Simple Solutions to Nagging Coding Problems

Monthly archives for February, 2007

Updating a Spry Dataset from a Popup

Feb27
2007 13 Comments Written by rabidgadfly

Last week I posted a method of using multi-related selects with Spry and ColdFusion. In my example I updated a subbrands dataset when a brand select was updated. I implemented a similar process at work and decided that it would be nice to offer the option of adding new subbrands from the data entry form. To do so, I placed an ‘add’ button next to the subbrands select which opens a popup where the user can add a new subbrand. Then came the question, how do I update the dataset on the parent window once the new subbrand is added.

It actually ended up being quite easy.
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Posted in ajax, coldFusion, spry

Experimenting with Multi-related Selects using Spry

Feb22
2007 12 Comments Written by rabidgadfly

I recently found myself in need of a multi-related select solution and decided to give Adobe’s new Spry framework a shot.

The first thing I noticed was that, still being in development, there isn’t much Spry documentation. In lieu of docs Adobe provides several samples which, though useful, did not provide the solution I was looking for. My goal is to have two select boxes, each populated by separate but related datasets. In the example I use below, my datasets are brands and subbrands. The subbrands dataset contains a brandID column which is related to the brandID column in the brands dataset. Read on to see how I did it and feel free to leave a comment telling me how I should have done it ;) .
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Posted in ajax, coldFusion, spry, XML

Dot Notation Tagging with Del.icio.us

Feb15
2007 Leave a Comment Written by rabidgadfly

I’ve been using Del.icio.us for almost a year now and I think it’s great. The only problem I had was that I wound up with too many vague tags that were used only once or twice. It was great that I had these links saved but the lack of organization made any one particular link virtually impossible to find.

Bundles, a way of grouping similar tags, helped to better organize my one-offs into specific categories but it still became a time-consuming affair to continually try to discern which tags belonged in which bundle. Then one day as I was taking a diversion from my ActionScript to check out the popular tags on Del.icio.us I started wondering what would happen if I used a kind of dot notation when tagging.

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Posted in del.icio.us

Easy Movie Clip Buttons Part 3 of 3: Defining Button States

Feb12
2007 7 Comments Written by rabidgadfly

In Part 1 I demonstrated how to dynamically populate existing movie clip buttons. in Part 2 I showed you how to dynamically place the button on screen. In the third and final installment, I’ll show you how to code your clips to behave like buttons. Using movie clips rather than buttons gives me the ability to code as many states as I want. My buttons will have four states: Active, Over, Down, and Selected. Download the sample to get started. Here’s what we’ll be creating:

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Posted in flash, intermediate

Unobtrusive Flash SWFObjects?

Feb08
2007 Leave a Comment Written by rabidgadfly

Bobby van der Sluis, creator of UFO (Unobtrusive Flash Object), and Geoff Stearns, creator of SWFObject (the flash embedding script formerly known as FlashObject) are teaming up on a project they’re calling SWFFix. SWFFix is going to be a new and improved library that will be used to embed SWFs. Development will be public and the source will soon be available in an SVN repository.

I’ve used SWFObject for quite some time now and it’s worked great for me. Although I haven’t used UFO , I’ve worked with developers that are very happy with that solution as well.

So why the merge and new direction?

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Posted in flash

ColdFusion Function to Delete Generic Records from Generic Tables

Feb07
2007 4 Comments Written by rabidgadfly

Thought I’d share a simple generic ColdFusion delete function I wrote this morning. We develop many sites where I work and often they each end up with their own set of unique content management tools. All of the sites share the need for CRUD (create, read, update, delete) functionality and often the query syntax is the same for data retrieval and deletion:

DELETE
FROM table
WHERE table_id = variable_id

In writing a component for some of the tools I started wondering if, in addition to data, I could also pass the names of database tables and columns to create an all-purpose generic delete function.
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Posted in beginner, coldFusion

Easy Movie Clip Buttons Part 2 of 3: Dynamic Button Placement

Feb05
2007 5 Comments Written by rabidgadfly

Start by downloading and opening the sample file. The first difference you’ll notice from Part 1 is that there are no longer buttons on the stage. Part 1 demonstrated how to dynamically populate existing movie clip buttons. In this part, we’ll take it a step further by dynamically placing the buttons. Here’s our finished product:

As in part 1, I start off by defining my array:var month_array:Array = new Array ({month:”JAN”,fullNm:”January”},
{month:”FEB”,fullNm:”February”},{month:”MAR”,fullNm:”March”},
{month:”APR”,fullNm:”April”},{month:”MAY”,fullNm:”May”},
{month:”JUN”,fullNm:”June”},{month:”JUL”,fullNm:”July”},
{month:”AUG”,fullNm:”August”},{month:”SEP”,fullNm:”September”},
{month:”OCT”,fullNm:”October”},{month:”NOV”,fullNm:”November”},
{month:”DEC”,fullNm:”December”});

As you can see, I like defining my ActionScript arrays as arrays of objects. This allows me to treat the array as a recordset with named columns. I find it much easier to refer to a value by name rather than its index value.

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Posted in flash, intermediate