Add to this self-imposed regiment of learning, the process of absorbing something new – still in Beta, and the craziness factor goes up a few levels… While my chops are getting proofed, the developer is not even  finished – the plugin isn’t solidified and ready for release!

jQuery templates (tmpl()) is one of these type of endeavors.  The functionality is there, but nothing is set in stone yet. However, these are the basic concepts that are not published anywhere at the moment.

The basic premise is you get a piece of data, a json string.  In jQuery, a data string look like this: (notice the “[" & "]” on each end of the string)

[{"id":"1","title":"Home","content":"Home Page...\r\nLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, ","region":"main","display":"1"}]

Don’t let this get confusing off the bat. It is EXACTLY just like a row from a database table. Look closer at the first few pieces:

[{

"id":"1",

"title":"Home",

"content":"Home Page...

No surprises... it's just the column name, and the data that it has assigned to it.

When javascript (jQuery) passes a json string, it is wrapped in the braces ("[ ... ]"). The jQuery tmpl() method strips these off (for our convenience, or for functionality of jQuery - no one was able to give a definitive answer on that question), but when we work with this json string, it will be a pure piece of data thanks to the braces being stripped off.

This may seem like a tedious approach, but if you want to do more than just sling a string at your front end, then you'll want to know what it is you're controlling (the data).

For now our data looks like this:

data = var people = [
{
firstName: "John",
lastName: "Doe",
}
];

,  we're doing 'onesies' before going nuts and adding more data!

An easy way to think of this is, we have our data. We have a var named, "people", and it has one object (one key and one value).  If you output people.firstName, it will equal "John".  If we output people.lastName, it will equal "Doe".

When working on something 'new', it's good to use the latest CDN (content delivery network) version of the scripts. As it turns out, this is wise, considering tmpl is still BETA - it's nice to know if something "I KNOW" worked, stops working due to a change in the code plugin.

The next step is to make a function to extract the data we want to extract from the string.

function getFirstName() {
return this.data.firstName;
}

When 'getFirstName()' is executed, it will get look at the data we've predefined. You've probably guessed that we could get lastName with such a function too? (you're right!).  Regardless of how much data was defined in the structure, we could extract it this way.

$(function(){
$( "#tmplPeople" )
.tmpl( people )
.appendTo( ".peopleTable" );
});

Before tip the box over and let you look in, it may be best to explain what 'will be happening' when it all fires.

This function will look for a defined template called, "#tmplPeople". it will look at your predefined data (people - of which we have one entry for now). It will take the data, place it into the template (named tmplPeople) and then snap it into the peopleTable. S0,  our one data entry, will be formatted, then put into the html table.

<script id="tmplPeople" type="text/x-jquery-tmpl">
<tr>
<td colspan="2">${getFirstName()} </td>
</tr>
</script>

<table><tbody></tbody></table>

here is our <table>, that will house the templates after the data is parsed by the function we looked at above. Right above the <table> is our template we labled "tmplPeople". As you can see, each time that template is called (tmplPeople), it is going to call our 'getFirstName' function, and it is going to take the first name from our data, and populate it into the template, then it will add it to the table.

Here is the whole code snippet, if this generates any feedback, we'll continue onto the many other ways to parse data from json!

<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.min.js"></script>
 <script src="http://ajax.microsoft.com/ajax/jquery.templates/beta1/jquery.tmpl.min.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript">// <![CDATA[

function getFirstName() {
return this.data.firstName;
}

function getLastName() {
return this.data.lastName;
}

$(function(){
$( "#tmplPeople" )
.tmpl( people )
.appendTo( ".peopleTable" );
});

// ]]></script>

<script id="tmplPeople" type="text/x-jquery-tmpl">// <![CDATA[

<tr>
<td colspan="2">${getFirstName()}  ${getFirstName()}</td>
</tr>

// ]]></script>
<table>
<tbody></tbody>
</table>

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

$.ajax()

http://jsbin.u1st.us <–use jsbin to share your code!

Related Posts:

• Why “TAGS” Are So Critical To Improve Your Google Search Ranking

Need to automate some scripts?  Tired of constantly entering ssh user@server.address, then the password?  Having a trusted connection can drastically improve productivity if it is used in the correct conditions.  If you’re using a public machine, then this is NOT SMART.  If you’re using a machine that anyone else has access to, then again, this is not a solution, and shouldn’t be considered as an option.

However, if you have a private machine that you keep secure, and you want to setup some quick access to remote server, setup automatic backup scripts, take snapshots of drive data structures, then this will get you going quick!

Here’s the quick steps to get you on the road to automated scripts:

On your box, generate the ssh public key:

• On your box, generate the ssh public key:
• ssh-keygen -t dsa
• when it asks for a passphrase, just hit return.
• go to your home directory, then type, cd .ssh
• cat id_dsa.pub – this is the generated ssh key you will give to the remote host.
• On the remote host, as username@yourdomain.com
• vi .ssh/authorized_keys
• insert your ssh public key – the text from the .ssh/id_dsa.pub file on your box
• make sure the text you copy is on a single line (it will not work if it’s not on a single line)
• verify trusted SSH
• In a terminal window type, ssh -Y username@yourdomain.com

If you want to take this one step further, and make it ever ‘faster’, setup an alias in the .bashrc file.

just add this line to your .bashrc in your home dir, and do not forget to close/reopen your terminal after you add this line, or you will not see it work (the config file will not be loaded):

alias home=’ssh username@yourdomain.com’

at the command prompt in terminal (after you’ve remembered to close & reopen it!) is type “home” and hit the enter key.

So, now you can type one word, get to your remote server in seconds rather than hassling through typing out the same info over and over.

One of your first tasks should be to write a backup script to backup your critical files like your .bashrc!

Enjoy,

Need a “Pick-Me-Up?”

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

Add This offers statistical data so you can track how many times your site  was referred using their tool, but you will have to sign up for an account to be able to use that feature… After all, they need to know who to give the tally to

The list of networking sites seems to be growing at an unbelievable rate, and it’s great that someone is keeping up with all the js/api links that can connect stories or web items to their ‘circle of friends’ or colleagues.

Another one that has caught my attention is , “Share This“.  Share this seems to have a few more dynamic elements – a smoother presentation, but the number of services it can ‘share to’ are probably equal to any other like-service. One thing that seperates Share This apart is the application method – you’re able to literally download the plugin within a ‘format’ (e.g. wordpress, typePad, or generic script for any regular coding website).

As mentioned earlier, there are a few user-centric web applications starting to come to the forefront. One of the most significant is Threadsy.  At first I wasn’t sold on the all-in-one web tool idea, but after using it for a month, it’s become an essential tool.  It’s so easy to twitter, and if it’s appropriate, I can simultaneously post to Facebook.  It keeps all my email in one place (my tens of throw away/ sole-purpose email addresses [that i would never check otherwise?]).  The irony is I like Threadsy for the very reasons that I thought I would ever like an application like this… It has a vertical bar (as small as I want it to be) that can show me my twitter account/facebook notices without getting an email… if something scrolls by & I happen to want to reply – it’s a matter of clicking a button after typing my response.  At any given time, I used to have up to 20 browser window/tabs open. With Threadsy, it’s reduced to 5.

Regardless which one of these mash-up tools you use, be sure to share your findings in the comments.  We appreciate the comments and participation.

Thanks,

Greg

If you liked this post, please follow me on Twitter

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

Figure 1 The Problem Steps Recorder dramatically speeds up troubleshooting. (Click the image for a larger view)

The Credential Manager provides a handy, secure place to store passwords.

Windows 7 adds a great deal of virtualization support, including the ability to create and attach virtual hard drives from the GUI.

Don’t forget to enter the Antispyware Give-away for December 2009!
Two lucky winners have won a free professional license of Superantispyware!

If you liked this post, please follow me on Twitter

—–Ammendment—

I found a complete list of shortcuts for Win7 – 99 Windows 7 Shortcuts

this list was mined from http://www.7tutorials.com/biggest-library-windows-7-shortcuts  they seem to have several great no non-sense tutorials regarding windows 7

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

Start off by creating a fresh new drive of the size you’re after using the VirtualBox user interface. Then, locate both the your old, smaller HD and the new, larger one and run the following command:

VBoxManage clonehd --existing oldhd.vdi newhd.vdi

After some progress indicators ahve come and gone your HD should have been cloned to the larger one. You now need to use some software to expand your drive partition into the new space. Vista and W7 have this feature built in to Disk Management, or you could use something like GParted. I have never had luck with the integrated windows disk management tools, so I opted to use a free product called EASEUS PARTITION MASTER – home edition:

This tool was easy to install directly into the new vdi image.  Walked through the wizard after clicking on “Resize” – it rebooted itself and resized the partition without a fuss.

The command line entries for running the VirtualBox commands:

gmilby@gmilby-ubuntu64:~/.VirtualBox/HardDisks$ ls
XP_10GIG.vdi  xp.vdi
gmilby@gmilby-ubuntu64:~/.VirtualBox/HardDisks$ ls -l
total 6042484
-rw——- 1 gmilby gmilby      61952 2009-11-20 08:15 XP_10GIG.vdi
-rw——- 1 gmilby gmilby 6181380608 2009-11-20 07:56 xp.vdi
gmilby@gmilby-ubuntu64:~/.VirtualBox/HardDisks$ VBoxManage clonehd –existing xp.vdi XP_10GIG.vdi
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.0.12
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

0%…10%…20%…30%…40%…50%…60%…70%…80%…90%…100%
Clone hard disk created in format ‘VDI’. UUID: 1366bb7f-e827-41de-90ce-763e82309f26
gmilby@gmilby-ubuntu64:~/.VirtualBox/HardDisks$

Resized .vdi image:

Don’t forget to enter the Antispyware Give-away for December 2009!
Two lucky winners have won a free professional license of Superantispyware!

If you liked this post, please follow me on Twitter

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

Enter The SUPERANTISPYWARE Give-Away

The best part is that you can try this software for free, “NOW” and they even offer a free version. The free version offers some limited features & does not offer the proactive features, but it still will removes ALL of the malware, spyware, and trojans. It just will not self-update, run 24/7/365 and do scheduled scans/remove all the bad things automatically like the professional version does.
If you decide to try the freeware version, there is no nagware – no aggrivating things asking for your information/etc. Either way you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the experience, and more importantly you’ll be shocked at what it finds & removes from your system.

Follow Me On Twitter!

====Ammendment====
Congrat’s to Jonathan Pereira our final SuperAntiSpyware Pro License winner for December 2009!
Need a RELIABLE Web Host?

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

13 Styles offers cross browser/lightweight menu’s that offer a variety of styles ranging from simple to elegant to fun.  Most of the menu’s are generic, and can be easily implemented into an exisiting design.  The most you would need to do is to adjust some of the colors in the CSS.  The stylesheets are using standard property componenets (CSS1/2), and appear to work in backward versions of browsers also.  Which is good considering the bulk of corporate America is using ie6 still.  If you’re interested, these menu’s offer the PSD’s to totally customize the menu (for a price) if the free version doesn’t work for you.

CSS Menumaker offers more menu’s that are utilizing a more graphic flair, and most seem that they make work well with more conservative color palets (considering the vibrance of the menu’s).   These CSS menu’s offer solutions for creating dropdown menus (unique – most CSS sites do not even approach this topic).  This generator  has a pretty extensive customization feature – allowing you to build more than just the look on the webpage – this generator actually builds the menu items.   If you’re creating the menu’s dynamically, then this feature will not matter a whole lot.

CSS Play is the perverbial “Mother-Load” of every configuration imaginable… literally.  I was able to look through about half this site, and it’s literally overwhelming as to how many resources are actually offered.  The multi-level dropdown menus are new, and the menu’s appear to be consistent.  Sometimes CSS/js menu’s will have gaps depending upon the layout or browser used.  All of the menu’s appear to “look correct” regardless of how they’re used, and how they’re viewed.   If you are concerned about page size, they have some pure text CSS menu’s that are actually appealing.

enjoy.

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

www.syrbot.com

Dare I Dream of Becomming Bigger Than Craigs List?

Related Posts:

• The Top 10 Essential WordPress Plugins Quick Start Updated October 2010
• The Top 10 Best FREE Image Editors On The Web
• Steps to Greater Website Profits
• A Great Little Script for Affiliate Marketers
• The Power of Free

Step 1 – Upload
Ok, firstly you need to unzip the file you have downloaded.
It should extract into the following file archive (roughly)

• ./templates
• ./templates/templatename
• ./templates/templatename/templatename.template.php
• ./templates/templatename/snippetname.snippet.php
• ./templates/templatename/chunkname.chunk.php

This will all need to be uploaded (keeping the directory structure in tact) to the root of your Etomite install.
So, to repeat, you need to upload the folder templatename into your templates folder within your webspace.

Step 2 – Install Snippets, Chunks & Templates
If you have a look within your templatename folder that you’ve just uploaded, there is a snippets file.
Any unique snippets that are needed (and not shipped with a full Etomite install), will be located there, each with their own file.
Open your first snippet file. Copy the text.
Open the Etomite manager. Click Manage Resources, then click the snippets tab.
Paste in the text you copied before into the big text area.
Switch back to your folder that you opened the snippet from before. Take a look at the file name. It will be in the format snippetname.snippet.php (it IS case-sensitive). Copy the bit that says snippetname into the first text area above where you copied the snippet into before.

Do the same for the templates (but use the template tab instead); if you want to use it as your new default template, don’t create a new template – edit the Default one that’s already installed by copying and pasting the templatename.template.php file in there.

Do the same for the chunks (but use the chunk tab instead).

You should be all set to go now

Related Posts:

• How To Fix Your Sucky Website With Minimal Effort
• Looking For Free Web Templates