BizzyBee’s BizzyThoughts
In the first part of this article I talked about why you should consider the Spry framework as a valid alternative for input validation in the browser. Now I’ll demonstrate how it works in Dreamweaver and in the next article, how to transfer the validation to Domino Designer (I decided to split up the article in different parts for the Dreamweaver side and for the Domino Designer side).
Adding the input validation to a form in Dreamweaver CS3
I invite you to start the beetorial to the left. In less than 5 minutes it shows you how to add input validation to a form in Dreamweaver CS3 (although it took more than 5 hours to build it :-)). I recommend running it in full screen (press <F11> in most browsers).
It’s not only intended for Notes developers, but is also useful for anybody that wants to learn about input validation in Dreamweaver CS3.
In the beemo I start with a form I already prepared (it’s loosely based on a form I found in The Art & Science Of CSS, a very inspiring Sitepoint book about practical and visually stunning CSS techniques.
I add validation to fields for name, email, date and checkboxes and I show how it looks like in the browser.
Bare in mind that the validation messages look a bit boring at the moment, but in a future part I will demonstrate how easy it is to create validation eyecandy.
Thanks to all those who took the time and the effort to vote for a Forum Friday image. And the winner is…

I know there’s Dojo. I know there’s Prototype. jQuery. There are a lot of JavaScript libraries available, and most of them have objects dealing with input validation. I saw Rocky’s session about Dojo on LotuSphere. An inspiring session that got me started delving into it, but I found myself a bit disappointed about how it looks. There are 3 themes available that change the look and feel a bit, but they all look rather ugly to me. Creating a theme of your own, so they tell, is a huge work (and that’s why there are only 3 themes).
While thinking about alternatives, I started looking at Spry, the Adobe’s framework embedded in Dreamweaver CS3. Spry can do much more than input validation, but for now I’m only interested in this part. It’s available for free, but if you want the ease-of-use you will need Dreamweaver CS3.
In this first article about Spry, I want to show you why it can be important to you if you are a Dreamweaver user. It’s just a warming-up to get your attention actually :-).
In a second article I’ll start with a Dreamweaver prototype form and Spry it up and in a third article, I’ll transfer it to a Notes webform. If there’s enough interest, a fourth article could be about Sprying up an existing Notes webform.
A couple of days ago I did an OS X software update. After the reboot, my wireless network (with a D-Link router) was found, but I couldn’t connect any more to the Worldwide Pool Of Wisdom (WWpoW). As I started to search the web (using a Windows XP laptop from my customer - oh irony), I discovered there where a lot of users with the same issues. There’s also an article on this.
Here’s my very own album. I thought it was fun to give myself over to the random madness
. Thomas Bahn, Viktor Krantz, Nathan Freeman, Ben Langhinrichs, Chris Whisonant and many others were some of my big musical examples.

Everybody has seen this mirror effect in modern webdesign. Maybe you have an overdose by now, but I want to show how simple it is to create such effect in Fireworks. In this tutorial movie I demonstrate how to create such mirror effect in approx. 1 minute.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I wanted to design a logo for Forum Friday. I personally like the bull in the image, Declan likes it without the bull and text. Everybody has a different opinion on this, so I thought: why not do a good old fashioned poll about it?
So I created 3 variants of the logo. Apart from the poll, you can still comment at the bottom of the article to express some more “nuance”.
A couple of days ago I read about the Forum Friday idea on Dec’s Dom Blog. In brief, this is the idea:
“The idea is called ‘Forum Friday’ and it is very easy to take part. All you need to do is go to the DeveloperWorks (notes.net) website and pick one of the many forums that are available, Have a look through some of the questions and pick one to answer. Write up your answer on you own blog and then reply in the forum with a link to your blog entry.”
Now, since SnTT has also its own logo, I reckon Forum Friday could use one too. So here’s my proposal.

- I normally (like in: it depends on the project/wishes of the client/company standards) try to test in/support the following browsers:
- Firefox 2.x (this is my default, because of supported standards and web development possibilities)
- Internet Explorer 7
- Internet Explorer 6
- Safari (if I can plug in my Mac)
But if you’re a poor little self employed person like myself, you can’t afford to have x machines to make all these test possible.
If you installed IE7 on XP, it installs on top of IE6, so normally you can’t test for IE6 any longer without the need of a virtual/another machine.
But there’s a neat program that deals with this, so don’t worry!
Today was theme park night. The biggest one to try out was The Hulk: it made a mashup out of me in less than 5 minutes! I was in doubt for a long time whether or not I would do that one. Yesterday’s hangover was still a bit in charge (I was like bleeding yellow through my mouth), in the evening I drank 2 beers with a couple of nachos. At the theme park a hamburger and fries wanted to become a part of me, resulting in a certain upside down feeling without being it yet.
You can tell I’m tired. If you recognize me, and want to say hi, please do so. I’m very hi-able :-).

Yesterday I was at the Lotus Usergroup reception. Jake Howlett won it (congratulations, Jake, I learned a lot over the years from your blog, so you deserve this). I only drank one glass of wine, but still have a major hangover. Must be because the content of the glass was infinite: the waiter filled it over and over and over. It was great to have a chat with the bloggers and learn to know them.
Today I really look tired. I’ll make a picture and post it a little later.
Wow. The word Expeditor is the second most heard word after geek overhere. In Europe there are no geeks. We don’t use the word. We know what nerds are, but there is no flattering equivalent for a more trendy nerd. Overhere everybody is a geek and proud to be. In Europe the word for it is: “I’m doing a lot of computerstuff, I’m interested in technology, but also have a life besides it”. Which is pretty much the same I guess
Also, sometimes I feel I’m not geek enough for this place: I don’t wear IBM t-shirts and gadgets. I only use the backpack they gave me, because it’s a good one and my 17″ laptop even fits in (ok, that last one must make me a geek again :-))
Yesterday I ran out of a mashup session. Today I was in an overflow session about Expeditor for LotusScripters. I did, because I am confused as a simple Notes Developer. I came out even more confused. First thing: it’s like we’re in some in between stage, where it’s not clear yet what to do with all these new tools. Other thing: there’s so much little steps you have to take. Where’s the RAD in this? Perhpas it’s just too soon to start working in it. I don’t have that much time to spend to figure it all out, and test, and try.
Ok, have to go now, I’m in a more practical session from Rocky Oliver.
I’m at LotuSphere for the moment, and there’s too much going on, so I have to make it short. I wanted to say I was really impressed by the announcement that Designer 8.5 will be built on the same Eclipse foundations as the current 8 Client. Meaning: real LotusScript debugging possibilities (comparable to Java in Eclipse), sorted LotusScript classes, real properties boxes (to me they looked like those in Dreamweaver, at the bottom of the page), ways of dragging and dropping fields on forms, Web 2.0 integration (things like type ahead, Web 2.0 enabled views, modern layouts).
A lot of other new features and stuff were demonstrated as well, but this thing only enlightens my day. Or it’s the jet lag speaking :-).
The plan was to be totally fit before going to LotuSphere, but a customer gave his New Year’s party yesterday evening. The second best plan was to stay there until 23h00 and to have at least one night some decent sleep. I ended in bed at 2h30 instead, had to be up at 6h30 for my plane, so this was a bad start :-).
Remember last week’s Notes Mail Database Size Indicator? Mike O’Brien and John Head referred to Notes 8.01, where this will be included. I liked my solution, but after seeing the screenshot, it looked a bit pale.
The new challenge was to give it a more graphical look. So I created another version, still very easy to implement, but with a better look. It conditionally displays an image of the total and used space:
- A green bar for used space less than 70%

- An orange bar for 70-89%

- A red bar for 90-100% (and up)

- A gray bar if no quotum exists.

Hide-whens work on a per-line or per-cell basis for showing/hiding content. But what if there are different chunks of content you want to show/hide on the same line, depending on the conditions? For example:
- buttons on a form or page, some of them you want to hide sometimes;
- different status images;
- pieces of text.
Sure, you can find ways with table cells, computed text or computed images. But there’s another way, at least on the web. In the client, I thought I could get it to work in Notes 6.5 earlier, but when I tested in Notes 7 and 8 today, it won’t give me what I want.
Here’s an example situation: imagine I want to show these 3 images.

Wouldn’t it be cool to have this in your mailbox?
Our local admin asked me if this is doable, and I thought it was a brillant idea and a very practical example on how to use this tip: A progress bar in Lotus Notes
It’s an indicator that, eh, indicates how much space you’ve used from your mail database size quotum.

Thanks to Alex King’s Articles plugin, there’s an Articles section now in the top navigation of my website (For some reason, Alex (to the right) looks a bit like Seinfeld (to the left)to me - no offense, I’m a Seinfeld fan!)
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As Alex wrote: “This plugin allows you to easily present a list of posts you select outside of your blog chronology. Very useful for featuring things that might otherwise slip into the nether regions of your archives.”
A big thank you to Alex for this. Only one issue here: the articles are not listed below the right categories. So, for the moment, don’t look at the category titles, only look at the article titles. This can be a good starting point to learn to know the content on my site.
A bit of a misleading title, sorry: I won’t advise YOU on this, I need some advise FROM YOU, the die hards, the old timers, the veterans, the experts, the wizards. This is the very first time I will go to Lotusphere, I’m the virgin, the newbie, the absolute beginner here.
I registered very late, yesterday, and booked my flight and hotel today. I will stay at a Radisson Sas hotel about 1,5 miles from Disney.
Being a new-bee ;-), I ask some help from you. I know, I can dig the web myself, but with so many sheep, eh, info, and so little time, I need a quick start, some guidelines. Some questions:
- What events are not-to-be-missed?
- How to start?
- Are all conferences close to eachother?
- Should I really plan some schedule in advance?
- Who will also attend?
- What non-conference things are also must-sees or must-have-dones overthere?
- Any other belgians out there?
- How do people recognize and find eachother in that chaos?
- Any dangers/warnings? Terrorists Against IBM Association?
- A million questions I forgot to ask.
Oh, and if you recognize me overthere, don’t be shy, just stop me, I’m always ready for a little conversation!
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