Trent’s Blog

If you’re using an earlier version of Impromptu you should look at downloading this new version(it should be backwards compatible unless you’ve made changes).  Previously Impromptu worked great in all browsers except IE6.  Why IE6?  Because of its lack of support for position: fixed; After beating my head on my desk for hours it finally come together.

Previously in IE6 it would fade out the screen but the prompt would stay put, sometimes causing it to be scrolled out of view.  Now that is all fixed. Be sure to check the css on the project page.  A previous IE css hack has been removed and Impromptu takes care of all cross-browser issues just like it should
Download Impromptu 1.2

Unfortunately I had to learn the hard way about the CF_SQL_DECIMAL option of cfqueryparam rounding my decimals off in SQL.  I had used it for inserting, then after a while noticed my decimal places were being rounded (3.50 rounds to 4.00) in the database.  Come to find out I needed to use CF_SQL_FLOAT instead.

Am I misunderstanding what a decimal is? Does anyone have a good explanation for this?  I understand that CF_SQL_FLOAT is the “proper” option, but never thought there was much difference.  If nothing else hopefully this helps someone or keeps them from making the same mistake, especially since money can be of type float

I just stumbled across gOS, an Ubuntu distribution revolving around Google products.  The gPC is now available through Wal-Mart for $200.  If Linux wants publicity and a larger user group this could be it’s ticket to the top.  At first glance I like what I see, however I haven’t tried this at all, and I’m interested to read some reviews!

Impromptu 1.1 is now available(since sunday, sorry for the delayed post).  Everything works ok for me, but I don’t count for everyone, so if you see any issues please let me know.  That being said if you need the previous working version(1.0) for the time being, it can be located here.  I hope no one needs this one but better safe than sorry! If you’ve downloaded since Sunday you probably already have 1.1. 

It almost time.  I will be releasing the next version of jQuery Impromptu soon!  (Probably Sunday or Monday)  Among the next additions will be the following:

• “Smart” iframe to cover elements that bleed through the fade(ie6, flash, applets)
• “loadComplete” as a function to execute when the prompt has finished loading(after entrance effects)
• A few CSS fixes for a few bugs.  This will go into the documentation for the CSS templates
• Possibly using a form within the prompt to make it more “proper” and submitting easier
• An option to focus a button by default

Thanks to everyone who has helped out so far on making Impromptu so great!  Please don’t hesitate to suggest something.  Keep in mind though, I want to do my best not to require any extra plugins and to keep everything as backwards compatible as possible so everyone has little trouble upgrading.  I look forward to hearing ideas!

Being the curious mind, have you ever been bouncing around to different javascript frameworks searching for your happy medium? Well I have for the past few years, and I’m still no where near settling with just one. As of late I’ve been in a jQuery groove, but who knows what next week will bring, especially after this startling test by Mootools.

Mootools has previously been known for its silky smooth effects and great dom utilities, but they also have performance on their side as well. jQuery on the other had has to have the friendliest syntax ever with chaining and selectors, with just enough effects to make you hungry for more. I really have to say this makes me frustrated. Just as you get comfortable with a framework something as disturbing as this test comes about.

Well its not at all bad news. I am always looking for something better, but I’m not convinced that mootools is any better at this point. Sure speed is a plus, but whats a millisecond compared to usability? I do like jQuery’s documentation better, as well as the infinite plugins available. For the sake of quality and flexibility though, even if you are situated with one framework, it always pays off to have another framework under your belt. While I don’t foresee this test making many jQuery users abandon their beloved framework, but there will be some splitting time with Mootools…

I guess all the big wheels these days are into the new RIA desktop deal with Adobe Air, JavaFX, and Mozilla’s Prism. I definitely see the perspective they’re trying to achieve, but it seems to me none of them are there yet. The concept is to bring the web to the desktop more or less, and all three have a different approach to it. Air is allowing flex or regular html, css, js, where javascript acts more like a server side language. JavaFX is more or less still Java. Prism appears to be just an embedded browser.

My personal opinion Prism has the best chance right now of successfully accomplishing this. However I have to say, if you really want to do any of the things these technologies do you could consider just creating an empty application with an embedded web browser. In the install just give it the url you want to link to. I’ve seen VB does this very nicely and flash is supported. (why shouldn’t it be, its just an IE browser embedded). Flash embedded in HTML is something Prism and Adobe Air have struggled with thus far. I’m not sure about other platforms and languages, but it works nicely on Windows with a very small VB application and install with nothing but an embedded browser.

Moral of the story: Much of the functionality you are trying to achieve with these products can be quickly and easily achieved by other means. Especially if you need to embed flash into html, consider doing this. I’m also interested to know if this will work in any other languages so that it can port nicely to other operating systems(Can Java or C?).