I use a lot of JQuery and normal javascript on my sites.
Mainly I use validate, auto form fills, sliders, lightbox, loading php files in elements etc.
I have searched the web but cannot get my head around this.
Will I be affected by the new chrome policy about NPAPI and Java?
http://blog.chromium.org/2014/11/the-final-countdown-for-npapi.html
Despite the name, JavaScript is not related to Java at all. JavaScript got its name because its first versions were due to be released at around the same time as Java's, and the marketing team at Netscape (the company where JS was first developed) thought it would be a good idea to market them together. That didn't work out as well as anyone had hoped, but the name stuck.
NPAPI deprecation has almost nothing to do with JavaScript. It affects Java applets because Chrome (and Firefox) implement those using an NPAPI plugin, but JavaScript is a completely different beast, and it is not implemented that way.
The effect of NPAPI's deprecation on JavaScript isn't quite zero, but it's close. The only scripts affected by NPAPI deprecation should be scripts that actually depend on NPAPI plugins to work. For example, TiddlyWiki used to depend on an NPAPI plugin to save its contents, but NPAPI deprecation prevents that, so it had to find another way to work on that browser.
It doesn't sound like you're doing anything that uses NPAPI plugins, so your scripts should be fine.
Related
I intend to modify the display of existing websites.
For example, when Google returns search results, can I customize the web page displaying (such as adding some bubble visualizations onto that page's blank places) ? Could it be done using browser plug-in or extension?
Based on my knowledge, a browser extension, such as firefox or chrome extension, is usually for adding tiny icons to the address bar.
Could it be done using browser plug-in or extension?
Yes. But you don't want to write a browser plug-in. They're fairly complicated to write and users are reticent to install them (with good reason) Further, you'd have to write two, as Mozilla and Google can't agree on a format (Chrome is removing the venerable NPAPI, but Mozilla won't implement Google's PPAPI, claiming that it's a moving target with inadequate documentation).
Based on my knowledge, a browser extension, such as firefox or chrome extension, is usually for adding tiny icons to the address bar.
No. Firefox add-ins and Chrome extensions can do a lot more than that, including modifying the page once it's rendered.
So you'll probably want to write a Firefox add-in and a Chrome extension. (Sadly, yes, that's two codebases to maintain, although they use similar technologies — HTML, CSS, JavaScript — so you can share a bit between them.)
Our clients use RDP sessions created by clicking a button on our site which uses the old MSRDP.cab file called in a webpage. We also utilize Virtual channels using a custom dll. Both our dll and the MSRDP.ocx are loaded through the object tag and cab files using VBScript.
As you might know, the orginal RDP connection script was written in VBScript. Apparently the ActiveX control will only work if called using VBScript. That has been working for over a decade. However the newer IE browsers and virtually all of the other browsers do not support VBScript.
I realize that I can call the new RDP program mstsc.exe from Javascript for a straight connection. However, we also pass information to the old ocx like the plugin parameters in Advancedsettings which include our dll that uses virtual channels. In addition, we pass the domain and username.
Maybe I'm searching in all the wrong places but I'm turning up no answers in trying to find how to run this ocx in javascript or another solution that would work. I'm thinking there has to be a replacement out there that I'm overlooking.
We are able to force our clients to use IE so we are currently having our clients with IE versions over 10 to use compatibility mode. However I'm sure at some point this may no longer work.
Has anyone out there had a similar problem that you have found a solution for? Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!
You mentioned it yourself that in the future, your ActiveX may no longer work and supported so I strongly believe that you should invest your time in re-writing your app using a more modern approach instead.
Here's a link to a solution where it is using Jquery and ASP.NET to open an RDP connection:
Open RDP Connection window using jquery - client side
Let's say I wanted to create a browser plug-in that would open someone's floppy drive for them whenever they click a button on my web page. (You remember that old gag? - Don't worry, I don't really want to do that.)
What are the steps necessary to create a browser plug-in that will work on most browsers and most operating systems?
How do I deploy the plug-in? For instance, how do I make it so that the plug-in can be easily downloaded and installed? Do I have to worry about digital certificates?
How do I check for and use the pluggin once it's installed? Is it available to javascript in the form of an API?
Take a look at a project called FireBreath: http://www.firebreath.org/display/documentation/FireBreath+Home
Firebreath abstracts many of the differences between the browser plugin frameworks and platform issues so you can easily write the code for a plugin once and just re-compile it for different platforms.
I have found it good for exposing existing C/C++ library API's to Javascript so I can write dynamic pages that use functionality from the C++ library which were otherwsie not available.
Most modern browsers have their own plugin frameworks for developers to utilize. So, for example, a Firefox plugin will not work in chrome or IE. Firefox and chrome do both utilize javascript and css but they are fundamentally different in their structure.
As far as deployment, Mozilla and Google provide hosting for their respective plugins. I do know that firefox extensions are basically zip files with the extension changed.
EDIT...
I had assumed you meant browser extensions so disregard my answer if that is not the case.
The easiest cross-browser solution is use Java Applets or maybe Flash (I am not sure how you do it in Flash).
With applets, you would need to sign the applet and also create a security policy file for accessing the disk. When the applet loads in the browser it would ask permission from the client user, he/she needs to click Allow to give permission for the applet to access the disk. This would allow you to access any disk in the system.
My website uses a variety of technologies, such as JQuery, new CSS definitions (e.g., moz-selection, -webkit-user-select), etc.
The site works perfectly with Google Chrome and Safari, but has some quirkiness in Firefox, IE, and some of the other browsers.
I want to write a script to check for necessary browser features but, with several thousand lines of code and CSS definitions, I'm not certain which features I should be looking for.
Is there some sort of online analysis (similar to how JSLint operates) that would tell me which features my script and CSS files need? Are there tools (like FireBug) that provide this info?
I don't think ull ever find that fabulous script.
As an alternative Modernizr and IE7 JS will probably satisfy most of your needs for now.
I am seeking your stories on how you have streamlined your client side development with Visual Studio. In particular, it seems that I need to build my site too often in order for changes to pushed down to IE effectively. What shortcuts or tools like FireBug, etc. do you use for your client side development? Do you avoid Visual Studio for debugging your client side apps all together?
We are developing the application which is building almost everything on javascript side, all the controls, webservice call (thru Ajax enabled javascript), grids and all kind of stuff.
We have created framework which includes ExtJs, and JQuery. It makes life easy to initialize and define all the controls in jQuery and make get data using webservice. We can use only ExtJs, however Jquery reduce the number of lines we need to define and set the controls. And of course its very light weight as javascript files are like <25-20 kb which needs to use this frameworks.
I've used the steps outlined by ScottGu here to get a better JS intellisense for VS 2008.
(As it is pointed out here, this patch is intended for all JavaScript files, not just jQuery.)
I use the vsdoc files to get intellisense working for jQuery.
lately, I had to work in a VS2005 + IE6 only environment. I've quickly got used to having Firefox for debugging with the tools I subjectively deemed essential: Firebug, PageSpeed, FireQuery.
I tried Aptana. (As of yet however, I didn't invest much time in getting to know it - you may find it familiar if you are equipped with some Eclipse knowledge, though...)
After all is well and done, I check pages in IE and use the built-in profiler in IE8 if there is some IE specific perf issue.
I use the "empty vsdoc" workaround when VS intellisense gives up.
At home, I use VS 2010 RC - and at all places I keep the API references of JS frameworks bookmarked and within reach, just in case.
Place Javascript code in separate JS files.
You might want to consider turning your related sets of functionality into a ScriptControl.
When you work on some JS file and want to avoid the time of rebuilding the whole project, do not make it an embedded scriptresource from the start. Package it in the assembly when it is stable enough.
If you are in doubt whether you get the latest version of your JS file, disable the browser cache. (It can be done from FireBug, or in the IE dev tools.)
Disclaimer: this list is really subjective and probably not complete at all.