Terminology: What do you call this type of web gui feature?
I'm trying to research on a gui interaction where the user chooses an option, and the next set of options are loaded based on the previous.
I'm calling it cascading, but that doesn't seem to be right.
Example below:
User chooses company A
company A services load
user chooses service 1
serivce 1 loads, with only options company A wants
...cycle continues...
Silly question probably, but I am tired of getting all these search results that have nothing to do with what I'm after. Thanks in advance for any guidance.
If it matters, I'm thinking of using jquery for this, with C#/asp.net backend. Chose not to include those in the topic tags as I didn't think the language would change the terminology.
I think you're right with cascading if I understand you properly, ASP.Net/AJAX example here:
http://www.asp.net/ajax/ajaxcontroltoolkit/Samples/CascadingDropDown/CascadingDropDown.aspx
Related
I am creating a web app and I'm not sure how should I name the page that the user uses to set its preferences, I called it set-my-preferences but I'm wondering if it should be set-your-preferences.
Is there a naming convention for the urls relative to the user?
Should I use first (my) or second (your) person in the url?
PS: I doubt this question has not been asked already but I googled it and looked for it on stackoverflow and could not find anything
I suggest using set-my-preferences because it involves the user because they are more focused if a thing is about them. From my personal experience this has worked best for me.
I am a beginner web developer and working on a school project. My apologies for asking this basic question.
I am trying to create an online shopping store. What I am trying to do is when the user clicks on the checkout button, the shopping cart page gets updated with that element.
I don't know how to accomplish that. I really appreciate if someone can point me to a tutorial or provides some tips.
Your question is really abstract, however you will have to find the right way to communicate with a database...it might be php/MySQL with laravel or some other framework or preferably C# asp.net with entity framework(that's what I will go with its not mandatory some people like php) Then you need to learn some lambda or sql depending on which approach you would like to take (php/C#). You will probably need to get some kind of grid control for the cart asp.net has default one personally I find it confusing and hard to work with( there are many controls that can be downloaded freely without charge for non commercial products search google) then you would need to fill that grid with the List of objects that you will get from your database. If you get that far alone the next steps would be easy you will probably need some javascript for ajax calls to a webservice or either your backend so you can submit the orders. For the right tutorial there is none actually since your question covers several topics regarding database modeling, data fetching, backend development and front end development. You can start by getting yourself some kind of server (look for mssql for asp.net) and MySQL for php, then you should look for some kind of database modeling tutorial basic tables relationships 1-1 1-* *-1, after that you would need to do your design (from the question I assume that you already have one downloaded). Then if you got down to this step you should google the way for the right way of communicating with your database from the backend of your website (I advise entity framework its clean and easy) you can generally bind the list of objects directly do the grid that would represent your cart (I say grid but you can give it data template to look like html, not to be confused with regular tables). If you really get here I see no reason to keep coding for a school project in most places you can use all this to bachelor degree exam and pass with straight A. But if you want more details look into these videos they explain quite well what you want to do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s91pPLx_T3Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYr0seXj7qA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFkXk5gHjSs
I am not great at JavaScript but I think your page would need to update a cookie then read that value from said cookie. I hope that's a good place to start!
You might also find "Creating a Shopping Cart using only HTML/JavaScript" helpful.
What ways are used to show a user help the first time they use a page - to showcase certain features they might not realize are there.
For instance, say a search form is introduced that has a hidden "advanced search" option:
I would think most people would see the chevron and click it, but..you never know. I know that I could add a cookie to say "Hey - this user has seen it" or create a table in the database.
The problem I see with adding a cookie, is if the user deletes cookies and logs back in - they will have to always dismiss the alert/error/whatever. Unless after a period of time, I go in and manually delete it (which then new users wouldn't see the alert.)
Alternatively, adding a table to the database seems too much for such a simple task. It's what I'm leaning towards, but I hate it...there has to be a better way.
Are there any other ways to show a one time alert for certain pages?
Edit - I used a pretty trivial example on purpose.
I guess both your options are right. The cookie option is bit better cause it will be lighter on the server, again in case you have many users then the database options will be not great.
You may also lookup the new HTML5 feature of storing data on client side. Its a better local storage method.
It goes like localStorage.uid="1234" or something like clickcount.. Refer the html5 docs its a great feature as well.
Heres the link..
http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_webstorage.asp
have fun..
I am a student at a University. With the placement process going on, we have an internal placement website that shows updates and status about various companies I have applied to. Since the number of companies is too large it becomes cumbersome to scroll through the complete list to find information. Sometimes, I just miss some things. Now, to tackle this problem, here is what I want to do:
The data is in an HTML table. Each row shows information about one company: Some dates, Status(Not/Shortlisted/Applied), Some yes/no options etc. each in a different column. Once I open the page I want to be able to extract information about which companies I got shortlisted in, and in which ones I didn't make it.
What is the right technology to do this ? I am thinking of writing a Greasemonkey user script (I have never actually written any, but how hard could it be ?). What other options do I have?
Edit: I don't quite understand why this question has voted to be closed?
I just displayed a use case for something general: On opening a web page, automatically extracting information from the page and display it to the user. What is the easiest and sufficiently powerful way to achieve this?
Since you can't get access to the website's database, Greasemonkey would be your best automation approach. However, this task is likely to be over before you can get a decent script up from scratch.
Your best practical approach is to save the pages and/or copy and summarize the data in MS Excel, or equivalent.
~~~~~~~~~
Here at SO, We will not develop any but the simplest Greasemonkey scripts for you from scratch (unless they are fun somehow ;) ). But, you can sometimes get such help in the "Script requests forum" at userscripts.org.
In order for someone to help you, they will need:
A clear idea of exactly what data gets manipulated, and how.
Access to the target site. Or access to saved snapshots of the target pages. GM scripts are extremely dependent on the details of the target page.
"other option":
ctrl + F
enter shortlisted
enter
ctrl + G <--repeat last search
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How do you implement user documentation in Access? I've never bothered with formal user documentation in the past; I tend to rely on good interface design to guide users (or so I tell myself). But I'd really like to know what people smarter than me are doing...
Here are things I think I would consider important (in order):
Simplicity: it needs to be simple enough that it can be updated easily as the code changes, otherwise the documentation will end up out of sync
Screen shots: a picture's worth a thousand words; screen shots must be easily integrated into the documentation
Integration: the user can get to the relevant part of the documentation with as little effort as possible; ie, pressing F1 on a form brings up help for that form vs. opening a help file and having to navigate a table of contents
Searchable: full-text search capabilities would be nice
Other considerations:
Online vs. local: local would be faster/more reliable, but online would be always available plus search engine indexable (allowing use of google site: searches and providing some SEO benefit as well)
User Editable: how much do you allow users to make changes to the documentation: full access (ie, wiki), no access, moderated forums, etc.
Version control: text-based formats are more conducive to versioning than say, an Access table with help text inside the mdb
Exportable to PDF: seems like a nice-to-have
In Access I've never created end user documentation. No wait, I did once about 12 years ago. And I paid someone to write the manual along with screen shots. I did also have the hlp files, etc, etc. But I don't recall the details now.
Now for the Auto FE Updater, where appropriate, I have a text control which is underlned and blue which the user can then click on. The code then opens up their web browser to the appropriate page on my website using the ShellExecute API Much simpler for me than trying to figure out some kind of help system that would work for both offline and online. I also update the ToolTip control to put in the exact URL so they can see where they are going to go if they click on the text control. That's a VB 6 program but close enough for your requirements.
You may find HTML Help suitable.
I don't produce documentation for my client projects unless the client pays me big $$$ for it, as it's extremely difficult. I often guide users in producing in-house materials that document procedures and standards, but in general, I design my apps for EASE OF USE.
That is in contrast to EASE OF LEARNING.
EASE OF USE and EASE OF LEARNING often conflict with each other, as a UI design that makes it really easy to perform a task the first time often gets in the way once the user is accustomed to how things work.
However, it's important to design the UI with two things in mind:
things that are done on a daily basis don't need to be easy to learn -- they need to be really fast and friendly for the person who already knows how to use the app. I have a 10+20 rule -- 10 minutes of training and 20 minutes of use and the user will never forget how to use it.
things that are done only very seldom should be designed with a UI that is transparent and easy and doesn't require the user to remember anything at all. These kinds of tasks are great candidates for wizard-style interfaces that step the user through the process and provide hints and tips as text along the way.
I also have a number of UI design conventions that I implement throughout an app. The example that springs to mind is that any subform that is a datasheet or continuous form has a doubleclick event that when activated opens a popup form with the full details for the selected record. Once users grasp this convention, they will assume that any subform is doubleclickable in order to navigate to the detail.
There are other such conventions, but that's the basic idea, i.e., to implement similar behaviors in similar contexts so that if a user learns to do something in one context, when she finds herself in a different place with a similar UI, the things learned in the original context are transferrable in terms of basic UI behavior.
You will need to do two things:
Create a help file with topic-ID's for all of the topics
Link this help file to your access database, and link the topics
We have had very good results with http://www.helpandmanual.com/. From one single source, you can create any sort of help file that you want: pdf, online, chm, hlp, xml, ... It has a screenshot tool integrated.
Every topic can have it's own ID and you can just link your access forms / controls to this ID.
I have done a very similar thing to Tony. Its kind of a user generated content type thing let me explain.
The database contains a table with a list of the form names and then the path of a help file (word doc) that corresponds with that form.
Certain users have access to a form that allows them to say what help file corresponds to each form
Each form then has a help button so when the user clicks on it they open up the correct help file.
This way it is totally flexible, if they just want one big help file then all the links point to that but if the users want to put the effort in then they can make a file for each one. As they help files are separate from the DB storage is not a problem and also help files can be changed without having to recompile the application.
You could merge this idea with Tony’s and have the help files online if you wanted. I just find this a nice design pattern
I recently stumbled upon TiddlyWiki and have been thinking about using that as a backend to the systems Kevin and Tony described.