Shaun Mccran

My digital playground

08
D
E
C
2010

Differences in calling a function in JQuery

I'm still playing around with some aspects of JQuery, and I noticed recently that I was still writing functions in the old school JavaScript fashion. I was constructing a JQuery selector, and then pointing the event handler to a separate JavaScript function. Like this:

view plain print about
1$("#type").change(changeFields);
2
3function changeFields(){
4    var selected = $("#type option:selected").val();
5            $('.formElems').hide();
6            $("." +selected).show();
7            }

I noticed then that all the other JQuery based functions do not construct the function as a separate entity. The function is embedded within the actual event handler.

More like this:

view plain print about
1$("#type").change(function ()
2        {
3        var selected = $("#type option:selected").val();
4            $('.formElems').hide();
5            $("." +selected).show();
6        });

Both methods work equally as well (IE they do what they are supposed to) but I can't see any reason you would do one over the other. The only thing I can think of is that in the first example the function is reference able from elsewhere, whereas the second code example is not.

Anyone more knowledgeable than me got a view on this?

08
N
O
V
2010

Why develop cross browser designs - why not code to specific browser strengths?

I've been working for a marketing Agency for the best part of a year now, and one of the things that always rear's its head in a digital project is the compatibility of designs in multiple browsers.

We have all encountered differences in design compatibility and functionality due to the browser vendor and version number, but the usual course of action is try and code solutions that address the differences in browsers in an effort to make them look and work in the same way.

This article examines why that is the case, and I put forward the argument that by doing this you are spending valuable project time trying to ensure the same user experience on different browsers, when it may be a much better idea to use that same development time coding to the strengths of each of those browsers, to create a more rich user experience instead of a more generic one.

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03
N
O
V
2010

AD based revenue VS subscription income - Times UK Lost 4 Million Readers to Its Paywall Experiment

Tech Crunch released an article yesterday discussing the merits of the Times UK moving all their content behind a Paywall. It is an interesting read, but personally I think the comments section is a more informative take on the situation.

It does raise an old, but still valid question as to whether a business should choose advertising based revenue stream, or require users to subscribe to their services.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/02/times-paywall-4-million-readers/

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17
J
U
N
2010

How to move a Wordpress Blog (same domain) and redirect your users

One task that has come up recently when dealing with the SEO side of a client's portfolio is the positioning of their Blog. They are using Wordpress, so I searched for and found a few other guides to moving Wordpress Blogs, but they are all quite length, and don't deal with the social side of things, like re pointing your XML feeds and redirects on the old Blog URL.

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