Will Bontrager Blogs Web Site Techniques
Web Development Articles
Adding Google's Site Search to Your Web Site
This article provides a step-by-step for putting Google's site search box on a web site's pages, with your own custom results page. It does not go into the many good reasons for most web sites to have site search available for visitors, just the "how to do it."
Skeleton DOCTYPE Tag Web Pages For Markup Validation
When making things such as widgets or other code intended to be pasted into web pages at other web sites, it is prudent that the code validates. It should validate with all DOCTYPE tags.
Screen Reader-Friendly Tab Panel Generator
The tab panel generator has not been as popular as we thought it might be. Even with its ease of use and the sweet, elegant, professional ways content can be presented. We think the reason for the back-off has been dealt with.
Search Engine Friendly Tab Panel
Someone expressed concern that the content of a tab panel not immediately visible when a web page is first loaded may not be indexed by search engines. Let me put the concern to rest.
Here is a tab panel generator. Tab panels can be used to present several or many areas of content, one at a time, to site visitors. As examples, it might be used to present testimonials, products, feature lists, comparison charts, or navigation links.
Differences Between JavaScript, PHP, and Perl
Not sure whether to use JavaScript, PHP, or Perl script for your web site project? Experience with different programming languages is required to correctly decide which is best for a specific project. Each programming language has its strengths and its weaknesses. Some can do what others can't. And vice versa.
Creating custom software is expensive. The programmer or programming team needs to be paid for their time and expertise. Customizing existing software can be a big savings.
The official way to pronounce "MySQL" is "My Ess Que Ell" (according to mysql.com).
Let's talk about what MySQL is. Then, you can decide for yourself whether or not it is for you.
Where Form Data Can Be Validated
Validating form data can happen at any of four points. Each is described here.
An expand/collapse tutorial regulated with a checkbox. Example -- check the "married" checkbox and spousal information fields appear. Uncheck and it disappears.
One would think counting page loads is a trivial task. Simply increment a count whenever a browser loads the page. Thinking about it a bit, one realizes the mechanism that records page loads is likely to be less than 100% accurate.
I'll show you how to bypass or prevent the caching of iframe content and JavaScript content imported from external files.
Yesterday, October 1, 2007, was the Grand Opening of WebSite's Secret at http://bontragercgi.com/WebSitesSecret/ In the WebSite's Secret members area, as I write this, are 8 software titles, ready for download. Six are Perl CGI and two are PHP
Affiliate Links for Non-Product Pages
Our affiliates can link to any page of any of our web sites and have their affiliate cookie set. I'll tell you how it's done. Maybe you'll find a use for something similar. For affiliates, it's just link and go. Implementing the mechanism wasn't so straightforward.
HTML Tooltips With CSS Enhancements
You're probably aware that when a cursor hovers over text affected by a TITLE attribute, the value assigned to the attribute shows up as a tooltip. This article shows you examples of how using that one attribute can make your web sites more visitor-friendly.
The submit button's up/down movement is bounded left and right by a table data cell. No matter how wide or narrow the web page, the submit button stays with the form, sliding up and down where it's supposed to, always staying visible in the browser window.
A "Reveal When Needed" Feedback Form
This article is about implementing a feedback form, hidden until a link is clicked. The primary hurdle was to replace the form with the thank-you page, seamlessly, without a page reload. You'll see how it was solved. And without AJAX, too.
Need to hide mailto: links? If yes, see the http://bontragercgi.com/hiding_email_links.html article.
Creating an Information Center
The Information Center is a web page with a form where selected information can be sent to specific email addresses. The information can be text files, compressed files, PDF documents, entire web pages, anything that can be sent as an email attachment. Article at http://bontragerconnection.com/library/information_center.shtml
Transferring Link Page URL to Web Page Form
This article will show how to construct a link to a form and, when the link is clicked, how to automatically insert the URL and/or title of the link page into any web page form.
Sandbox Testing of .htaccess File Changes
Test .htaccess file changes in an otherwise unused subdirectory before putting it live in the document root.
For any of many possible reasons, sometimes it is desirable to have the browser open a new window for the new page when a link is clicked.
Spamming You Through Your Own Forms
Spammers are now using automated form submission software. Automated form submission, as addressed in this article, is software masquerading as your form and submitting information. Your form handling software is unable to determine whether it is a person or other software submitting the form.
Copy the HTML code below, it's a complete web page, and save it on your hard drive. Launch it whenever you need to generate HTML entities of common keyboard characters.
See the "Developer's Area" tab at http://www.willmaster.com/master/ for a long page of tips and ideas for web page developers and designers.
The appearance of sites vary considerably between monitor size, screen resolution, browser version combinations, and other software/operating system preferences.
Handy Dandy Form Field Names Display
When writing scripts that interact with forms or the information submitted by forms, it is often imperative that form field names are typed exactly correct. This short JavaScript put anywhere below the form will print the form field names, in the order they appear, one name per line.
Feedback for Confidence, Site Enhancement, and More Traffic
Mari and I have long been proponents of feedback forms on all web sites. Use a feedback form for valuable site enhancement tips.