Page 18 of 21 of the Unsolicited Advice Archives

1. Introduction to XMLHttpRequest Level 2

   'XMLHttpRequest is the primary technology that allows us to do Ajax-style updates to our pages — essentially, more dynamic content updates that don’t require page reloads. The XHR1 spec (and earlier versions) worked okay but had a number of shortcomings. The new version — XHR2 — addresses many of those shortcomings; in this article we’ll look at how, providing an overview and explanatory examples of all the main features.'

2. 

   Demystifying the CSS transforms matrix functions

   One of the things I didn't cover in much depth in my MinneWebCon talk about CSS transitions and...

3. Understanding the CSS Transforms Matrix

   'In this article we explain how transform matrices work — these involve some rather complicated math, but they are not so hard to understand when you sit down and check out a few examples! Once you understand how to put together matrices, you can use them inside the CSS transform: matrix(); and transform: matrix3d(); functions to apply transform effects to your web pages.'

4. input type="range" and Android's stock browser.

   This post is more than ten years old. It is no longer accurate. Android's stock browser supports the range input type, but in versions 3.x4.x and below (not sure about Android 4.x), it doesn't actually display the UI. It does, however, support parts of the Shadow

5. An Introduction to HTML5 Web Messaging

   'HTML5 web messaging provides a way for documents to share data without exposing the DOM to malicious cross-origin scripting. This article provides an introductory guide to using this new functionality, and some simple examples to get you started.'

6. input type="url", validation and user interfaces

   Recently a friend messaged me about the url input type, and how to prevent Opera from automatically prepending http:// to the value of a URL input field if it is missing. I think I've found a workaround, but first, I want to discuss the url input type, and how different

7. DOM Access Control Using Cross-Origin Resource Sharing

   'This article provides an introductory guide to cross origin resource sharing, or CORS, a technology allowing you to control communication and access between resources residing at different origins in a secure manner, getting around problems associated with the traditional same-origin security policy.'

8. Late night lizard

   Just returned from a wonderful two-week trip to Indonesia that would have been way more wonderful if it wasn't for the geckos in our hotel villas (we stayed at two places: The Purist in Ubud, Bali; and Ahimsa Beach on Jimbaran Bay). They made this noise all. night. long. Download

9. HTML5 for AS3 Developers: FormData versus URLVariables

   This is the third post in an occasional series designed to bridge the gap between ActionScript 3.0 and emerging front-end technologies. Both ActionScript and the front-end stack have mechanisms for sending data from a page or movie to a server without requiring a page refresh. In most browsers, we