Nate Weiner

I believe that learning, especially when it comes to being a web developer, should never end. Every week I learn something new that I didn't before. A great thing about the tech community, whenever you run into a problem, you can almost always find someone who is willing to share a solution. I want to give back by sharing the things I learn each week, and linking back to the source. I encourage you to share in the comments what you learned this week as well.

1. Ternary Operator in PHP (and javascript)

It's a much more lightweight way of writing a simple if-statement with two outputs.

Where I learned about it: http://blog.rightbrainnetworks.com/2006/09/18/10-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-php/

2. When dynamically generating iFrames in IE6 and SSL, their location must be preloaded.

I had a script that was creating empty iFrames serving as an Ajax method. But in IE6, I kept receiving a 'mixed secure and insecure content' warning. Combing through my source code I couldn't find what element wasn't being loaded without https. Well I finally Google'd the problem and found the answer. When I was creating the iFrames, I created them first and then set the src value. I discovered however you need to set the iFrame's src value upon creation with a secure page. If you need a tempory location to point to before loading without an extra page request, you can enter 'javascript:false'.

Where I learned about it: http://crazybob.org/2005/06/ajax-ie-iframe-bug.html

3. RegExp Subpatterns

In javascript, when you call the match method, the RegExp object will hold onto the subpatterns so you can reference them after a match.

var str = 'http://www.website.com/webpage.html'; if (str.match( '([a-z]+\.com)' )) { alert( RegExp.$1 ); } Alerts: 'website.com';

I learned about this from analyzing the iepnghack.htc code written by Aaron Porter.

4. IE6 Flicker, and Solution

Apparently, previously unknown to me, IE6 checks for a newer version of the background-image CSS property on links every time you move the mouse over a link. You can disable this behavior by running an Internet Explorer command:

try {
  document.execCommand("BackgroundImageCache", false, true);
} catch(err) {}

I learned about this from: http://www.mister-pixel.com/#Content__state=

5. You can find diagrams of various plugs by using the word 'Pinouts'

A non-computer savvy friend needed to know the name of the port on a projector. He described it and it sounded like either a Serial Cable or a VGA Cable. I searched to find diagrams of both to send him and had a little trouble till I noticed on the Serial Cable's wikipedia page the diagram was labeled 'Pinout'. Searched for 'VGA Pinout' and bam, had a diagram.

What'd you learn this week?

Leave what you've learned this week in the comments.