Web Application Development Tips, Tricks and Techniques
The Semantic Web
Nov 17th
Semantics, as defined in Wikipedia:
Semantics is the study of meaning, usually in language. The word “semantics” itself denotes a range of ideas [...]. It is often used [...] to denote a problem of understanding that comes down to word selection or connotation.
The Semantic Web is an extended web, with a greater meaning, in which users will be able to find answers to their questions faster and easier due to a better-defined information. This meaning-based web is supported by a set of standardized languages that solve the problems the semantic-less web has, in which access to some information is a difficult and frustrating task.
jqGrid multiselect: a little improvement
Nov 10th
The jqGrid plugin is fantastic. It provides an improved user experience and makes your web application stand out from the rest. But sometimes the default behaviour it has is not what we like, and those are the times when we have to dive into the source code to tweak it. And today was one of those times for me.
We’ve implemented the jqGrid plugin in a couple of pages in our project at work. We needed some multiselect in one of them. This option seems very easy to implement: just add a couple of options at creation time and you’re done… well, not quite. JqGrid’s multiselect default behaviour is not really the standard one. I mean, it is a multiselect, just not what the regular user might be used to.
jQuery Grid plugin: jqGrid
Nov 3rd
JqGrid is a jQuery plugin which provides impressive AJAX-enabled dynamic data tables. And when I say impressive, I mean fantastic. Not only it’s packed full of features, but it’s got a very nice look and feel as well. It’s got nothing to envy from traditional desktop application grids. I would say it’s even better than many of them.
Themeable interface: you can set it up as you wish
Javascript frameworks overview
Oct 26th
A Javascript framework is set of pre-written Javascript functions aimed at simplifying development. They take care of the most common and time-consuming tasks, like AJAX-related techniques. But why should we use them? Well, keep in mind that a Javascript framework:
- Saves you time. Even if you really love programming in Javascript, you will save a bunch of time doing your work with one these frameworks.
- Has much of your work already done. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Don’t waste time in doing something it has already been done and tested and re-tested by thousands of users.
- Makes you use less code. With less code you get a smaller file size, better maintenance and less development time.
- Makes your code more readable. Which also aids in better maintenance and less development time.
- Makes your web application execute faster. These frameworks are really fast in performing their tasks and most of them have been optimized for really fast execution.
- Makes your web application run in most modern browsers. If you dealt with Javascript a bit, you’ll have realized how different browsers have different ways of the doing the same exact stuff. Handcrafted cross-browser development can get annoying and irritating. These frameworks have already taken care of that and will just work in most browsers.
HTML 5 canvas tag demonstration: Sierra adventure games
Oct 22nd
Can you imagine playing good old games you used to play when you were a kid in your browser? Yeah sure, there’s plenty of cool games developed in flash, you would say. Well, leave out flash. Leave out Java as well. Leave out any plugin that needs to be installed in your browser. What do we have left? Just plain HTML and Javascript. Now, that’s something different from what we’re used to see.
Martin Kool has made this possible. He has developed an open source engine to play games straight in your browser, using the canvas tag from HTML 5. And besides, he has ported many of the old Sierra adventure games, like Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter, Gold Rush, etc.
Some advices when starting a new blog
Oct 19th
When starting your own blog, you go through a process of researching, trying, checking stuff out, and then throwing everything to the trash and starting all over again. When doing something you’ve never done before, some tips and advices are always welcome. Brent Ozar has some advices for people who are starting their own blog.
In my opinion, the most important things to consider when starting your own blog are:
Browser comparisons
Oct 15th
More comparisons among browsers… Six Revisions has performed some tests to the most important browsers.
The tools used to perform these tests are:
- SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark
- SlickSpeed (jQuery values reported)
- Numion stopwatch
- CSS Rendering Benchmark
- Resource Monitor
And this is the result they came up with:
Tired of IE’s issues? Turn it into Google Chrome
Oct 8th
As web programmers, we’ve all dealed with IE’s incompatibility issues and its sluggishness, and I can assure that 99% of all of us are tired of how stubborn Microsoft is about not implementing web standards and trying to enforce its own private ways of doing things (although with the release of Internet Explorer 8 Microsoft has showed a bit of effort in trying to be more standards compliant). How much time have we wasted on writing workarounds for IE for code that works seamlessly in other browsers?
Well, Google seems to be worried about this as well, and now gives us one more possibility to solve the problem: turn Internet Explorer into Google Chrome.
Open Source Software
Oct 5th
There’s no doubt that nowadays open source software is everywhere you look at… including this same blog. One could say that Information Technologies have gotten to where they are now partially because of open source software. Either if you are an active open source programmer or you think that open source software is the reincarnation of the Devil on Earth, a good outlook and a small synthesis of what it means is always good to have.
My name is Oliver Mezquita Prieto, and I'm a Software Engineer focused on web application development, both serverside and clientside, using ASP.NET technology.
Got something to say? Drop me a line!