Anyways, bad movies… horrible movies… worst movies of all time aside, there is a date checking method, just not directly in jquery. It’s actually in the jquery.ui.datepicker.js file which is part of the UI files. Basically I grabbed that file and used the parseDate method on it coupled with a try catch. After all, a failure in the parseDate method throws an exception, and we don’t like those. No we don’t. (Which begs the question as why it throws an exception instead of just returning a null date.)

function isValidDate(controlName, format){
    var isValid = true;

    try{
        jQuery.datepicker.parseDate(format, jQuery('#' + controlName).val(), null);
    }
    catch(error){
        isValid = false;
    }

    return isValid;
}

Very simple, and it works. You could ask why I didn’t just roll my own date method, and then I would ask you how ambitious do you think I am? Then you would punch me because I answered your question with a question like a complete tool bag. Then I would cry. And THEN I would answer your original question. Fact is, I trust that the method created for the DatePicker is in fact well tested, otherwise the whole jquery thing just isn’t worth trusting seeing as it’s a part of their core library. And that I just refuse to believe.

SKIP IF YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT A REASON FOR USING THIS:

Say you are using the jQuery post method to send things back to the server but all the code for that is in a seperate javascript file.  Well you can’t really do this:

jQuery.ajax({
      type:'POST',
      url: <%= someMethodForCreatingAUrl('controller', 'action') %>,
      dataType:'json',
      data:{
        email: user.userName,
        password: user.password
      },
      success: function(result){
        onSuccess(result);
      },
      error:function (xhr, ajaxOptions, thrownError){
        alert(xhr.status);
      }
    });

if that is in the javascript file.

What you can do is this on the html file:

  <form id="formCreateUser" name="formCreateUser" method="post" action="${someMethodForCreatingAUrl('controller', 'action')}">

And in the javascript file:

ANSWER:

  var formAction = jQuery(ELEMENT_LOGIN_FORM).attr('action');

And there you go. You have the action.

Want to get rid of that X at the top right of the modal “Control”? Well here it is: (The bold part, moron)

     jQuery('#WaitingDiv').dialog({
          autoOpen: false,
          bgiframe: false,
          height: 150,
          width: 200,
          modal: true,
          open: function(event, ui) { jQuery('.ui-dialog-titlebar-close').hide(); }
        });

And that’s really it. Just thought I’d pass that on to you, the consumer.

On a side note, the big movie thing is the canceling of Spiderman 4 or at least going in a new direction. As much as I don’t care, it might lead to my dream come true:

A spiderman movie based on the SNES classic: Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage. Uwe Boll, are you out there?

Special people like me do it in one.

    function toggleCheckboxes(buttonId, checkBoxNamePrefix, checked)
    {
      //Get all checkboxes with the prefix name and check/uncheck
      jQuery('[id*=' + checkBoxNamePrefix + ']').attr('checked', checked);

      //remove any click handlers from the button
      //  Why?  Because jQuery(buttonId).click() will just add another handler
      jQuery(buttonId).unbind('click'); 

      //Add the new click handler
      jQuery(buttonId).click(
        function() {
          toggleCheckboxes(buttonId, checkBoxNamePrefix, !checked);
        }
      );
    }

And POW! What? You want to know how to use it? Fine, but only because I’m nice.

   jQuery('#buttonName').click(
     function() {
       toggleCheckboxes('#buttonName', 'someCheckBoxName', true);
     }
   );

And in case you were still wondering why I used .unbind and didn’t understand the comment, it’s because using just .click will add another handler to the button. So next click you will get both check and uncheck all. Kind of hurts the effectiveness.

And there you have it. Once again I have filled your life with meaning. Couldn’t be easier. Or maybe it could but that’s not my problem now is it? Go back to doing something useful.

Or you could see it as a knowledge transfer that you the reader can learn from because I am a generous and giving tool.

Whatever, I really don’t care. I won’t sleep any differently. I just don’t feel like making 1000 posts of jquery stupidity.

I’ll add more as I come across them.

Checkbox

How To Check a CheckBox

  jQuery('#CheckBoxId').attr('checked', false);

How To Know if a Checkbox is Checked

  jQuery('#CheckBoxId').is(':checked')

How To Find a Bunch of Like Named Checkboxes that are Checked

  jQuery('[id*=someCheckBox_]:checked');

Drop Down Lists

How to Add an Item/Option to a Drop Down List

 jQuery('#DropDownListId').append(jQuery('<option>').val(1).html("SomeText"));

Odd Note: Apparently jquery is smart enough to set the attributes on the option AND close the option with </option>

How to Remove an Item/Option from a Drop Down List

  jQuery('#DropDownListId option[value=\'3\']').remove();

How to Sort a Drop Down List by Option Text

  var sortedList = jQuery('#someDropDownList option').sort(
    function (first, second) {
      return first.text == second.text ? 0 : first.text < second.text ? -1 : 1;
    }
  );

  jQuery('#someDropDownList').html(sortedList);

Elements

How to Filter Out an Element in a List

  someElementList.filter('[id=someId]');

Example:

  //Uncheck all id like someId_ and check only where id = someId_1
  var someElementList = someElement.children('[id*=someId_]');
  someElementList.attr('checked', false);
  someElementList.filter('[id=someId_1]').attr('checked', true);

How To Find an Element Based on a Like Name/Using Wildcards

  jQuery('#SomeTable').children('tr[id*=SomeRowId]');

How To Know if a Something is Hidden

  jQuery('#CheckBoxId').is(':hidden')

Possible Use:

 function showOrHide(element) {
    if(jQuery(element).is(':hidden')) {
      jQuery(element).show();
    }
    else {
      jQuery(element).hide();
    }
  }

How to Disable an Input/Select

  jQuery('#DropDownListId').attr('disabled', 'disabled');

How to Enable an Input/Select

  jQuery('#DropDownListId').removeAttr('disabled');

How to Know if an Element Exists

  jQuery('#ElementId').length > 0

Possible use:

  function elementExists(elementId) {
    return jQuery(elementId).length > 0;
  }

String

How To Remove the First Character from a String

  someString.substring(1, someString.length)

Tables

How to Add a Row to a Table

  jQuery('#TableId > tbody:last').append('<tr>...</tr>')

How to Remove a Table Row

  jQuery('#TableId > tbody:last').children(someSortOfRowId).remove();

Methods

How to Post With a Link

  function postToUrl(path, params)
  {
    var method = "post"; 

    var form = document.createElement("form");
    form.setAttribute("method", method);
    form.setAttribute("action", path);
    for(var key in params)
    {
        var hiddenField = document.createElement("input");
        hiddenField.setAttribute("type", "hidden");
        hiddenField.setAttribute("name", key);
        hiddenField.setAttribute("value", params[key]);
        form.appendChild(hiddenField);
    }
    document.body.appendChild(form);    

    form.submit();
  }

Use:

<a href="javascript:postToUrl('/SomeController/SomeAction/', { 'id', '1' })">link</a>

Say you have this:

  <div>
    <input type="checkbox" name="JqueryIdList" value="1"  />
    <input type="checkbox" name="JqueryIdList" value="2" />
    <input type="checkbox" name="JqueryIdList" value="3" />
    <input type="checkbox" name="JqueryIdList" value="4" />
  </div>
  <div onclick="getIds('JqueryIdList');">
    CLICK
  </div>

And you need the getIds method to find all the checked checkboxes from that markup. Well it’s actually fairly simple, or at least it wil be once I enlighten you. I should get paid for this…

  function getIds(checkList)
  {
    var idList = new Array();
    var loopCounter = 0;
    //find all the checked checkboxes
    jQuery("input[name=" + checkList + "]:checked").each
    (
      function()
      {
        //fill the array with the values
        idList[loopCounter] = jQuery(this).val();
        loopCounter += 1;
      }
    );
    ...
  }

The important part is this:

 jQuery("input[name=" + checkList + "]:checked").

As you can see, it is very simple. Give it the name of the checkboxes, add on the “:checked” and boom you have a list of checked checkboxes. Could it be more simple? I think not.

How to center a div using jQuery.

Have used it. Works brilliantly. Although the:

  this.css("position","absolute");

May be overkill since any “pop up” div I create already has that in the style where personally I think it should be.

How does it work? Well break down the “top” part:

  this.css("top", ( jQuery(window).height() - this.height() ) / 2+jQuery(window).scrollTop() + "px");

To

   jQuery(window).height() - this.height() ) / 2

But why not just divide the height by 2? Well say the height of the window is 800 and your item is 600 high. If you just placed the item at 800 / 2, the bottom of the item would end up 1000. (800/2 = 400… 600 tall item + 400 starting point = 1000). So subtracting the item’s height from the window height and THEN dividing by two ensures that that item, provided it is no taller than the window, will end up within the 800 tall window.

  + jQuery(window).scrollTop()

Now what if the user has scrolled the widow down? Well adjust for that. using the scrollTop(), the item can be started at the correct point adjusted with the scroll. Nice huh?

So pop quiz, and one that doesn’t involve a hostage and shooting.

jQuery(document).ready
(
  function()
  {
    for(var loopCounter = 0; loopCounter < 3; loopCounter++)
    {
      var tempThing = loopCounter;
      alert('in' + tempThing); 

      jQuery(".someButton").click
      (
        function()
        {
          alert('out' + tempThing);
        }
      );
    }
  }
);
....
  <button class="someButton">click!</button>

What happens when you click that button? Well for one it will alert three times but what will it print out?

The first alert (in the loop) does what you would expect. It gives 0, 1, 2. But what about the button click? Well that’s a little different. It gives 2, 2, 2… Wait what? The f— is that? That makes no real sense.

Given that this was C#, it would output 0, 1, 2 because we would know that every loop the tempThing field is a new field. Sure it has the same name in code, but every iteration would create a new space in memory for a new tempThing. And then with closures, a reference would be made to that tempThing so that when the method actually runs, the values are what they should be. Javascript does something a little different. Go figure, right? Can’t do anything like anyone else… anyone else being C#.

Now what does happen is it does give you the correct value of tempThing. What you didn’t know (Assuming you didn’t know because if you are reading this you either are really bored or don’t know… or both) is that tempThing is global to that method. Turns out variables are global to the current scope no matter if in a loop or not. tempThing, no matter where in that function is created/instantiated/ect is the same tempThing through out the method. So what’s happening is that the first time in the loop it’s being created and every iteration after it’s just being updated with the current loopCounter value.

How do you solve this? Well you have to make a method to create a method to set the value. AWESOME!!111

jQuery(document).ready
(
  function()
  {
    for(var loopCounter = 0; loopCounter < 3; loopCounter++)
    {
      alert('in' + tempThing); 

      jQuery(".someButton").click
      (
        createReturnMethod(loopCounter)
      );
    }
  }

);

//This is used to create a new method scope so that
//tempThing is unique to each call.
function createReturnMethod(loopCounter)
{
  var tempThing = loopCounter;

  return function(event)
  {
    alert('out' + tempThing);
  };
}

As you can see, I created a method to create a method to be run on click. Because tempThing is now in the second method’s scope, it will be different for every time this method is called. Magic!

Here’s a thought, if only you can prevent forest fires then you really should get on that. People have lost a lot of money because of your slacking.

So with no further build up or stupidity (I used that all up in building this game) I give you jQuery WHACK A MOLE which oddly enough has somehow clawed it’s way into my hosting here. So if you’re foolish enough to actually want to know how it works, there are plenty of comments in the script files. Just don’t blame me for any loss of intelligence.

I might actually take this to the next horrifying level and make it an mvc application. Not sure I… no… THE WORLD can take it.

Remember that question you never asked? Well once again I’ve answered it.

To take the normal sliding menu farther I thought I should have something happen when hovering over the menu items. Novel! Well as you can see if you clicked on the link above (Sorry, can’t repost the link. Links are expensive.) the menu items have large counter parts that show up when hovered over and don’t go away until the counter part or the main item is left. What does this all mean? I DON’T KNOW but I’ll find out eventually. It’s in the cards man, it’s in the cards…

Ok so additions… For the style sheet, I added a class:

.menuItemBig
{
  height:100px;
  margin-right:5px;
  position:absolute;
  width:100px;
  z-index:100;
}

And have included a child div to the menu item:

Before

  <div class="menuItem floatLeft blue">1</div>

Now

  <div class="menuItem floatLeft blue">
    1
    <div class="menuItemBig red">THIS IS THE BIG ITEM 1</div>
  </div>

I added two methods:

//
// mouseenter: Find any menuItemBig within the given element and show
//             Reset the position of the menuItemBig element to appear
//             to be in the middle of the parent element
// mouseleave: Hide the child menuItemBig
//
function setOnHoverForMenuItems(items)
{
  jQuery(items)
  .each
  (
    function ()
    {
      jQuery(this).mouseenter
      (
        function()
        {
          //Why the positioning?  I wanted the child div to show up in the
          // middle of the parent div which is done by putting the child's left side
          // to half of the width of the parent over from the parent's left side
          var parentPosition = jQuery(this).position();
          var bigItems = jQuery(this).children(".menuItemBig");
          bigItems.css({ left: parentPosition.left - (jQuery(this).width() /2), top: parentPosition.top + 10  });
          bigItems.show();
        }
      );

      jQuery(this).mouseleave
      (
        function()
        {
          jQuery(this).children(".menuItemBig").hide();
        }
      );
    }
  );
}

Why not hover? *EDIT* It should be hover. Turns out an issue I was having with hover was not actually an issue with it… *END EDIT*

The other method I added was a simple one:

//
// Used to find any element of menuItemBig
//
function hideAllBigItems(bigItemParentItems)
{
  jQuery(bigItemParentItems).children(".menuItemBig").hide();
}

And where did I use these? I appended them to the setChildrenDivs method:

function setChildrenDivs(mainHolder)
{
  var menuItems = getMenuItems(mainHolder);

  for (var loopCounter = 0; loopCounter < menuItems.length; loopCounter++)
  {
    if(loopCounter > maximumToShow - 1)
    {
      jQuery(menuItems[loopCounter]).hide();
    }
  }

  setPager(jQuery(mainHolder).children(".leftPager"), getLastVisible, getNextInLineBack);
  setPager(jQuery(mainHolder).children(".rightPager"),getFirstVisible, getNextInLineFront);
  setOnHoverForMenuItems(menuItems);
  hideAllBigItems(menuItems);
}

So in all, this didn’t take much at all, thanks to mouseleave. Next up… not sure. No idea if I will take this any further.

The main idea is that there are two scroll arrows, one on each side, and X amount of divs. Now at the start, a certain amount of divs are hidden (global variable). When hovering over the left pager, for example, it causes one on the right to hide while one on the left appears giving the feeling of the items sliding.

EXAMPLE HERE!!11

The markup is simple, a holder with x number of elements that are “menuitems” and two pager divs.

<div class="mainHolder">
  <div class="leftPager green floatLeft"><</div>
  <div class="menuItem floatLeft blue">1</div>
  <div class="menuItem floatLeft red">2</div>
  <div class="menuItem floatLeft yellow">3</div>
  <div class="menuItem floatLeft blue">4</div>
  <div class="menuItem floatLeft red">5</div>
  <div class="menuItem floatLeft yellow">6</div>
  <div class="menuItem floatLeft blue">7</div>
  <div class="rightPager green floatLeft">></div>
</div>

I think from the classes you can tell what you need to know about them.

First thing we need from jQuery is methods to find various elements in the container when paging.

//When using the left pager, it's important to find the first visible element
//then find the item before it so that it can be shown.
function getNextInLineBack(menuItems)
{
  var oneBefore = null;

  for (var loopCounter = 0; loopCounter < menuItems.length; loopCounter++)
  {
    if(jQuery(menuItems[loopCounter]).is(":visible") && loopCounter > 0)
    {
      oneBefore = jQuery(menuItems[loopCounter - 1 ]);
      break;
    }
  }

  return oneBefore;
}

//Find the first visible element from the beginning.
//This will be needed when paging right since it will have to be hidden
function getFirstVisible(menuItems)
{
  var firstVisible = null;

  for (var loopCounter = 0; loopCounter < menuItems.length; loopCounter++)
  {
    if(jQuery(menuItems[loopCounter]).is(":visible") && loopCounter < menuItems.length - maximumToShow)
    {
        firstVisible = menuItems[loopCounter];
        break;
    }
  }
  return firstVisible;
} 

//Get the last possible visible item
//If the item is in an index less than the maximum number to show, then null is returned since there has to be no more or less than the maximumToShow.
function getLastVisible(menuItems)
{
  var lastVisible = null;
  for (var loopCounter = menuItems.length - 1; loopCounter > maximumToShow - 1; loopCounter--)
  {
    if(jQuery(menuItems[loopCounter]).is(":visible"))
    {
      lastVisible = menuItems[loopCounter];
      break;
    }
  }

  return lastVisible;
}

//Find the first visible from the end
//Pretty simple, this will be important when paging left since this
//will be the next item to be hidden
function getNextInLineFront(menuItems)
{
  var lastOne = null;

  for (var loopCounter = menuItems.length-1; loopCounter > -1; loopCounter--)
  {
    if(jQuery(menuItems[loopCounter]).is(":visible"))
    {
      lastOne = menuItems[loopCounter + 1];
      break;
    }
  }

  return lastOne;
}

Next is a method that is just used to stop having to repeat the same thing over and over when needing a list of all the menu items.

function getMenuItems(mainHolder)
{
  return jQuery(mainHolder).children(".menuItem");
}

Next is the method to handle what item to show and what item to hide when the pager has the mouse over it. Instead of having methods for the right and left pager, I just ended up having the methods for finding the item to hide and show sent through as parameters.

function showHideOnHover(pager, timer, getHideMethod, getShowMethod)
{
  //This is just candy for changing the color of the pager when the mouse
  //is over it
  jQuery(pager).removeClass("green");
  jQuery(pager).addClass("orange");

  //Remember those methods I passed through, well here they
  //are in use.  I'm using them to get the item to hide and the item
  //to show along with the list of items.
  var menuItems = getMenuItems(jQuery(pager).parent());
  var hide = getHideMethod(menuItems);
  var show = getShowMethod(menuItems);

  //If neither is null, then go ahead and show/hide
  //If either one is null, something isn't right and the timer
  //needs to be stopped.... timer??  Well I'll get to that
  //next.
  if(show != null && hide != null)
  {
    jQuery(hide).hide( "slide", { direction: "right" } , 0);
    jQuery(show).show( "slide", { direction: "left" } , 100);
  }
  else
  {
    timer.stop();
  }
}

Now for the method above the last one, this one involves the timer passed in the last method. This method actually sets the mouseover/mouseout events (aka hover). When mouseover, the timer is created and the showHideOnHover method is called every 500 units, that’s we’ll call tools, (Not sure how much that is, seems like a half second) after the first time it’s called. On mouseout, the timer is stopped, nulled out, and the pager changes it’s color.

function setPager(pager, hideMethod, showMethod)
{
  //Making the timer variable "global" to the events so that I know
  //I have the same timer for both mouseover and mouseout.
  var newTimer;
  pager.hover
  (
    //Mouseover method
    function()
    {
      var first = true;
      //This sets the timer, consequently starting the method for the first time.
      //Why timer doesn't have a start method I don't know.  Ask jquery.com.
      //The first thing is just so that the first time around it runs right away,
      //then each call afterwards comes every 500 tools.
      newTimer = jQuery.timer
                      (
                         0, //First time through, runs after 0 tools.
                         function(timer)
                         {
                           showHideOnHover(pager, timer, hideMethod, showMethod);
                           //If this is the first time through, reset
                           //timer to run every 500 tools.
                           if(first)
                           {
                              timer.reset(500);
                              first = false;
                           }
                         }
                       );
    },

    //Mouseout method
    function()
    {
      //mouse is done, stop the timer
      newTimer.stop();
      newTimer = null;
      jQuery(pager).addClass("green");
      jQuery(pager).removeClass("orange")
    }
  );
}

Now for the method above the one… above. This is used to set the children of the passed in holder.

function setChildrenDivs(mainHolder)
{
  //Get the items for the holder
  var menuItems = getMenuItems(mainHolder);

  //Hide all the items after the first X items (maximumToShow)
  for (var loopCounter = 0; loopCounter < menuItems.length; loopCounter++)
  {
    if(loopCounter > maximumToShow - 1)
    {
      jQuery(menuItems[loopCounter]).hide();
    }
  }

  //set the pagers.
  setPager(jQuery(mainHolder).children(".leftPager"), getLastVisible, getNextInLineBack);
  setPager(jQuery(mainHolder).children(".rightPager"),getFirstVisible, getNextInLineFront);
}

FINALLY THE END! This is the document.ready method used to set this whole joke in motion. maximumToShow is just how many items to show at a time and is global.

var maximumToShow = 5;

jQuery(document).ready
(
  function()
  {
    //Find every holder on the page and set everything in motion.
    var mainHolders = jQuery(".mainHolder");
    for (var loopCounter = 0; loopCounter < mainHolders.length; loopCounter++)
    {
      setChildrenDivs(mainHolders[loopCounter]);
    }
  }
);

Why the timer? If you haven’t figured that out yet, well it’s because I had issues with how to get the menu to keep doing it’s thing as long as the user had his/her mouse over a pager. I didn’t want this to be a click menu because, let’s be honest, that would be much easier. So as is, the timer is started the moment the mouse is over a pager and hides/shows an item. Then every 500 tools the mouse is over the pager, it continues the hide/show until it runs out of items to show/hide. (End of the list)

Uhg that’s annoying to type out even with cut and paste so I will host it here.

I suppose the next part of this would have the items blow up or something when hovering over them but that should be much easier than this was.

LIVE EXAMPLE HERE

The idea is to set the hover on one div to show/hide another div WITHOUT having to use some kind of id/name trick (as in setting the id to “divHide1″) and to have it be completely self setting in the .ready method. Why would this be at all useful? Say you want to roll through a list of things and generate the divs, but want to defer the jQuery until the page has loaded. And you don’t want to have to resort to:

    <div id="someDiv<%= someId %>"></div>

like structure where you parse some identifier from the id property. Mostly because you have no idea how many someDiv1s there could be on the page. It could be a highly reused name (someDiv) and that could lead to a mess.

Also the reason ‘cuz. If you have any more questions of why after that answer, well you’re just being annoying.

Anywho, here’s the actual html for structure.

   <div class="mainDiv">
      <div class="showDiv" id="oneTop">
        Kaneda?
      </div>
      <div class="slideDiv" id="one">
        What do you see?!
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="clear"></div>

Now I get that this isn’t off a foreach, but it doesn’t take much to figure out that it’s easily made into a loop if you just loop it over and over. Why? Because first there are no ids or names so that you can’t have two of the same name and also because that chunk is self contained.

So what is going on there? Simple, you have a parent container that holds a div to hold and a div to hover over and the other that will be shown/hidden.

Here’s the styles involved just incase you care:

    <style type="text/css">
        .clear
        {
        	clear:both;
        }

        .leftDiv
        {
        	float:left;
        }

        .mainDiv
        {
        	margin:5px;
        	height:200px;
        }

        .rightDiv
        {
        	float:left;
        }

        .showDiv
        {
        	float:left;
        	margin-right:5px;
        	height:200px;
        	background-color:Silver;
        }

        .slideDiv
        {
        	background-color:Teal;
        	height:200px;
        	position:absolute;
        	float:left;
        	z-index:100;
        }
    </style>

That doesn’t entirely matter, but it does to show the div “sliding” over another div. Kind of a little somethin’ somethin’ I threw in at no extra cost. Now for the jQuery:

First the method for setting the mouse over and out events for the show div, we turn to .hover:

    function setHover(currentSlideDiv, currentStableDiv)
    {
      currentStableDiv.hover
      (
        //first parameter is the method for showing the div on mouse over
        function()
        {
          if (currentSlideDiv.is(":hidden"))
          {
            currentSlideDiv.show("slide", { direction: "left" }, 100);
          }
        },
        //second parameter is the method for hiding the div on mouse out
        function()
        {
          if (currentSlideDiv.is(":visible"))
          {
            currentSlideDiv.hide("slide", { direction: "left" }, 100);
          }
        }
      );
    };

Now for the method that actually uses these:

    //This is used to take in one of the main divs and set all the
    //show and slide divs within.
    function setChildrenDivs(mainDiv)
    {
      //get all the show and slide dvis within the main div
      var mainChildrenStableDiv = jQuery(mainDiv).children(".showDiv");
      var mainChildrenSlide = jQuery(mainDiv).children(".slideDiv");

      //loop through the list of show divs
      for (var loopCounter = 0; loopCounter < mainChildrenStableDiv.length; loopCounter++)
      {
        //Get the show div and it's corresponding slide div using the
        //two lists and the current counter.
        var currentStableDiv = jQuery(mainChildrenStableDiv[loopCounter]);
        var currentSlideDiv = jQuery(mainChildrenSlide[loopCounter]);

         //This is to make sure the slide is where it should be.
         //to the right of the show div.
         var containerPosition = jQuery(currentStableDiv).position();
         jQuery(currentSlideDiv).css({ left: containerPosition.left + currentStableDiv.width() });
        //Set the mouse over and the mouse out on the show div
        setHover(currentSlideDiv, currentStableDiv);
      }
    }

Now the final touch, the .ready method:

    jQuery(document).ready
    (
      function()
      {
        //hide all the slide divs
        jQuery(".slideDiv").hide();

        //find all the parent divs
        var mainDivs = jQuery(".mainDiv");

        //set the children
        for (var loopCounter = 0; loopCounter < mainDivs.length; loopCounter++)
        {
          setChildrenDivs(mainDivs[loopCounter]);
        }
      }
    );

And boom, now you have multiple show/hide (Slide in this instance). Now if I could just find a use for it…

Oh yeah and you’ll need jQuery 1.3.2 and jQuery ui 1.7.2 to use this. At least those are the versions I know this works with.

Update: Due to popular demand… one person… Source can be found here.

So for an experiement the other day I decided to try my hand at some sort of dynamic grid using jQuery’s ajax fun and JSon. Just so happens that this works really well with MVC’s REST like makeup. Don’t know what REST is? On a very tool level, it’s using a url and a command to tell the server what to do. So something like:

www.byatool.com/users/dostuff

Could mean either get all users (if using get) or create a user (If using post). And yes that is probably a ridiculously simplistic view so I’d suggest consulting the Wikitruth. In an MVC sense this would be:

Controller: Users
Action: dostuff

Now most likely your Get All Users action isn’t going to the same as your Add A User action, but it was just a stupid example ok?

However, with jQuery what this means is you have a simple url that it can call and get information from, making it incredibly easy to set up a dynamic grid.

So first off, lets say I have a Forum controller with an action of IndexJquery… yeah I know cheesy name, but it gets the job done. Basically the method IndexJquery would have to take in a page number and optionally (And for this example) how many items to show along with a sort. With that it should return a JSon “object” that will be in this example holds first page, last page, next page, previous page, sortBy, and some kind of list of stuff. (For the two people actually reading this, comment if you want the c# code. It’s really just basic MVC stuff.)

The markup for this is pretty simple. I have a div to hold the grid, four directional divs that work as buttons (First, Previous, Next, Last), and two div “butons” for how many items to show.

    <div>
        <div id="divHolder">
        </div>
    </div>
    <div>
        <div id="divFirstPage" class="divLink floatLeft">
            <<
        </div>
        <div id="divPreviousPage" class="divLink floatLeft">
            <
        </div>
        <div id="divNextPage" class="divLink floatLeft">
            >
        </div>
        <div id="divLastPage" class="divLink floatLeft">
            >>
        </div>
    </div>
    <div class="clear"></div>
    <div>
        <div id="divAmountToShowOne" class="divLink floatLeft">
            1
        </div>
        <div id="divAmountToShowFive" class="divLink floatLeft">
            5
        </div>
    </div>
    <div class="clear"></div>

As you can see exactly as advertised.

Ready for the call? It’s waaaaay hard:

        function getGrid(pageNumberIn, amountToShowIn, sortByIn)
        {
            jQuery.getJSON
            (
               //This is the url for the information I need
               "http://www.someurl.com/Forum/IndexJquery/",
               //this is the construction of the "object" to send... really this just
               //means that I have a method somewhere looking for pageNumber,
               //amountToShow, and sortBy
               {
                   pageNumber: pageNumberIn,
                   amountToShow: amountToShowIn,
                   sortBy: sortByIn
               },
               //This is the method to call once this ajax transaction has completed...
               //transaction may not be the best word.  Basically it has to be a method
               //that takes in the result from the getJSon call
               returned
            );
        }

Next would be the script to actually create the grid. Looks verbose, but most likely thats because I didn’t refactor much.

    function returned(jsonObject)
    {
        //Have to remove all the previous click event handlers since because
        //this is all client side, there's no "refresh" and therefore the object
        //is still in memory.  So even though I might call the method to get the
        //information, the "objects" are still in memory.
        jQuery("#divFirstPage").unbind("click");
        jQuery("#divLastPage").unbind("click");
        jQuery("#divNextPage").unbind("click");
        jQuery("#divPreviousPage").unbind("click");
        jQuery("#divAmountToShowOne").unbind("click");
        jQuery("#divAmountToShowFive").unbind("click");

        //Ok so now that the event is not being listened to, set up the listeners
        //The idea is to call that getGrid method and pass in the values straight
        //off the previously returned json object.  Using jQuery's easy .click method
        //makes this so simple.
        jQuery("#divFirstPage").click(function() { getGrid(jsonObject.FirstPage, jsonObject.AmountToShow, jsonObject.SortBy); })
        jQuery("#divPreviousPage").click(function() { getGrid(jsonObject.PreviousPage, jsonObject.AmountToShow, jsonObject.SortBy); })
        jQuery("#divNextPage").click(function() { getGrid(jsonObject.NextPage, jsonObject.AmountToShow, jsonObject.SortBy); })
        jQuery("#divLastPage").click(function() { getGrid(jsonObject.LastPage, jsonObject.AmountToShow, jsonObject.SortBy); })
        jQuery("#divAmountToShowOne").click(function() { getGrid(0, 1, jsonObject.SortBy); })
        jQuery("#divAmountToShowFive").click(function() { getGrid(0, 5, jsonObject.SortBy); })

        //Again since this is client side, the divHolder "object" still is holding
        //the previous results.  These have to be cleared.
        jQuery("#divHolder").children().remove();

        //Create the table and loop through the list.
        var mytable = document.createElement("table");
        var mytablebody = document.createElement("tbody");

        for (loopCounter = 0; loopCounter < jsonObject.ListForViewing.length; loopCounter++)
        {
           var currentItem = something.ListForViewing[loopCounter];
           var mycurrent_row = document.createElement("tr");

           var mycurrent_cell = document.createElement("td");
           var currentText = document.createTextNode(currentItem.ForumName);
           mycurrent_cell.appendChild(currentText);
           mycurrent_row.appendChild(mycurrent_cell);

           mytablebody.appendChild(mycurrent_row);
        }

        mytable.appendChild(mytablebody);
        //Don't forget to add the table to the div!!11
        jQuery("#divHolder").append(mytable);
        return false;
    }

And boom. So easy even a ca… tool can do it. Now if you want this grid to come preloaded, it’s pretty easy:

    jQuery(document).ready
    (
        function setPage()
        {
            getGrid(0, 10, null);
        }
    )

If you’re developing a web based app that might be used by IPhone users, there is a simple way to stop the IPhone from shrinking the page onload. Thanks to Mark W on The Stack Hath Runith Over there is a simple solution.

  <head runat="server">
     <title>I LOVE TITLES!</title>
     <meta name="viewport" content="width=420" />

That one beautiful metatag makes life worth living again… until the next Street Fighter movie comes out. Then life is back in the forfeit container. Here’s a link to more options:
BYEBYE

<a onclick="return ShowCommentForPost('1', this, 'THIS IS SO STUPID!');" href="www.byatool.com">word.</a>

Kind of annoying since I would have to explain that ’1′ is the name and it has to be unique for every one of these, this isn’t really understood by those people, and well it just seems more complicated then it needs to be. So what if I told you it could look like this?

<a href="http://www.byatool.com" class="showItLink" xmlns:comment="hihihi">HI</a>

Gorsh, that seems even better and it works in both IE and Firefox… which might be a first for this site and anything javascript. First let’s get the css out of the way, shall we?

    .showItLink
    {
    }

    .postComment
    {
        background-color:Gray;
        border-color:Black;
        border-style:dotted;
        border-width:thin;
        color:White;
        margin-right:3px;
        padding:3px;
        position:absolute;
        text-decoration:none;
        z-index:50;
    }

Most of the is just for looks, but like the older example I’ve called upon the power of position:absolute and z-index well that’s just pulling it in front of everything else.

Next part will be the actual code, and if you take the method from THE POSITION ABSOLUTE POST

    function SetTopAndLeft(parentContainer, elementToSet)
    {
        var containerPosition;

        containerPosition = $(parentContainer).position();
        $(elementToSet).css({ top: containerPosition.top + 10, left: containerPosition.left + 10 });
    }

and add in a simple span creation method:

    function CreateDiv(innerText, cssClass)
    {
        var spanToAdd;

        spanToAdd = document.createElement('span');
        spanToAdd.className = cssClass;
        spanToAdd.innerHTML = innerText;

        return spanToAdd;
    }

you’re ready for the actual fun part… making sure something pops up when the link is clicked.

jQuery(document).ready  //Everything inside this will load as soon as the DOM is loaded and before the page contents are loaded.*
(
    function()  //this is the start of an anonymous method
    {
        jQuery(".showItLink").click //find all things with the .showItLink class and assign the click event to the next anonymous method
        (
            function(event) //this is the start of an anonymous method for the click event
            {
                var containerPosition;
                var createdSpan;
                var comment;

                comment = jQuery(this).attr("xmlns:comment");  //Get the value from the comment attribute on the link.
                createdSpan = jQuery(this).children(".postComment"); //Find a possible span already attached to the link if it exists.  The span is of class 'postComment'

                if (createdSpan.length == 0)  //span doesn't exist
                {
                    createdSpan= CreateDiv(comment, "postComment");  //create the span
                    jQuery(this).append(createdSpan);  //Add the span to the link
                    jQuery(this).children(".postComment").hide();  //Make sure the new span is hidden
                }
                SetTopAndLeft(this, createdSpan);  //Set the position of the span
                jQuery(createdDiv).toggle();  //This will hide if it's showing, show if it's hidden... kind of nice huh?

                event.preventDefault();  //Equivalent to false.  Need this for Firefox.
            }
        );
    }
);

And boom you have something that works. Hooray.

Couple things of note:

.Hide – At first I though this would screw up my class for the span by removing the current class and adding display:none. Turns out it doesn’t harm the original class. Kind of nice.

.Toggle() – This is really nice. It will hide if it is showing and show if hidden. Stupid easy to use and is pretty effective. Just like .Hide, the class of the element is not harmed.

$ versus jQuery – Some people might notice that I am not using the short hand $ for my jQuery calls. Turns out that it might be safer this way. There are other javascript libraries that use the $ short hand like prototype. I ran into this with WordPress since it uses both jQuery and Prototype and blocks jQuery from using $ since it could conflict with other libraries. Weeeee!