TechChicken

Deserializer 1.6.1 is out

2008-09-12T10:07:00.002+02:00

Another update of deserializer.js is out. It fixes problems with forms that have default values.
Many thanks to solgae for this update!

Deserialize, another update

2008-01-23T15:46:00.001+01:00

Some of you pointed out some problems and some possible upgrade for the "prototype form deserializer".
So, here it is an updated version of the script: the deserialization of textareas should now work (thanks to Gliebster) adds support for JSON deserialization (thanks to krzak).

Did you remember the Gajim Status Plugin?

2007-09-23T17:43:00.000+02:00

Hi all! Thanks to Raoul Jean Pierre Bonnal, I released an updated version of the Gajim Status plugin I released long time ago. This new version (0.4) now supports Rhythmbox 0.9.8 and Gajim 0.11.1.

The plugin is useful only if your version of Rhythmbox does not support D-Bus API, since Gajim from versoin 0.11 speaks directly to Rhythmbox via its D-Bus API.

Download the plugin here.

Deserializer update

2007-08-13T12:14:00.000+02:00

Hi guys...here it is an updated version of my script "prototype form deserializer". It solves some bugs people all around has found using it. Thanks to all.

A long delay

2007-06-24T16:36:00.000+02:00

After a long period of hard work, I return here to this blog, trying to update some of the scripts I published time ago.
I saw that the script to prevent double submits had a great success around here...but also it had (and probably has) some bug.
One of those bug is strictly connected to the way browsers are managing events. I the case of my script, the return of an onsubit event was simply ignored: so there was no way to stop the layer to popup after the submit button was pressed, even if the return of the event was false.
Now I slightly modified the script, removing the use of Event.observe method (the prototype extension) and adding a more rough but secure way of handling the onsubmit form event, hooking it and calling it just before the layer show.
You can download the latest version here.
The previous version is still available here.
The example was also updated, to show how the script now works.

Updated version of deserializer

2007-03-08T09:26:00.001+01:00

I just released an updated version of my old script "prototype form deserializer". It solves some bugs and now uses Prototype 1.5. An updated version of the example can be found here.
See the old post and its comments for a detailed list of fix of this release.

Updated PreventDoubleSubmit script

2007-03-07T09:43:00.000+01:00

It was a "long" time ago when I published a "not so good" PreventDoubleSubmit script, a little script that using prototype and lightbox aims to prevent double submit of forms in your site.
I recently updated the script, correcting it and adding a new feature.
Read the old article and its comments, you'll be able to add the new script in a minute to your site.

LiveHTTPHeaders for Firefox 2.0

2006-11-07T17:12:00.000+01:00

For those who, like me, need to use this extension with the new Firefox version, here's a patched xpi.
This is version 0.12 with a patched install.rdf file in it, that allows the extension to be installed on Firefox 2.

Using Lightbox to prevent form double submit

2006-10-20T16:01:00.000+02:00

Some month ago I wrote a javascript class that uses a slightly modified version of Lightbox to prevent users to click twice on a form submit button.
The idea is simple: just add a lightbox layer when a user clicks on a submit button and the game is done. This is not an elegant solution, but it works in many cases.
It works also with links that try to call form.submit() method: this class saves previously defined submit functions, creates the layer and then calls old function (if it exists).

var LightboxForm = Class.create();
LightboxForm.prototype = {

yPos : 0,
xPos : 0,

initialize: function(form) {
form = $(form);
form.oldsubmitdoublesubmit = form.submit;
form._lightbox_ = this;

Event.observe(form, 'submit', this.disableWithOverlay.bindAsEventListener(form), false);
form.submit = this.disableWithOverlayJS;
},

uninstall: function(form) {
form = $(form);
form.submit = form.oldsubmitdoublesubmit;
Event.stopObserving(form, 'submit', this.disableWithOverlay.bindAsEventListener(form), false);
},

disableWithOverlay: function(event) {
if(event.returnValue != false) {
this._lightbox_.activate();
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
},

disableWithOverlayJS: function(event) {
this._lightbox_.activate();
return this.oldsubmitdoublesubmit();
},

// Turn everything on - mainly the IE fixes
activate: function(){
if (browser == 'Internet Explorer'){
this.getScroll();
this.setScroll(0,0);
this.hideSelects('hidden');
}
this.displayLightbox("block");
},

// Ie requires height to 100% and overflow hidden or else you can scroll down past the lightbox
prepareIE: function(height, overflow){
bod = document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0];
bod.style.height = height;
bod.style.overflow = overflow;

htm = document.getElementsByTagName('html')[0];
htm.style.height = height;
htm.style.overflow = overflow;
},

// In IE, select elements hover on top of the lightbox
hideSelects: function(visibility){
selects = document.getElementsByTagName('select');
for(i = 0; i < visibility =" visibility;" ypos =" self.pageYOffset;" ypos =" document.documentElement.scrollTop;" ypos =" document.body.scrollTop;" display =" display;" display =" display;" browser ="="">

When the lightbox is activated a div called lightbox is displayed, so if you want provide some information to the user you can define a div using a function like this:

// Add in markup necessary to make this work. Basically two divs:
// Overlay holds the shadow
// Lightbox is the centered square that the content is put into.
addLightboxMarkup: function() {
bod = document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0];
overlay = document.createElement('div');
overlay.id = 'overlay';
bod.appendChild(overlay);

message = document.createElement('div');
message.id = 'lightbox';
message.className = 'leightbox';
message.innerHTML = 'Request sent, please wait...';
bod.appendChild(message);
}

Somewhere in your html page you should put something like:

new PreventDoubleSubmit();

Don't forget to use the right css file. You can get a copy here
You can download a copy of this javascript code here. In this file you will find also a class that provides an hook on onload window event to allow all forms in the current page to be wrapped by the LightboxForm object.

Update 1:
The script relies on prototype.js and uses a script to detect the browser (the script was made from Chris Campbell from ParticleTree).

Update 2: due to some error in this post, the script was not working. I apologies for this: this post was made too quickly in the past.
Now I made a little example on how to integrate the script in your pages. Just download this archive and see the index.html file. It should be quite easy to understand.

Update 3: Thanks to Ken B. I added a simple and nice feature to the script: customizable html message for the submit.
Actually the message showing during submit is controlled by this line: message.innerHTML = 'Request sent, please wait...';.

I changed the source code to let you pass a custom message to the PreventDoubleSubmit object.
So now you can write something like:
PreventDoubleSubmit('
Please wait...
');. Of course, a default message is generated if you continue to use the old syntax.
I updated the script and the example.

Rhythmbox 0.9.6: a plugin for Gajim status message

2006-10-12T12:39:00.000+02:00

I recently switched to Ubuntu Edgy, the new release of Ubuntu Linux. Edgy is still in beta, but works well here on my laptop.
One of the new applications that comes with Gnome 2.16 is Rhythmbox 0.9.6, the default Gnome music player. This new release has plugins support: plugins can be written in c or using the python binding.
Python is very simple, so I wrote a simple plugin that changes the status message of Gajim Jabber client according with the song you are playing in Rhythmbox.
This little piece of code uses dbus to communicate with Gajim, gconf to save the configuration and glade for the user interface.
It is a 0.1 version, so keep it "as is". It just works, and shows how to use some Rhythmbox features from a python plugin.
To try it, just extract the package into your ~/.gnome2/rhythmbox/plugins/ folder and start the player. That's all.

UPDATE to version 0.2: some make up to the code and added the possibility to customize the "no music" message.

UPDATE to version 0.3: Waiting for Gajim 0.11, I upgraded the plugin to v0.3. This version provides a [paused] message when you stop rhythmbox and some minor bug fixes.

DWR 1.1

2006-03-07T11:53:00.000+01:00

A new version of DWR, the Java framework for AJAX, is out now.
Well...among others, you can find also my name: I wrote a JSF integration for this framework, making possible to resolve managed beans as Javascript objects.
My little contribute for the open source community :)

Gnome 2.14

2006-02-28T17:04:00.000+01:00

If you're (like me) waiting for this new great release of Gnome, you can begin by reading this article.
There are many improvements in the 2.14 release, many of them concernig speed up and eye-candy. It will be ready on the 15th of March.
And if you want to be really impressed, well you must check out this video: it shows up the new XGL server for linux. I think the video talks by itself...

Micro$oft launch Office Live

2006-02-16T16:42:00.000+01:00

Oh oh...Microsoft has just launched its new service: Office Live, a office suite web based. Wow! It seems awesome! But lets take a look to the system requisites:

To use the Edit in Datasheet feature within the Business Applications and Shared Sites areas requires Microsoft Office 2003.

To export to Business Contact Manager requires Microsoft Office 2003, Microsoft Office XP, or Microsoft Office 2000.

To import contacts from Microsoft Office Outlook requires Microsoft Office 2003 or Microsoft Office XP.

To link contacts to Microsoft Office Outlook requires Microsoft Office 2003.

Ah...last but not least you must use Internet Explorer in order to use Office Live.
Another time: good work Bill.

Put colours in your Ubuntu startup and shutdown console

2006-02-10T11:50:00.000+01:00

One thing I noticed when I first started Ubuntu Hoary was the lack of colors during start up and shut down process.
Then it came Breezy and USplash replaced the anonymous start up console. But the shut down was still in simple black&white text mode. I don't like it, 'cause often I don't see possible errors.
Ok...this is not a big problem, but all other distros have colours, so why Ubuntu doesn't? :-)
I found a simple solution, exploring the file /lib/lsb/init-functions. In this script file you can find functions used by the system for starting and stopping services and, of course, all logging methods.
I modified it to make the console look more colourful. To install it simply do this:

cd ~
wget http://madchicken.altervista.org/tech/download/init-functions.tar
tar xvf init-functions.tar
sudo mv /lib/lsb/init-functions /lib/lsb/init-functions.old
sudo mv init-functions /lib/lsb/init-functions
rm init-functions.tar

And the game is done.
If you want to customize your shell more and more, the way is quite simple: you have only to change echo commands giving the right pattern of characters and colours. To make all things in the right way I used tput command to extract info about the terminal that is running.
Here's simple (really simple!!) guide to tput

tput bold #makes the font bold
tput sgr0 #turns off bold
tput setaf 0-9 #changes the font colour
tput op #reset font colour

You can try all these commands from a standard gnome/kde terminal and see what happens.
A simple example could be:

BOLD=`$TPUT bold`
OFFBOLD=`$TPUT sgr0`
GREEN=`$TPUT setaf 2`
BLUE=`$TPUT setaf 4`
RED=`$TPUT setaf 1`
NORMAL=`$TPUT op`
echo "${BLUE}${BOLD}[ ${GREEN}ok${BLUE} ]${NORMAL}${OFFBOLD}"

This will print the string [ ok ]
And now that you are on the road...happy customization!

GIMP made easy

2006-02-10T10:04:00.000+01:00

If you, like me, are stuck in the middle with GIMP, a.k.a. GNU Image Manipulation Program, a.k.a. the open source graphic software for Linux, then probably you need good guide. Here's it one, free, and also downloadable as html tarball.
And if you want to make a donation to the community, you can also buy a printed copy from Amazon
I really love open source.
Many thaks to All about Linux Blog for this hint.

OpenAjax and Eclipse

2006-02-04T14:48:00.000+01:00

The Eclipse Foundation wants to expand its WTP adding an AJAX Toolkit Framework (ATF).
The good news is that it seems that Eclipse accepted to add the OpenAjax project source code for ATF: OpenAjax is a new initiative from IBM and David Boloker, CTO of emerging technologies for IBM, is enthusiastic about the OpenAJAX project.
The OpenAJAX framework will come out of the box supporting three ajax frameworks: Dojo, OpenRico, and Zimbra. All these frameworks supports object-oriented programming, a must for those programmers (like me) are coming from Java and C++ languages. On the other hand, these frameworks are easy to use also for those Web developer who has been developing in HTML and JavaScript for years.

If someone wants to contribute to the OpenAjax project, can subscribe to their site

Venkmann Javascript Debugger for Firefox 1.5.0.1

2006-02-02T15:13:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Diego Caravanna, here's it

Prototype: Form Serialization and Deserialization

2006-02-02T10:15:00.001+01:00

In the web community Prototype is a "must" for who wants to implement unobstrusive javascript and web2.0 applications. Why? 'Cause prototype makes things simplest and more Object Oriented.
The fact is that Javascript is often used as a "functional language" and not Object Oriented. Maybe because Javascript is not a clean OO language or maybe because, for historical reasons, people used it to handle (most of the time) the "onclick" event...
With the revolution of these days, javascript is becoming a way to enhance the user experience in web applications (take Ajax for example...).
So here's it: Prototype is coming to help us develop web2.0 application, using Objects in a more simple way, introducing classes for Ajax integration and much more. Maybe one of these days I'll write a good Prototype in Action post, but for the moment use this link as reference:

http://www.sergiopereira.com/articles/prototype.js.html

Update: now Prototype has its own official documentation. Read it here: http://www.prototypejs.org/learn.

Ok...now that you have "the tool" let's see an interesting feature: with prototype you can serialize a form given its id with a simple call:

var serializedForm = Form.serialize('myform');

This function allow you transform a form in a encoded string, containing all values from the passed form.
Ok, now you can save your form (for example via AJAX on your server...), but what you can do if you want to deserialize back it to your client? No way with the current version of Prototype (1.4)!
So I wrote a simple extension to allow you deserialize forms given a serialized string.
Here is a simple example:

radio one

radio two

radio three

Check box 1

Check box 2

The call to the function is simple:

Form.deserialize(formElement, serializedString)

You can find the .js file here
A complete example can be downloaded here

Ubuntu mania?

2006-02-01T09:24:00.000+01:00

In accordance with The Register, it seems that

Google is preparing its own distribution of Linux for the desktop, in a possible bid to take on Microsoft in its core business - desktop software.

The name of the new Google-Linux distribution will be Goobuntu...that is: the new system will be a customization of the emerging Linux distribution Ubuntu.
It's not sure what Google will do with this project:

It's possible that it's just one of the toys Googleplex engineers play with on Fridays

But I'm very happy to see that someone else is working hard on the Ubuntu project.

Whatever Google's intentions, the input of Google engineers and developers, writing new features and fixing bugs, will be a huge boost to the Ubuntu project

I still don't know if Google is the right way to bring Linux at home, because I'm not very happy with all things Google is doing around, but I think that otherwise, they are doing great things with Internet: they always are a step forward to others. Thake GMail as an example of what I'm trying to explain.
The question is: is the big G an alternative to Microsoft or is it the new one? Maybe it is both.

UPDATE:it seems that this rumor about Goobuntu is a fake: read here ArsTechnica for details.

Where do we go from here...

2006-01-16T16:54:00.000+01:00

Maybe you are asking yourself what will you find here in this blog.
Well, the main subject of this blog will be computer programming (virtally any language), so you will find hints to solve common web problems, Java and Javascript helper classes, scripts, HOWTOs and sometimes reviews on new frameworks and programming related stuff.
You'll also find Linux related issues, since I work on a Ubuntu Linux distribution (Breezy).
The RSS feed is also linked to my Furl archive, where I use to save interesting URLs.
So here's it...stay tuned, I'll post the first technical article soon.

Ah...english is NOT my primary language, so please forgive me for my poor language.

What is this?

2006-01-16T16:10:00.000+01:00

Hi guys.
I recently decided to start a new blog since my old one is apparently defunct.
The problem with my "old" blog is that it was intended as a private life blog. At the moment I don't have time for updating a blog of my private life, 'cause my job is getting hard and when I return to my home I want to stay with my family.
So here's the fact: I'll start a new blog (in english as yuo can see...) to publish technical stuff, mainly things that have something related to my work.
If you don't know, I'm a Software Architect: my main activity is to design "good" software and frameworks to help developers writing web application faster. I write most of my code in Java, but I also write components in Javascript.
So, starting today, I'll share part of my knowledge with the community, hoping to help someone out of there...

Links for 2006-10-20 [del.icio.us]

2006-10-21T00:00:00-07:00

Links for 2006-02-10 [del.icio.us]

2006-02-11T00:00:00-08:00

TechChicken: Put colours in your Ubuntu startup and shutdown console
TechChicken: GIMP made easy
Free online book about GIMP graphic software

Links for 2006-02-02 [del.icio.us]

2006-02-03T00:00:00-08:00

TechChicken: Prototype: Form Serialization and Deserialization
An article about a simple way to deserialize forms using prototype
TechChicken: Venkmann Javascript Debugger for Firefox 1.5.0.1
Updated javascript debugger extension for Firefox 1.5.0.1