It can be a pain to create HTML elements in JavaScript. In this article I will outline a few ways I deal with HTML. First, we’ll look at whether to use an HTML string or a jQuery object, then look at my little HTML string builder utility and finally get some links to templating libraries for building more complex HTML.

HTML String, or jQuery Object?

The first question you have to ask yourself is whether or not it makes sense to build out HTML as jQuery objects, or if you require the speed of building strings…

These jQuery resources will set you on your path towards mastering jQuery.

Written Articles

• Getting Started with jQuery – this is the official jQuery getting started guide.
• jQuery for JavaScript Programmers – Simon Willison (creator of django) gives you an introduction to jQuery for people who already understand JavaScript.
• jQuery Crash Course – Nathan Smith gives a quick introduction to jQuery on Digital Web Magazine…

B2B, B2C…B2 anything, every marketing department would love to somehow crack the social media code. Be it by content marketing, participation in Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, FourSquare, Flickr, Digg, Delicious, etc… invariably, the conversation turns to the same question: “What are we going to do and who’s going to actually execute on this every day at the office?”

Then comes the obligatory: “How are we going to measure it?” and, “When will we set business goals?” or, “Are we just doing this for the hell of it ‘cause everybody else does?” All are reasonable questions…

People still read books. I started on Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness not long ago. I’m about a fifth of the way through, and I’ve already added “Choice architecture” to my list of concepts to study more, and I’m looking more carefully at the choices I make.

Seeing a lot of [...]…

There’s a pretty strong push now for everyone to move to the new Asynchronous Google Analytics Tracking Code. It’s the only code that’s available from the interface now, and nearly all of the documentation includes examples of this as the primary code to be used.

Converting your code to the new async code might seem like it’s just a hassle, but there are benefit to using the new code. Because the code loads asynchronously, there’s no longer any danger that it will interfere with the loading of the rest of your page…

There’s a pretty strong push now for everyone to move to the new Asynchronous Google Analytics Tracking Code. It’s the only code that’s available from the interface now, and nearly all of the documentation includes examples of this as the primary code to be used.

Converting your code to the new async code might seem like it’s just a hassle, but there are benefit to using the new code. Because the code loads asynchronously, there’s no longer any danger that it will interfere with the loading of the rest of your page…

Getting Ready

You can see the working form on my site PHP Snippets. It is a site of mine, so don’t hesitate to grab the RSS feed and follow it on Twitter if you want.

Step 1: Creating the page template

The first step is to create a page template. To do so, copy the page.php code into a new file named page-contact.php.

We have to add a comment at the beginning of the contact.php file to make sure WordPress will treat the file as a page template…

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• Viacom Loses Google Lawsuit

  Google has won a “motion for summary judgment” in its bitterly fought lawsuit with Viacom over YouTube. Viacom had sued YouTube/Google for copyright infringement surrounding the posting of scores of clips of Viacom-owned programming (e…

The jQuery Autocomplete plugin got a successor recently, the jQuery UI Autocomplete. In this guide we’ll look at the old plugin API step-by-step, and how to migrate to the new API.

At first it may look like the new plugin supports barely any of the old options. We’ll see how all the old options can be implemented using the three new options and the six events.

The old plugin had two arguments: data or url, and options…

As mentioned in a previous post, recently I have started playing with Video SEO, and found it to be a part of SEO I quite like. It’s a very technical trade so far, so apologies for all the code in the article lying in front of you, but there just is no way around it: you’ll need to know about the technical part of these implementations.

Talking about that, it seems as though everyone is focussing on XML Sitemaps, while there’s actually not 1 but 4 methods of getting Google to recognize your video content…

Inspired by the CargoCollective and David DeSandro’s site, I asked my Twitter followers (@nickla) on how to do the scrollto posts with jQuery. Within a day, Ben Bodien of Neutron Creations sent back a quick demo on how to replicate the similar result with the ScrollTo plugin. The script finds your current view position and scroll to the next or previous post accordingly. Check out the demo to see what I’m talking about…

We used to develop websites with ugly hacks, dirty workarounds and unmaintainable code. We had to create rounded corners with “corner” background images and nasty divs. Cross-browser transparency was dirty; shadows were quirky; and do you remember resizable buttons and tabs that had to be implemented with CSS sliding doors? All of these workarounds were extremely time-consuming and resulted in bloated code…

JavaScript enabled, dynamic menus allow you to pack a lot of information in a tight space and make it easier for shoppers to find what their looking for. But for years, SEO professionals have advised against using JavaScript menus, warning that search engines can’t read JavaScript. In times past, that was true. But search engines have come along way since. Unfortunately, old information still exists on forums and in blogs, and many are confused about JavaScript and SEO, and how to do things right…

There comes a point in every website design when you simply want to give the website a little spice to impress the visitor and make it memorable. You want that sexy interaction to capture the user’s attention. In our previous articles, we showed you how to spice up your website with sexy buttons, practical elements and attractive visual effects.

In this article, we’ll discuss how to seduce your visitors with a little JavaScript action…

In this post we release a yet another freebie: a Drupal Cheat Sheet Desktop Wallpaper, a desktop wallpaper that features most popular variables of the open source content management system Drupal. The wallpaper was created by Giovanni Scala for Smashing Magazine and its readers.

Download the wallpapers for free!

• 1024×768
• 1280×800
• 1440×900
• 1680×1050
• 1920×1200

Features

This pack is a set of wallpapers for Drupal developers showcasing available Drupal variables and their descriptions in a compact overview…

Real estate is a multi-billion industry and it is flourishing. At some point a new architectureal concept requires 3D models that visualize the idea of the architect and the way he sees his creation. Today we are presenting you some Digital Conceptual Architecture examples which look almost real. Architects use a number of applications and techniques to get the desired output…

Visitors to your website now can perform the same keyword research and keyword organization and discover the same keywords that the WordStream keyword tools provide, but they don’t have to leave your site to get them.To create custom versions of the WordStream keyword tools that you can embed on your own website, go to: http://www.wordstream.com/free-tool-widget-generator/ and follow the four-step process to obtain your embed code…

The jQuery UI 1.8 release brings along the new autocomplete widget. An autocomplete adds a list of suggestions to an input field, displayed and filtered while the user is typing. This could be attached to a search field, suggesting either search terms or just matching results for faster navigation. But what if there is a fixed list of options, usually implemented as a standard HTML select element, where the ability to filter would help users find the right value way faster?

That’s a “combobox…

A while back I posted about the opportunity most retailers miss out on – optimizing their own websites for their store names plus “free shipping.”

Related searches in Google indicate the suggestions are highly searched, and therefore valuable to optimize for.

Add to free shipping searches for “promo code(s),” “voucher code(s),” “coupon code(s),” “discount code(s)” et cetera…

Information graphics (or infographics) are used to display information in ways that are more creative than plain old text. These days, they surround us in the media, published works, road signs and manuals. Lately, the Internet has been flooded with infographics on various topics, ranging from science and technology to society and culture. In this article, we’ll look at the process of designing an infographic about programming…

I’ve reviewed Scribe SEO and mentioned it as a tool I like to use a few times here. If you’ve been thinking of using it but where concerned about the price, theres a promotional offer ending today.If you use the code PROMO27 when you checkout you can get the $97 level for only $27, but it ends June 4th 2010. If you’re still unsure they offer a new starter plan for only $17 a month you can only put it on one website a month and run it 15 times, but it’s a great way to test it out IMHO…

BBQ: Back Button & Query Library

Source: http://benalman.com/projects/jquery-bbq-plugin/

Leverages the HTML5 hashchange event to allow simple, yet powerful bookmarkable #hash history. In addition, jQuery BBQ provides a full .deparam() method, along with both hash state management, and fragment / query string parse and merge utility methods.

ColorBox: Lightbox

Source: http://colorpowered…

Marc Grabanski

Marc Grabanski is a professional web developer out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He currently runs a consulting company and is partnered with local businesses to create startup companies.

Technical Abilities

Marc’s technical skills are focused towards user interface development (JavaScript / CSS / HTML), but also spans across a wide range of technologies and skill-sets. He runs a blog titled, “Jack of All Trades Web Development” and is currently focusing on sharpening his skills with web application development…

Ajax Messages

Javascript/Ajax, PHP, MySQL, CSS, XHTML
Ajax Messages is a demonstration of the power of Ajax.

Clean Calendar

Javascript, CSS, XHTML
Clean Calendar is a DHTML date picker with very clean code.

Fisheye Menu

Javascript, CSS, XHTML
Fisheye Menu is inspired by the MacOS doc.

Clean Form Validation

…

I was reading my backlog of feeds just now, and came across a couple of updated WordPress SEO plugins aimed at improving your site’s SEO. Some people are just plain ^%$#*& stupid, I’m sorry to say.

Let me show you what got me so wound up:

#1 Canonical Link Plugin

This Canonical Link plugin consists of the following code:

function canonicalink() { $request_uri = parse_url($_SERVER[’REQUEST_URI’],PHP_URL_PATH); echo “<link rel=”canonical” href=”http://{$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}{$request_uri}” />”;
}
 
add_action(’wp_head’,'canonicalink’,1,1);

If you know PHP, you can see what it does: it parses the current URL, strips out URL variables (if you’ve got any) and displays the current URL as the canonical link element…

In search volume alone, YouTube is the #2 search engine behind Google itself.  Yet even with its gigantic size, it is easy for YouTube to get passed up by online advertisers.  Many advertisers ignore the opportunity due to the convoluted process required to explicitly target YouTube with ads.  This means there is less competition for ad space on YouTube and great rewards for those who can crack the code…

In search volume alone, YouTube is the #2 search engine behind Google itself.  Yet even with its gigantic size, it is easy for YouTube to get passed up by online advertisers.  Many advertisers ignore the opportunity due to the convoluted process required to explicitly target YouTube with ads.  This means there is less competition for ad space on YouTube and great rewards for those who can crack the code…

If you have ever done an A/B testing on your website or landing page, you would know how exciting is the prospect of finding out which variation is going to perform best. It is almost like a football game where you can’t tell until the end which team is going to win. But that excitement soon cools off once you actually get to create and implement an A/B test: creating different pages, fiddling with HTML code, integrating JavaScript page tags…

Modern Web-building technologies allow designers to realize their most daring and creative ideas. Enhanced interactivity and a remarkable visual appearance can be achieved by means of such tools as Flash, JavaScript and Papervision3D, to name just a few. These strengths usually impress and entertain visitors and thus are often used for conceptual artistic presentations and promotional campaigns…

Category: JavaScript & jQuery Tags: jQuery, jQuery UI

During the prerelease of The jQuery Course, you’ll get early access to 61 minutes of video training for $25. You will also receive the final course content when it’s ready for no extra charge.

Prerelease of The jQuery Course

Video outline

• Introduction [1:44]
• Examples of jQuery [1:44 - 3:56]
• Web Fundamentals, Brief intro to HTML, CSS and JavaScript [4:26 - 7:57]
• Setup – Web Browser, Firebug, Code Editor [7:57 - 9:49]
• Why jQuery Exists [9:49 - 12:13]
• Using jQuery [12:13 - 15:45]
• About Google Hosted jQuery [15:45 - 17:14]
• Methods with Many Uses and Chaining [18:52 - 19:57]
• Dollar Function [19:57 - 23:58]
• Using jQuery with Other Libraries [23:58 - 26:16]
• Dive Into Selectors [26:16 - 36:04]
• Attributes [36:05 - 51:18]
• Animation and Effects [51:19 - 61:34]

Setting out to create "The jQuery Course"

Teaching has been huge a passion of mine…