A common problem that developers face when building applications is how to allow the application to be "plug-able" at runtime.  Meaning, to allow non-core code to modify the way an application is processed at runtime.  There are a lot of different ways that this can be done, and lots of examples of it in real life.  Over a year ago, I wrote a StackOverflow Answer on this topic.  However, I think it deserves another look.  So let's look at some patterns and common implementations.Communication HandlersThese patterns are designed to handle communication between disjoint ...

I was making a change to a page that needed to pull from a remote API and make changes to various parts of the page. Sounds like the time to pull out jQuery and Ajax, doesn't it? Instead, I just used old fashioned JavaScript. Actually, I used new fashioned JavaScript. Browsers haven't stood still in the advent of libraries and frameworks. As a result, we can take advantage of those features when we need to bake in a little extra.Some JSONPThe first step was to get the JSONP call executing. This is generally straightforward: embed a script tag into the page. The script will run a function that ...

As Web designers and developers, each project we work with has a unique set of goals and requirements. But one goal we have for all of our projects is that we want them to make an impression on people — we want the websites that we create to be memorable.A fun experience is often an enjoyable one and an enjoyable experience is usually a memorable one. Therefore, it stands to reason that one of the ways to create a memorable experience is to make it a fun experience. In this article, we’ll take a look at how adding a bit of “fun” into the mix can help us produce more e...

So, a while back I had an internal presentation at work about this topic. A few good friends in the community took a look at my slides, and they thought it would make a nice blog post because “there can’t be too many good posts about jQuery introduction and best-practices.” Whether this post is going to be good or not, is up to you but I’ll try to outline what jQuery is, and how you can start working with it.For most of you, this will just be a re-cap and probably not provide much new information but can perhaps serve as a reference post if you ever need one. I will e...

Facebook is currently on of the most important publishing and traffic generating sources for many websites. Manually Cross publishing content on your own site and Facebook seems like a lot of extra work.This post guides you through the creation of a Facebook application that can automatically post messages and other types of content on your Facebook wall.Getting startedBuilding a php script that automatically posts status updates on your wall requires the following steps:Download Facebook APIRegister a Facebook appGive the app rights to post on your wallBuild the post to Facebook scriptGet the...

Forget everything you know about object-oriented programming. Instead, I want you to think about race cars. Yes – race cars. Recently I was watching the 24 Hours of Le Mans –a popular racing event in France. The fastest cars in the race are the Le Mans Prototypes. Although these cars are built by car manufacturers like Audi and Peugeot, they are not cars you’ll see on the streets and highways of your home town. They are built exclusively for high-speed endurance racing.Manufacturers put an enormous amount of money into researching, engineering, and building these prot...

I’m obsessed with Google. (I mean, you kind of have to be if you’re in this industry.) But sometimes, you need a break from the hand that feeds. There’s no denying the power of advanced search queries, but you’d be surprised how many other and different prospects you can find without using the search engine at all.Curated ListsOK, I lied. You do have to use Google for this, but not nearly in the capacity you would with normal searches.With lists, you have less sources to sift through but the value of the sites far outweigh normal SERPs.My favorite searches — ...

The web is dead. HTML5 is the be-all end-all of the future. Users are spending more time on apps and less time on the web. You can do anything on the web that you can in a native app. Yawn. Here’s how I feel whenever I hear/read anything about the overplayed “Native Versus Web” argument:It’s not an either-or decisionWhy aren’t we still arguing over “Print vs Digital”? Well, because (most) people understand that each medium has its place in this world, and as it turns out, they can compliment each other quite nicely. Direct mail, magazine ads, et a...