Javascript Pagination with JQuery

This script has been adapted from some other jquery pagination code found on the web.

function Pagination(){
 // alert('created')
 this.showPerPage = 10;
    this.currentPage = 0;
    this.lowestPage = 0;
    this.highestPage = 2;

}

Pagination.prototype.paginate = function( content ){
 this.content = content;
    this.numberOfItems = content.children().size(); 
    
    this.numberOfPages = Math.ceil(this.numberOfItems/this.showPerPage);
 
  var navigation_html = '';  
  var current_link = 0;  
  while(this.numberOfPages > current_link){  
   navigation_html += ''+ (current_link + 1) +'';  
      current_link++;  
  }  

  $('#pages').html(navigation_html);  
  $( content ).children().css('display', 'none');  
  $( content ).children().slice( 0, this.showPerPage ).css('display', 'inline'); 
  $('.page_link').css('display','none');
  $('.page_link').slice(this.lowestPage, this.highestPage+1 ).css('display','inline')
  $('#pages .page_link:first').addClass('active_page'); 
}


Pagination.prototype.goToPage = function (page_num){
 
 if( page_num==this.lowestPage && page_num!=0 ){ 
  // shift right
  this.lowestPage = this.lowestPage - 1;
  this.highestPage = this.highestPage -1 ;
  
 }else if( page_num==this.highestPage && page_num  // shift left
  this.highestPage = this.highestPage + 1;
  this.lowestPage = this.lowestPage + 1;
 }

 var start_from = page_num * this.showPerPage;
 var end_on = start_from + this.showPerPage;
 this.content.children().css('display', 'none').slice(start_from, end_on).css('display', 'inline');
 $('.page_link[longdesc=' + page_num +']').addClass('active_page').siblings('.active_page').removeClass('active_page');
 this.content.val(page_num);
 
 $('.page_link').css('display','none');
 $('.page_link').slice(this.lowestPage, this.highestPage+1 ).css('display','inline')
}
]]>

div.gadget h3{font-size:0.7em;font-weight:normal;margin-bottom:2;}
div.gadget p{font-size:0.7em;}
div.footer{position:absolute;bottom:0;display:none;}
div.footer p{line-height:70%;}
#count{font-weight:bold; }
#terms{ overflow:hidden;height:70px;font-size:.7em;overflow-y:auto; }
#terms em{float:right;}
#pages{position:absolute;right:0;bottom:2;}
#pages a{padding:1px;border:1px solid gray;margin:1px;color:black;text-decoration:none;}
.active_page{background:darkblue;color:white !important;}  

No more iPhone

A little History
Around 2006 I started carrying the iphone, the first version. I loved the iPhone. There was nothing else that could even compare. The iPhone created a new standard for smart phones in my opinion.

However, once the new purchase momentum slowed it was apparent that a couple things were missing. The main thing for me was cut/copy/paste. The other issue was getting use to the paradigm of using iTunes to manage everything. It felt a little strange at first to managing photos, podcast, music, movies etc.. through an application I originally thought of as a music application. Also managing updates to my phones OS, addresses, calendar events and the rest of the stuff got shoved in to iTunes as well.

The iTunes application was a great way for me to slowly get use to the new communication channels available from the Internet. Before the iPhone I really didn't spend anytime with podcast or organizing my music. I also only dabbled with RSS readers. iTunes feels like a bike with training wheels.

I hung tight to my iPhone up till now. As of late I was carrying and still own an iPhone 3GS. The new iPhone 4GS came out and I was slowly getting device envy again. At the same time I have seen several respected colleagues move to the Android platform. Looking at all the devices that are in the market for Android I wasn't convinced that anyone had figured it out on the Android side yet.

Then this last month I received a $263 phone bill from AT&T. This is based on a plan that is suppose to be $140. If this had been the first time then I wouldn't had a problem. But this has become a repeating bill. Now the issue is with texting and admittedly was squarely my fault. My options were to add unlimited texting for something like $20 more per month or manage my texting and my wife's texting to make sure we don't ever exceed the 200 messages. Sounds like a fun problem to solve but one that I didn't feel like dealing with yet. Besides the plan is suppose to be unlimited data, why are you charging me for a text? I don't really need an answer for that question. I know why they are charging me because they can! They don't believe it matters because they have the iPhone and they know( or so they thought they did) that I wouldn't give up my phone!? Would I??? Well that is a question that I had to answer. For the past 5 years I have experienced intermittent service issues and some that have been fairly annoying and obvious.

The point of this entry
While I love Apple's products and they do a great job of making things just work, I am ready for a cheaper plan. Enter the EVO HTC Android phone from Sprint. Spring has unlimited text, data, and voice (mobile to mobile any carrier) for ....$69.95! Yep, that is right. Now how does the service coverage compare? Well I am still on my 30 day trial but I will say not one dropped call yet. I have also spoke to several other Sprint customers in the area and they have no complaints to register.

So I compromised to move from and iPhone to Android EVO? No, not at all. At first this is how I felt but after I started using the phone I couldn't put it down. The phone is so customizable! I love the idea of the widgets. I have several roles in my life ranging from father, business owner, choir bass player that the Android allows me to customize my phone to fit all these roles better. The idea of the widget allows for more practical use of front page real-estate, very important to me. So there are 100k+ apps on the iPhone market and 50k+ on Android, so what? I reasonably need about 5 applications.

The maps application on Android blows away the maps on iPhone. The FM radio is a novelty but still pretty cool. The integration with my Gmail contacts and Google Calendar are first class. No more worries about how to keep my address book and calendar on the Mac in sync with my Google products. This is done as soon as you login to the phone. Because my Google contacts have mostly been used for emailing the contact manager has always been a distant second thought. This caused duplicate entries to be created in my Google contact list. On Android when you pull the person's information up to call or message the number of other matching records get shown as possible links. A quick review of the links and "BAM!" they are all easily consolidated into one contact record. Google Contacts will no longer be a second rate contact management solution for me.

No more am I restricted by what iTunes (the bicycle with training wheels) decides to provide for me. No more will I not have the latest podcast because I forgot to sync last night with my laptop. Now the primary unit to manage my phone is my phone. I was able to use an application called doubleTwist that provides a way of importing existing iTunes resources into Android. I am still learning how to use all the features on the phone. Each day the phone becomes more customized and there by feels more like "My" phone.

On the downside, the touch keyboard and text editing could take a couple lessons from the iPhone. But definitely not that big of a deal. It would also be nice to have a hardware switch to disable sound and one other thing a better battery. The battery issue may be resolvable since I can easily pop the back off and replace it. I am contemplating buying an additional battery that I can keep charged. Not even and option for the iPhone. : )

Spring Roo (wasting time tonight)

Okay so I sat down tonight to work on my Roo commands. I checked the version numbers to make sure I have the latest version. Of course I was one version behind so I decided to download the latest version of the software, extract it and point my ROO_HOME to the new location. Now I pop open a shell and type "roo" to fire up the Roo shell. The previous version of Roo comes up. I checked and re-checked my .bash_profile to make sure the ROO_HOME was configured correctly.

What is the point of this blog? I forgot to create the symbolic link for the roo.sh file. I had created the symbolic link earlier and forgot about it. I had to unlink the roo.sh file and create a new link before things got back to normal.

sudo ln -s path/to/spring/roo.sh /usr/bin/roo

Life is good now after loosing about an hour of time goofying with this.

Modeling External Integration Points

Developing an application that is new and has it's own database can be pretty easily done offline. By offline I mean disconnected from the client's networks and systems. Since the application is new and the database is new the developers are generally free to develop within corporate standards. It is very easy for a developer to disconnect from the corporate network and take their work somewhere else to work more productively. They are free to use tools that they have used for years and even new tools that they have found useful. What does all of this have to do with modeling integration points?

Well if you have to integrate with existing systems or third party systems then it isn't possible to disconnect from client network. It is often necessary to use a client machine to develop the code since these machines submit to heavy scrutiny and corporate security policies. License violations are also of concerns to organizations that have hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake. This can lead to a less productive developer since the tools and techniques they have developed may not be applicable on a machine absent of the technologies and tooling required. The client processes for obtaining software usually amounts to weeks of back and forth emailing and in the end usually denial of the tool or technology requested.

The other issue that comes about with external integration is the black box effect. It is complicated to describe exactly how the two systems will interact at a protocol level. There for when writing the requirement the writer simply places a black box around the integration point by saying "system A will integrate with system B and do thus and such". Wow! In those few words there is a ton of complexity that gets glossed over.

So why am I blogging about this? I have wondered for several years now if this is not just an engineering problem that needs to be solved. How many devices do we have that communicate through the USB interface. Do you have any devices that use serial, parallel, firewire, etc...? Why not treat these third party integration points as if we are designing a new device that communicates over USB? I am getting a little over my head talking about hardware but I want to give visual that everyone can understand. What makes USB work is the ability to standardize the interaction between the computer and the device.


I believe that with some thought a simple process can be put in place to model these integration points. Once the model has been created and verified, say by a unit test suite, then the developer is free to move to a more productive mode of operation. Disconnecting from heavily regulated client networks and moving into a productive development environment focused on developing high quality code in a rapid and reliable manner. I have a simple form that I am developing that will document the desired interactions between systems and hopefully will turn the black box into a transparent box that can then be estimated easily and validated for accuracy.

This will also help focus the implementation effort on implementing the new system instead of the quirks of the external system. While this should eliminate the black box nature of the specification process it will not remove the need for integration testing. It will still be necessary for the system to be integration tested once dropped in place but the system can be developed off the client network. Happy developers and hopefully more cost competitive fixed bid projects. A topic for another time.

Level 1 Discussion Form

CSS Design in Dayton

Back in May I was working at Starbucks in Oakwood and found myself talking with a designer from Forge. I started our conversation because I noticed the high definition site he was working on behind his text editor. He explained that he was a big proponent of web standards. I mentioned that I had started trying to learn CSS and good design and that I had recently purchased a book, "Mastering CSS". He quickly told me that I had made the right purchase. I enjoyed our meeting and have bumped into him and his company several times now. The latest is in this presentation from prezi below. Prezi is great and is for another post sometime. Enjoy!!

CSS In The Real World on Prezi

Chromed Bird

Just a quick mention of the Chrome Extension "Chromed Bird". It is a great little client for the browser that allows me to keep up with my twitter friends without being obtrusive to my work day. Check it out if you haven't. It has already helped me discover a half-a-dozen cool things that have been noted for later. Until recent I had pretty much tuned out of twitter just because there wasn't a good way for me to keep up with it. Now I have a little bird icon in my browser that has an unread count. I quickly view the unread and back to work I go. If I am busy I never see the little the unread notices.

This is working great for me.

What happen to the "copy to clipboard" button

Okay I was posting to my blog today when I ran across for the second time what seemed to be an updated version of the Syntax Highlighter library I am using for highlighting code. The nice little flash buttons that use to appear in the upper right hand corner are now gone. Hmm.... I don't like this. So I went to the site to find out where and why the little buttons have disappeared.

Copy To Clipboard

Since the first version back in 2004, SyntaxHighlighter has always used Flash to provide copy to clipboard functionality. At first it was Flash 8, then it was Flash 9 and now 10. It's never been a crowd pleaser and a lot of requests over the years demanded Flash to be removed.

Well, it's finally happening -- no more Flash. I think I've came up with user interface to copy code to clipboard which is a lot more intuitive and almost too easy.

If you double click anywhere on the code, the entire code view is replaces with a pre-selected view from which users can copy with a simple Ctrl/Cmd-C. Clicking anywhere else returns the view to the original state.