[ciapug] Re: December meeting

[Chris Hettinger]

*ugh* January ... I hadn't even thought that far ahead, I will be unable 
to attend next month's as well ... It would be on January 7th and I will 
have just returned from a 10 day trip out to Washington DC...

So ... carry on, I'll see you all in a couple months :)

AJAX would be a great topic. Of course now I wish I could be there.

While I'll not be present, you can visit the Prairie Meadows Racetrack & 
Casino page (http://www.prairiemeadows.com/) to see how we (VSi) used 
AJAX for the first time with a lot of visibility. Other here have used 
if for auto-complete type functionality in a few systems.

The 3 pane promotional display on the homepage is a AJAX application.

Upon load we query the db for 3 promotions which include the picture 
path, text, button labels and paths. Once all three have been retrieved 
and are ready they fade in. A time delay set for 3 seconds fires off the 
fade out, at which time we submit the query for the next 3, and then 
once that has returned and images downloaded, they are faded back in.

PMRC marketing folk create a image to specified dimensions using a guide 
as to where the text will sit. The rounded and corners and dark shade on 
the lower half of the image are applied at the time of upload via the 
admin tool.

If you click on "Casino" in the primary navigation you will see the same 
script builds a mini version. The thumbnails do not use the shade since 
text is not overlaid... which is why that is applied by the admin tool 
on upload. That and the original image is maintained for future uses.

Additionally I used the MooFx (http://moofx.mad4milk.net/) accordion 
script, with some tweaks to have a set height, on the homepage for the 
first content pane in the left column. Nothing dynamic here yet, so not 
to magically.

I also used AJAX pretty extensively within their Intranet where I 
creates Administration tools for much of the site's content. I enjoyed 
having the page update as changes occurred and from the feedback I got 
while training the staff on the tools, they were pleased it didn't 
require so many page loads and clicks through the interface (the few 
savvy enough to catch that benefit). For instance redrawing a list of 
news posts instantly after selecting a filter in a drop down, etc.

For PHP Developers, we've since pretty much adopted the XAJAX PHP 
library for our uses and we've been satisfied with it's functionality.

Overall I love the richness this technology can bring to a 
traditionally-static medium.


Mike Parks wrote:
> A thought? With no real set plan on a discussion, and with the Christmas 
> holiday. There may be a few other who may not be able to attend, because 
> of holiday plans. Maybe we pass on December, and plan the January meeting?
> 
> We will still have the office available, if we want to go ahead with the 
> meeting.
> Mike
> 
> 
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>> Today's Topics:
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>>    1. December Meeting (Chris Hettinger)
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>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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>> Message: 1
>> Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2007 17:16:58 -0600
>> From: Chris Hettinger <cjh at raccoon.com>
>> Subject: [ciapug] December Meeting
>> To: Central Iowa PHP Users Group <ciapug at cialug.org>
>> Message-ID: <474CA56A.5090909 at raccoon.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>>
>> Hey all!
>>
>> The December meeting is coming up fast ... It is next Monday on the 3rd.
>> At this time there isn't a specific topic of discussion set.
>>
>> I will not be able to attend this one because I'll be out of town.
>>
>> I hope everyone had a great holiday!
>>
>> -ch
>>
>>
>>
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>> End of ciapug Digest, Vol 28, Issue 3
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