iwf/docs/faq.xml

<response>
        <action type='html'>
                <a name='top' />
                <h2>Frequently Asked Questions</h2>
                <p>
                        <ol>
                                <li><a href='#whatis'>What is IWF?</a></li>
                                <li><a href='#simplify'>What can IWF simplify for me?</a></li>
                                <li><a href='#js'>Do I need to know javascript to use it?</a></li>
                                <li><a href='#licensing'>What kind of licensing applies?</a></li>
                        </ol>
                </p>
                <hr />

                <a name='whatis' />
                <h3>What is IWF?</h3>
                <p>
                        Interactive Website Framework, or IWF, is essentially a wrapper
                        for much of the mundane javascripting associated with creating
                        highly interactive, browser independent, responsive websites.
                        It keeps much of the "traditional" website coding paradigm,
                        while introducing several new functionalities -- such as
                        being able to suppress a page from entering the browser history (good for preventing data duplication when a user reposts the last request)
                </p>
                <a href='#top'>top</a>
                <hr width='50%' align='center'/>

                <a name='js' />
                <h3>Do I need to know javascript to use it?</a></h3>
                <p>
                        Yes, but very minimally.  For instance, if you understand what the following anchor tag
                        does, you'll be able to use IWF effectively:
                        <pre>
&lt;a href='javascript:alert("Hello!")'&gt;Say Hi&lt;/a&gt;
                        </pre>
                        A common example of something relatively complex that IWF boils down to a simple
                        function call is AJAX.  AJAX is a term for the browser sending a request to the server
                        without clearing the current page.
                        <br />
                        <br />
                        Suppose you have a <code>listcds.php</code> page which returns 
                        HTML representing a list of cds and you want to put that HTML into an element with 
                        the id of "putCdsHere":
                        <pre>
&lt;a href='javascript:iwfRequest("listcds.php", "putCdsHere");'&gt;List Cds&lt;/a&gt;
                        </pre>
                        All the details of creating the XmlHttpRequest object, setting its properties, asynchronously calling the server
                        in the background, catching the response upon completion, parsing that response, 
                        finding the appropriate element on the page, and injecting the HTML is done for you.
                        The only thing you need to do is tell IWF what you want and where to put it.  Simple, right?
                </p>
                <a href='#top'>top</a>
                <hr width='50%', align='center' />


                <a name='simplify' />
                <h3>What can IWF simplify for me?</h3>
                <p>
                        IWF contains a multitude of helper functions and objects, broken into 4 main categories:
                        <ul>
                                <li><h4>Common Functions (iwfcore.js)</h4>
                                        <p>
                                                Consists primarily of:
                                                <ul>
                                                        <li>data typing (e.g. <code>iwfToDate</code>)</li>
                                                        <li>type checking (e.g. <code>iwfIsString</code>)</li>
                                                        <li>element manipulation (e.g. <code>iwfGetById</code>, <code>iwfAppendChild</code>)</li>
                                                        <li>string manipulation (e.g. <code>iwfHtmlEncode</code>, <code>iwfXmlDecode</code>)</li>
                                                        <li>formatting (e.g. <code>iwfFloatFormat</code>)</li>
                                                </ul>
                                                <a href='javascript:alert("Sorry, not done yet!");/*iwfRequest("ref_core.xml");*/'>Reference for IWF Core</a>
                                        </p>
                                        
                                </li>
                                <li><h4>XML (iwfxml.js)</h4>
                                        <p>
                                                Consists of three objects, <code>iwfXmlDoc</code>, <code>iwfXmlNode</code>, and <code>iwfXmlWriter</code>.  These objects
                                                can be used to parse and create xml.  These are <strong>not</strong> a reimplementation of the DOM objects -- these are
                                                designed to have more readable javascript code.  For example, let's say we have the following xml:
                                                <pre>
&lt;internet&gt;
        &lt;site url='www.sourceforge.net'&gt;
                &lt;description&gt;Great place for open source projects!&lt;/description&gt;
        &lt;/site&gt;
        &lt;site url='iwf.sourceforge.net'&gt;
                &lt;description&gt;IWF Project Home&lt;/description&gt;
        &lt;/site&gt;
&lt;/internet&gt;
                                                </pre>
                                                To pull the description for the IWF site using the typical DOM:<br />
                                                <pre>var desc = doc.documentElement.lastChild().firstChild().innerText;</pre>
                                                To pull the same node using the custom IWF implementation:<br />
                                                <pre>var desc = doc.internet.site[1].description[0].getText();</pre>
                                                <a href='javascript:alert("Sorry, not done yet!");/*iwfRequest("ref_xml.xml");*/'>Reference for IWF XML</a>
                                        </p>
                                </li>
                                <li><h4>User Interface (iwfgui.js)</h4>
                                        <p>
                                                This contains functions to affect the user interface.
                                                Ability to change the following aspects are included:
                                                <ul>
                                                        <li>Visibility (e.g. <code>iwfShow</code>, <code>iwfHideGently</code>)</li>
                                                        <li>Position (e.g. <code>iwfX1</code>, <code>iwfMoveTo</code>)</li>
                                                        <li>Depth (e.g. <code>iwfZIndex</code>)</li>
                                                        <li>Size (e.g. <code>iwfHeight</code>, <code>iwfWidth</code>)</li>
                                                        <li>Opacity (e.g. <code>iwfOpacity</code>)</li>
                                                </ul>
                                                Also, user interaction objects have been generalized to be browser independent as well:
                                                <ul>
                                                        <li>Event object (<code>iwfEvent</code>)</li>
                                                </ul>
                                                <a href='javascript:alert("Sorry, not done yet!");/*iwfRequest("ref_gui.js");*/'>Reference for IWF GUI</a>
                                        </p>
                                </li>
                                <li><h4>AJAX (iwfajax.js)</h4>
                                        <p>
                                                This contains code required to perform AJAX requests.
                                                <a href='javascript:alert("Sorry, not done yet!");/*iwfRequest("ref_ajax.js");*/'>Reference for IWF AJAX</a>

                                        </p>
                                </li>
                        </ul>
                </p>
                <a href='#top'>top</a>
                <hr width='50%' align='center'/>

                <a name='licensing' />
                <h3>What kind of licensing applies?</h3>
                <p>
                        I have chosen the Lesser GPL (or LGPL) to license the IWF.
                        I wanted this code to be free and in the wild, but I thought the GPL
                        was overkill for this type of library-like code.
                </p>
                <a href='#top'>top</a>
                <hr width='50%' align='center'/>


        </action>
</response>
1	<response>
2	<action type='html'>
3	<a name='top' />
4	<h2>Frequently Asked Questions</h2>
5	<p>
6	<ol>
7	<li><a href='#whatis'>What is IWF?</a></li>
8	<li><a href='#simplify'>What can IWF simplify for me?</a></li>
9	<li><a href='#js'>Do I need to know javascript to use it?</a></li>
10	<li><a href='#licensing'>What kind of licensing applies?</a></li>
11	</ol>
12	</p>
13	<hr />
14
15	<a name='whatis' />
16	<h3>What is IWF?</h3>
17	<p>
18	Interactive Website Framework, or IWF, is essentially a wrapper
19	for much of the mundane javascripting associated with creating
20	highly interactive, browser independent, responsive websites.
21	It keeps much of the "traditional" website coding paradigm,
22	while introducing several new functionalities -- such as
23	being able to suppress a page from entering the browser history (good for preventing data duplication when a user reposts the last request)
24	</p>
25	<a href='#top'>top</a>
26	<hr width='50%' align='center'/>
27
28	<a name='js' />
29	<h3>Do I need to know javascript to use it?</a></h3>
30	<p>
31	Yes, but very minimally. For instance, if you understand what the following anchor tag
32	does, you'll be able to use IWF effectively:
33	<pre>
34	<a href='javascript:alert("Hello!")'>Say Hi</a>
35	</pre>
36	A common example of something relatively complex that IWF boils down to a simple
37	function call is AJAX. AJAX is a term for the browser sending a request to the server
38	without clearing the current page.
39	<br />
40	<br />
41	Suppose you have a <code>listcds.php</code> page which returns
42	HTML representing a list of cds and you want to put that HTML into an element with
43	the id of "putCdsHere":
44	<pre>
45	<a href='javascript:iwfRequest("listcds.php", "putCdsHere");'>List Cds</a>
46	</pre>
47	All the details of creating the XmlHttpRequest object, setting its properties, asynchronously calling the server
48	in the background, catching the response upon completion, parsing that response,
49	finding the appropriate element on the page, and injecting the HTML is done for you.
50	The only thing you need to do is tell IWF what you want and where to put it. Simple, right?
51	</p>
52	<a href='#top'>top</a>
53	<hr width='50%', align='center' />
54
55
56	<a name='simplify' />
57	<h3>What can IWF simplify for me?</h3>
58	<p>
59	IWF contains a multitude of helper functions and objects, broken into 4 main categories:
60	<ul>
61	<li><h4>Common Functions (iwfcore.js)</h4>
62	<p>
63	Consists primarily of:
64	<ul>
65	<li>data typing (e.g. <code>iwfToDate</code>)</li>
66	<li>type checking (e.g. <code>iwfIsString</code>)</li>
67	<li>element manipulation (e.g. <code>iwfGetById</code>, <code>iwfAppendChild</code>)</li>
68	<li>string manipulation (e.g. <code>iwfHtmlEncode</code>, <code>iwfXmlDecode</code>)</li>
69	<li>formatting (e.g. <code>iwfFloatFormat</code>)</li>
70	</ul>
71	<a href='javascript:alert("Sorry, not done yet!");/iwfRequest("ref_core.xml");/'>Reference for IWF Core</a>
72	</p>
73
74	</li>
75	<li><h4>XML (iwfxml.js)</h4>
76	<p>
77	Consists of three objects, <code>iwfXmlDoc</code>, <code>iwfXmlNode</code>, and <code>iwfXmlWriter</code>. These objects
78	can be used to parse and create xml. These are <strong>not</strong> a reimplementation of the DOM objects -- these are
79	designed to have more readable javascript code. For example, let's say we have the following xml:
80	<pre>
81	<internet>
82	<site url='www.sourceforge.net'>
83	<description>Great place for open source projects!</description>
84	</site>
85	<site url='iwf.sourceforge.net'>
86	<description>IWF Project Home</description>
87	</site>
88	</internet>
89	</pre>
90	To pull the description for the IWF site using the typical DOM:<br />
91	<pre>var desc = doc.documentElement.lastChild().firstChild().innerText;</pre>
92	To pull the same node using the custom IWF implementation:<br />
93	<pre>var desc = doc.internet.site[1].description[0].getText();</pre>
94	<a href='javascript:alert("Sorry, not done yet!");/iwfRequest("ref_xml.xml");/'>Reference for IWF XML</a>
95	</p>
96	</li>
97	<li><h4>User Interface (iwfgui.js)</h4>
98	<p>
99	This contains functions to affect the user interface.
100	Ability to change the following aspects are included:
101	<ul>
102	<li>Visibility (e.g. <code>iwfShow</code>, <code>iwfHideGently</code>)</li>
103	<li>Position (e.g. <code>iwfX1</code>, <code>iwfMoveTo</code>)</li>
104	<li>Depth (e.g. <code>iwfZIndex</code>)</li>
105	<li>Size (e.g. <code>iwfHeight</code>, <code>iwfWidth</code>)</li>
106	<li>Opacity (e.g. <code>iwfOpacity</code>)</li>
107	</ul>
108	Also, user interaction objects have been generalized to be browser independent as well:
109	<ul>
110	<li>Event object (<code>iwfEvent</code>)</li>
111	</ul>
112	<a href='javascript:alert("Sorry, not done yet!");/iwfRequest("ref_gui.js");/'>Reference for IWF GUI</a>
113	</p>
114	</li>
115	<li><h4>AJAX (iwfajax.js)</h4>
116	<p>
117	This contains code required to perform AJAX requests.
118	<a href='javascript:alert("Sorry, not done yet!");/iwfRequest("ref_ajax.js");/'>Reference for IWF AJAX</a>
119
120	</p>
121	</li>
122	</ul>
123	</p>
124	<a href='#top'>top</a>
125	<hr width='50%' align='center'/>
126
127	<a name='licensing' />
128	<h3>What kind of licensing applies?</h3>
129	<p>
130	I have chosen the Lesser GPL (or LGPL) to license the IWF.
131	I wanted this code to be free and in the wild, but I thought the GPL
132	was overkill for this type of library-like code.
133	</p>
134	<a href='#top'>top</a>
135	<hr width='50%' align='center'/>
136
137
138
139
140	</action>
141	</response>