Edward A. Webb (.com)

Writing a Custom Widget for Google Calendars

Eddie — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 13:39:48 +0000

The amount of users who rely on Google Calendars to organize their personal and professional lives is staggering. Seeing as most clients are comfortable and proficient with the technology, there is little reason to point them elsewhere when they ask for a custom widget to display upcoming events on their site. In fact, the only trouble [...]

Please visit EdwardAWebb.com to view the rest of this article without ads.

Verify file Checksum in Windows with context menu

Eddie — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 00:54:47 +0000

If your stuck on (or just love) windows, you can give yourself the ability to check any files checksum with the click of a mouse.

Please visit EdwardAWebb.com to view the rest of this article without ads.

Authenticate Facebook Users in MOdx, and Build a User Profile

Eddie — Thu, 12 May 2011 23:31:07 +0000

I've used Facebook's API before, and know it makes authentication pretty easy, but I had to figure out to insert that authorized user into Modx's web context. And it was actually quite easy as well. The user becomes a full blown member, and can be treated the same as any user that registered. (you can also treat them differently) Read on to learn how two simple snippets allow Facebooks users to add themselves to your site in the provided member groups. The extra also creates a full user profile in modx based on Facebook's info, complete with: Name Username Email Hometown Photo

Please visit EdwardAWebb.com to view the rest of this article without ads.

Link to element IDs inside a jQuery tabs – read “Stateless”

Eddie — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 21:48:20 +0000

I recently implemented JQuery's Tabs feature into a site I am building for a client. My first though was "wow, that was easy." And then the usability issues starting making themselves apparent. I like stateless web. Everything is linkable and bookmarkable, and once you have something the way you want, you should be able to share it with nothing more then the unique and repeatable url. WHat do I mean by usability issues, let me explain with a few scenarios. Problems Problem 1: Switching tabs is not reflected by the URL, making the page stateful Ugh, we hate stateful web sites! Your visitor lands on PageA that has 3 tabs: Main content, Dynamic Map, and User comments. To see the maps, user clicks on "Tab2". (URL remains unchanged) User wants to share map, and sends link to a friend,...

Please visit EdwardAWebb.com to view the rest of this article without ads.

Linux Turns 20!

Eddie — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 21:22:46 +0000

I was only 6 when Linus shared his first offering to the world, but I do remember the linux superbowl ad by IBM.

Please visit EdwardAWebb.com to view the rest of this article without ads.

Will MODx Revolution bring about change?

Eddie — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 02:18:55 +0000

Somewhere between CMS and Scaffolding Framework MODx is a PHP based, mm.. tool, for publishing websites. I don't want to call it a CMS, though If you read MODx documentation, they'll call it a Content Management System. But in my experience products labeled CMS tend to be inflexible tools that require lots of effort to place widgets on custom templates. I remember using one tool in which you could not have a publicly accessible page not belong to a menu. We ended up building a hidden menu for all such pages - absurd! At the other end of the spectrum are highly flexible frameworks. These are much more flexible, and let you run wild, but leave a good chunk of work to setup decent content management, authorization, etc. before you even get to the site at hand. Well MODx sit nicely...

Please visit EdwardAWebb.com to view the rest of this article without ads.

Manual Update for Nexus One

Eddie — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 01:06:26 +0000

Easy guide to install the latest Android update on your Nexus One, with pictures. This works regardless of the version (Froyo, Gingerbread, Ice Cream (?!) )

Please visit EdwardAWebb.com to view the rest of this article without ads.

Google TV with the Logitech Revue – First Look and Thoughts

Eddie — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 01:59:45 +0000

Google TV aggregates your existing satellite or cable feed with video and radio services like Netflix, Amazon and Pandora, along with all of the internet, including "enhanced" web sites like TBS or Cartoon Network. The goal is to eliminate the need to switch TV sources and remotes every time you want to watch a different source, and layer that Google search and index goodness on top.

Please visit EdwardAWebb.com to view the rest of this article without ads.

Custom JSF Input Validation Styling for any Component

Eddie — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 22:49:59 +0000

We didn’t have room on our pages for individual message boxes, and also had the need to style specific fields on our JSF pages whenever validation failed on the server, with user friendly field names in the message. Example: ”User Name is Required” , and the field for User Name is highlighted red. Unfortunately there are [...]

Please visit EdwardAWebb.com to view the rest of this article without ads.

A complex data model with JPA – Inheritance, Stateful Join Tables, and More

Eddie — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 23:30:54 +0000

I’ve had the recent pleasure/pain of implementing JPA a new Java web application. After reading many misleading blog posts and dead-end mailing list threads I have worked out the major kinks, and thought I would share. A few things first: This not using Hibernate API, or the Hibernate implementation of Java Persistence API The project [...]

Please visit EdwardAWebb.com to view the rest of this article without ads.