Django JavaScript Integration: AJAX and jQuery Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface
Chapter 1: jQuery and Ajax Integration in Django
Chapter 2: jQuery—the Most Common JavaScript Framework
Chapter 3: Validating Form Input on the Server Side
Chapter 4: Server-side Database Search with Ajax
Chapter 5: Signing Up and Logging into a Website Using Ajax
Chapter 6: jQuery In-place Editing Using Ajax
Chapter 7: Using jQuery UI Autocomplete in Django Templates
Chapter 8: Django ModelForm: a CSS Makeover
Chapter 9: Database and Search Handling
Chapter 10: Tinkering Around: Bugfixes, Friendlier Password Input, and a Directory That Tells Local Time
Chapter 11: Usability for Hackers
Appendix: Debugging Hard JavaScript Bugs
Index

• Preface

• Chapter 1: jQuery and Ajax Integration in Django
• Ajax and the XMLHttpRequest object
• Human speech: An overlaid function
• Ajax: Another overlaid function
• The technologies Ajax is overlaid on
• JavaScript
• XMLHttpRequest
• Methods
• Properties
• HTML/XHTML
• XML
• JSON
• CSS
• The DOM
• iframes and other Ajax variations
• JavaScript/Ajax Libraries
• Server-side technologies
• A look at Django
• Django templating kickstart
• A more complete glimpse at Django templating
• Setting JavaScript and other static content in place
• Summary

• Chapter 2: jQuery—the Most Common JavaScript Framework
• jQuery and basic Ajax
• jQuery Ajax facilities
• $.ajax()
• context
• data
• dataFilter
• dataType
• error(XMLHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown)
• success(data, textStatus, XMLHttpRequest)
• type
• url
• $.aj0axSetup()
• Sample invocation
• $.get() and $.post()
• .load()
• jQuery as a virtual higher-level language
• The selectors
• A closure-based example to measure clock skew
• Case study: A more in-depth application
• Chapter 3: Validating Form Input on the Server Side
• Chapter 4: Server-side Database Search with Ajax
• Chapter 5: Signing Up and Logging into a Website Using Ajax
• Chapter 6: jQuery In-place Editing Using Ajax
• Chapter 7: Using jQuery UI Autocomplete in Django Templates
• Chapter 8: Django ModelForm: a CSS Makeover
• Chapter 9: Database and Search Handling
• Chapter 10: Tinkering Around: Bugfixes, Friendlier Password Input, and a Directory That Tells Local Time
• Chapter 11: Usability for Hackers
• Appendix: Debugging Hard JavaScript Bugs
• Summary

• Chapter 3: Validating Form Input on the Server Side
• The standard lecture: low-level validation
• Matching regular expressions
• You cannot guarantee absolutely valid data
• Validating can detect (some) malicious input
• The Django way of validation
• Django gives you some things for free
• The steps in Django's validation
• A more sensible and cruelty-free approach to validation
• Things get murkier
• The zero-one-infinity rule: a cardinal rule of thumb in usability
• An improvement on Django's advertised approach
• A validation example: GPS coordinates
• Avoiding error messages that point fingers and say, "You're wrong!"
• Validation as demanding that assumptions be met
• Old-school: conform to our U.S.-based assumptions!
• Adding the wrong kind of band-aid
• Making assumptions and demanding that users conform
• At least names are simple, right?
• Even in ASCII, things keep getting murkier
• Better validation may be less validation
• Caveat: English is something of a lingua franca
• We don't have to negotiate with pistols
• Doing our best to solve the wrong problem: a story
• It really does apply to validation
• Facebook and LinkedIn know something better
• Summary

• Chapter 4: Server-side Database Search with Ajax
• Searching on the client side and server side
• Handling databases through Django models
• Models for an intranet employee photo directory
• Searching our database
• A tour of Django persistence facilities
• Summary

• Chapter 5: Signing Up and Logging into a Website Using Ajax
• admin.py: administrative functions called once
• functions.py: project-specific functions, including our @ajax_login_required decorator
• views.py: functions that render web pages
• style.css: basic styling for usability
• search.html: a template for client-side Ajax
• The Django admin interface
• Summary

• Chapter 6: jQuery In-place Editing Using Ajax
• Including a plugin
• How to make pages more responsive
• A template handling the client-side requirements
• The bulk of the profile
• Whitespace and delivery
• Page-specific JavaScript
• Support on the server side
• Summary

• Chapter 7: Using jQuery UI Autocomplete in Django Templates
• Adding autocomplete: first attempt
• Progressive enhancement, a best practice
• A real-world workaround
• "Interest-based negotiation": a power tool for problem solving when plan A doesn't work
• A first workaround
• Boilerplate code from jQuery UI documentation
• Turning on Ajax behavior (or trying to)
• Code on the server side
• Refining our solution further
• Summary

• Chapter 8: Django ModelForm: a CSS Makeover
• "Hello, world!" in ModelForm
• Expanding and customizing the example
• Customizing ModelForm pages' appearance
• Going under ModelForm's hood
• An excellent "stupid" question: where's the e-mail slot?
• Summary

• Chapter 9: Database and Search Handling
• Moving forward to an AHAH solution
• Django templates for simple AHAH
• Templating for a list of search results
• Template for an individual profile
• Views on the server side
• Telling if the user is logged in
• A view to support deletion
• The AHAH view to load profiles
• Helper functions for the AHAH view for searching
• An updated model
• An AHAH server-side search function
• Handling the client-side: A template for the main page
• CSS for styling the directory
• Our updated urlpatterns
• Summary

• Chapter 10: Tinkering Around: Bugfixes, Friendlier Password Input, and a Directory That Tells Local Time
• Minor tweaks and bugfixes
• Setting a default name of "(Insert name here)"
• Eliminating Borg behavior
• Confusing jQuery's load() with html()
• Preventing display of deleted instances
• Adding a favicon.ico
• Handling password input in a slightly different way
• A directory that includes local timekeeping
• Summary

• Chapter 11: Usability for Hackers
• Usability begins with anthropology… and Django hackers have a good start on anthropology
• Anthropological usability techniques
• An introductory example: card sorting
• Focus groups: cargo cult research for usability
• Anthropological observation: the bedrock of usability
• More than one way to see the same situation
• Applying this foundation to usability
• It's just like (hard) debugging
• Lessons from other areas
• Live cross-cultural encounters
• History
• Old books and literature
• The last other area: whatever you have
• Understanding the user
• A lesson from optimization
• What's wrong with scratching an itch, or you are not your user
• Worst practices from the jargon file
• Python and usability
• It's not all about the computer!
• What to do in the concrete
• Further reading
• Summary

• Appendix: Debugging Hard JavaScript Bugs
• "Just fiddling with Firebug" is considered harmful
• Cargo cult debugging at your fingertips
• The scientific method of debugging
• Exhausting yourself by barking up the wrong tree
• The humble debugger
• The value of taking a break
• Two major benefits to asking for help
• Firebug and Chrome developer tools
• The basics across browsers
• Zeroing in on Chrome
• Summary

• Index