A browser application test tool you should not work without.
September 30th, 2006Selenium: A free Firefox extension that can handle all of your repetitive functional testing requirements for your browser application. Sound like a browser activity recorder? Selenium can handle error alerts, ajax updates, and dynamically generated HTML, which most activity recorders fail miserably with. I cannot get enough of this application, it has already saved me countless hours.
Rewriting the PHPBB UI using AJAX
September 26th, 2006You can hardly click a google link without running into a PHPBB powered forum, but Jack Slocum has taken it to the next level by rewriting the PHPBB UI using AJAX, and his YUI Grid extension. A very cool piece of work that you can see here. Jack’s Grid extension for the YUI libraries is an excellent addition to that package, and for the Dojo libraries, a new Spreadsheet extension is out.
The Results Oriented Developer
September 23rd, 2006In the process of reading about technology job recruiting, I came across alot of writing about what keeps good programmers from leaving their jobs. While doing all this reading I came to the realization that I do not need a “programmer”, I needed an “Application Developer”, and alot of attributes that some ascribe to the “best programmers”, are attributes that I do not think make a very good “Application Developer”. What I really need are “Results Oriented Developers”, and here is a list of qualities that make them so (at least in my mind).
Making your .NET AJAX responses a little easier
September 17th, 2006If you find value in creating server-side javascript statements that an ajax callback can simply execute with the EVAL statement, then in the ASP.NET environment you have probably found that to be difficult since .NET objects are named differently on the client than on the server. I started to use a little trick that helps me get around that issue with a custom class and a little session caching.
Off to VSLive 2006 in New York
September 8th, 2006Off to NYC for VSLive. Some interesting things that Microsoft is doing that I want to write about from the Domino perspective (like Sql Server Everywhere; something Domino folks take for granted). See you next week.
The neverending war: the Language War
September 3rd, 2006Just a quick link over to Joel Spolsky’s site where he pretty much nails on the head the way I see the world when it comes to which language/platform to use for which projects.
Another browser for privacy? Who needs it?
September 3rd, 2006So last week another browser called Browzar hit the market, and its claim is that this browser does not save any search, cookies, history, etc.. so you have better privacy. Problem is, you lose tabbed browsing, right-click options, keyboard shortcuts, and support for any other OS but Win32, and all the while ignoring the fact that Firefox already does this with built-in options.
Ajax in the .NET world without ATLAS (YUI instead)
August 27th, 2006So I took a quick stab at the ATLAS (asp.net ajax) framework, and I came away with the distinct impression that it is too much for too little. The biggest issue with AJAX in the .NET environment is that the fields you name on the back end have a different name on the front end, which complicates writing client side scripts. I get around that, and avoid the additional bloat, with a simple change in how I construct the ajax call.
Browser Application Security Checklist
August 24th, 2006Hat-tip to Jim Anderton for his review of “How to Break Web Software“, which finally forced me to get off my butt and start a developers checklist for browser application security. The list is in draft mode, and I will soon circulate it amongst my team and peers at work. Most of these are .NET centric, but most are universal. Alot of these itesm fall under the header of “you cannot trust the client, period”, but I wanted to provide some specifics on why. As usual, any comments or corrections are welcome.