Bits & Bytes

Posts Tagged ‘xhtml’

Using an External JavaScript File

Putting JavaScript into a separate file has many advantages over writing the code inline in an HTML file. First, it makes the JavaScript code much cleaner since the HTML code is in a separate file. Second, it helps to promote modularization, which is always a benefit in programming. Finally, it the eliminates the need for creating CDATA sections to encapsulate JavaScript code that contains XHTML characters; we will explain this more later

Beginning with the code from our earlier JavaScript post, we have a simple HTML file, which I have called “JavaScriptBasis.html” in this post. The original HTML code with the embedded JavaScript code looks like this:

Old JavaScriptBasis.html

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
  <title>XoaX.net</title>
</head>
<body>

<script type="text/javascript">
    document.write("Welcome to XoaX.net!");
</script>

</body>
</html>

What we want to do now is remove the JavaScript code, put it into a separate .js file, and call it via the script tag from the HTML file. To do this, use your favorite text editor to create a .js file called “BasicWrite.js” in the same directory as your HTML file and save it with this code pasted into it:

BasicWrite.js

document.write("Welcome to XoaX.net!");

Then open the file “JavaScriptBasis.html” and change code in the script tags to this:

<script type="text/javascript" src="BasicWrite.js"></script>

Now, your HTML file will call your JavaScript file. The code in the HTML file should look like this:

JavaScriptBasis.html

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
  <title>XoaX.net</title>
</head>
<body>

<script type="text/javascript" src="BasicWrite.js"></script>

</body>
</html>

After you have saved the new files, double-click the HTML file to open it and you should see the message “Welcome to XoaX.net!” printed just as you did before.

It may not feel like much has been accomplished yet. In fact, it might seem like we have made the code more complex. However, the advantages will become more apparent when we write bigger programs.

Finally, we remark that using .js files allows us to eliminate the need to use CDATA sections. When XHMTL characters, like <, are used inside of an embedded JavaScript section, they create validation problems. For example, in order to allow this code to validate, we need the CDATA section as shown here:

CDATA Section


<script type="text/javascript">
var iX = 10;
/*<![CDATA[*/
if (iX < 13) {
    document.write("Welcome to XoaX.net!");
}
]]>
/*]]>*/
</script>

When this code is put into an external JavaScript, this CDATA section is not needed for validation. Note that the CDATA section looks particularly horrific since it requires us to comment out both endpoints of the CDATA section so that it does not adversely affect the JavaScript code:
. . .
/*<![CDATA[*/
. . .
/*]]>*/
. . .

Centering HTML Elements with CSS Absolute Positioning

Here, we have a medium gray, outer div element with a lighter gray div inside it. The inner div is 300 pixels by 250 pixels and has a 5 pixel wide border with a padding width of 10 pixels. So, the inner div is 2*5 + 2*10 + 300 = 330 pixels wide and 2*5 + 2*10 + 250 = 280 pixels high. The outer div has a 30 pixel margin around it for presentation.

(Proverbs 20:1-4) Wine is a luxurious thing, and drunkenness riotous: whosoever is delighted therewith shall not be wise. As the roaring of a lion, so also is the dread of a king: he that provoketh him, sinneth against his own soul. It is an honour for a man to separate himself from quarrels: but all fools are meddling with reproaches. Because of the cold the sluggard would not plough: he shall beg therefore in the summer, and it shall not be given him.

To center a block element both vertically and horizontally within another element, we use negative margins. However, first we set the left and top positions at 50%. This places the upper-left corner of the inner div in the center of the outer div. To correct this placement and put the center of the inner div in the center of the outer div, we use a negative margin that is half the size of the inner div in both the horizontal and vertical directions. These values are 330/2 = 165 and 280/2 = 140, respectively. So, the left and top margins are set to -165px and -140px. The HTML and CSS to create the effect above is shown below.


<div style="position:absolute; width:480px; height:360px; background-color:#aaaaaa; margin:30px;">

<div style="position:absolute; background-color:#DDDDDD; width:300px; height:250px; padding:10px; border:5px solid #444444; left:50%; top:50%; margin-left:-165px; margin-top:-140px;">

<p>(Proverbs 20:1-4) Wine is a luxurious thing, and drunkenness riotous: whosoever is delighted therewith shall not be wise. As the roaring of a lion, so also is the dread of a king: he that provoketh him, sinneth against his own soul. It is an honour for a man to separate himself from quarrels: but all fools are meddling with reproaches. Because of the cold the sluggard would not plough: he shall beg therefore in the summer, and it shall not be given him. </p>

</div>

</div>

Types of Positioning for HTML Elements with CSS

There are four positioning styles for HTML elements, which can be specified by a CSS style specification: static, relative, absolute, and fixed. Additionally, we can set the position style to be specified as inherited, in order to copy the positioning style of the parent element.


<div style="width:400px; height:200px; background-color:#aaaaaa; padding:10px; margin:5px;">

<p>"But what became of the young lady?" I asked.</p>

<div style="float:right; position:static; width:150px; height:50px; left:10px; top:20px; background-color:#333333;"></div>

<p style="width:400px;">"Do you really want to know?" he said, buttoning himself in his fur coat carefully. "I confess to the small malice of sending her Sevrin's diary. She went into retirement; then she went to Florence; then she went into retreat in a convent. I can't tell where she will go next. What does it matter? Gestures! Gestures! Mere gestures of her class."</p>

</div>

Above, we have the code for a container div element that contains three other elements: two p sections and a div section. We will focus on changing the position property for the inner div element, which is dark gray. The position specification is shown in bold and we will change the static specifier to change the style

static

The default positioning scheme is static, which simply positions elements as they appear in the normal document flow. The important point to remember about this style is that it ignores positioning specifications. So, if you set a position element like left, it will be ignored in static mode.

“But what became of the young lady?” I asked.

“Do you really want to know?” he said, buttoning himself in his fur coat carefully. “I confess to the small malice of sending her Sevrin’s diary. She went into retirement; then she went to Florence; then she went into retreat in a convent. I can’t tell where she will go next. What does it matter? Gestures! Gestures! Mere gestures of her class.”

In the static example above, the inner div section, which is dark gray, simply floats right. The text section, which comes afterward wraps around the floated div section. Also, the left and top specifications are ignored because of the static position specification.

relative

The relative position scheme acts like the static scheme, except that the element is moved after everything is positioned. We can think of it like this: All of the elements are placed according to the static rules. Then the relative element is moved from its static position by the amount specified by the position coordinates.

“But what became of the young lady?” I asked.

“Do you really want to know?” he said, buttoning himself in his fur coat carefully. “I confess to the small malice of sending her Sevrin’s diary. She went into retirement; then she went to Florence; then she went into retreat in a convent. I can’t tell where she will go next. What does it matter? Gestures! Gestures! Mere gestures of her class.”

In the relative example above, we see that everything is in the same place as it was, except that the element is move 10 pixels to the right and 20 pixels down. This happens because the left and top specifications are used to move it.

absolute

For the absolute specification, everything is first placed as though the positioned element does not exist. Then the positioned element, the dark gray rectangle, is positioned according to its containing element, the light gray rectangle.

“But what became of the young lady?” I asked.

“Do you really want to know?” he said, buttoning himself in his fur coat carefully. “I confess to the small malice of sending her Sevrin’s diary. She went into retirement; then she went to Florence; then she went into retreat in a convent. I can’t tell where she will go next. What does it matter? Gestures! Gestures! Mere gestures of her class.”

As we see in the example above, the absolute positioning means that no space is left for the floated div element and that that element is place 10 pixels to the right and 20 pixels down from the upper-left corner of the container because of the left and top specifications (Note that when the absolute positioned element is inside a static positioned div, as shown here, we need to nest an additional absolute positioned div inside the outer div. Otherwise, the position will be taken relative to an outer element–in this case, the whole browser window.).

fixed

The fixed specification works like the absolute specification in that everything is placed as though the positioned element did not exist. Then the positioned element is placed relative to the entire browser window. We did not show this example, because the behavior is too strange. The fixed element actually stays exactly where it is placed as you scroll up and down the page. It is very messy, and we will leave it to your imagination and simply say that the rectangle sits 10 pixels to the right and 20 pixels down from the corner of your browser window as you scroll.

 

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