jQuery UI is an amazing product. It’s not because it offers the best features, or that it offers the best solution, it’s that it offers a large degree of support for years to come. Which is saying a lot for something that is nothing more than JavaScript. It’s certainly something that many enterprises have begun to look at and look for in the development world. At my job at Coventry Healthcare, I’m responsible for the User Interfaces and generally the User Experience across some very highly visible web applications. One of the most recent developments in our line of business is the risk of not having an accessible site (we fall under Section 508 guidelines because of our Medicare/Medicaid users). jQuery UI has literally allowed me to very easily create and maintain large amounts of code so that I can spend more time making sure that it follows WCAG 2.0 and WARIA (which should cover us for S508).

So recently I discovered a very nasty bug dealing with jQuery UI dialog (withe modal:true) widgets that seems to only occur in Internet Explorer. It goes like this: If you are using a dialog with a screen reader, your main mode of navigation is with the keyboard. This is typically driven via the focus on elements. In jQuery, focus is demanded on the dialog because of the modal command. You are unable to focus on anything other than the dialog and it’s elements. Here’s the issue however, jQuery successfully can keep focus on the dialog in all browsers tested (FF, Safari, Chrome) so that the focus cannot leave the dialog. However in Internet Explorer (6, 7 and 8 ) your focus can get to the address bar, simply by tabbing to it. Once in the address bar, jQuery is no longer able to track and handle the focus, so inevitable, after tabbing through the menu, focus come back to the window. But instead of going to the dialog, it goes to the first element that can be tabbed to, which is undoubtedly BEHIND the modal dialog. jQuery, subsequently locks the tabbing at this point, most likely because you have focus on and element that is unable to be focused (in jQuery’s dialog algorithm).

So I cannot have this as that would literally cut 75% of my users from being able to use just a keyboard with the sites I’m maintaining. So I had to find a solution. First, IE seems to be the only browser with this issue and it has something to do with the fact that the focus moves out of the DOM’s control (out of jQuery’s control). But the focus would always at least get back to the first element that could be tabbed to, and then lock. So I devised a plan. What if the first element, when focused, looks for an open dialog and if it is there, focuses on that dialog? So I tried it out, like this.

$(document).ready(function() {
    $(":tabbable:first").focus(function() {
           $(".ui-dialog:visible:last :tabbable:first").focus();
    })
});

Amazingly enough, this is the exact solution to the issue. This is how it reads.

1. On page load
2. Get the first element that can be tabbed to in the body
3. When this element gains focus, check for a visible dialog
4. Take the visible dialog that is last (the last one drawn in the html) and get the first element that can be tabbed in it
5. give focus to that first element.

Now, in IE, when focus returns to the document, it goes to the dialog box, specifically, the close icon on the dialog box, thereby not breaking the fact that there a modal open on the page.

Now, there are some issues with this.  For one, the code is just assuming that the last dialog in the html that is visible is the one that is to be focused on.  Quite frankly, that’s what I need it for, as I try not to overlay dialogs, and when it do, the newest one is normally always on top.  However, there are times where you may swap between two dialogs, and the one that is on top is not the last dialog in the html, you would still have this issue in this case.  But for probably the other 95% of the cases, this is a clean and easy way to ‘fix’ the accessibility issue in IE with jQuery UI dialog modals.

Before you root, you should probably upgrade to 2.01, as that will ‘break’ your new root access. You can get that download from here, if you have not already received it OTA (Over the Air). You need to follow the directions below, to apply the 2.01. The directions for each download it exactly the same, except for the ADB access.

This ‘root’ is strictly for developers. It’s not going to give you any ability to do anything to your phone yet, unless you really know your *nix commands well enough not to screw something up on your phone. So continue only if you really want this ability (the ability to really screw up your phone).

You can follow the direct postings here.
I’ve downloaded the file (best link is here). You should also download this file, as it will be needed.

md5sum of the boot partition:
3e49d99b320cf5c20bedf09343c1155c /dev/mtd/mtd2

Here is the `how-to` that embeem posted, I will add to it where I see fit, just to help some of those out as to what is going on.

Download the zip file

You can find the link at the top of this post.

Rename to “update.zip” and copy to the sdcard

It is currently named `droid-root.zip`, `update.zip` is required as that will be used internally by the script in the program.

Power off the DROID and power back on while holding the X key
When you see a “/!\” symbol, press both vol+ and camera

This isn’t magic, it’s simply a rescue mode. Slide the keyboard out to start. It’s very easy to figure out what is going on here. You have to press and hold the volume Up key then press the camera button.

Use the onscreen menu to install update.zip

You must use your d-pad to do this. just choose update.zip from the menu.

Once installed you will be able to run “su” from your adb shell.

This one is the kicker, best explained by syntrix

you have to attach your droid in debug mode in eclipse and use adb from the sdk. Again, I’m holding off on this, it’s my only phone.

But once you get this access, you can run commands natively, and copy files to the sd and pull them off the droid.

ADB is only ran from the SDK developers tools. In other words, you are running command from your computer, not the phone.

Now, to take this a step further, we can also get a terminal emulator running on the phone with root access according to mjxg’s post…

1) download this: http://www.magicandroidapps.com/su.zip
2) push it to your phone

C:\Android>adb push su /data/local
595 KB/s (76200 bytes in 0.125s)

3) C:\Android>adb shell
$ su
# mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
# cd /system/bin
# mv su osu
# cat /data/local/su > su
# chmod 6755 su

4) verify

# ls -l *su
-rwsr-sr-x root root 76200 2008-08-01 05:00 osu
-rwsr-sr-x root root 76200 2009-05-30 11:28 su

5) finish

# sync
# reboot

6) open up a terminal emulator on the phone and run `su` and enjoy

With all this said, this is a remarkable, easy root access. It literally is just adding a file (’su’) that the user has permissions to. ‘SU’ means, switch user, and by default, that user is root. Giving the user access to this file, means they can run that command, and if that file has the right permissions, which is does in the update, it will run ‘as’ root. And tada, you can now begin to get access to the rest of the system!

Developers will now take over.

There is quite an interesting discussion going on at Jeffrey Zeldman’s blog concerning the @font-face syntax and how to make sure that it is working in all browsers. It’s interesting to see the different ‘hacks’ that are being put together for something that should be hashed out to work well in all major browsers. Why does this remind me of things like the wonky implementations being played out in html5?!

Many web developers ask ‘what is usability?’.  This is one of those topics that I can explain, but it may be easier to demonstrate. My this experiences have led to some principles; one of them is that if I’m going to build it, it must be usable.   Unfortunately, many sites that I like, that tout usability, screw up one important concept that annoys me greatly.

I ask myself, “when using a menu, why do I have to drag my mouse from one button to the next, and fear losing the menu if I cross it’s border anywhere?”  Some menus are just annoying because they disappear mid mouse move, some are extremely hard to use because of several layers of menus, some I have resorted to using `tabs` to get to the correct menu item.  It’s unfortunate that people can’t get this right.

I have a simple fix that hopefully sharing it will help others. It’s basically a menu that buffers the time you are hovering, that way if you mistakenly move your mouse into the wrong area, you have a brief period of time to correct yourself.

Start with the HTML code:

<ul id="menu">
	<li class="nav"><a><span>ONE</span></a>
	<ul>
		<li><a><span>one</span></a></li>
		<li><a><span>two</span></a></li>
		<li><a><span>three</span></a></li>
		<li><a><span>four</span></a></li>
	</ul>
	</li>
	<li><a><span>TWO</span></a></li>
	<li class="nav"><a><span>THREE</span></a>
	<ul>
		<li><a><span>one</span></a></li>
		<li><a><span>two</span></a></li>
		<li><a><span>three</span></a></li>
		<li><a><span>four</span></a></li>
	</ul>
	</li>
	<li class="nav"><a><span>FOUR</span></a>
	<ul>
		<li><a><span>one</span></a></li>
		<li><a><span>two</span></a></li>
		<li><a><span>three</span></a></li>
		<li><a><span>four</span></a></li>
	</ul>
	</li>
</ul>

The menu is a simple list within a list. There are essentially only four main list items; ONE, TWO, THREE and FOUR. Each of this list items has their own list of list items generically named one, two, three and four. I personally stick with lists as my menu’s of choice because they degrade gracefully in case of CSS/JavaScript issues.

This list by itself isn’t much, in fact it’s not even a menu. CSS will be needed to really make it work correctly.

#menu li {
	list-style:none;
	float:right; /* Makes IE 6,7,8 act like FF */
	position: relative;}
#menu li a {
	display:block;
	width: 160px;
	height:35px;
	margin-top: 5px;}
#menu li a span{
	padding-left:10px;
	line-height:2.8em;
	color: #000000;
	font-weight:700;}
#menu li a:hover {
	font-weight:bold;}

#menu li ul li a:hover span{ color: #222222; }

	#menu li ul {
		margin:0px;
		position:absolute;
		left: 160px;
		top:-90px;}
	#menu li ul li {
		padding:0px;
		border:0px;
		border-collapse:collapse;
		margin:0px;
		height:34px;}
	#menu li ul li a{ margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;}
	#menu li ul li a span{
		display:block;
		padding-top:7px;
		font-weight:100;
		line-height:1em;
		font-size: 83%;}

This is some simple CSS that will make the UL/LI lists to really act like lists. Now the only issue is that you need it to act like a list. So the final piece of code to this puzzle is to add some JavaScript. I am using the jQuery library as my choice for creating this script, so it’s necessary to have that package (1.3+) installed for this to work. You can drop this script into the footer element inside of ’script’ tags so it will run. It will run automatically on page load.

$(document).ready(function() {
	/* Setup the Menu */
	$("#menu > li > ul").hide();

	$("#menu li.nav").hover(
		/* on mouseover */
		function(e) {
			hoverMenu = this;
			if(this == closingMenu) {
				clearTimeout(closeMenu);
				clearTimeout(openMenu);
				$(this).find("ul:first").show("fast");
			} else {
				var newMenuOpen = function() {
					$(hoverMenu).siblings(".nav").find("ul:first").hide();
					$(hoverMenu).find("ul:first").show("fast");
				}
				openMenu = setTimeout(newMenuOpen, 500);
			}

		},
		/* on mouseout */
		function(e) {
			closingMenu = this;
			var closeMenu = function() {
				$(closingMenu).find("ul:first").fadeOut("fast");
			}
			closeMenu = setTimeout(closeMenu, 500);
		}
	);
});

The final product is quite a nice and simple dynamic menu that adds just the right touch of usability. Now, typically, I would never say that a menu with sub menus popping up everywhere is something of a usability menu system, it’s not. But sometimes, a nice menu like this is needed, especially if there is a lot of information and ‘drill downs’ that need to be accessed quickly. In any case, you can see my demo here. Leave some comments if you have any questions, and enjoy! You can also see a fully implemented version at Xcessorries Squared.

While recently using Scribd’s services, I came across a very nasty bug, and a nice clean fix.  Scribd allows developers to tap into a great, but somewhat basic API.  One of these settings allows a developer to set a default ‘mode’ before the API then builds the flash calls necessary to display the document.  The issue comes up when you choose the ’slide’ mode as the loading view.  No matter what ‘height’ you set, with ‘auto_size’ set to false, the height will adjust to the wrong height.

You can jump to the code here, or continue.

I started by writing some simple code that follows the API.

scribd_doc.addParam( 'mode', 'slide' );
scribd_doc.addParam( 'height', 800 );
scribd_doc.addParam( 'width', 600 );
scribd_doc.addParam( 'jsapi_version', 1 );
scribd_doc.addParam( 'auto_size', false );
scribd_doc.write( 'flash_catalog' );

Where ‘flash_catalog’ is the container div of the Scribd PDF.

This however led me to have a height that follows the default rules (width multiplier of 85/110) where the height matches how much space is in the window. So I progressed further with this code.

var oniPaperReady = function(e){
 $("#flash_catalog embed")
.attr("wmode","transparent")
.hide()
.css({"height":"800px", "width":"600px"})
.show();
}

scribd_doc.addEventListener( 'iPaperReady', oniPaperReady );
scribd_doc.addParam( 'mode', 'slide' );
scribd_doc.addParam( 'jsapi_version', 1 );
scribd_doc.addParam( 'auto_size', false );
scribd_doc.write( 'flash_catalog' );

So now I am dropping in a listener in the API to wait for the document to load. I then hide the ‘embed’ flash information, then add the height and width, then re-show the flash element.

You may notice, I’m using jQuery, in which you can do the same thing with regular JavaScript, although quite a bit more complicated (ask if you really really need that code).

An astute reader would also notice one thing, I’m not adjusting for an ‘object’ tag, only the ‘embed’ tag (the difference for flash between different browsers). I figured out this novice mistake while testing in Internet Explorer. Here’s the finished code, that works, removing the nasty height issue.

var scribd_doc = scribd.Document.getDoc( #######, 'key-*******************' );

var oniPaperReady = function(e){
$("#flash_catalog embed")
.attr("wmode","transparent")
.hide()
.css({"height":"800px", "width":"600px"})
.show();

$("#flash_catalog object")
.attr("wmode","transparent")
.hide()
.css({"height":"800px", "width":"600px"})
.show();
}

scribd_doc.addEventListener( 'iPaperReady', oniPaperReady );
scribd_doc.addParam( 'mode', 'slide' );
scribd_doc.addParam( 'jsapi_version', 1 );
scribd_doc.addParam( 'auto_size', false );
scribd_doc.write( 'flash_catalog' );

The final word; I’m adding the transparent mode so that I can then have a menu that drops on top of the flash. This works very well!

I find myself at a crossroads. I really like using jQuery, and I really like not having to write my own plugins as there are some really good ones out there. But I have run into a problem when it comes to a notification system. Let’s take a step back and discuss the purpose for a minute.

** Update 7/29/2009**
I now have a page dedicated to this at http://www.alldorks.com/wordpress/notify where you can also find the source code repository.

Within a website’s user interface you have common tasks. Of late, with ajax, overlays|dialogs|lightboxes have become common place. Usually developers will use these to replace their `alerts`, `confirms` and leave it at that. But what happens when a user does something and they need to be told “Hey, I got that and it was all ok”. So you simply make an `alert` and let them know. But then you have created this thing that they must read, click and then move on. Add that up, and a user that is moving right along, may have to do 10 clicks a minute extra. Or better yet, daily tasks are now incorporating clicks that are basically pointless. A better solutions is to open up a notification, not unlike what is found in OSX, Gnome and Windows. I’m talking about those little rounded popups that show up in some corner and then disappear. Those… are notifications, and have been missing from most websites that really need them.

So now you know what I wanted. A good looking notification system that is robust, adaptive, lightweightish, easy to work with, etc, etc. Well, I couldn’t find that. I did find mainly two that are out there, jGrowl and Gritter. Both are Okay, but I run into issues with both of them whenever I’m coding. Namely, what if I want multiple notification areas? That shouldn’t be that hard, but it becomes a nightmare to edit and maintain their code. Also, what if I miss the notification (getting coffee), how can I get it back? Finally, why is it so difficult to change how these dang things look! So I put my foot down and decided, “I will go it alone on this one”. I rolled up my sleeves and put my knowledge together to form a better notification plugin. I’m calling it “notify”, and I think it will quickly become a better platform for notifications.

I have a few things that I have been focused on:

• Multiple notification spots (middle, top-left, unlimited with css)
• Simple default notifications, completely customizable with options
• Support for Class A browsers minus IE6, with hacks later to work it into IE6
• Notification history manager, along with stickyness, and missed notices handling

The list goes on from there. It’s probably best to just play with the code, for now, it’s very raw, I will probably host a page on http://alldorks.com/ for it soon, along with a version control system to get the code from. In any case, enjoy!

View the Demo Page, code is in the page

]]> http://www.geedew.com/2009/07/22/making-a-better-notification-plugin-jquery/feed/ 0 http://www.geedew.com/2009/07/11/slowly-and-surely/ http://www.geedew.com/2009/07/11/slowly-and-surely/#comments Sun, 12 Jul 2009 05:32:28 +0000 admin http://www.geedew.com/2009/07/11/slowly-and-surely/

I’m slowly but surely getting this site up and running to where I want it to be. Please leave feedback if you are having any issues with it. I may be having an announcement soon about a new JavaScript Framework I’m working on that relies on other open sourced tools like jQuery. Also, quite a few other things in the works, like a usable hovering menu that I made. In any case, enjoy the site as I construct it!

So I have finally been able to spend some time on one of my own sites! Hurray for me right? For the time being, you may be seeing some weird illusions in the design… and you will notice that some links at the top are not working. It’s all in the works, I’m just happy I have time to work on it!

The linux desktop over the years has been a large struggle for many users. I hear many complaints from people that have ‘tried’ linux out and they seem to all come to the conclusion that it is difficult or even impossible to use. The unfortunate part about most of these complaints, is that they are reiterating something they read 10 years ago, or something their friend who knows computers becaues he is a ‘gamer’ told him so.

You can also jump right to the gallery to just view the images.
Personally, I prefer Linux. In the past few years I have travelled through many different distributions. Lately (past year or so), I have solely worked with the fastly becoming forerunner, Ubuntu. Power linux users can complain all that they want about how Ubuntu is fancying the wrong crowd, but the simple fact is that if Ubuntu wasn’t doing the things they are doing, we wouldn’t have the incredible developements that Linux distributions now offer. To put some fuel for the fire about how Linux is not usable, or that it is simply not capable of being the powerhouse that real users know it can be, I wanted to walk through my setup.

When nothing is brought up or running

This is my Desktop when I have nothing open. I have 6 virtual desktops… meaning I can have up to 6 `windows` with stuff in them. I can switch between them by either dragging something to another page, or by using ctrl+alt+ left|right|up|down. So how is this usable, where’s the menu? Well, for one, it’s a touch screen (yes it works quite well) laptop (x61t) that has a 1024*768 resolution. So I need realestate, so that is what is the deciding factor in my choices. The menu is on the left, just moving the mouse to the left side of the screen shows it.

The Ubuntu menu

As you can see it’s all there. But I rarely ever use it. Usually , I just hit command+space which brings up my GnomeDo options.

Gnome Do 's native functionality; searching.

So as I type, it highlight in blue… and it has some amazing plugins! Sometimes I need a quick mouse menu… like when I’m browsing… for that moving my mouse to the bottom of the page solves this with GnomeDo’s Docky feature.

This is the settings menu for Docky.

So Docky is good… and looks good, but sometimes I just need some space for things that I generally need from time to time…. for this I have my screenlets. A quick press of f9 will bring them up… sending everything to monochrome behind.

A good view of the Screenlets overlay

Notice… Pidgin, Terminal, another Funky clock, Date, the Current moon, Uptime, Battery, and Places. Over time I’m sure I will add more… Still looking for a killer calculator. So now that I have my machine on and running, I need some music.

Excellent Linux media player with a great skin.

Bring in Songbird. yes this is an actual screenshot of my current playlist. It’s very slick, and easy to use and understand. Now that I have my music up, lets fire up some programming tool.

Excellent Ubuntu programming program; Geany

I love Geany. It’s very easy to use, and it’s completly packed with autocompletion, etc. Notice how it handles all the language, and allows me to set a dark theme. Once again, pay attention to the realestate usage… I use the entire screen.

Sometimes I have small windows open. Ubuntu handles this well.. take a look at what happens when I have more than one open, notice how the previous clicked windows fade out for better attention getting.

Making sure that the other windows fade so that the one you are on gains best focus

Sometimes though… I have things on other virtual displays that I need… and a simple alt+tab won’t get to them. For those I do ctrl+command+space… and wha-laa

Easy window grabbing by putting them all up together.

So what about this Vista I keep seeing… you mean this vista?

The start menu when running Vista in seamless mode.

That can run all these `Windows` *ick* programs on my desktop?

Vista programs running on the Ubuntu desktop; via Virtualbox

There is a lot to offer in such a free package of software eh. It seems that it handles quite alot of ‘usable’ features. Things people never imaged they could have for just a download.

Things like pen recognition and pressure recognition…

Pen input, pressure sensitivity, shape recognizer

And it’s amazing what firefox can look like…

Saving real estate by going full screen with firefox

I think I’ve shown my point, that linux doesn’t have to be all drab, it can be pretty slick too.

and I will leave you with my idle screen… Rain

Neat desktop effects, this is the raining effect.

Image Gallery

While working on a dialog in the new jQuery UI 1.6rc6.  I have come accross an issue.

If you were to open a dialog, and then dynamically change the content in the dialog, the shadow border will not resize.  The problem is, the code does not ‘know’ the box is larger, and is not able to watch for the changes.   Their have been some solutions that I have found to solve this, like turning off shadows, etc.  But I think I have a better one, a 3-line solution so to speak
Go into your code, mine is in my jquery-ui-personalized-1.6rc6.js file… Also could be in ui.dialog.js etc.

Inside the code (mine is line 4218) after this function

$.widget("ui.dialog", {

_init: function() {

add this function

refresh: function() {
this._refreshShadow(1);
},

Then from within your code you can call something like this…

$("#dialogbox").dialog("refresh");

Check for updates, I may write a drop-in style patch so the coding isn’t necessary.

Enjoy!