benwatts.ca » Javascript

Resizable HTML AIR Applications

Ben — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 22:40:03 +0000

Far easier than I thought it was:

$('#resize').mousedown( function(){
window.nativeWindow.startResize('BOTTOM_RIGHT');
// or: BOTTOM, BOTTOM_LEFT, BOTTOM_RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, TOP, TOP_LEFT, TOP_RIGHT, NONE
});

You can retrieve the width of the application using the width property of nativeWindow (so:

window.nativeWindow.width

). It might be a good idea to prevent your app from getting too small and using scrollbars.

From a development standpoint, with this in mind I guess the idea would be to set the default width of the app in the application descriptor file and then use percentage-widths while styling to keep the app flexible. Ta-da!

jQuery Input Text Replacement

Ben — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 18:55:33 +0000

Edit (July 1, 2011): This snippet has been dated for years.

A Modern Approach

If you need something quick that targets modern browsers you might want to consider using the HTML5 placeholder attribute instead of a javascript solution. Cross-browser support isn’t the best (it doesn’t look like IE9 supports it at all, but if the placeholder text isn’t critical to the functionality it might be the right solution.

Further reading on the placeholder attribute.

If that won’t do it, check out this Cross-Browser HTML5 Placeholder Text on Web Designer Wall if you’re looking for something more modern.

Finally, you can do it with jQuery (or plain ol’ Javascript) as my original post from 2008 demonstrates…

Thought I’d save this handy dandy function for later.
Makes the text in an input disappear when you click on the input.

The Function

Using It

textReplacement($('#inputname'));

Example

Find Anchors

Ben — Sun, 11 May 2008 17:02:27 +0000

Handy little function … finds an anchor and returns its text, or returns false.

function findAnchor(){
var url = document.location.toString();
if( url.match('#') ){
return url.split('#')[1];
} else {
return false;
}
}

JS Object Iterator

Ben — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:21:38 +0000

Extremely handy when you’re dealing with an Object and have no idea what it’s methods or properties are. ESPECIALLY when there’s no documentation and you get an alert saying [Object] or whatever.

function deconstruct(what){
obj = eval(what);
var temp = "";
for (x in obj)
temp += x + ": " + obj[x] + "\n";
alert (temp);
}

I wish I remember the source for this because it has to be one of the handiest functions ever.