Which you choose for your web app XML, JSON, or HTML?

If you are a Ajax developer you should know these three words XML, JSON & HTML (using innerHTML)

So which you will choose the best to get your data from server to manipulate on client browser? if you are not sure about this then read following article

What's Your Poison? XML, JSON, or HTML? by Jeremy Keith

which is a part of his book Bulletproof Ajax. The article is here:

As for my preference I use HTML as it is very easy way and safe also, read the article and decide what is best for you.

When Observing Users Is Not Enough

When observing users is not enough then read following article from Isabelle Peyrichoux

When Observing Users Is Not Enough: 10 Guidelines for Getting More Out of Users’ Verbal Comments

and learn what should be avoided and what should be adopted.

Web 3.0 : The future of Web APIs and Services

Read a thought about coming up Web 3.0

Web 3.0 : When Web Sites Become Web Services
Written by Alex Iskold

It is really good thought that how the web is walking towards Web 3.0
The increasing number of APIs and Web Servicing Tools. Switching from Desktop Applications to Web Applications. We are entering into a new era of Web - The Whole New World of Internet

p.s: Read more articles from Alax Iskold are here.

Ajax Video Tutorials by Stefan Mischook

Again very good video tutorials to learn AJAX at Killerajax.com by Stefan Mischook. These video tutorials are again from the network of killersites.com the same as Actionscript Videos and PHP Videos and all the videos are not free. Few basic videos are free just to get the quality & measure the contents of paid videos. But even if they are paid its worth for it and will not pinch out your pockets. Just $19.99 to download all the videos. I think it is worth to spend money on Visual Learning then purchasing a book and fondling pages around not getting everything.

Video Highlights (from site):

• Build a fully functional AJAX shopping cart.
• Learn about Free AJAX tools to speed up your AJAX work.
• Learn how to connect AJAX with PHP
• Overt 3 hours of videos.

So if you are willing to learn some AJAX you must check out Killerajax.com

p.s: it is also a part of killersites.com network

Actionscript Videos Tutorials by Santo Romano

Great video tutorials for learning Flash Actionscript 2.0 at Killeractionscript.com by Santo Romano. These video tutorials are same like found on Killerphp.com but the only difference is that all the videos are not free. Few basic videos are free just to get the quality & measure the contents of paid videos. But even if they are paid its worth for it and will not pinch out your pockets. Just $19.99 to download all the videos. I think it is worth to spend money on Visual Learning then purchasing a book and fondling pages around not getting everything.

Video Highlights (from site):

• Use HTML and CSS in Flash
• Enable the browser 'back' button in Flash
• Build a fast loading compartmental Flash site.
• Load external text files into your Flash movies.
• Build pre-loaders with Actionscript.
• Become familiar with universal programming concepts and techniques.
• Covers the same material taught in $300 classes!

So if you are willing to learn some Actionscirpt you must check out killeractionscript.com

p.s: it is also a part of killersites.com network

PHP Video Tutorials by Stefan Mischook

Stefan Mischook as done a great job by putting up some free video tutorials to learn PHP for starters at Killerphp.com

From Site:
This is a beginners website/course on PHP created for web designers who have little to no programming experience.
Where most other PHP tutorials and books assume you know programming (or at least, that's what is seems like ...) killerphp.com assumes you need to have things explained (and demonstrated) in non-nerd terms.

Videos are of great quality and loads fast. These videos are also featured in to 'Web Designer Magazine'. It is such a good resource for starters to learn about PHP in a visual way. So wait no more and go to killerphp.com and learn PHP.

p.s: Stefan is adding more videos very soon in his collection. And it is a part of killersites.com network

Video :: Dolphin massacre in Japan

One of my friend sent me this video and requested to make forwards. I am really disappointed on the acts of human kind on other creatures of planet. I am putting this in my blog with hope if any one capable of stopping the act shown in video sees this and acts for good.

(You must watch this but only if you are over the age of 14)Link to

Video:http://www.glumbert.com/media/dolphin

It will also be better if you share with others.

Cricket World Cup Schedule

Great news for fans and supporters of cricket! Due to the upcoming Cricket World Cup tournament, Excely.com presented a wonderfully crafted schedule called AceFixtures for Cricket World Cup. It is designed for MS Excel, contains no macros and works fully automatically. It fills in group tables without delay according to the game results you specify, which is very convenient. Cricket World Cup Schedule is just a thing for a devoted cricket supporter!

The observation of the game results is remarkably simple in schedule. All you need to do for working with this schedule is to fill in match results. Specify the winning team by marking the field next to it with any symbol, like + or W and leave the defeated team's field untouched. Everything else will be done right away by Cricket World Cup Schedule. It will automatically work out teams positions in a group and show the contenders from the Second Stage to the great Final. The way AceFixtures is organized makes it a valuable helper for any ardent fan.

With Cricket World Cup schedule you will always be aware when your favorite team starts playing since it is possible to choose the country you are supporting, highlighting matches of the team from the selected country. Choose your favorite and see with whom and when the team is to compete.

Follow up the results of every game in a marvelous schedule dedicated to Cricket World Cup. With AceFixtures you'll be ahead of the game and know about every event in the tournament. The team needs your support, so don't miss Cricket World Cup Schedule and enjoy a good competitive spirit!

Here is the download link:
http://www.excely.com/cricket/world-cup-schedule.html

Good & Useful cheat * Cheat Sheets *

It's very difficult to be regular on blog but i am trying my best. It's been couple of days i was away again but again i am back with some sweet knowledge.

The most useful thing to a developer or designer or someone else like gamer or something is Cheat Sheet. If you don't know what it is let me tell you a little.

What is Cheat Sheet?
A cheat sheet is a physical piece of paper, often filled with equations and facts in compressed writing. Various tools can be used to produce cheat sheets, besides pen and paper.

The computer industry has many cheat sheets due to the high number of commands and actions one must learn to use programming languages and command-line interfaces. Professionally prepared cheat sheets for some subjects are available for purchase.

But i am not here to sell any of those, i am here with few links to freely available Cheat Sheets and to me all are very useful. Here the links ( i am not giving any download, have it yourself )

• HTML/XHTML Cheat Sheet:
• HTML Cheat Sheet
  
• HTML Cheat Sheet
  
• HTML Tags Cheat Sheet
• HTML Tag and Code Cheat Sheet
• The HTML Source - HTML Cheat Sheet
• A Simple Guide to HTML - HTML Cheat Sheet
• CDBurnerXP - HTML Cheat Sheet in PDF format
• HTML Tag Cheat Sheet
• fcXHTML Reference
• HTML Character Entities Cheat Sheet
• HTML Character Entities Cheat Sheets
• HTML Goodies - So, You Want An ASCII Code, Huh
• ASCII Codex Cheat Sheet
• Character Entity References in HTML 4 and XHTML 1.0
• Digital Media Minute HTML Character Entities Reference Guide
• WordPress Codex - Using Fun Character Entities in WordPress
• ASCII HTML Codes
• Chami’s Tips: HTML Special Character Reference
• Digital Web Magazine’s Extended ASCII Characters for HTML
• University of Texas - Special and Extended Characters
• HTML Accent Entity Codes
• CSS Cheat Sheet:
• CSS Cheat Sheet
  
• CSS Cheat Sheet
• Cascading Style Sheet Cheat Sheet
• Apple’s CSS Cheat Sheet
• Tek271’s CSS Cheat Sheet
• CSSREF
• SeeSS
• Javascript Cheat Sheet:
• Javascript Cheat Sheet
  
• PHP Cheat Sheet:
• Blue Shoes Developer - PHP Cheat Sheet
• PHP Cheat Sheet
• PHP Cheat Sheet
• Database Cheat Sheet:
• MySQL Cheat Sheet
• Cheat Sheet SQL Redux
• MySQL Cheat Sheet in PDF format
• Techno Challenged - Oracle Cheat Sheet
• PostgreSQL Cheat Sheet
• ASP / VBScript Cheat Sheet
• ASP / VBScript
• Ruby on Rails Cheat Sheet
• Ruby on Rails Sheet
  
• ReWrite and htaccess Cheat Sheets
• Mod_rewrite Cheat Sheet
• The htaccess Cheat Sheet
• Windows Cheat Sheet
• Rain Unix Cheat Sheet
• Pixel Beat Unix Cheat Sheet
• Regular Expressions Cheat Sheet
• Regular Expressions Cheat Sheet

It's not necessary that only programming languages has Cheat Sheets, Cheat Sheets can relate to any information available. Following are more links to useful Cheat Sheets most users of Internet should have.

• RGB Hex Colour Chart
• Colour Char
  
• Google Cheat Sheets:
• Operator reference
• The above in PDF
• Google Cheat Sheet (page 1)
  
• Google Cheat Sheet (page 2)
  
• Wikipedia Cheat Sheet:
• Cheat Sheet
• Word Press Cheat Sheets:
• Official WordPress Theme Architecture Outline and Cheat Sheet
• WordPress Cheat Sheet by Andy Wibbels (pdf)
• HeadZoo WordPress Plugin API Cheatsheet (png)
• HeadZoo WordPress Themes Cheatsheet
• Diary of a Rock Star - WordPress Cheat Sheet

I think i have taken a lot space on screen. Links are countless and i have tried to be as short as possible and as good content as possible. Open the links get the Cheat Sheet you like and have fun with it. I will keep updating this post as i get more links & time.

PS: The most thanks to Jack Daniel as he has worked on great Cheat Sheets. You can check his website at http://ilovejackdaniels.com. Thanks Jack!

Need to show live clock on your blog/web page?

• you want to show a live clock (digital/analog) on your website?
• Don't know or have the code to do so?
• Not able to develop a script to do the work for you?
• You have script/code but it is not fancy enough to suit your website?

well i have a link to all of above questions (point me if i missed one).

The Internet is full of amazing tools and amazing people who are working hard to develop the cool tools for people like us you just enjoy it. Well this is enough i tell you the link.

Yesterday i was looking for good live clock script in javascript to show a digital clock on a web-application, i had one with me but it was not good enough and i didn't want to hack the script so i went to Lord of knowledge base 'Google' and ask him to give me the solution and he put this link in my search bucket.

I am writing about a site named ClockLink.com, they company who owns it has produced an amazing tool for Internet and free of cost. If you need to show an fancy and themed clock on your website or blog or any personal page, just go to ClockLink.com and select a clock from their gallery, click on it and copy code from new opened window to your page. Nothing else to do. Now go to page you just added their code and see the clock just right there where you pasted it in your page. More information can be taken from their website like how to paste there code on different blog sites to show up the clock.

They provide you flash or javascript code, choose whichever suits your need (some blog sites does not allow javascript codes, you can embed a flash object to show clock). They will also guide you according to your blog site.

It is really cool tool and A beautiful demo is on right top corner of this blog as you have noticed already on the home page of this blog. Here is another one below:

Back to myBlog with few Database Connections

Last two weeks were very hactic and tiring. I attended lots of work and meetings in these days and didn't get time to post on myBlog.

Well here i am again with some cool and new stuff i found on net in these days, ready to share with readers and implement in my programming.

I will try to be regular on posting from now on, i really missed it. Well all this later, now to the point.

Last week, while searching on net i again found a useful site named Connectionstrings.com

What is this About?
(from the website)
The idea of ConnectionStrings.com is to provide an easy reference for connection strings.Today there is 178 connection strings in the database wich have been collected from other internet sites, books, help files, msdn etc or have been submitted by fellow developers from all around the world, Thank You!

(From Me)
As it says (not clearly) the website provides you the connection strings to connect to different database through programming languages like .NET and/or more.

Well it is not much useful for me now but may be in future, as it does not relate to PHP. But hey it is a useful site and should be mentioned here.

Go here and check out yourself that if they provide connection string you are looking for.

Enjoy !

Fixing PNG transperency for Internet Explorer (MSIE): A Little Hack

Recently I have started using PNG format images for my web application icons because of its lossless data compression and variety of transparency options. More on PNG can be found on Wikipedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/png)

Problem I faced with PNG images:
Well it is good to use PNG but there is one problem for PNG images with Internet Explorer (thanks to Microsoft and Bill Gates). Internet Explorer (IE) does not render PNG's transparency properly so background is shown for transparent PNG images. It was really bad hit for my development. But i believe 'where there is will, there is a way' or you can say 'where there is a problem, there is a solution'.

Solution I found and Implemented:
While searching for solution on Internet, I found a simple and useful solution to the problem. I implemented it and it worked great as the author said so. Well it is a little javascript hack for only Internet Explorer which renders PNG images as SPAN and displays the image as it is meant. The hack uses Microsoft's AlphaImageLoader filter to display the transparency of PNG images. The little javascript code only works with IE and does not bother other browsers.

Where to get it:
I have pasted the code at bottom of this post but i will recommend to go to official site for updated version of the code. The code is placed at the website http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bobosola/. I didn't get the name of author, I feel sorry for I was not able to mention his/her name here. I didn't find it on site, if someone gets it please let me know. But the author has thanked many people on his website.

Disadvantages:
The hack is based on javascript and works only for Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6 on Windows. If javascript is OFF the images are shown as with background. (but i don't bother for that because my most web applications are based on Ajax so it is meant only for user with javascript ON). There are few more cons in hack which are explained on the site mentioned above.

The Code:
There are two ways of using the hack.

1. Put following code to head section of your web page. (just copy/paste)
   
   <!--[if lt IE 7]>
   <script
   language="JavaScript">
   function correctPNG() // correctly handle PNG
   transparency in Win IE 5.5 & 6.
   {
   var arVersion =
   navigator.appVersion.split("MSIE")
   var version =
   parseFloat(arVersion[1])
   if ((version >= 5.5)
   && (document.body.filters))
   
   {
   for(var i=0;
   i<document.images.length;
   i++)
   
   {
   var img
   =
   document.images[i]
   
   var imgName =
   img.src.toUpperCase()
   
   if (imgName.substring(imgName.length-3, imgName.length) ==
   "PNG")
   
   {
   
   var imgID = (img.id) ? "id='" + img.id + "' " :
   ""
   
   var imgClass = (img.className) ? "class='" + img.className + "' " :
   ""
   
   var imgTitle = (img.title) ? "title='" + img.title + "' " : "title='" + img.alt
   + "'
   "
   
   var imgStyle = "display:inline-block;" + img.style.cssText
   
   if (img.align == "left") imgStyle = "float:left;" +
   imgStyle
   
   if (img.align == "right") imgStyle = "float:right;" +
   imgStyle
   
   if (img.parentElement.href) imgStyle = "cursor:hand;" +
   imgStyle
   
   var strNewHTML = "<span " + imgID + imgClass + imgTitle + " style=\"" +
   "width:" + img.width + "px; height:" + img.height + "px;" + imgStyle + ";"
   +
   "filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader" + "(src=\'" +
   img.src + "\', sizingMethod='scale');\"></span>"
   
   img.outerHTML =
   strNewHTML
   
   i = i-1
   
   }
   }
   }
   }
   window.attachEvent("onload",
   correctPNG);
   </script>
   <![endif]-->
   


2. Second is save the above code in file and name it pngfix.js and copy the following code to head section of your web page.
   
   <!--[if lt IE 7]>
   
   <script defer type="text/javascript" src="pngfix.js"></script>
   
   <![endif]-->

Help for implementation:
If you need any help for implementing the code just visit the website of the author where he has explained it in a simple and effective way with demos. And secondly you can post comment here for help and I will help if I am able to.

Keep Sharing !

Google's PageRank :: what is it?

While searching on net about Google's PageRank, I came across very detailed article on Google's PageRank. Not to forget the article is written by Phil Craven and this articles explains the depths of Google's PageRank. Don't be curious the link is here:
http://www.webworkshop.net/pagerank.html

Another interesting and informational site I found is www.webrankinfo.com/english/, it is enough informational to get around SEO stuff (Search Engine Optimization) and it has one module for Google only.

OK for further readers i have very interesting and useful information, specially for webmasters. If you need to see your web page's PageRank without installing Google Toolbar then you need to see following link:

• MyGooglePageRank.com :- They give you javascript code to paste on your web pages which will display current page's Google PageRank. You can also check your web pages rank on their website. The service is totally free.
• Firefox & Mozilla Extension :- This will install an extension to your browser to show current page's Google PageRank in status bar.
• Webmastereyes.com :- It is another tool to check your Google PageRank online and you can also show a form on your site to let users check their page ranks by pasting some code from this site.
• Prchecker.info :- This is also an cool tool to use. They simply provide little HTML code to paste into your page to show current page's Google PageRank.

There are more tools but i am not willing to search more as i am satisfy with the above available, but if you are interested to dig more just Google for 'Google PageRank' and see 30,900,000 results and pick suitable one for yourself.

I will prefer prchecker.info as this tool is simple to use and can work even if scripts are disabled in user's browser because they provide HTML code which will be rendered by every known browser arround. The following is the DEMO and my blog's current Google PageRank

p.s: well my blog's page rank is not good at this time. I hope for good ranking in future.

Hey!Watch :: Online Video Encoding Platform

This is an addition to my list of amazing tools on web and i was looking for this tool for long time and it came up to me in a sudden. To check out click here or keep reading further.

To use this tool you need to register first nothing else to do and you get a lot of features to convert your video files to any format you like. It has following features to enjoy:

• Video encoding in any format you want
• Well aware of today's growing number of multimedia devices
• Grabbing Video Clips from Web Sites (even when there is no download link)
• Smart notification - RSS and Ping
• Customizable video encoding and file format conversion
• Video encoding platform - API
• Usability, interface and ease of use
• Accessible from everywhere and from any device

They are providing two types of accounts, one is totally free but limited to some features (as limited monthly encode sessions etc.) and few less features then paid account but believe me after using this tool you will love to pay them for beautiful work they are doing for you. They ask for very little amount which will not pinch your pocket ($5/month & $40/year)

So stop reading here and check out the cool tool.

The Link: http://heywatch.com

Free MegaShare account

One of the most popular file hosting site Megashare is giving away limited number of premium accounts. That means no waiting for file download and always open sockets for fast downloading. The most admiring offer is the account you register will never expires. What else you need from them?

Just go to following UR L and grab one premium account for yourself before the box gets empty

The link is http://www.megashare.com/free_prem.php

Amazing Tools

Internet is full of amazing things, the most i am amazed of is the tools we can use for free. This is a start of my series of amazing tools i found on Internet and here is the first one.

LoginGear
As it's name explains everything this tools provides the user names & passwords of most common sites on Internet where you have to register against your will to get some useful knowledge. Firstly I thought it's illegal but when I read more about this amazing tool I found it is doing a great job. They just collect user names & passwords from users itself (from the users who like to share their login information with others) and just doing efforts to make it available to others. Following are few lines from their website:

• It's important to keep in mind that all of the gears listed on LoginGear.com are created by users. If you can't find a working gear for a site then you are encouraged to register with that website and then add the gear to LoginGear.com for other users to use. Never enter your real login details into LoginGear.com because everyone else will be able to see the information you provide!

They call every 'Username & Password' a Gear, so they named it LoginGear. ( well that's cool! )

They have also provided a voting system for the Gears as if one is not working then you can vote for it to remove the non-functional Gear from the site.

So look at it yourself and have good use of it. The site address is www.logingear.com

enjoy !

Making Your Web Applications More Secure

Another great article explaining about possible attacks on Web - based applications. I more considerable about this type of articles as i have developed so many web applications and still working on big projects. This articles reminded me of my mistake i have done in past. This articles is written by Nadav Samet on his blog. In this article he talks about most common possible attacks:

• SQL Injection Attacks
• XSRF: Cross-Site Request Forgery
• XSS: Cross-Site Scripting

His explanations are simple and good enough to understand what he like to aware the world off. Here is the link:
http://tinyurl.com/2ub99b

p.s: the URL was long and creepy so i used amazing service tinyurl.com to convert it.

The window.onload problem

I found this very useful and explaining article while searching for a javascript problem i was facing during development of an online application (Ajax, PHP & MySQL based).

The article is written by Peter Michaux on his blog and explains the problem & solution related to window.onload event, the common problem faced by most of the web developers. Here is the link:
http://peter.michaux.ca/article/553

I am not able to brief it here because it's really big to be typed here.

enjoy

My Internet Search

Today i have decided to share my knowledge with anonymous readers of this blog. I mostly will share my development experiences and the links of useful information lying naked on Internet, i mean available to everyone. I hope this will help lots of people around the world.

enjoy with me

cheers !