo.us

Demo & Source Download

Problem Statement

Solution

Tutorial : Introduction to AJAX in Ruby on Rails with Prototype, Script.aculo.us

Introduction

Step 1 – Create new RoR Application

Step 2 – Create a Controller

Step 3 – Editing the view file

Initializing the Ajax code

Different AJAX Helpers used in View Files

Helper for Animation

Code for the Demo File

Actions with paragraph using buttons

Actions with Green Box using links

Drag Action with Blue Box

Related Articles

Tutorial : AJAX interface/menu using jQuery/PHP

Index

HTML Page

Step 1 – The CSS

Step 2 – The HTML

Step 3 – Add the Javascript Magic !

Our Final interface.html page

Exploring Javascript Frameworks : jQuery 1.2.6

Index

What is jQuery ?

Download jQuery

Playing with jQuery ?!

The basic code

ready function

click function

add class

html code

jQuery Effects ! ?