Author Archives: Robert

Hide offline contacts from Facebook chat

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If you’re like me, you stay logged into Facebook throughout the day. I work online so this is not uncommon.

One thing I have always hated is that there are no preferences for how you want to filter that list. Personally I find it pointless to show you offline contacts in an instant chat interface. I know some people use it to leave messages, but I am not one of them.

Assuming you know how to modify your browser’s custom style sheet, this is all you need to add and those offline users will no longer be visible!

.fbChatOrderedList li.item,
.fbChatOrderedList li.separator {
    display: none !important;
}
.fbChatOrderedList li.active,
.fbChatOrderedList li.mobile {
    display: block !important;
}

Feel free to post questions, comments or even improvements.

IMPROVED: Open all external links in a new window using jQuery

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In the original post I covered how to use jQuery to automatically make external links open in a new window. The method however was slightly flawed in my opinion since…

  1. It did not check form action attributes
  2. It assumed ANY link starting with “http[s]://” was external

Here is my new and improved method for making all external site links open in a new window. It now includes form tags, one less selector for secure and non-secure link urls, AND excludes any of those which link to an internal page where the full url may have been specified.

$('a[href*="://"], form[action*="://"]').not($('a[href*="://'+location.host+'"]')).attr('target','_blank');

A quick breakdown…

  1. a[href*=”://“] and form[action*=”://“] matches the elements where a full url has been specified
  2. .not($(‘a[href*=”://’+location.host+'”]’)) excludes all matched items that include the current host (eg: http://www.robertmullaney.com/)
  3. finally we update the target attribute of the the remaining links open in a new window

Why this is important:

Once you have a user on your site, the worst thing you can do is send them away. Also, you will easily annoy them if all links open in new windows and cause them to leave anyhow. This way, only the links that pull them away from site site are opened in new windows. When they are done on the external sites, they close the browser and there your site remains.

Calculate the total height of child elements of a clipped (overflow: hidden) parent tag

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Ever have an element with clipped content and wanted to know the total height of the elements contained therein? I have a client who wants the height of the main content to be clipped to a preset height (don’t ask me why). Which means I need to dynamically add a “read more” link to expand the container and show all the content.

Well, here’s how you calculate the combined height of the children with jQuery… Continue reading →

Remove www prefix from domain using PHP

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I see this question a lot and usually it comes down to getting the current host name for use with cookies. Lets say I want to make a domain-wide cookie, that does not include the standard www prefix such as www.robertmullaney.com. In order for the cookie to work with or without the www prefix, it needs to become ‘.robertmullaney.com’.

preg_replace('/^www\./i', '.', $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'])

Now, some of you may be looking for a way to determine the top-level domain for something like this.subdomain.robertmullaney.com. That is not an easy solution (since many TLDs have multiple suffixes like .co.uk). If that’s what you’re looking for, check back later and see if I have come up with a good solution… that one’s tricky.

Happy New Year 2012

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I’d like to wish all of my visitors and fellow coders a happy and prosperous new year. Keep checking out my blog in 2012 for some new sections included but not limited to java, c++ and iphone/android app development. This should be a good year.

Calculator: Convert Xbox Live Microsoft Points (MSP) to USD

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Here is a calculator (requires JavaScript) to convert Xbox Live Microsoft Points into USD (dollars) and vice versa.

Microsoft Point Converter

USD MSP

Simply enter an amount into either field and the conversion is automatic.

PS: If you leech my code, at least link to me for credit 😉

My HTML5 base template (skeleton file) with jQuery from Google CDN

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Below is the standard HTML5 template I start most of my projects with. It includes the latest 1.x version of jQuery, jQuery UI, and the desired jQuery UI theme. It also has a conditional comment that checks to see if the current browser older than IE9 and includes HTML5Shiv to make sure new elements are rendered properly in older IE browsers.

While I don’t claim this is the best skeleton HTML5 template, I think it is a very solid foundation to start from 😉

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Untitled</title>
<meta name="keywords" content="">
<meta name="description" content="">
<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1/themes/ui-lightness/jquery-ui.css">
<!--[if lt IE 9]><script src="//html5shiv.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/html5.js"></script><![endif]-->
<script>
$(function() {
    //DOM is Ready
});
</script>
</head>
<body>

</body>
</html>

PHP: Incrementing/decrementing a numeric string that has letter (alpha) prefixes

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I see this question quite a bit in programming discussions and forums. I’ll be linking to this post from now on to avoid re-posting the same replies every time someone asks.

String Value: XYZ123

Desired Result: XYZ124

The majority of solutions I have read regarding this problem require splitting the string or using regular expressions to manipulate the numeric portion. The overhead for complex solutions for such a simple problem are simply overkill. The example below shows the easiest way to increment the string  and requires minimal overhead… Continue reading →

Bookmarklet: Submit a login form using javascript within a bookmark

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If you’re like me, you have many bookmarks to administration areas that require authentication. For you, this script is a priceless time-saver.

Let’s say your login page has a form similar to the following…

<form action="/login.php" method="post">
    <label>Username: <input type="text" name="user"></label>
    <label>Password: <input type="password" name="pass"></label>
    <input type="submit" value="Log In">
</form>

Some logins simply cannot be stored in the browser’s password system. So, to save you the extra effort of manually logging in on each visit to such pages, create a bookmark that automatically logs you into the system.

Here’s the code to submit that form using a bookmarklet… Continue reading →

jQuery Add Bookmark to Favorites Script

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Here is a quick example of how to use jQuery along with traditional browser sniffing techniques to create a dynamic “Bookmark Us” link.

Google CDN (latest 1.x version, theme)…

<script type="text/javascript" src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1/themes/blitzer/jquery-ui.css" />

The javascript… Continue reading →

Make the jQuery UI Datepicker use a jQuery Button

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It has been bugging me for some time that the datepicker widget uses a normal button unless you tell it to use an image. Seeing that we are using the jQuery-UI framework, it makes sense to me that the button should be styled as such. After playing with the selectors and trying it a few different ways, here is how I made that boring datepicker button become a jQuery-UI button (with calendar icon). Continue reading →