Develop Reference

How to use a MongoDB Search Index?

I am currently learning to build websites using Node JS, Express JS, MongoDB and PUG. I followed the Mozilla tutorial to understand the fundamentals and now I want to add a search bar.
I would like to profit from MongoDB search functionalities, but after 3-4 days, I am still at basket case.
Can anyone explain how it is supposed to be done? The code is exactly as described in the tutorial/example website.
Also, I really don't understand how this whole thing works, are there easier features to add or ways to 'get it' better? The debugger is an ocean of variables as I have never seen, and the slightest alterations to the example makes the whole thing sink. I am crying inside. Any help or resource is very welcomed.
Here is a link to a public repo (since it's a lot of code for a blog post).
Public GitHub Repository

Storing user input data in HTML5

A (possible) client has a multipart questionnaire that they want coded in HTML5 (for responsiveness). I was thinking Bootstrap 3, combined with HTML and a bit o' javascript. However, I don't know what their options are regarding tracking the answers.
I'm new to HTML5, coming from the Flash world. What are my options? It seems a job for a backend DB, and I know enough Django to get into trouble, so perhaps that would be the best bet? I have done basic Django sites, but when something goes wrong, oh, it's a bit of a pain! (I haven't found Django as user friendly as I might like)
Is there anything new and funky in HTML5 (I'm not sure how they'd get the data out of local storage)? I'm good at HTML, but don't know all the tricky tricks in HTML5.
Thanks

Use ViewModel with Knockout.js for responsiveness. Its pretty fast.
You can see this sample Knockout.js project here.

Have you taken a look at the Django HTML5 Boilerplate (DH5BP) project1 on GitHub?
From the Readme.md
The Django HTML5 Boilerplate...incorporat[es] the HTML5 Boilerplate (H5BP) project into an easy to consume Django-friendly Python package.
Find out...about HTML5 Boilerplate at https://github.com/h5bp/html5-boilerplate
This project differentiates itself from other H5BP to Django ports, by
including Fabric scripts that automatically convert new versions of
H5BP into a Django-friendly Python module. Ideally, this will make
keeping up-to-date with the latest version of H5BP trivial.

Your best bet is probably to work with a CMS. It would greatly reduce your development time and it would help you avoid common pit-falls.
I would recommend using WordPress with some sort of plugin as in my experience it has been the easiest to work with for small projects.
HTML5 has some new elements and a simplified syntax. Some elements have had their definitions changed (what the tags intended usage is).
Update:
Four years later, WordPress now has a REST API. A good way to store user input could be to check if they are logged in and then post information via AJAX to the API.

New to PhoneGap, need guidance to get started

Ok, I've been in planning for developing a PhoneGap app for a few months, and it's come time for me to start coding. There are a few things I am confused about that I need to clear up before I can get going, because things don't seem to be going well.
To begin, I am using PhoneGap to build this app because I plan to release it to multiple platforms (primarily iOS and Android) and based on the tutorials for Objective-C that I've read, I'd much rather use JavaScript/jQuery/jQueryMobile to develop the app. If anyone thinks that these are not appropriate reasons to be using PhoneGap and that I should be using something else, please let me know.
I seem to be misunderstanding some things that are apparently self-explanatory about PhoneGap, and after hours of scouring the internet looking for answers, I can't seem to find anyone else who has had the same problems as me. To clarify, I am quite comfortable with my HTML/CSS/JavaScript skills. I literally just need to GET STARTED.
I see the terms PhoneGap and Cordova used interchangeably. From the sources I've seen they are pretty much synonymous, but I'd like to know what the ACTUAL difference is.
I'm fairly certain I have PhoneGap installed. I can run PhoneGap commands and I was able to get the basic Hello World application and run it on an iPhone emulator. I then began to make changes to the files and rebuilt and reinstalled to test it and it replaced all my changes with the original application. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but I feel like I'm missing something.
Can I use other JavaScript libraries like jQuery or jQuery Mobile with PhoneGap? I'm not sure what I'm limited to, or if I can use them, what the best way is to do that.
I've seen example applications that were able to use PHP even though many sources say that you can't. How is this done?
Can multiple pages be used or is it better to modify one to make it seem like there are multiple pages?
Any other suggestions on exactly how to get started will help. Thanks!

Only edit the files in your www folder, because when you run
phonegap build ios
it copies files from the www folder into the various different platform folders (depending on which platforms you've added) and compiles an application out of them.
http://www.tricedesigns.com/ - lots of sample apps and tutorials
http://www.raymondcamden.com/ - ditto
http://coenraets.org/blog/ - ditto
http://devgirl.org/ - tutorials
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/phonegap - official group

Cordova is the open source community driven version of the framework, Phonegap is a "snapshot" of cordova at a given point that Adobe specifically supports through it's build service, there are small differences but on the whole they're more or less identical in feature set and use.
You can use any JS libraries you want, and you'd use them exactly as you would normally on the web.
PHP code cannot be used inside a phonegap/cordova app but there's nothing to stop you loading data from external sources.
Regarding multiple pages, I'd generally stick with a single page and just show/hide parts of it as needed, just so you're not having to deal with re-loading libraries on each page load and adding overhead to the app itself.
As for where to start - there's a few good books out there but you could do worse than to give this tutorial a go..
http://coenraets.org/blog/phonegap-tutorial/

Firefox extension that interacts with existing page content

I am not a web programming expert but I would like to create a Firefox extension that rewrites pages' html and javascript code. This is a personal project so I can take my time and learn things as I go.
I haven't been able to locate a tutorial or existing extension that does both tasks.
Would you be able to point me in the right direction?
Thanks you so much!
-CxT

You're trying to accomplish two different things. My advice is to learn to do both independently. For extensions, these are great tutorials:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/building_an_extension
http://www.rietta.com/firefox/Tutorial/overview.html
For "rewriting" a pages html, css, js:
http://ejohn.org/blog/hacking-digg-with-firebug-and-jquery/
Anything you don't understand in any of the tutorials, either google or ask here.
Enjoy!

Creating a Web2.0 application with Maven(or other build tools)

Background:
I've been building web apps and web sites for many years, but each time I tend to start from scratch as each project has different requirements. However, this has me building my workflow from scratch as well. At this point, I'm about ready to settle on something a little more standard.
But what exactly is that standard? Being a JAVA developer by nature, I'm drawn to tools like Maven. And I've seen some work in the community for better Javascript support in Maven (javascript-maven-tools, javascript-maven-plugin, and others). But is this the best way to do it? I tried for a while to find a good WEB2.0 client/ajax-app maven-archetype to no avail.
I'm going to want to use tools in my workflow including JSLint [[http://www.jslint.com]], JSUnit [[http://jsunit.net/]] for testing, Documentation with things such as JSDoc Toolkit [[http://code.google.com/p/jsdoc-toolkit/]]. Compression and Framework inclusion would be nice too.
So, at this point, I'm even stumped at the the basic ways to start my app. What should a directory structure look like? For a pure client/frontend app (so no controllers, etc), do i just have a single webapp directory?
I guess I'm at that point where I'm questioning "my religion" with webapps. And after talking to everyone I know, I figured it was time for me to open it up to a hive-mind far smarter than my own.
Note. This is a question I also wrote
about in general on my site at
[[http://blog.jbjonesjr.com/?p=283]]
, but no one every cares about it
there.
Thanks for the help, I look forward to your thoughts.

I've started a couple of plugins (this and this) on Codehaus that facilitate the use of Maven for building JavaScript applications following Maven's goal oriented approach. I want to do more of this including the provision of a Surefire-compatible unit testing plugin and a minification plugin that leverages assembles. Take a look at what I've done so far and feel free to help out!
I'm also considering providing a JavaScript DSL for Maven using Polyglot Maven. A colleague kindly pointed out that JavaScript programmers will probably want to express their poms using JavaScript, not XML. In addition they probably won't want the learning curve of Maven. A JavaScript DSL could facilitate that.