splee.blog

I like using ajaxy interfaces in my web apps, and as such I also like the type of status messages that you can achieve using Mochikit. However, sometimes you need to pass a status message between pages (when you’re using raise cherrypy.HTTPRedirect() for example) and I just don’t like having two different ways to display things.

To dissolve my perfectionist worries that the standard tg_flash message in a div just doesn’t cut it, I looked at ways of making the message look the same as a status message from my ajax calls.

Updated on 24/11/05 as per Bob’s suggestions.
Updated on 26/11/05 to fix a JavaScript bug in Internet Explorer
Updated on 16/12/05 to fix some typos as pointed out by Tim
Updated on 12/01/06 to reflect changes to the TurboGears jsonify API Continue Reading »

Tonight there was a dev chat in #turbogears on irc.freenode.net. It was mainly a run down and discussion of the new features in development for TurboGears 0.9 and the highlighting of certain trac tickets that need to be fixed for 0.9. Lots of interesting stuff was brought up about the new Widgets for on-the-fly generation of forms, especially as widgets are, IMHO, the most exciting addition to the TG world.

If you happened to miss the chat, but still want to know what went on, the transcripts are available in two flavours:

Nice and colourised or plain and raw. Pick your poison, and enjoy. :)

I’ve set up a few .torrents for the turbogears community. The first is the 20 Minute Wiki screencast and the second is the new TurboTunes screencast.

Beware of the second screencast as it shows (currently) unreleased features and you won’t be able to replicate it with the 0.8a4 release. If you want to see the accompanying web page for the TurboTunes screencast, head over here.

If anyone wishes to publish a TurboGears related torrent and wants to use my tracker, leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do.

Oh, and remember the golden rule of bittorrents folks; leave your client open after you’ve downloaded so you’re not simply leaching. :)

The new Planet TurboGears is up and running!

There’s still a lot to do with regards to styling and adding feeds, but you’ve got to start somewhere. :)

If you want to have your feed added to the planet subscription list, please email me with your blog’s URL and the name you wish to see in the “subscriptions” list.

This week has been an interesting one. I had the monumental task of building a web app which depended heavily on AJAX to work. If I was being picky I’d say that it actually depended on AJAJ as it used JSON as the data transfer medium rather than XML, but AJAJ doesn’t roll off the tongue as nicely.

The reasons for diving headlong into JavaScript, a language which I have never really used properly, and creating a lot of work for myself in terms of research and referencing are two-fold:

1. To better learn MochiKit, a component of TurboGears, so that my future use of TG is more rapid rather than stymied by a lack of knowledge.
2. To learn JavaScript and methods of using AJAX as a whole as it seems to be the tool to leverage in your web-apps at the moment.

Needless to say, I have accomplished what I set out to do - at least to a certain degree… who can know all there is to know on a subject after all - even if I haven’t finished the web app yet. I’m now happier battling it out with JavaScript rather than foundering in a sea of “WTF?!”.

The app I’m working on is an online booking management system. The client side is nice and simple, with virtually no JavaScript to be seen to allow anyone and their dog to view it in whatever browser they choose. The Admin side of things, however, is a big collection of AJAX using MochiKit, script.aculo.us effects and other tricks to achieve inline editing, one “page” for the entire app, a calendar and action list that refreshes every 30 seconds, instant form validation, and other such delights.

Due to the immense amount of brain frying I’ve done over the week it’s unsurprising that I’m now shattered. The old saying “so much to do, and so little time” is at the very front of my mind at the moment.

Yesterday I found TurboGears, a web application framework written in Python.

Basically TurboGears is to Python what Ruby on Rails is to Ruby, or so it seems. I’ve used neither Rails nor Ruby to base that comparison on, but I’ve read a lot about both.

At the moment I don’t have the time or patients to learn another programming language, especially as Ruby is used in the same problem domain as Python. Having quite a bit of Python experience under my belt has prevented my Ruby head from ever being used.

Now, the documentation for TurboGears is virtually non existant, but the whole framework is built upon some great Python modules who’s documentation can more than make up for any shortfall. In fact, that’s the great thing about TurboGears: Even though it’s pretty new it’s already fairly stable and feature complete as it is mainly glue that holds together the modules it’s based on.

Fully Web 2.0 focused, it uses SQLObject, CherryPy, Kid, and MochiKit to make the magic happen and can use any number of database backends, including sqlite, to store your data.

I’m going to be building a site using this very soon and I’ll probably be posting about my progress.