Develop Reference

Delicious JSON List Issue

I need some help with adding a dynamic list of links from Delicious.com to my site. The idea is to show all the newest links with a certain tag (in this case the tag is "flyfishing").
What I did so far is I put the following link in a script tag in my page header to get a JSON list of links with the matching tag:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://feeds.delicious.com/v2/json/tag/flyfishing?count=20?callback=getDelicious">
The function I wrote called getDelicious is the callback function. Here is the function :
function getDelicious(){
$(function() {
var _el = $("#dynaList");
var out="<ul>";
for (var y in Delicious.posts) {
out+="<li>" + Delicious.posts[y]+"</li>";
}
out+="</ul>";
return _el.html(out);
});
}
Now this doesn't seem to work. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong?
Is the problem in the way I'm getting the JSON data or is there something wrong with the code I wrote? I'm not sure if I'm accessing the Delicious site correctly. Is the array I'm trying to parse through actually what is being returned by the link in my script tag? I'm not getting any errors in the console so I really have no idea what's wrong.
Any help would be appreciated since I'm pretty new to JQuery and I only just started with Ajax and JSON.

You URL in your <script> tag is incorrect. The callback param should have an ampersand character (&) before it, not a question mark.
http://feeds.delicious.com/v2/json/tag/flyfishing?count=20?callback=getDelicious
^
Must be "&" not "?"
Furthermore, with JSONP the result of the request is given as an argument to your callback:
function getDelicious(data) {
// ...
}

Store very small amount of data with javascript

I have one of those websites that basically gives you a yes or no response to a question posed by the url. An example being http://isnatesilverawitch.com.
My site is more of an in-joke and the answer changes frequently. What I would like to be able to do is store a short one or two word string and be able to change it without editing the source on my site if that is possible using only javascript. I don't want to set up an entire database just to hold a single string.
Is there a way to write to a file without too much trouble, or possibly a web service designed to retrieve and change a single string that I could use to power such a site? I know it's a strange question, but the people in my office will definitely get a kick out of it. I am even considering building a mobile app to manipulate the answer on the fly.
ADDITIONAL:
To be clear I just want to change the value of a single string but I can't just use a random answer. Without being specific, think of it as a site that states if the doctor is IN or OUT, but I don't want it to spit out a random answer, it needs to say IN when he is IN and OUT when he is out. I will change this value manually, but I would like to make the process simple and something I can do on a mobile device. I can't really edit source (nor do I want to) from a phone.

If I understand correctly you want a simple text file that you change a simple string value in and have it appear someplace on your site.
var string = "loading;"
$.get('filename.txt',function(result){
string = result;
// use string
})

Since you don't want to have server-side code or a database, one option is to have javascript retrieve values from a Google Spreadsheet. Tabletop (http://builtbybalance.com/Tabletop/) is one library designed to let you do this. You simply make a public Google Spreadsheet and enable "Publish to web", which gives you a public URL. Here's a simplified version of the code you'd then use on your site:
function init() {
Tabletop.init( { url: your_public_spreadshseet_url,
callback: function (data) {
console.log(data);
},
simpleSheet: true } )
}

Two ideas for you:
1) Using only JavaScript, generate the value randomly (or perhaps based on a schedule, which you can hard code ahead of time once and the script will take care of the changes over time).
2) Using Javascript and a server-side script, you can change the value on the fly.
Use JavaScript to make an AJAX request to a text file that contains the value. Shanimal's answer gives you the code to achieve that.
To change the value on the fly you'll need another server-side script that writes the value to some sort of data store (your text file in this case). I'm not sure what server-side scripting (e.g. PHP, Perl, ASP, Python) runtime you have on your web server, but I could help you out with the code for PHP where you could change the value by pointing to http://yoursite.com/changeValue.php?Probably in a browser. The PHP script would simply write Probably to the text file.

Though javascript solution is possible it is discouraged. PHP is designed to do such things like changing pieces of sites randomly. Assuming you know that, I will jump to javascript solution.
Because you want to store word variation in a text file, you will need to download this file using AJAX or store it in .js file using array or string.
Then you will want to change the words. Using AJAX will make it possible to change the words while page is loaded (so they may, but do not have to, change in front of viewers eyes).
Changing page HTML
Possible way of changing (words are in array):
wordlist.js
var status = "IN"; //Edit IN to OUT whenever you want
index.html
<script src="wordlist.js"></script>
<div>Doctor is <span id="changing">IN</span></div>
<script>
function changeWord(s) { //Change to anything
document.getElementById("changing").innerHTML = s;
}
changeWord(status); //Get the status defined in wordlist.js
</script>
Reloading from server
If you want to change answer dynamically and have the change effect visible on all open pages, you will need AJAX or you will have to make browser reload the word list, as following:
Reloading script
function reloadWords() {
var script = document.createElement("script"); //Create <script>
script.type="text/javascript";
script.src = "wordlist.js"; //Set the path
script.onload = function() {changeWord(status)}; //Change answer after loading
document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(script); //Append to <head> so it loads as script. Can be appended anywhere, but I like to use <head>
}
Using AJAX
Here we assume use of text file. Simplest solution I guess. With AJAX it looks much like this:
http = ActiveXObject==null?(new XMLHttpRequest()):(new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"));
http.onloadend = function() {
document.getElementById("changing").innerHTML = this.responseText; //Set the new response, "IN" or "OUT"
}
http.open("GET", "words.txt")
http.send();
Performance of AJAX call may be improved using long-poling. I will not introduce this feature more here, unless someone is interested.

How to override variable parameter loaded from another script

I have a script that loads the code dynamically. It is kind of a search engine. When I press a search button, the action gets triggered and a new page opens with many parameters.
I want to override one of the parameters generated with the script in the new URL. JS code is quite big and hard to read, but I have found the important part in the Firebug DOM editor.
This is the pattern of the URL generated when you perform the search:
http://www.example.com/...?ParameterOne=123&ParameterTwo=Two&ThisParameter=Sth&ParameterFour=Four...
What I want to edit is "ThisParameter" and change its value. This is the part edited in the DOM that does what I want:
Foobar = {
_options: [],
...
var options = {"ParameterOne":123,"ParameterTwo":"Two","ThisParameter":"ABC","ParameterFour":Four,...}
...
And this is the output of "ThisParameter" when you choose "Copy path" in Firebug's DOM tab:
_options[0].ThisParameter
I am wondering it this is possible at all. What makes me think that it is, is the fact that I can change this parameter in Firebug and it works perfectly. So, if Firebug can edit it, there should be a way to influence it with another script.
Looking forward to any suggestions, thank you in advance!

Since you cannot edit the dynamic script you have the following options:
You have to try to give the script the correct input and hope it uses your value.
Add a script to the results page which will read the url and arguments, change it and redirect, as we discussed here. (If you put everything in functions it should not conflict with the dynamic script if the functions are uniquely named.)
You could try adding something like this jQuery code to the page with the search button:
$('input[name=search_button_name]').click(function(e) {
e.preventDefault();
var form_search = $('#search_form_id');
$('<input>').attr({
type: 'hidden',
name: 'ThisParameter',
value: 'SomethingElse'
}).appendTo(form_search);
f.submit();
});

You can override any js function and method, or wrap you code around it. The easiest thing would be to look at the code you get and once it gets loaded, you re-declare a method with your own functionality.
I you are trying to replace a parameter in a specific jquery request, you can even wrap around the jquerys ajax method:
var jquery_ajax = $.ajax
$.ajax = function(options){
// parse only a specific occurence
if(options.url.indexOf("example.com") > -1) {
// change the url/params object - depending on where the parameter is
options.params.ThisParameter = "My Custom value"
}
// call the original jquery ajax function
jquery_ajax(options);
}
But it would be a lot cleaner to override the method that builds the ajax request rather than the ajax request itself.

I would investigate further on the scope of the variable options (var options), is it global? i.e. if you type 'options' in the Firebug console, does it display its properties?
If so, you could then access it via your own script and change is value, e.g.
options.ThisParameter = 'my-own-value';
You might hook your script to the click event of the search button.
I hope this helps, it could be more specific maybe if you have some sample code somewhere.

Check iframe status after AJAX File Upload with Rails

There is a similar post Retrieving HTTP status code from loaded iframe with Javascript but the solution requires the server-side to return javascript calling a function within the iframe. Instead, I would simply like to check the HTTP status code of the iframe without having to call a function within the iframe itself since my app either returns the full site through HTML or the single object as JSON. Essentially I've been trying to implement a callback method which returns success|failure dependent upon the HTTP status code.
Currently I have uploadFrame.onLoad = function() { ... so far pretty empty ... } and I am unsure what to check for when looking for HTTP status codes. Up until now, I've mainly relied upon jQuery's $.ajax() to handle success|failure but would like to further understand the mechanics behind XHR calls and iframe use. Thanks ahead of time.
UPDATE
The solution I came up with using jQuery
form.submit(function() {
uploadFrame.load(function() {
//using eval because the return data is JSON
eval( '(' + uploadFrame[0].contentDocument.body.children[0].innerHTML + ')' );
//code goes here
});
});

I think the best solution is injecting <script> tag into your iframe <head> and insert your "detecting" javascript code there.
something like this:
$('#iframeHolderDivId').html($.get('myPage.php'));
$('#iframeHolderDivId iframe head').delay(1000).append($('<script/>').text('your js function to detect load status'));
Maybe it's not the best solution but I think it works

I want to request JSON inside of a WordPress page

For the last few hours I've been trying to set up this http://code.google.com/apis/books/docs/dynamic-links.html on a WordPress blog. Google's API sends back a JSON response (which is supposed to be "put" into _GBSBookInfo variable). However, that variable never is assigned so my javascript callback function explodes saying the variable doesn't exist. So far, all of my javascript is in the WordPress header.
I tried this outside of WordPress and it works fine.
This is the static page:
<script src="http://books.google.com/books?bibkeys=0307346609&jscmd=viewapi&callback=response_handler">
This is the handler:
function response_handler(data) {
var bookInfo = _GBSBookInfo["0307346609"]; // the var that doesn't exist
document.getElementById("test123").innerHTML = bookInfo.thumbnail_url;
}
Thanks for any help in advance, WordPress has been extremely frustrating by limiting so much! If I'm doing anything stupid please say so, I'm a new javascript programmer.
EDIT:
I've used firebug so far to identify the problem to be: the _GBSBookInfo variable never gets "created" or "exists". I'm not sure how javascript works at this level. Hopefully this helps.
ERRORS:
Error: _GBSBookInfo is not defined
Line: 79

Try replacing _GSBookInfo with data, like so:
function response_handler (data) {
var bookInfo = data["0307346609"];
document.getElementById("test123").innerHTML = bookInfo.thumbnail_url;
}
Based on your post, google returns this:
response_handler({
"0307346609": {
"bib_key":"0307346609",
....
"thumbnail_url":"http://bks2.books.google.com/books?somethumbnailstuff"
}
});
... so the above code should work for you.