Lab 4

Using the YUI

 

 

Introduction

 

This week you will adapt your existing website to use the YUI toolkit, then leverage YUI to add snazzy additional features..

 

Instructions:

 

  1. Copy your Lab03 files to a new Lab04 directory. Your main file should still be called index.html

2.      Here is what you what you want to have when you are finished.  Suggested plan of attach for getting there is below:

    1. Everything from Lab03 should still work, but you should change all uses of XMLHttpRequest to use the corresponding YUI approach.  Recall there is no way to do synchronous communication with YUI – change to asynchronous instead.
    2. You should have a search box with YUI-enabled autocomplete.  Write a server program (Perl or PHP) to be the datasource for this – it should be based on the querying the database. Insert some test entries into the DB so you can demonstrate this. (See helpful stuff for details on Autocomplete)
    3. Pick a different widget from the YUI documentation and add it to your web page. Try to find something that fits with your site. If time permits, add more than one.
    4. As always, your code must be commented!
    5. On your default.htm page, provide some comments for a user (e.g. the instructor) on how to use your site.  This should be specific to this lab – e.g. how can I see that your site meets the requirements for this lab? For instance, what to click, what to enter, etc.
  1. Suggested plan of attack (see also helpful info at end)
    1. Follow the requirements above in order.

4.      Ensure your page works with Firefox. Having it work on IE is encouraged but not required.

5.      Ensure all your pages validate and that you have met all requirements.

     

NOTE: all HTML files must validate as XHTML without errors for full credit.  The penalty for a file that does not validate is 10%.

Helpful stuff

  1. General debug strategy:
    1. First, run Perl from the command line and make sure it works (see below).  Include actual arguments so you can see it’s really working.
    2. Second, run Perl via the webserver directly, e.g. something like
      http://www.mXXXXXX.it452.cs.usna.edu/Lab04/query.pl?q=dogs&type=4
    3. Finally, try it all from HTML via the browser.  If this doesn’t work
      1. Look first at the Error console!
      2. Use window.alert() to see what is happening.  In particular, check what URL you are actually using to invoke Perl.
      3. Did I mention looking at the Error console?
  2. As always, the “Error Console” in Firefox is invaluable.
  3. Perl is easier to debug via the windows command line. You should first check for syntax errors by just “checking” the file:
         perl –c -w myquery.pl
    Once that works run it for real:
         perl -w myquery.pl
    If needed, you can provide CGI arguments like this:
         perl –w myquery.pl “query=dogs&type=2”
  4. On the command line, database errors will usually appear automatically.  From the browser, they won’t – instead insert this as a debug:
         print $DBI::errstr;
  5. Useful SQL examples:
    1. CREATE TABLE comments (USER_NAME VARCHAR(20), TIMESTAMP DATETIME, COMMENT MEDIUMTEXT, PAGE INTEGER);
    2. INSERT INTO comments (USER_NAME, TIMESTAMP, COMMENT, PAGE) VALUES ('Jamie', '2006-09-27 11:30:00', 'hi', 2);
    3. CREATE TABLE topics (TOPIC VARCHAR(20), OWNER VARCHAR(20));
    4. INSERT INTO topics (TOPIC, OWNER) VALUES ('Cars', ‘Jamie’);
    5. Note: ID is automatically created with the table, no need to specify it.
  6. Do not use the die() function alone – the error it generates can’t be seen from your web page.
  7. AutoComplete – when you create your data source, provide just the raw name of your Perl file, e.g. “myautocomplete.pl”.  Don’t try to specify any parameters here.  YUI will automatically send a parameter to your Perl program that is named “query”. This parameter contains the letters that the user has already typed into the box – use this to customize the results that are returned.
  8. AutoComplete – be sure to turn off your browser’s built-in autocomplete.  In Firefox, Tools->Options->Privacy tab. Unclick "Remember what I enter in forms and the search bar"

 

 

Deliverables

1)      All of your files for Lab04 should be in a folder called "Lab04" (without the quotes) on the Web drive.

2)      Your main page for Lab04 should be called "index.html" (without the quotes) and placed inside the folder Lab01.

3)      Your instructor will assume that your web pages are viewable at http://www.mXXXXXX.it452.cs.usna.edu/Lab04/index.html where XXXXXX is your alpha number. You should check that this URL is viewable and that everything works correctly from a computer where somebody else is logged in. If you've goofed and linked to a file on your X drive, this will help you catch it!

4)      All files must be complete and saved to your Web drive before you submit the hardcopy of your assignment. Do NOT modify your files after you have submitted your assignment.

5)      Turn in the following hardcopy on or before the due date, stapled together in the following order (coversheet on top):

a)      A completed assignment coversheet.  Your comments will help us improve the course.

b)      The first page of the output of the W3C validator, as run on the final version of your Lab03/index.html.  This should show that your document correctly validated, but turn it in anyway if you can’t get your page to validate. 

c)      A printout of the source to your Lab04/index.html file (not the rendered page that you normally see with Internet Explorer/Firefox).   Truncated lines are not acceptable – use Crimson Editor vice Notepad if needed for printing.  You could also paste into Microsoft Word etc. if needed.

d)      Printouts of external JavaScript files, if any.