What I have learned from this class!

Since January, I've been concerned about this class. I'm not really a programmer but I had to do some coding. It was very hard but I got through it. With the help of my classmates and Professor Drake this class has been a roller coaster I never really understood what API's were or how this class was supposed to connect everything that we have learned from the beginning of our curriculum but "HEY" it's ok. I kinda learned a little something about myself in this class and that is good enough for me.

Though I understand what exactly AJAX is and how it is used I found an article that I figured might be good to end off the semester with. Well it's not really an article, it's more like a person asking a question. People responded with answers like: it makes your page look pretty, it runs like a local application and it's good for an ample bandwidth.

I myself think AJAX is a good skill to have under your belt, it's everywhere we look. Sites actually refresh without refreshing. It's very interesting and I'm proud of the fact that I got two of my iterations to use this powerful tool.

Time To Step-Up : Ajax with ASP.Net

So whats next after Ajax ... since we all now realize the presence of Ajax almost everywhere in the web world. We should explore all kinds of ways to do asynchronous programming. Everytime I try to find something interesting it is somehow connected to Microsoft. As professor Drake was talking about Jquery and that is one of the JavaScript libraries which can be used for our web applications and we don't really have to do a lot of javascripting.

I am with you on how programming can be so painful especially JavaScript. And how Professor Drake waited till last class to tell us about jQuery as he wanted us to go through the not so good learning process for Ajaxing.

I want to elaborate more on javascript libraries.The Microsoft Ajax Content Delivery Network (CDN) enables us to easily add popular JavaScript libraries to our Web applications. For example, we can start using jQuery simply by adding a script tag to your page that points to Ajax.microsoft.com. The Microsoft Ajax CDN enables browsers to reuse cached JavaScript files for Web sites that are located in different domains.
The Microsoft Ajax CDN includes the following libraries:
• jQuery
• jQuery Validation
• Ajax Control Toolkit
• ASP.NET Ajax
• ASP.NET MVC JavaScript Files
The another cool thing is The Ajax Control Toolkit, which contains a set of controls that you can use to build highly responsive and interactive Ajax-enabled ASP.NET Web Forms applications. And one more thing which I want to mention is the Ajax Minifier which is a command-line tool and a Visual Studio Build Task that enables us to minify JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheet files. This enables our websites to run faster by making scripts and CSS files as small as possible. You must download the Microsoft Ajax Minifier before you build the Ajax Control Toolkit.
To get started I am uploading a link where you can find Video tutorials which will help you to learn how to use Ajax in ASP.Net and even if you are just beginning to learn ASP.NEt, even then it would be useful for all of us: Click Here

AJAX Is Not Just For Cleaning

As the semester is winding down, I thought I would write my final blog about what I have learned in IS 449. The first thing I learned was about MashUps. This is a really cool technology and I think it is really going to take off in the next few years as soon as more people realize what really can be done with it. Being able to search several sites at the same time is going to be the future of the Internet. I have also learned that not all Head First books are not as good as the html version.

Another thing I learned was that AJAX was not a cleanser used to clean the bathtub and sink. AJAX is a very complex and unforgiving coding language that can either make really nice things happen or really bad things to happen. Now when I look around the Internet I see AJAX everywhere and see how important knowing about is. I also learned that the COB is now closed on the weekends and that student center is not the best place to work on coding. I also learned about API and that the IMDB does not have one for whatever reason.

As I reflect on this class and my time coming to end at Eastern, I feel good, nervous, sad and little perplexed about where I am going to go from here. Whatever happens I feel good to e graduating in two weeks and moving on to wherever the world is going to take me. I wish the whole class the best, especially for all those graduating. Good luck everyone, I will miss you all.

YouTube Redesigns Video Page with parts of AJAX

Before months end this past March, You-tube launched a new design to its website and its claiming to be one of the biggest redesigns in YouTube history. Some of the features include a new see more videos function, which should make it possible to load a horizontal grid of all the videos uploaded by a particular user.

This feature will use AJAX technology so in terms users do not have to reload pages so they can look through additional videos. Here is the list of new changes listed by newteevee.com:

• A drop-down menu above the video reveals a horizontal scroll bar offering access to all videos of a particular uploader.
• Logged-in users find an option to control their video queue right next to the video they’re currently watching, complete with an option to turn autoplay on or off.
• The grey box next to the video that used to offer info, URL and embed code is gone. There’s now an embed button below each video, along with other sharing options. Info about the clip is also right below the actual video.
• A new subscription button as well as a customizable logo above the video is supposed to offer uploaders more recognition.
• The five-star rating system is gone. Most users apparently only used it to make fairly binary choices, voting on a video with either one or five stars, so the new video page simply features a thumbs-up and a thumbs-down button to express likes and dislikes.
• Users that haven’t logged in simply get to see a really, really long list of clips.
• The masthead of the page is cleaned up, with various links to channel and show pages gone.

Pictures of Before and After

This relates to my iteration because in my individual iteration #3 I used a ajax application for video's to show up on my webpage.

Update...Update....Update

So here we all are at the end of the semester....and the only class I am worrying about is IS 449. I am lagging behind in the blog part of the class and I even forgot about the responses to other blogs. Well I tell you that blogging isn't a easy thing to do. If I really want to make a sensible response to a blog....I really have to read it carefully.

Individual Project has been pretty good so far. Using different API's at the same time is not a piece of cake. Well for my individual project I think I have been using a lot of yelp. They had the easy-to-understand documentation and examples. I think that I have been lacking on using creativity with AJAX so far.

Coding doesn't really change that much with Ajax but what is interesting is how you can bring a major difference in your web applications using small piece of code. Update on the group project , Initially I worked with the Yelp neighbourhood API and Google maps to complete Iteration 2. Now I am working on CNET api for the final group iteration. I think I will stick with PHP proxy because I find it easy to use. My rest of the group members are thinking of putting youtube in it. We ll see how it turns out.

Netflix! ahoy!

I was working on Netflix the last week and it didn't seem to budge from its place. The Netflix api doesn't let you fetch details about its catalogs unless you have an account with it. The Autocomplete feature lets one draw just a gist from its database. In the Autocomplete feature one just needs to write a word, e g I wrote Step, the api shall fetch all the movies that have the word Step in it.
I could not tide over the problem with Netflix, hence my search for an alternative was on last week. We finally found an alternative which is the RSS feeds from Netflix. We had considered Yahoo movies api as well but it doesn't exist anymore. We also came across other interesting websites like TRYNT and Movie Web but the former didn't actually match our criterion. We were disheartened when the address to Trynt.com was an invalid one and it no longer existed in that server. All we got to see was a blank 502 bad gateway page.
Things are not progressing bad. Other than tiny silly mistakes that camouflage themselves in the coded background my programs eventually starts working. I am upbeat about netflix RSS feeds. I think it will be an interesting bit of information bar in our mashup webpage.

Dynamic Web Interfaces

As I am still working with my individual projects http requests, I have been looking for some more information out on the web.

Well I found this site that talks about http requests, XML, DOM and parsing all in one!
XML.com has several sub-chapters on topics near and dear to our hearts. But the one I found most interesting was the one on Ajax.

The article starts with the history of XML and its interplay with JavaScript. The codes examples start with the basics, then it turns to "The Form," "Handling the Input," "HTTP Heavy Lifting," and the "The Server Script." There are examples on the parsing, xmlDocloading, and server requests.

And as with all good teaching blogs, there is a link to a book for more reading. In this case the book is "No Nonsense XML Web Development With PHP" by Thomas Myer.

How Google used AJAX

While the term AJAX was first coined in 2005, Google waited until after April of 2009 to implement it into their god-like search-for-anything-engine. Today you can see the results of their update visibly in the new and improved drop-down text lists which are queried off of what you are currently typing. For example: if you were to type 'dogs' into the Google search bar, a drop-down list containing the possible phrases 'dogs 101', 'dogs for sale', 'dogs that don't shed', and even two having to do with 'dogs and chocolate'. Apparently dogs LOVE chocolate or something, but anyway.

This wasn't Google's main adaptation of AJAX on their search engine however, but is a mere bonus to what they were truly trying to accomplish after April of 2009. In an article listed on CNET at http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10220532-93.html?tag=mncol, Stephen Shankland talks about what's going on in the background that is actually making Google more money.

In a very simple adaptation, Google used AJAX to start loading the specific search results under the default 'boilerplate' that always remains in the same position after each subsequent search is performed. While this may be the definition practically of simple easy-to-use AJAX, the mere milliseconds that Google saves after each search really makes a difference. Apparently all of these quicker times ad up to a large amount of new searches, which in turn transfers into more ads being shown and therefor more money in Google's pocket. I figured they were merely updating their search engine to help benefit you and I by letting us know that 'dogs in funny costumes' was a possible search term, but I cash is the driving factor and I'm wrong as usual. Thanks Google.

Google St. Patrick's Day

Since today is St, Patrick's Day I thought it would be fun to see what new doodle was going to be used by Google on there home page. They decided to go with a Celtic theme and used Celtic symbols to represent there logo. There was a little article that talked about this and how they usually celebrate different occasions by changing the appearance of their logo.


I also thought it would be interesting to see how many sites came up when you google St. Patick's Day. It turns out there was 19,100,000 results. Everything form news, history, images, and so much more.

This got me thinking. Many people celebrate St. Patrick's Day even if they are not Irish. This is a very old holiday with a lot of tradition and many people like to participate by drinking green beer and wearing green. This would be a great opportunity to create an AJAX application to find local Irish pubs, St. Patrick's Day events, news, and history.

Template + JavaScript = Better Applications

Hello All, I am going to introduce you guys to something new today. I found this topic really interesting. It is about using template engines with Javascript to create better web applications. I will not overload you with some plain information but to give a small introduction about this topic because we are still in process of learning Ajax.

So lets start with explaining Template Engine(TE). As per wiki it is a software or software component that is designed to combine one or more templates with a data model to produce one or more result documents.

Basically they are used to generate and format text automatically according to specific processing rules.

Since we all know that Ajax has revolutionized the Javascript. So by merging TE and Javascript will enable you to build very flexible web applications. This helps in separating presentation logic from the model. One of the commonly used TE's for JavaScript is TrimPath.

Check this link out for details :

Click Here

Ajax Iteration 1

For Iteration 1 I decided to use two buttons with the onClick event handlers. One of the buttons returns the server time and the other returns a web page with my web service choices. I created a div for the buttons pane and one for the information display.



My idea for the next two Iterations is to use the Google Talk API and the class Blogger API. The plan is to mashup these API's and allow us in class to chat live while we are logged into the blogger. The idea is similar to how this works on Facebook. When you are logged into Facebook you can chat live with other people in your friends list.

I'm not sure yet if this will work like I want it to but its a starting point. I'm continuing to research more API's and look forward to seeing if I can find more project ideas. If anyone has any suggestions for me, please let me know.

The AJAAAXXXX effect !!

AJAX - The Great !
So finally I have started working with concept of AJAX. I think I am the only one in class who is struggling to understand this concept of coding. I did a very easy demo for the Individual project 1 because I was already struggling with the code part so I wanted it to be plain simple so that I can concentrate on the system integration concept works.

Even after completing the initial part of my project, I was not sure if I was doing the right thing. I think there are different ways to use this concept and still get the same result. It took me seven hours to understand this concept. I am not able to understand the concept from this head first book so I referred different books to understand its working. And when I referred the Head first book, things started to make sense.

After that I started thinking about the APIs for my next project and I am planning to use an API for pulling stock quotes for different companies. So here's the link to the API I am planning to use:

API Example :

Let me know what do you guys think?

Java Programming

By now we all know the frustration of programming with Ajax. Ajax uses quite a bit a JavaScript to process the applications. Up until this point I had not found a good web authoring tool for JavaScript or Ajax. Notepad ++ is okay but it does not point out the errors. Dreamweaver is good but again it does not pinpoint your errors, leading to countless hours of frustration which may lead you to throw your computer out of the window. I think I have found a somewhat valuable solution to our problem.
I want to tell you about a product called Aptana Studio. Yes it works a lot like Notepad ++ but it has one feature that even Dreamweaver can’t touch…..it points out JavaScript errors and guides you in the right direction. I like using Aptana Studio in concert with Dreamweaver and it makes writing JavaScript effortless. Most of the time I will use Dreamweaver to compile everything but the Java code…that is where Aptana Studio shines.
Another great thing about Aptana Studio is the fact that it is completely FREE!! I could not believe it myself but it is true. Who would have know that a product that is such is great help to IS 449 would be free? Give Aptana Studio a try.




Get Aptana Studio

Professional AJAX

Alright, so last week I blogged about the Head First Ajax book. For the last three weeks I have been trying to get thought the first couple chapters and try to retain some of the information without success. One of the problems that I had with the book were the "pictures" that the author uses to show the flow of the information through the site. For some reason when I opened the book my brain immediately went into sensory overload. I had a very difficult time trying to follow the methodology that the author was trying to present.

This weekend I decided to go pick up the other Ajax book that the professor recommended and after tow chapters all I really have to say is Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! No this is a programming book! In depth coverage of the material as well as a very logical and analytic approach to the material. After reading the two chapters (approx. 1 hr) I was able to grasp the concepts that the author of the Head First book had been trying to teach me for the last 5 hrs.

The one thing I noticed is that the reviews of the book overall are not quiet as good as the Head First series (reviews), but if you struggling with the head first book, I encourage you to give this a look through. One thing that I need is an understanding of the code as you see it. Unfortunately the Head First series pretty much shows you the code and then much later provides the explantion of what it actually means. The Professional Ajax book takes a much different approach. They Show the code and then go through a step-by-step decomposition in order to show you the functionality, something I need to retain the info.

Ajax the invincible hero?

Ajax seems to be invincible at the moment. I had learnt javascript sometime back but I need to refresh my javascript skills. Logic in programming remains the same while the syntax differs. Last time while writing down the simple beginner's program I was a bit confused at throw catch lines. Initially I was confused about the sudden appearance of the inbuilt browser functions. How are we supposed to know all of them beforehand. I guess the answer to all of it is to keep coding and practicing. I had come across exception handling in Java. It was no surprise that it was also present in Javascript.
What is try and catch exactly? Try and Catch lets us test a block of code for errors. Usually users get irritated if they get errors that pop up on webpages. It might lead to a large bounce rate that is not a good sign of a good website. In try, catch we try to test a block of code and in case of any errors the catch block catches the errors. This is the syntax of the code:-
try
{
Code
}
catch(err)
{
error is handled here.
}
Throw statement is use to create accurate error messages. We use throw statement to throw exceptions. It can be along with try and catch statements.
I am getting this feeling that it is a long way to go before we actually produce a professional mash up. I always feel so ignorant in spite of having some knowledge. I always feel its not enough. What if it doesn't match up to the professional requirements? What is professional requirement anyways? Does it mean that you need to be a walking talking question and answer bank on that subject. Do you think what ever you have learnt is enough for you to land yourself in a cubicle?
By the way Can anyone tell me the difference between an error and an exception?

Stressed

I'm learning a little bit about Ajax. This is my first encounter programming Ajax this semester. I must say it not always easy learning programming languages. I was working on the 1st lab I forgot how easy you can make a mistake coding and feel like your lost forever.

I have learned how to not stress about programming or at least not too much. If I'm stuck trying to figure out on how to code or how to make the program work the way I want, I will usually take a break from the problem for awhile maybe evening sleep on it. Then the next day get back to working on it. Asking for help or doing a bit more research will also help. According to the American Institute of Stress Stress is difficult for scientists to define because it is a subjective sensation associated with varied symptoms that differ for each of us. there are ways to help with stress. There are several stress management tips for students that might me helpful.

I know as students we often deal with alot of stress. Like having three exams on the same day and trying to allocate enough time to study for each. Trying to figure out what went wrong when coding. remember not all stress is bad and when it gets to stressful try some stress management tips.

Blog Post Title: UNTITLED!

So as I prepared myself to surf the web and write yet another blog for Dr. Drake I thought about two things that I wanted to share with the class. Not sure if these are your same worries or thoughts but I'll tell you anyways. LOL

I love facebook, it's like my only addiction. While others are addicted to video games and anime, I sit on facebook and look at pictures, read messages, and comment on people's status. But the other day when I was on facebook I noticed something. When you look at someone's page and switch between tabs(info, photos, boxes), the whole page does not refresh, only the tab changes. The side panel does not change. Now I don't know much about AJAX and am on the fence about it and programming in general, but I thought; is this a form of AJAX? Does AJAX have more that one form like Java and Javascipt or HTML and XHTML? It just made me curious. I usually try to take what I learn in class and apply it to my everyday life. In this case I applied the teachings of IS449 to my addiction to facebook. LOL

My second concern is the first lab that we did. I never got my pictures to pop up in the box. I understand what is supposed to be going on and I read over the first few pages, stopped and restarted the lab but it never worked. This concerns me because if I'm not getting the basics of AJAX how am I going to pass this class and passing is not an option! It will be done, graduation is so close...I can taste it. But I guess I will need to be more social with my colleagues and get help and in turn try to help those who ask me also.

Head First Ajax

Ok, so I bought the Head First Ajax book this weekend and thought that I would look through it to get an idea of some of the material that we will be covering. I had talked to several people (Three to be exact) who had this class last term that said that the book was, to be blunt, a POS. Being fairly open minded I thought I would get it in order to form my own opinion. Well after spending $45.00 I initially concur with my classmates reviews.

I come from a programming background. I currently know Perl, C++, C#, VB Script, HTML, some JavaScript, some Java, and enough PHP to be dangerous. For the most part I'm self taught, having had one C# class and a couple C++ classes, I was able to get enough of the basics to do some substantial development out of the classroom. One thing I like in a programming books is a logical format that provides a lot of examples and code for me to analyze and assess. After opening the Head First book the only thing I can focus on is the pictures...lots and lots of pictures, followed by an illogical and hard to follow structure.

I read some of the reviews by other buyers on the amazon site (Amazon) and by in large, most of the reviews are very positive. With the exception of a lot of people talking about editing problems and the author showing examples that are not possible (1 Star reviews), most people find the book useful( 5 Star reviews). One of the interesting quotes that I saw in the 1 star reviews section was that "This book is not for the person learning on their own" by user I.M. There. While we are learning this in a classroom environment, my guess is that as with any programming class, we will be learning and stumbling through this topic on our own outside the class room.

I'll conclude with this. I will continue to explore this book with an open mind and try to leave my analytic brain somewhere else when I crack the book open. Most people in their reviews have stated that while this book is probably not designed for an engineering type of mindset, it does present the material in a easy to understand format as well as a reinforcing style. So I will try to do my best to use the book and I will provide an update to this blog as I progress through the class to see if my initial assessment has changed.

What is AJAX?

Initially AJAX seemed to me to be a name from a classical Greek epic like ILLIAD. I was pretty sure that there was a character named AJAX in those stories. I thought it might be Hector's illegitimate brother or may be Achillie's jealous friend. After knowing that AJAX actually is an acronym for Asynchronous Javascript and XML, I was transported to a different place altogether.
The emphasis in AJAX applications is to fetch the data in the pages without refreshing the page in the browser. The term AJAX was created by Jesse James Garrett in February 18 2005.
Ajax is an umbrella for different technologies that makes web-applications look like desktop pieces. Lets look at this interesting AJAX enabled interactive diary of TOM RIDDLE. Those who have read the Harry potter series shall know Tom Riddle and his diary really well. Those who havent read Harry Potter check out GOOGLE.com( =) )
http://pandorabots.com/pandora/talk?botid=c96f911b3e35f9e1 This is a good example of AJAX because the page fetches the results without refreshing the web page in the browser. And type this question, Do you like apples? Another AJAX enabled internet application is the Mosaic. It's a fun application that enables a user to drag and drop pictures and create a mosaic. There are a number of websites that are actively using Ajax. The floating boxes that come up when one hovers over a certain link have been enabled by AJAX. How about a game of chess? wwwJesperOlsen.Net/PChess/,
I am looking forward to the class and learning more about AJAX.

Helpful Resource

In this course we are learning Ajax which is a combination of XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript working together to create dynamic web pages. I haven't had a lot of experience with JavaScript before, so I needed a resource to help me learn a few things. One of the best resources I found was w3schools.

This site is great. They offer tutorials, references, and examples for learning XHTML, CSS, JavaScript and so much more. They even let you experiment with code and test the examples yourself.
The course book does a good job of explaining how Ajax works but other resources are needed. This site has really helped me to get a better understanding of JavaScript and building web pages. I hope this information will be as helpful to others as it was for me.