Friday, September 15, 2017

Android Java to Get JSON Data from Server via PHP

The following Android Java codes are based on Android Studio 2.3. In order for Android to obtain information from a server such as the login password verification, the easiest way is to connect to a web server via PHP. Android then establishes a connection to the server through a URL or a link to a PHP script. The following shows the PHP portion of the codes. I named this file testJSON.php:

<?php

 error_reporting(0);
 $all = array();

 if ($_GET['pc'] == "android") { // changed $_POST to $_GET on 30/11/2020
  $all[0] = array("a"=>1,"b"=>2,"c"=>3);
  $all[1] = array("d"=>4,"e"=>5,"f"=>6);
  $all[2] = array("g"=>7,"h"=>8,"i"=>9);
 }

 $encoded = json_encode($all);
 header('Content-type: application/json');
 exit($encoded);

?>


The following will be the codes from the Android Studio side. But before going into the Java coding, one must make sure Android can access to the Internet. This can be achieved by adding the following line in red in the AndroidManifest.xml file.

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
 package="com.example.eric.testjson">

 <application
  android:allowBackup="true"
  android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
  android:label="@string/app_name"
  android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"
  android:supportsRtl="true"
  android:theme="@style/AppTheme">
  <activity android:name=".MainActivity">
   <intent-filter>
    <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

    <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
   </intent-filter>
  </activity>
 </application>
 <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>
</manifest>


The following codes are from the main Android Java called MainActivity.java:

package com.example.eric.testjson; // Your package name will be different, there is no need to paste this code to your MainActivity.java file.

import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

 @Override
 protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
  super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
  setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

  new grabFromPHPServer(this).execute("android"); // "android" is a parameter that will be passed to doInBackground in grabFromPHPServer Java sub class
 }
}


The following codes are from the Java class called grabFromPHPServer.java. You can create this Java class by right clicking your Java folder.

package com.example.eric.testjson; // you use your own package info, no need to paste this to your java file

import android.content.Context;
import android.os.AsyncTask;
import android.util.Log;

import org.json.JSONArray;
import org.json.JSONObject;

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
import java.net.URL;
import java.net.URLEncoder;

public class grabFromPHPServer extends AsyncTask<String, Void, String> {

 private Context context;

 public grabFromPHPServer(Context context) {
  this.context = context;
 }

 protected void onPreExecute() {

 }

 @Override
 protected String doInBackground(String... arg) {

  String passcode = arg[0];
  String link;
  String data;
  BufferedReader bufferedReader;
  String result;

  Log.d("result","start trying to grab from PHP server...");
  try {
   Log.d("result","preparing parameter sent to server...");

   data = "?pc=" + URLEncoder.encode(passcode, "UTF-8");

   link = "http://www.yourOwnURL.com/testJSON.php"+data;
   URL url = new URL(link);
   HttpURLConnection con = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
   Log.d("result","connection response: "+con.toString());

   bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(con.getInputStream()));
   //result = bufferedReader.readLine(); // commented out and replaced with the following on 30th of November 2020
   String strLine;
   while ((strLine = bufferedReader.readLine()) != null)
   {
      if (!strLine.isEmpty()) {
         result += strLine;
      }
   }

   Log.d("result",result.toString()); // spit all JSON data received

   String jSONString = result;
   if (jSONString != null) {
    Log.d("result", "jSON received: "+jSONString.toString());
    JSONArray jsonArr = new JSONArray(jSONString);
    JSONObject query_result = jsonArr.getJSONObject(0);
    Log.d("result", "a->"+query_result.getString("a"));
    query_result = jsonArr.getJSONObject(1);
    Log.d("result", "e->"+query_result.getString("e"));
    query_result = jsonArr.getJSONObject(2);
    Log.d("result", "g->"+query_result.getString("g"));
   }
   else {
    Log.d("result", "jSON received is null");
   }
   return result;
  } catch (Exception e) {
   Log.d("result","grab failed");
   return new String("Exception: " + e.getMessage());
  }
 }

 @Override
 protected void onPostExecute(String result) {
  // you can also process your jSON here
 }
}


AsyncTask extension is crucial in the Java class as it is quite meaningless if you run the connection in your main activity Java class as the connection takes time and you will get an exception error if the JSON data failed to be received within a short period of wait time. But in order to use AsyncTask extension, you need to create a sub class to handle background tasks such as this grabFromPHPServer.java sub class. Please also replace yourOwnURL with your own domain name where your PHP file resides.

The following is the screen shot I took from my Android Monitor. The log is filtered with the keyword 'result' so that I only see output from my very own Log.d results:

Read More »

Monday, August 28, 2017

Javascript to Limit HTML Width for Mobile Devices of Any Orientation

The viewport parameter in the HTML Meta Tag is used to limit the screen width. Another thing to pay attention for these codes is the neccessity to differentiate between tablets and phones. Phones tend to have less resolution whereas tablets can have resolutions comparable to that of PC or Mac. I use a simple criteria to differentiate the two by checking the screen width whether it is wider than 700 pixels. If so, tablets' width will be forced to limit to only 700 pixels. For non-tablets, the width will be limited to the native screen width found in the Javascript system parameter screen.width. Pay attention to when orientation changes. Android will have the width and height paramters swapped whereas the mobile Safari will have the same width and height irregardless of the orientation.

The <body> onorientationchange is used to listen to the orientation change even. Whenever it is fired, the 'content' meta will be reconfigured according to the orientation status. Javascript's window.orientation is used to check the current orientation status in terms of degrees.

Let's jump into the codes:

<html>
<head>
<title>Javascript to Limit HTML Width for Mobile Devices of Any Orientation</title>

<script>

var mobile = navigator.userAgent.match(/Android/i) || navigator.userAgent.match(/BlackBerry/i) || navigator.userAgent.match(/iPhone|iPad|iPod/i) || navigator.userAgent.match(/Opera Mini/i) || navigator.userAgent.match(/IEMobile/i);

var safari = navigator.userAgent.match(/iPhone|iPad|iPod/i) && navigator.userAgent.match(/Safari/i);

var ot = ""; // variable "orientation" is used by mobile browsers
if (safari) {
 if (window.orientation == 0) { ot="portrait"; } else { ot="landscape"; }
}
else {
 if (screen.width<screen.height) { ot="portrait"; } else { ot="landscape"; }
}


if (mobile) {
 var mobileWidth = getMobileWidth();
 alert("setting the width of "+mobileWidth);
 document.write('<meta id="vp" name="viewport" content="width = '+mobileWidth+', initial-scale=1.0">');
}
// if it is not mobile, viewport is not supported or will be ignored

function getMobileWidth() {
 var width;
 var isTablet = 0;
 if (safari) { // safari screen width and height remain constant irregradless of the orientation
  if (ot == "portrait") { width = screen.width; if (width>400) {isTablet=1;} }
  else { width = screen.height; if (width>700) {isTablet=1;} }
 }
 else {
  width = screen.width;
  if (ot == "portrait") { if (width>400) {isTablet=1;} }
  else { if (width>700) { isTablet=1;} }
 }
 if (isTablet) {
  if (ot == "portrait") {
   return 400;
  }
  else {
   return 700;
  }
 }
 else {
  return width;
 }
}

function changeViewPort() { //change viewport dynamically by changing the meta 'content' attribute

 if (safari) { // mobile safari will not swap screen.width with screen.height after orientation change
  if (window.orientation == 0) { ot="portrait"; } else { ot="landscape"; }
 }
 else { // other broswers will have height and width swapped
  if (screen.width<screen.height) { ot="portrait"; } else { ot="landscape"; }
 }

 var mobileWidth = getMobileWidth();
 alert("setting the width of "+mobileWidth);
 alert("screen in "+ot+" mode w:"+screen.width+" h:"+screen.height+" -->"+window.orientation);

 if (mobile) {
  var vp = document.getElementById('vp');
  vp.setAttribute('content','width='+mobileWidth+', initial-scale=1.0');
 }
}

</script>

</head>

<body bgcolor=orange onorientationchange="changeViewPort()">

<table width=100% height=100% align=center valign=middle>
<tr><td width=100% height=100% align=center valign=middle style="font-family: Lucida Sans, Lucida Sans Unicode, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Under Construction</td></tr>
</table>

</body>

</html>


Please note the meta tag has been given an ID (id="vp") so that it can be modified when necessary. onorientationchange is used instead of "onresize" as "onresize" will make give a lots of false signal even when the address bar in mobile browsers shows up or hides.

Read More »

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

DIV mask layer not fully covered on top when there is a scroll bar

It's common to create a "mask" layer on top of the page in order to display photos, pop-up messages, etc.

I used to use the "absolute" positioning to do the job under I lately discovered the so called "masked" will move if there is a scroll bar (when shrinking the window's size).

This problem can be easily solved by just setting the DIV to "fixed" position.

Another problem solved! But wait a minute. This solution doesn't work in IE! Let me see if there is a workaround for this...
Read More »

Best Way to Round Up Numbers Using Javascript

I previously found several solutions to round up (float) numbers to closest two decimal places. Some are using complicated function with sofisticated codes but I find this one-liner quite effective and efficient:

Math.round(num*100)/100; // for two decimal places
Math.round(num*1000)/1000; // for three decimal places
.
.

I appreciate the author who did this and sorry for forgetting where I get it from.
Read More »

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Login with Facebook using PHP with v5 SDK

It has been a long time since my last post about Facebook. Many things have changed since. This time I want to talk about the new version of Login PHP SDK for Facebook.

The latest version of SDK can be found here.

I think I can skip to codes directly as all the steps to install the SDK and obtain the app_id and app_secret can be easily found in the internet. But I need to point out the errors you may see if something goes wrong. If you see the following error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '[', expecting ')' in ...

You need a PHP 5.4 or higher version to avoid this error.

Instead, if you see this:

Cross-site request forgery validation failed. The "state" param from the URL and session do not match.

It means your app_id and app_secret are not registered to run in the current domain.

Facebook required us to run the login authorization process in two parts: the login link page and the call-back page. The login page will produce a link with new access token to comply with OAuth 2.0 flow. The next page is to process the call-back from Facebook with valid access token so as to do anything with the verified login such as accessing the ID or email address.

As my philosophy is always to make things short and simple as programmers will not like anything too windy, I combined the two parts into one PHP script. Here is the hybrid script:

<?php

session_start();

require_once __DIR__ . '/facebookV5/autoload.php'; // Please point to your facebook SDK autoload.php

$fb = new Facebook\Facebook([
  'app_id' => 'Your App ID',
  'app_secret' => 'Your App Secret',
  'default_graph_version' => 'v2.5',
]);



if (!isset($_GET['code'])) { // If it is a callback, you will get 'code' as query string.

  $helper = $fb->getRedirectLoginHelper();

  $myURL = '{Your Login URL}'; // The URL to this very script such as http://yourdomainname.com/this_hybrid_login_script.php
  $permissions = ['email']; // Optional permissions
  $loginUrl = $helper->getLoginUrl($myURL, $permissions);

  //header( 'Location: ' . htmlspecialchars($loginUrl) ); PLEASE DO USE REDIRECT WITH PHP HEADER! Somehow it doesn't work well with Facebook OAuth 2.0 flow
  echo("<meta http-equiv='refresh' content=\"0;URL='". htmlspecialchars($loginUrl) ."'\" />");
  exit;
}
else { // This is the call-back section:

  $helper = $fb->getRedirectLoginHelper();
  try {
    $accessToken = $helper->getAccessToken();
  } catch( Facebook\Exceptions\FacebookSDKException $e ) {
    echo $e->getMessage();
    exit;
  }

  if (isset($accessToken)) {
    $_SESSION['facebook_access_token'] = ( string ) $accessToken;

    $fb->setDefaultAccessToken($accessToken);

    try {
      $response = $fb->get('/me?fields=email');
      $userNode = $response->getGraphUser();
    } catch(Facebook\Exceptions\FacebookResponseException $e) {
      echo 'Graph returned an error: ' . $e->getMessage();
      exit;
    } catch(Facebook\Exceptions\FacebookSDKException $e) {
      echo 'Facebook SDK returned an error: ' . $e->getMessage();
      exit;
    }

    $me = $response->getGraphUser();
    echo "Your Facebook Email: ".$me->getProperty('email');

    // You now can use the email for the rest of the login process

    exit;
  }
  else if ( $helper->getError() ) {

    // Facebook Login Error

    echo( $helper->getError()."<br>" );
    echo( $helper->getErrorCode()."<br>" );
    echo( $helper->getErrorReason()."<br>" );
    echo( $helper->getErrorDescription()."<br>" );
    exit;
  }

  echo("Access Token cannot be obtained.");
  // You need to debug if you see this as it shouldn't reach here.
  exit;
}

?>


This is a 2-in-1 script. I use the query string 'code' as a signal to decide where it is a call-back from Facebook or it is the first-run before linking to Facebook. If everything goes well and your browser has not run this PHP code before, you will encounter a page where Facebook will ask for your permission to run this PHP app. Here is an example of how it looks like:



After continuing this authorization process, you will not see this page again unless you change the app_id and app_secret. Enjoy logging in with Facebook!

Read More »

Monday, March 7, 2016

Limit a DIV to Certain Scroll Height with Javascript

This is very popular nowadays. You can see major websites around the internet are having this feature. Why? Important information will not get left out if the web page is scrolled down a lot. This can improve the navigation experience of the website substantially. So how is it done? You may need to know how to fix a DIV before you can fully understand this post. Here are some of my earlier posts related to this subject:

http://webtrick101.blogspot.my/2015/11/fixing-several-divs-at-same-time-for.html
http://webtrick101.blogspot.my/2015/11/fix- div-on-top-of-page-only-after.html
http://webtrick101.blogspot.my/2015/11/fix-position-of-div-at-bottom-of-page.html

Here are the codes for this post:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<style type="text/css">

#fixbot {
bottom:0px;
position: fixed;
}

#fixright {
right:0px;
position: absolute;
}

#fixtop {
top:0px;
position: fixed;
}

</style>

<script>

var offset;

window.onscroll = function() {

 if (typeof(window.pageYOffset) == 'number') {
  offset = window.pageYOffset;
 }
 else if (document.documentElement) {
  offset = document.documentElement.scrollTop;
 }
 else if (document.body) {
  offset = document.body.scrollTop;
 }
 if (offset > 170) {
  document.getElementById('fixright').style.position = 'fixed';
  document.getElementById('fixright').style.top = '170px';
 }
 else {
  document.getElementById('fixright').style.position = 'absolute';
  document.getElementById('fixright').style.top = '50%';
 }
 document.getElementById('notice').innerHTML = offset;
}

</script>

<body bgcolor="#aabbcc" marginheight=0 marginwidth=0 leftmargin=0 topmargin=0 rightmargin=0 bottommargin=0 onload="window.scrollTo(0,0);">

<div id="fixbot" style="border:0px solid #333; width:100%; height:50px; background-color:#ddd; text-align:center; padding:0px; ">
<p>Hello I am at the bottom!</p>
</div>

<div id="fixright" style="border:0px; width:100px; height:200px; text-align:center; padding:0px; top: 50%; margin-top: -100px; background-color:#cba;">
<table width=100% height=100%><tr><td valign=middle><p>Right!</p></td></tr></table>
</div>

<div id="fixtop" style="border:0px solid #333; width:100%; height:70px; background-color:#ddd; text-align:center; padding:0px; "> <p>Hello I am at the top! <span id="notice"></span></p>
</div>

<table width="95%" align=center><tr><td>
<br>line 1<br>line 2<br>line 3<br>line 4<br>line 5<br>line 6<br>line 7<br>line 8<br>line 9<br>line 10 <br>line 11<br>line 12<br>line 13<br>line 14<br>line 15<br>line 16<br>line 17<br>line 18<br>line 19<br>line 20 <br>line 21<br>line 22<br>line 23<br>line 24<br>line 25<br>line 26<br>line 27<br>line 28<br>line 29<br>line 30 <br>line 31<br>line 32<br>line 33<br>line 34<br>line 35<br>line 36<br>line 37<br>line 38<br>line 39<br>line 40 <br>line 41<br>line 42<br>line 43<br>line 44<br>line 45<br>line 46<br>line 47<br>line 48<br>line 49<br>line 50 <br>line 51<br>line 52<br>line 53<br>line 54<br>line 55<br>line 56<br>line 57<br>line 58<br>line 59<br>line 60 <br>line 61<br>line 62<br>line 63<br>line 64<br>line 65<br>line 66<br>line 67<br>line 68<br>line 69<br>line 70 </td></tr></table>

<script>
setTimeout(function() {window.scrollTo(0, 0);},100); // To make sure when the page is reloaded, the scroll is back to 0
document.getElementById('fixright').style.top = '50%';

</script>

</body>
</html>




In order to position a DIV on the middle of the right hand side, I prepare the DIV to be always 50% of the total height and the - 100px margin (derived from half of the total height of the DIV which is 200px in this case). In this example, I want to fix the right hand DIV to be exactly 70x from the top of the page. I need to let the Javascript to do the job for me by checking the mouse scroll offset. The magic 170px limit can be obtained from adding the half of the total height of the DIV with the target height limit.



The Javascript will detect the scroll offset if it crosses the 170px marking I set. If it is more than the 170px limit, fix the DIV. If it is less, let it scroll as it should be but maintain the 50% position relative to the viewable height of the website window.



One thing to pay attention is when the page is reloaded, the scroll has to go back to 0 or the calibration of the mechanism of these will be off. If this is not desired, one can consider resorting to cookie to track the relative position of the DIV and scroll offset. This is a head start to such new web feature. More complex feature can still be incorporated into these codes such as managing a very long (high) DIV. Enjoy!

Here is the animated demonstration of this example:



Read More »

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Good Looking HTML Table Style


Creating a good looking HTML table sounds easy but when it comes to actual execution, it is not as easy as it seems. Consider the following most basic HTML textbook codes for a 3x3 HTML table:

<table border=1>
<tr><td>Apple</td><td>Book</td><td>Car</td></tr>
<tr><td>1</td><td>2</td><td>3</td></tr>
<tr><td>4</td><td>5</td><td>6</td></tr>
</table>

Here is how it looks:



This basic table looks unprofessional at the first glance. How about making it with less or thinner border?


<table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0>

<tr><td style="border:1px solid #aaa">Apple</td><td style="border:1px solid #aaa">Book</td><td style="border:1px solid #aaa">Car</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border:1px solid #aaa">1</td><td style="border:1px solid #aaa">2</td><td style="border:1px solid #aaa">3</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border:1px solid #aaa">4</td><td style="border:1px solid #aaa">5</td><td style="border:1px solid #aaa">6</td></tr>

</table>

Here it the screen capture of how it looks again:



By disabling the border for entire table and enabling border styling for each individual cell (highlighted in green), the border looks thinner now. But the problem now is the different thickness for the lines. The lines within the box seems thicker than those on the far out. This is due to the double border problem. Those with thicker line came from the neighboring cell borders. Now the next example will demonstrate how to eliminate the redundant lines using CSS:

<table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 style="border-collapse: collapse;">

<tr><td style="border:1px solid #aaa">Apple</td><td style="border:1px solid #aaa">Book</td><td style="border:1px solid #aaa">Car</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border:1px solid #aaa">1</td><td style="border:1px solid #aaa">2</td><td style="border:1px solid #aaa">3</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border:1px solid #aaa">4</td><td style="border:1px solid #aaa">5</td><td style="border:1px solid #aaa">6</td></tr>

</table>

Finally, this looks good:



Setting CSS border-collapse property to collapse now solved the problem. The problem now is the huge number of codes just for a simple 3x3 table. The codes will look complicated when it comes to large table. Now the CSS styling comes into play to simply the coding:

<html>
<style type="text/css">
.s1 {font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; padding: 12px; border-collapse: collapse; }
.s1 td { padding: 5px; border: 1px solid #aaa; text-align: center; }
</style>


<body>

<table class=s1>
<tr><td>Apple</td><td>Book</td><td>Car</td></tr>
<tr><td>1</td><td>2</td><td>3</td></tr>
<tr><td>4</td><td>5</td><td>6</td></tr>
</table>

</body>
</html>

It now looks more prefessional:



Now the table looks much better. Please note that those in green are the extra CSS styles to apply spacing, alignment and font to the table. With these extra settings, the table looks even better! Now you have it, enjoy!
Read More »

Thursday, December 31, 2015

Problem Installing phpBB 3.1 Forum on IIS7 Machine


Anyone having this problem? I tried to install this latest phpBB free web forum into my Windows 7 IIS7 PC but I get this error page:



I then download the earlier version which is 3.0 by clicking on a small button on upper right corner:



After running 3.0 version in the localhost, it works fine:



Anyone having this problem on IIS7 machine before? Maybe switching back to older version is the only solution to this?

Read More »

Simple Captcha Verification Using Javascript and PHP with GD Lib


This is a simple version that uses minimal amount of codes. However, this practice is not suitable for websites that require stringent security protection.

The PHP codes make use of the GD library to generate a PNG image file that will be read by the HTML code. The PHP will randomly generate two characters and two numbers with first digit as character followed by a number, then a character and a number. Of course, you can change it to something more complicated like making it a mathematical problem to be solved by the visitor. The PNG image will be accompanied by a browser cookie with the answer to the captcha. The cookie will then be compared with the input by the user to see if they match. You can also send the answer back to the server to be verified in order to make it more secure. However, it is not the scope of this example as I try to make it as simple as possible so that it is easy to understand.

Here are the PHP codes:

<?php

// I name this file captcha.php
error_reporting(0); // this is important to turn off all the warnings if any

session_start();

$angle = rand(-10,10);
$fontSize = 20;

$captchaText = chr(97 + rand(0, 25)).rand(0,9).chr(97 + rand(0, 25)).rand(0,9);


$img = imagecreatetruecolor(120, 50);
$bgColor = imagecolorallocate($img, rand(50,150), rand(50,150), rand(50,150)); //background color - random dark coolor
$fgColor = imagecolorallocate($img, rand(200,255), rand(200,255), rand(200,255)); //foreground color - random light color
imagefill($img, 0, 0, $bgColor);

imagettftext($img, $fontSize, $angle, 25, 35, $fgColor, "./LiberationSerif-Bold.ttf", $captchaText);

setcookie("randomCharacterCookieName", $captchaText, time()+3600, '/'); // will expire in one hour

header("Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate");
header('Content-type: image/png');
imagepng($img);
imagedestroy($img);

?>


Make sure your PHP has the GD library support before you proceed.

The tricky part is the one highlighted in red. You need to upload a font to your home directory to make this PHP script to work. Why don't we use the server font? Most of the time, the shared server won't have any TrueType font in it or the GD doesn't have the authority to run it. It is still better to upload your own font and you have more choice for the font as well. I chose the Liberation font as it is royalty free. You can change to your own font if you prefer.

And now comes the Javascript and HTML:

<html>

<script>

function checkCaptcha() {
 var ans = document.getElementById('answer').value;
 var tmp = document.cookie;
 var chunk = tmp.split('=');
 if (chunk[chunk.length-1] == ans) {
  alert("yes!");
  // proceed with your post verification codes such submitting the form etc.
 }
 else {
 alert("no!");
 }
}

</script>

<body>
<img src="captcha.php">
<br>
Type what you see above here:
<br>
<input type="text" id=answer size=4 maxlength=4> <a href="javascript:checkCaptcha()">Check</a>

</body>

</html>


After running the HTML, I captured this response from Chrome after a right answer is entered:



I captured this response from Chrome after entering a wrong answer purposely:



There are still many things you can improve from these codes. For example, you can still include capital letter or even some special characters to the captcha. You can also scramble the answer in the cookie and descramble it during verification with the answer embedded in the cookie.

Well, here is the Captcha tutorial! Finally!

Read More »

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Sending Multiple MySQL Table Data from PHP to Javascript via AJAX


Note: Please run these codes from a web host, either it is a "localhost" or remote host from a web hosting server.

This is an expansion of my earlier post with sending data from only one MySQL table. For multiple table data channeling to browser from MySQL, a query string is used to differentiate the AJAX requirement. You can also create another PHP script to access data from other tables but it seems quite unnecessary as it can be easily achieved by sending different query strings to the AJAX PHP script.

Here we go again:

USE `testDB`;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `test`;

CREATE TABLE `test` (
 `a` tinyint(4) DEFAULT NULL,
 `b` tinyint(4) DEFAULT NULL,
 `c` tinyint(4) DEFAULT NULL,
 `d` tinyint(4) DEFAULT NULL,
 `e` tinyint(4) DEFAULT NULL
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `test2`;

CREATE TABLE `test2` (
 `f` tinyint(4) DEFAULT NULL,
 `g` tinyint(4) DEFAULT NULL,
 `h` tinyint(4) DEFAULT NULL,
 `i` tinyint(4) DEFAULT NULL,
 `j` tinyint(4) DEFAULT NULL
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

insert into `test`(`a`,`b`,`c`,`d`,`e`) values (1,2,3,4,5),(6,7,8,9,10),(11,12,13,14,15),(16,17,18,19,20);
insert into `test2`(`f`,`g`,`h`,`i`,`j`) values (21,22,23,24,25),(26,27,28,29,30),(31,32,33,34,35),(36,37,38,39,40);


A new table 'test2' is added to the previous table setup (refer to my earlier post to check out the difference).

Here are the PHP codes for AJAX (or act as a JSON data generator):

<?php
 //I name this file ajax.php
 error_reporting(0);
 $db_name = "testDB";
 $db_server_name = "localhost";
 $db_usr_name = "xxxx"; // Please replace xxxx with your MySQL username
 $db_pw = "xxxxxxxx"; // Please replace xxxxxxxx with the password that came with it

 $dblink = mysql_connect($db_server_name, $db_usr_name, $db_pw);

 if (!$dblink) {
  array_push($error, "Failed to Connect to Database");
 }
 mysql_select_db($db_name);

 if ($_GET['tbl'] == '1') {
  $query = mysql_query("SELECT * from test");
 }
 else if ($_GET['tbl'] == '2') {
  $query = mysql_query("SELECT * from test2");
 }

 $all = array();

 $d = 0;
 while ($query_result = mysql_fetch_assoc($query)) {
  if ($_GET['tbl'] == '1') {
   $all[$d] = array("a"=>$query_result['a'],"b"=>$query_result['b'],"c"=>$query_result['c'],"d"=>$query_result['d'],"e"=>$query_result['e']);
  }
  else if ($_GET['tbl'] == '2') {
   $all[$d] = array("f"=>$query_result['f'],"g"=>$query_result['g'],"h"=>$query_result['h'],"i"=>$query_result['i'],"j"=>$query_result['j']);
  }
  $d++;
 }

 $encoded = json_encode($all);
 header('Content-type: application/json');
 exit($encoded);

?>


Finally here are the Javascript codes:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

<script>

var data;

function loadJSON(path) {

 var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
 xhr.onreadystatechange = function() {
  if (xhr.readyState === 4) {
   if (xhr.status === 200) {
    try {
     data = JSON.parse(xhr.responseText);

     for (var k in data) {

      alert(data[k].a+" "+data[k].b+" "+data[k].c+" "+data[k].d+" "+data[k].e);


    }
    catch(e) {
     alert("Data Error. Please contact the administrator.");
    }
   }
   else {
    console.error(xhr);
   }
  }
 };
 xhr.open("GET", path, true);
 xhr.send();
}

function loadJSON2(path) {

 var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
 xhr.onreadystatechange = function() {
  if (xhr.readyState === 4) {
   if (xhr.status === 200) {
    try {
     data = JSON.parse(xhr.responseText);

     for (var k in data) {

      alert(data[k].f+" "+data[k].g+" "+data[k].h+" "+data[k].i+" "+data[k].j);


    }
    catch(e) {
     alert("Data Error. Please contact the administrator.");
    }
   }
   else {
    console.error(xhr);
   }
  }
 };
 xhr.open("GET", path, true);
 xhr.send();
}

loadJSON('ajax.php?tbl=1'); // This result will be the same as in the earlier post
loadJSON2('ajax.php?tbl=2'); // tell ajax.php that $_GET['tbl'] = 2;

</script>

The data from MySQL will prompt out as alerts, row by row.

</html>


Please note that the DOCTYPE declaration is important for IE browsers as it puts it into standards mode for AJAX to work.

You can also combine loadJSON with loadJSON2 by adding one more parameter to the function. Anyway, to make explanation less confusing, I added another JSON loading function to it.

After running the codes, you may get four alerts with the first time being '1 2 3 4 5' followed by '6 7 8 9 10' and so forth as in the earlier post. Then you may get the new alerts from the second table. Here is a screen shot of the first prompt from the second table running in Chrome:



Caveat: The data from the second table may prompt up before the first table. If you really want to make sure the first table come first, you will need to use the timer to delay the loadJASON2 function a bit.

Thanks for viewing!
Read More »

Large HTML Input Text and Space Suitable for Mobile Device Web Browsing


With the popularity of tablets taking the center stage ever since the launch of the first iPad, web pages were being swayed towards simplicity and user-friendliness. The smartphone revolution then followed suit and mobile web browsing had then become a norm until today. As the screens of tablets and smartphones are a lot smaller than deskstops, web pages are being made simpler with the texts bigger to suit the smaller screens.

The obvious change to the web page is the login page. The login input text and space are now bigger. Here is an example of the HTML and CSS codes I use to follow this trend:

<html>

<table height=100% width=100% align=center valign=middle><tr><td>
<table width=520 height=160 align=center valign=middle style="border: solid #cccccc 1px; background-color: #ddeeff">

<tr><td width=20>&nbsp;</td><td align=right><font face=arial size=3 color=#888888>Login ID</td><td width=20><br></td><td><input type=text name=lg style="height: 40px; padding: 10px 0px 10px 8px;font-size:16px" maxlength=40 size=40></td></tr>

<tr><td width=20>&nbsp;</td><td align=right><font face=arial size=3 color=#888888>Password</td><td width=20><br></td><td><input type=password name=pw style="height: 40px; padding: 10px 0px 10px 8px;font-size:16px" maxlength=40 size=40></td></tr>

<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td><input type="submit" value="Log On Now!"></td></tr>

</table>
</td></tr>
</table>

</html>


The key to this effect is hightlighted in green. The style in CSS is important to make this work. The "height: 40px;" CSS is important to get this to work on IE browsers.

Here is the screenshot after running the HTML in Chrome:



Enjoy!
Read More »

Friday, December 25, 2015

Sending MySQL Data from PHP to Javascript via AJAX


This is done through AJAX. It should be well supported by most browsers including IE. Everything is quite straight forward. First you need to set up a dummy MySQL database to test out the following javascripts. Here is the SQL to set the database up:

USE `testDB`;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `test`;

CREATE TABLE `test` (
 `a` tinyint(4) DEFAULT NULL,
 `b` tinyint(4) DEFAULT NULL,
 `c` tinyint(4) DEFAULT NULL,
 `d` tinyint(4) DEFAULT NULL,
 `e` tinyint(4) DEFAULT NULL
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

insert into `test`(`a`,`b`,`c`,`d`,`e`) values (1,2,3,4,5),(6,7,8,9,10),(11,12,13,14,15),(16,17,18,19,20);



The above SQL uses a database called 'testDB' with a table named 'test'. The 'test' table came with 5 columns namely 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd' and 'e'. Four rows of data are inserted with number incremented by one starting from 1. The first row contains 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. The second row starts from 6 until 10 and so forth.

Here are the PHP codes for AJAX (or act as a JSON data generator):

<?php
 //I name this file ajax.php
 error_reporting(0);
 $db_name = "testDB";
 $db_server_name = "localhost";
 $db_usr_name = "xxxx"; // Please replace xxxx with your MySQL username
 $db_pw = "xxxxxxxx"; // Please replace xxxxxxxx with the password that came with it

 $dblink = mysql_connect($db_server_name, $db_usr_name, $db_pw);

 if (!$dblink) {
  array_push($error, "Failed to Connect to Database");
 }
 mysql_select_db($db_name);

 $query = mysql_query("SELECT * from test");

 $all = array();

 $d = 0;
 while ($query_result = mysql_fetch_assoc($query)) {
  $all[$d] = array("a"=>$query_result['a'],"b"=>$query_result['b'],"c"=>$query_result['c'],"d"=>$query_result['d'],"e"=>$query_result['e']);
  $d++;
 }

 $encoded = json_encode($all);
 header('Content-type: application/json');
 exit($encoded);

?>


Finally here are the Javascript codes:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

<script>

var data;
var saveArr1 = new Array();
var saveArr2 = new Array();

function loadJSON(path) {

 var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
 xhr.onreadystatechange = function() {
  if (xhr.readyState === 4) {
   if (xhr.status === 200) {
    try {
     data = JSON.parse(xhr.responseText);

     for (var k in data) {

      alert(data[k].a+" "+data[k].b+" "+data[k].c+" "+data[k].d+" "+data[k].e);

      // saveArr1.push(k); // if you want to save the array key to an array called saveArr1
      // saveArr2.push(data[k].b); // if you want to save the array data column 'b' to an array called saveArr2

     }
     // alert(data.length); // if you want to check the total length

    }
    catch(e) {
     alert("Data Error. Please contact the administrator.");
    }
   }
   else {
    console.error(xhr);
   }
  }
 };
 xhr.open("GET", path, true);
 xhr.send();
}

loadJSON('ajax.php?set=1'); // '?set=1' is optional and your PHP codes will receive this parameter as $_GET['set'] in PHP

</script>

The data from MySQL will prompt out as alerts, row by row.

</html>


Please note that the DOCTYPE declaration is important for IE browsers as it puts it into standards mode for AJAX to work.

After running the codes, you will get four alerts with the first time being '1 2 3 4 5' followed by '6 7 8 9 10' and so forth. Here is a screen shot of the first prompt running in Chrome:



Please let me know if you encounter any problem with these codes. I will be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Enjoy!
Read More »

Monday, December 21, 2015

Casting a Reflection Image Using Pure Javascript


This is mainly for fun or educational purposes only. This is inspired by a carousel javascript plugin with reflection at the bottom of each image which looks like they are standing on a solid marble. Since it is an awesome idea, I tried to do some coding if it is able to be done by just pure Javascript. Yes, they are done and the codes are presented as follows:

<html>
<body>


<a href="javascript:renderReflection()">Render Reflection</a>
<br><br>

<script>

var height,width;
var tmpDiv,tmpDiv2,i,j,k,l,m,n;
var img = new Image();
var file = 'img/phone_icon2.png';
img.src = file;
img.onload = function() {
 height = this.height;
 width = this.width;
}

tmpDiv = document.createElement("span");
tmpDiv.innerHTML = '<img id=img0 src="'+file+'">';
tmpDiv.style.position = 'absolute';
tmpDiv.style.left = '300px';
tmpDiv.style.top = '150px';
tmpDiv.id = "imgSpan";
document.body.appendChild(tmpDiv);


function renderReflection() {

 k=0, l=-0.25, m=50, n=1; // n=speed of fade, // m=percentage of fade, // l=reflection direction

 for (i=1; i<=height; i++) {
 tmpDiv = document.createElement("span");
 tmpDiv.id = "line"+i;
 tmpDiv.style.height = '1px';
 tmpDiv.style.width = width+'px';
 tmpDiv.style.position = 'absolute';
 tmpDiv.style.overflow = 'hidden';

 j = i*n+(height*((100-m)/100));
 if (j>height) { j=height; }

 tmpDiv.style.MozOpacity = ((height-j+1)/height*10)/10;
 tmpDiv.style.opacity = ((height-j+1)/height*10)/10;

 tmpDiv2 = document.createElement("span");
 tmpDiv2.innerHTML = '<img id=img'+i+' src="'+file+'">';
 tmpDiv2.style.position = 'absolute';
 tmpDiv2.style.marginTop = -1*(height-i-1)+'px';
 tmpDiv2.style.filter = 'alpha(opacity=' + Math.round((height-j+1)/height*100) + ')';

 k+=l;

 tmpDiv.style.left = document.getElementById('imgSpan').offsetLeft + k + 'px';
 tmpDiv.style.top = height + document.getElementById('imgSpan').offsetTop + i + 'px';
 tmpDiv.appendChild(tmpDiv2);
 document.body.appendChild(tmpDiv);

 }
}

</script>

</body>
</html>


You can adjust the style of the reflection by changing the value for l, m or n.

l is the control of the direction for the reflection. A negative value will move the reflection to the left and a postive value will move it to the right. A zero value will cast the reflection straight down.

m is the percentage of the reflection to be rendered. A value of 50 will only allow a maximum 50% of the reflection to be shown. The reflection image will look like being cut into half.

n is the fading speed of the reflection image. A value of 2 will double up the fading speed which result in only half of the reflection image being rendered. A value of 3 will triple up the fading speed which result in only a third of the reflection image being rendered.

The following is the screen capture of the trial runs.

The result of k=0, l=-0.25, m=50, n=1:





The result of k=0, l=0, m=100, n=1.25:





The result of k=0, l=1, m=85, n=2:





You can change the file name and path to something else by modifying var file = 'img/phone_icon2.png';! Enjoy!

P.S.: You need to click on the Render Reflection link to run the reflection rendering function in case you are not aware of.

Read More »

Monday, November 30, 2015

Pop a Message Box in the Center with Freezing and Hiding the Scrollbar

This is the continuation of the previous post with also the codes to freeze the mouse scroll and hide the scroll bar. This is crucial to lock on a page to avoid any scrolling events after a message box popped up to demand a better attention from the visitor. Basically the codes are just added with a the scroll-locking codes I posted earlier here. In addition to that, I included the scrollbar disabling javascript "document.body.style.overflowY = 'hidden';" code. Here are the long combined codes:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>

<style type="text/css">

#curtain {
left:0px;
top:0px;
filter:alpha(opacity=70);
-moz-opacity:0.7;
opacity:0.7;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;

}

#message_box {
left:50%;
top:50%;
width: 200px;
height: 70px;
z-index: 1;
margin-top: -35px;
margin-left: -100px;
}

div > div#curtain { position: fixed; }
div > div#message_box { position: fixed; }

</style>

<script>

var ff = (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Firefox") != -1);

if (ff) {
 mousewheelevent = "DOMMouseScroll";
}
else {
 mousewheelevent = "mousewheel";
}

function lockScroll() {
 if (document.attachEvent) {
  document.attachEvent("on"+mousewheelevent, catchWheel);
 }
 else if (document.addEventListener) {
  document.addEventListener(mousewheelevent, catchWheel, false);
 }

}

function unlockScroll() {
 if (document.detachEvent) {
  document.detachEvent("on"+mousewheelevent, catchWheel);
 }
 else if (document.removeEventListener) {
  document.removeEventListener(mousewheelevent, catchWheel, false);
 }

}


function catchWheel(e){

 if (e.preventDefault) {
  e.preventDefault();
 }
 else {
  e.returnValue = false;
 }
}


lockScroll(); // to lock scroll
unlockScroll(); // to unlock scroll


function close() {
 document.body.style.overflowY = 'scroll';
 document.getElementById('curtain').style.visibility = "hidden";
 document.getElementById('message_box').style.visibility = "hidden";
 unlockScroll();
}

function open() {
 document.body.style.overflowY = 'hidden';
 document.getElementById('curtain').style.visibility = "visible";
 document.getElementById('message_box').style.visibility = "visible";
 lockScroll();
}


lockScroll();

</script>


<body bgcolor="#aabbcc">


<div style="width:100%;height:100%;">

<div id="message_box" style="border:1px solid #333; background-color:#ddd; text-align:center; padding:10px; ">
<p>Message Here<br><a href="javascript:close()">Close</a></p>
</div>

<div id="curtain" style="background-color:#ddd;"> </div>

</div>


<table width="95%" align=center><tr><td>
<br><a href="javascript:open()">Show Message Box</a>
<br>line 1<br>line 2<br>line 3<br>line 4<br>line 5<br>line 6<br>line 7<br>line 8<br>line 9<br>line 10
<br>line 11<br>line 12<br>line 13<br>line 14<br>line 15<br>line 16<br>line 17<br>line 18<br>line 19<br>line 20
<br>line 21<br>line 22<br>line 23<br>line 24<br>line 25<br>line 26<br>line 27<br>line 28<br>line 29<br>line 30
<br>line 31<br>line 32<br>line 33<br>line 34<br>line 35<br>line 36<br>line 37<br>line 38<br>line 39<br>line 40
<br>line 41<br>line 42<br>line 43<br>line 44<br>line 45<br>line 46<br>line 47<br>line 48<br>line 49<br>line 50
<br>line 51<br>line 52<br>line 53<br>line 54<br>line 55<br>line 56<br>line 57<br>line 58<br>line 59<br>line 60
<br>line 61<br>line 62<br>line 63<br>line 64<br>line 65<br>line 66<br>line 67<br>line 68<br>line 69<br>line 70
</td></tr></table>

<script>document.body.style.overflowY = 'hidden';</script>
</body>

</html>


The scrollbar will reappear after the 'close' button is pressed.

Enjoy!

Read More »

Pop a Message Box in the Center with Transparent Background Curtain using Fixed DIV and CSS


This is a very popular method to pop up a small window at the center of a page to ask for user's registration or something that requires visitors' special attention. The following codes will not freeze the scroll bars or any movement on the page:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>

<style type="text/css">

#curtain {
left:0px;
top:0px;
filter:alpha(opacity=70);
-moz-opacity:0.7;
opacity:0.7;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;

}

#message_box {
left:50%;
top:50%;
width: 200px;
height: 70px;
z-index: 1;
margin-top: -35px; /* 70/2 * -1 */
margin-left: -100px; /* 200/2 * -1 */
}

div > div#curtain { position: fixed; }
div > div#message_box { position: fixed; }

</style>

<script>

function close() {
document.getElementById('curtain').style.visibility = "hidden";
document.getElementById('message_box').style.visibility = "hidden";
}


</script>


<body bgcolor="#aabbcc">


<div style="width:100%;height:100%;">

<div id="message_box" style="border:1px solid #333; background-color:#ddd; text-align:center; padding:10px; ">
<p>Message Here<br><a href="javascript:close()">Close</a></p>
</div>

<div id="curtain" style="background-color:#ddd;"> </div>

</div>



<table width="95%" align=center><tr><td>
<br>line 1<br>line 2<br>line 3<br>line 4<br>line 5<br>line 6<br>line 7<br>line 8<br>line 9<br>line 10
<br>line 11<br>line 12<br>line 13<br>line 14<br>line 15<br>line 16<br>line 17<br>line 18<br>line 19<br>line 20
<br>line 21<br>line 22<br>line 23<br>line 24<br>line 25<br>line 26<br>line 27<br>line 28<br>line 29<br>line 30
<br>line 31<br>line 32<br>line 33<br>line 34<br>line 35<br>line 36<br>line 37<br>line 38<br>line 39<br>line 40
<br>line 41<br>line 42<br>line 43<br>line 44<br>line 45<br>line 46<br>line 47<br>line 48<br>line 49<br>line 50
<br>line 51<br>line 52<br>line 53<br>line 54<br>line 55<br>line 56<br>line 57<br>line 58<br>line 59<br>line 60
<br>line 61<br>line 62<br>line 63<br>line 64<br>line 65<br>line 66<br>line 67<br>line 68<br>line 69<br>line 70
</td></tr></table>


</body>

</html>


Here is a screenshot of the HTML ran on a Google Chrome browser:



As for the scroll bars freezing or movement stalling versions, they will be presented in the coming posts. This post is all about the transparent engulfing DIV and the pop-up window at the center of it.

Please note that in order to fix the message box to the center of the page, the margin-top and margin-left CSS properties are used. If these margins are not implemented, the upper left corner of the message box will be at the center of the page. The margin is the negative value of the half of the height or width of the box.

Javascript is also used to hide the message box when the "close" link is clicked. At the same time, the curtain is also removed when the message box is hidden.

Read More »

Fixing Several DIVs At The Same Time for All Browsers Using Only CSS

This post, being similar to the previous ones especially this link, is about creating more than one fixed DIV as in previous examples. Basically more DIV IDs are needed to make this work.

Here are the codes:


<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<style type="text/css">

#fixbot {
bottom:0px;
}

#fixright {
right:0px;
}

#fixtop {
top:0px;
}

div > div#fixbot { position: fixed; }
div > div#fixright { position: fixed; }
div > div#fixtop { position: fixed; }

</style>

<body bgcolor="#aabbcc" marginheight=0 marginwidth=0 leftmargin=0 topmargin=0 rightmargin=0 bottommargin=0>

<div>

<div id="fixbot" style="border:0px solid #333; width:100%; height:50px; background-color:#ddd; text-align:center; padding:0px; ">
<p>Hello I am at the bottom!</p>
</div>

<div id="fixright" style="border:0px; width:100px; height:200px; text-align:center; padding:0px; top: 30%;">
<p><table height=100% valign=middle><tr><td width=100 height=200 bgcolor=#ccddcc> Right!</td></tr></table></p>
</div>

<div id="fixtop" style="border:0px solid #333; width:100%; height:50px; background-color:#ddd; text-align:center; padding:0px; ">
<p>Hello I am at the top!</p>
</div>

</div>


<table width="95%" align=center><tr><td>
<br>line 1<br>line 2<br>line 3<br>line 4<br>line 5<br>line 6<br>line 7<br>line 8<br>line 9<br>line 10
<br>line 11<br>line 12<br>line 13<br>line 14<br>line 15<br>line 16<br>line 17<br>line 18<br>line 19<br>line 20
<br>line 21<br>line 22<br>line 23<br>line 24<br>line 25<br>line 26<br>line 27<br>line 28<br>line 29<br>line 30
<br>line 31<br>line 32<br>line 33<br>line 34<br>line 35<br>line 36<br>line 37<br>line 38<br>line 39<br>line 40
<br>line 41<br>line 42<br>line 43<br>line 44<br>line 45<br>line 46<br>line 47<br>line 48<br>line 49<br>line 50
<br>line 51<br>line 52<br>line 53<br>line 54<br>line 55<br>line 56<br>line 57<br>line 58<br>line 59<br>line 60
<br>line 61<br>line 62<br>line 63<br>line 64<br>line 65<br>line 66<br>line 67<br>line 68<br>line 69<br>line 70
</td></tr></table>

</body>
</html>





Here is a screenshot of the HTML ran on a Google Chrome browser:




By comparing this post with the previous post (link provided above), you can quickly see the technique to add more fixed DIVs to the page.

Fixing the DIV to the middle of the right side is a bit of a challenge though. I used the "top: 30%" CSS property to fix a 200-pixel high DIV to the right. If your DIV's height is more or less, you will need to adjust the "top" percentage a bit. For example, if the height of your DIV is less than 200 pixels, you may need something like a 40% or more.

If your DIV may somehow overlap each other at certain point, you can also add the 'z-index' property to the CSS to avoid having two DIVs combined like one. You may also adjust the trasparency of each DIV so that you can still see a vague content behind the fixed DIV.

Read More »

Monday, November 23, 2015

Fix a DIV on Top of Page Only After Certain Scroll via Javascript

Such web page technique is very popular as of now. When a visitor of your web page scroll down to certain level, a new top panel bar will appear so as to make the page navigation more fluent. This could be inspired by the screen limitation of mobile phones and browsing web pages using a smartphone is a norm these days. Beside the benefit of smoother navigation, the logo of the page can appear more often to increase the logo exposure to the reader.

Here are the codes:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<style type="text/css">

#fixtop {
position: absolute;
top:0px;
}

div > div#fixtop { position: fixed; }
</style>

<script>

var offset;

function checkScrollOffset() {

 if (typeof(window.pageYOffset) == 'number') {
  offset = window.pageYOffset;
 }
 else if (document.documentElement) {
  offset = document.documentElement.scrollTop;
 }
 else if (document.body) {
  offset = document.body.scrollTop;
 }
 if (offset > 0) { // you can choose other values for the trigger if you want the fixed div to appear after more scroll offset value
  document.getElementById('fixtop').style.display = 'block';  }
 else { document.getElementById('fixtop').style.display = 'none'; }

}


</script>


<body bgcolor="#aabbcc" marginheight=0 marginwidth=0 leftmargin=0 topmargin=0 rightmargin=0 bottommargin=0 onscroll="checkScrollOffset()">

<div>

<div id="fixtop" style="border:0px solid #333; width:100%; height:50px; background-color:#ddd; text-align:center; padding:0px; display: none;">
<p>Hello I am here!</p>
</div>

</div>

<table width="95%" align=center><tr><td>
<br>line 1<br>line 2<br>line 3<br>line 4<br>line 5<br>line 6<br>line 7<br>line 8<br>line 9<br>line 10
<br>line 11<br>line 12<br>line 13<br>line 14<br>line 15<br>line 16<br>line 17<br>line 18<br>line 19<br>line 20
<br>line 21<br>line 22<br>line 23<br>line 24<br>line 25<br>line 26<br>line 27<br>line 28<br>line 29<br>line 30
<br>line 31<br>line 32<br>line 33<br>line 34<br>line 35<br>line 36<br>line 37<br>line 38<br>line 39<br>line 40
<br>line 41<br>line 42<br>line 43<br>line 44<br>line 45<br>line 46<br>line 47<br>line 48<br>line 49<br>line 50
<br>line 51<br>line 52<br>line 53<br>line 54<br>line 55<br>line 56<br>line 57<br>line 58<br>line 59<br>line 60
<br>line 61<br>line 62<br>line 63<br>line 64<br>line 65<br>line 66<br>line 67<br>line 68<br>line 69<br>line 70
</td></tr></table>

</body>
</html>


If you are not sure how to fix a DIV using pure CSS, visit my earlier post here or here as it is the basis of this web trick.

You can also make the fixed DIV semi-transparent by applying the opacity filter in the CSS if you wish.

Note: Try to avoid changing the visibility style in CSS to turn on or off the DIV. Use 'display: none' and 'display: block' instead as the visibility property may cause the fixed DIV to flicker while scrolling in Chrome. The reason for the flicker is unknown.

Read More »

Friday, November 13, 2015

Fix the Position of a DIV at the Bottom of a Page for All Browsers

This is a pure CSS solution. I have tested the following codes using Chrome, IE7 and an Android internet browser. I believe it should work well on all popular browsers.

Here are the codes:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<style type="text/css">

#fixbot {
position: absolute;
bottom:0px;
}

div > div#fixbot { position: fixed; }
</style>

<body bgcolor="#aabbcc" marginheight=0 marginwidth=0 leftmargin=0 topmargin=0 rightmargin=0 bottommargin=0>

<div>
<div id="fixbot" style="border:0px; width:100%; height:50px; background-color:#ddd; text-align:center; padding:0px; ">
<p>Hello I am here!</p>
</div>
</div>

<table width="95%" align=center><tr><td>
<br>line 1<br>line 2<br>line 3<br>line 4<br>line 5<br>line 6<br>line 7<br>line 8<br>line 9<br>line 10
<br>line 11<br>line 12<br>line 13<br>line 14<br>line 15<br>line 16<br>line 17<br>line 18<br>line 19<br>line 20
<br>line 21<br>line 22<br>line 23<br>line 24<br>line 25<br>line 26<br>line 27<br>line 28<br>line 29<br>line 30
<br>line 31<br>line 32<br>line 33<br>line 34<br>line 35<br>line 36<br>line 37<br>line 38<br>line 39<br>line 40
<br>line 41<br>line 42<br>line 43<br>line 44<br>line 45<br>line 46<br>line 47<br>line 48<br>line 49<br>line 50
<br>line 51<br>line 52<br>line 53<br>line 54<br>line 55<br>line 56<br>line 57<br>line 58<br>line 59<br>line 60
<br>line 61<br>line 62<br>line 63<br>line 64<br>line 65<br>line 66<br>line 67<br>line 68<br>line 69<br>line 70
</td></tr></table>

</body>
</html>


The following is a screen capture of the codes running on Chrome:



The good thing about this pure CSS solution is that you don't need to use Javascript to detect the change in the page resize or page height to fix the DIV at the bottom of the page.

The most important part of the code is "div > div#fixbot { position: fixed; }". For it to work on IEs, you'll need to include the DOCTYPE. Enjoy!
Read More »

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Simple Javascript to Move and Fade Element without JQuery

This is just a combination of my previous post on moving and fading elements without JQuery. I just combine the two functions so that I can move elements and at the same time fade them. Here are the links to my previous posts:

1. Simple Javascript Fade In/Out Function without JQuery
2. Simple Javascript Element Moving Function without JQuery

The combination of these two functions:

<html>
<script>

var moveSpeed = 100; // interval in ms, smaller means faster
var moveStep = 10; // pixel count in every move, bigger means faster

function moveObj(elemID) {

 this.id = elemID;
 this.x = -1;
 this.y = -1;
 this.targetX;
 this.targetY;
 this.timerX;
 this.timerY;
 this.directionX;
 this.directionY;

 this.moveHorizontal = function(x1,x2) {
  clearInterval(this.timerX); // cancel earlier movement if any
  x2<x1? this.directionX = 'left':this.directionX = 'right';
  this.x = x1;
  document.getElementById(this.id).style.left = x1+'px';
  this.targetX = x2;
  var tempObj = this;
  this.timerX = setInterval(function() { move(tempObj,'hor'); },moveSpeed);
 };

 this.moveVertical = function(y1,y2) {
  clearInterval(this.timerY); // cancel earlier movement if any
  y2<y1? this.directionY = 'up':this.directionY = 'down';
  this.y = y1;
  document.getElementById(this.id).style.top = y1+'px';
  this.targetY = y2;
  var tempObj = this;
  this.timerY = setInterval(function() { move(tempObj,'ver'); },moveSpeed);
 };
}

function move(obj,movement) {

 if (movement == 'hor') {
  obj.directionX == 'left'? obj.x-=moveStep:obj.x+=moveStep; //You can change it to non-linear movement here by applying formula instead just adding/subtracting in a linear fashion
  if ((obj.directionX == 'left' && obj.x < obj.targetX) || (obj.directionX == 'right' && obj.x > obj.targetX)) {
   clearInterval(obj.timerX);
  }
  else {
   document.getElementById(obj.id).style.left = obj.x + 'px';
  }
 }
 else {
  obj.directionY == 'up'? obj.y-=moveStep:obj.y+=moveStep; //You can change it to non-linear movement here as above
  if ((obj.directionY == 'up' && obj.y < obj.targetY) || (obj.directionY == 'down' && obj.y > obj.targetY)) {
   clearInterval(obj.timerY);
  }
  else {
   document.getElementById(obj.id).style.top = obj.y + 'px';
  }
 }

}


var fadeSpeed = 100;

function fadeObj(elemName) {

 this.name = elemName;
 this.opacity = -1; // -1 indicates a new obj
 this.timer;

 this.fadeOut = function(delay) {
  if (this.opacity == -1) {
   setOpacity(this.name,10);
   this.opacity = 10;
  }
  var tempObj = this;
  setTimeout(function(){tempObj.timer = setInterval(function() { fade(tempObj,'out'); },fadeSpeed)},delay);
 };

 this.fadeIn = function(delay) {
  if (this.opacity == -1) {
   setOpacity(this.name,0);
   this.opacity = 0;
  }
  var tempObj = this;
  setTimeout(function(){tempObj.timer = setInterval(function() { fade(tempObj,'in'); },fadeSpeed)},delay);
 };

}

function fade(obj,direction) {

 if (direction == 'out') {
  obj.opacity--;
  if (obj.opacity >= 0) {
   setOpacity(obj.name,obj.opacity);
  }
  else {
   clearInterval(obj.timer);
  }
 }
 else {
  obj.opacity++;
  if (obj.opacity <= 10) {
   setOpacity(obj.name,obj.opacity);
  }
  else {
   clearInterval(obj.timer);
  }
 }

}

function setOpacity(elemName,value) { // opacity from 0 to 10

 document.getElementById(elemName).style.MozOpacity = value/10;
 document.getElementById(elemName).style.opacity = value/10;
 document.getElementById(elemName).style.filter = 'alpha(opacity=' + value*10 + ')';

}

</script>

<body>
<span id="animateMe" style="position:absolute;top:100px">Hello</span>
<br>

<script>

var moveElem = new moveObj('animateMe');
var fadeElem = new fadeObj('animateMe');
moveElem.moveHorizontal(200,100);
moveElem.moveVertical(100,260);
fadeElem.fadeOut();
setTimeout(function() {moveElem.moveHorizontal(100,500);},2000); // run this movement 2000ms later
setTimeout(function() {moveElem.moveVertical(260,100);},2000); // run this movement 2000ms later
fadeElem.fadeIn(2000); // run this movement 2000ms later

</script>

</body>
</html>


Here they are! You can also add more functions to this animation Javascript library such as the resizing element function. The easiest way is to use JQuery. But this post is not about replacing JQuery. It's about showing those who are curious about how animation can be done without JQuery in simple Javascript functions.

Read More »

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Javascript to Zoom According to a Maximum Browser's Width


There will be times when you need to perform some zooming on the browser so that you'll see what things will look like in other resolutions. For example, if you need to know how your website looks like on an iPhone screen, you might this Javascript function that I am going to show you. But make sure you know the target screen resolution before you try the following codes out:

<html>
<script>

var width,zoomPercentage;

function setWidth(pixel) {

 if (!pixel) {
  zoomPercentage = 100;
 }
 else {
  if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("MSIE") != -1) { // IE
   width = document.documentElement.offsetWidth;
  }
  else {
   width = document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0].clientWidth;
  }
  zoomPercentage = Math.round((width/pixel)*100);
 }

 document.body.style.zoom = zoomPercentage+"%";
}

</script>

<body>

Hello World!<br>

<a href="javascript:setWidth(800)">800 pixel</a> <a href="javascript:setWidth(1024)">1024 pixel</a> <a href="javascript:setWidth(1280)">1280 pixel</a> <a href="javascript:setWidth(1920)">1920 pixel</a> <a href="javascript:setWidth(0)">default pixel</a>

<br><img src="http://www.freeimageslive.com/galleries/backdrops/colourful/pics/background01331.jpg">

</body>
</html>



You can replace your HTML codes to replace the image I inserted to see the zoom effect clearly. Please note that the most important part of the codes is in green text. Please also note that these codes may not run well in all IE versions. It is recommended to use a non-IE browser to try it out.
Read More »