Custom Javascript Objects with Embedded JQuery
To all of you non coding geeks, you don’t have to read this. It might confuse bewilder bore you to death not be of relevance to you.
As some of you know, I’m a multimedia developer (read: web developer… that seems to be the majority of what I do) at a relatively new University in Southern Ontario, Canada. I’ve been working on a website for first year students to brush up on writing and math skills. Back at the beginning, someone had the idea of having a “virtual campus” as another means of students finding their information.
One thing led to another, it started with Flash, then moved over to an AJAX solution.
I worked on said AJAX solution and had it working relatively nicely. However, due to some usability quirks, I needed to rewrite a huge chunk of code.
I decided to objectify it, purely for my own amusement and further education.
The problem that I kept on having is that whenever I used a JQuery call and needed to reference the object’s properties, it would always give me an undefined error. Being the Actionscript junkie I am, and knowing that Actionscript borrows heavily from Javascript, I tried using parent.variable instead of this.variable.
It all seems to be working at this point. But I thought this might be of some use to someone, somewhere. I thought it was working, however, what using parent.variable did was created a variable outside of both the JQuery and VirtualCampus objects. Not a great idea, however, it served my purpose and was a lot easier than using the VirtualCampus object to extend the JQuery object.
Quick example:
function VirtualCampus() {
this.campus_location = []; //array with locations visited
this.campus_depth = 0; // what level in the nav tree they are at
this.campus_faculty = 0; // id of faculty they entered
this.current_info = []; // Data for current location in VC
$.getJSON(‘virtualcampus/vc.js’, function(jsony){ // Get JSON data for campus
$.each(jsony.location, function(i, item) {
parent.campus_info[i] = [];
parent.campus_info[i][0] = jsony.location[i].name;
parent.campus_info[i][1] = jsony.location[i].file;
parent.campus_info[i][2] = jsony.location[i].depth;
parent.campus_info[i][3] = jsony.location[i].faculty;
});
});
}
So there’s the constructor, that sets variables and gets the JSON data for the VirtualCampus. Notice the parent.campus_info 2D array… that’s stored as global scope. I tried very hard to make it local to the object, but JQuery and my object weren’t playing nice. If anyone has any idea how to get around that, let me know.
Double Crunch Challenge: Post-Post-Week Wrap-up
So the week after the… uhh, week after the double crunch challenge, I’m still doing crunches (though I’ve dropped it to 100 per day), I’m still eating relatively healthy (save for the Wendy’s my wife and I got for dinner because we were in a bit of a rush).
I’ve included having a handful of nuts between meals to keep the metabolism going. Water doesn’t seem to do it, even though I drink about 2 litres over the course of the day.
Today I started including lunges in my morning exercise. I’m not all that good at them because of balance issues, but I still got a burn from doing them, which is a good thing.
Interesting note: the guy I share my office with (I got to find a shorter way to say that – what about gismow?) just started on P90X. I looked at that at one point, but the pre-requisites definitely don’t allow for fat guys to start with that routine. Maybe once I get to that first plateau. Maybe.
Until Seth gets back (which I believe he said would be next week) I’ll add a new exercise each week. Maybe I should get my Wii Fit involved again. But I can’t watch BT and exercise at the same time if the Wii Fit is involved. Hmmmm.
Double Crunch Challenge: Day 5
Let me answer your question: Yes, it still hurts; but not as much as it did yesterday. That means my body just might be getting used to it. I spread out the crunches throughout the day – fifty when I wake up, fifty just before (or when I get) to work, fifty at lunch, fifty when I get home or after dinner, then fifty before I got to bed. It only really hurts once I hit the forty mark.
The greens: last night I had green beans. Leftovers went good in a salad for lunch today too. Tonight: I’m thinking spinach. Raw, in a salad. Throw some fruit in there and a light vinaigrette – that’s good eating!
Today’s question from PrimalStride:
Where do you get your power from? Are you able to survive, to thrive, and to flourish through the strength of your friendships with others? Do you have a deep religious fervor that keeps you going? Perhaps you just know, deep within yourself, that you are able to do whatever you wish?
I said in yesterday’s update that I wanted to be able to do physical activities with my family without running out of steam. I believe that drives me more than anything else. I am a Jesus follower, however, I don’t know that my relationship and belief in him would push me to get in shape; though I do like to joke every once in a while that “the Catholic Church says that gluttony is one of the deadly sins; I don’t know if it will send you to hell, but it sure will get you to heaven faster.”
Double Crunch Challenge: Update
On day 4 of the double crunch challenge: I’m hurting.
I’ve been faithfully doing my 250 crunches a day and have had very little difficulty in eating a different green vegetable each day. Friday was Green Peppers, Saturday was Broccoli and Celery (Looky! Double Dose!), Sunday was Asparagus. Today? Any suggestions?
Did I say I’m hurting? Wait… my fellow office dweller is gone for lunch. Time for 50 crunches! That’ll bring me up to 150 for the day.
…
I’m back. Yes, I might be going insane when I hurt and I’m doing the very thing that makes me hurt, but hey – (cliche alert) no pain, no gain!
Today’s question posed by our PrimalStride fearless leader, Seth:
What do you look forward to most when you imagine yourself living a truly healthy lifestyle?
I see running around with my son without running out of breath after 10 minutes. I see looking forward to walking with my wife. I don’t see me better at sports, but definitely enjoying them more despite my lack of coordination.
It occurs to me that I should look at last week’s challenge (even though I had not committed to PrimalStride yet) and incorporate it into my daily routine.
New Year’s Resolutions
It’s been a while since I’ve blogged. Yes, I’ve been on twitter, I’ve been on Facebook (but only because facebook grabs my tweets automagically) but I’ve never really done any significant writing in over a year.
That’s about to change.
I’ve seen others talk about wanting to blog again, and making a new year’s resolution to blog at least once a week. I think that’s an attainable goal. But here are some other goals I’ve been thinking about.
Time Management
I spend way too much time in front of the TV. I probably spend too much time sleeping (6-7 hours is enough, right?). So actually saying “I’ll only watch 1 hour of TV a night, 2 hours if there’s something good on” might make a meaningful difference in productivity and brain power. Besides, I’m already getting into the habit of holding my son in front of the TV and letting him watch because it distracts him. Not a good habit to get into. And scheduling time that I sleep will let me do more…
Exercise
Oh yeah. The big fat (pun intended) popular New Year’s resolution. Go to the gym. Work out. Lose weight. I’ve made it before, and judging by my waist size, it’s never really stuck. I’m sure 90% of people who make that resolution fall off the wagon within a few weeks. Time management should help me out a little… if I schedule it, I must follow through.
And a little backing doesn’t hurt either. Primalstride.com, run by Seth Simonds, is a week-by-week weight loss challenge – so each week, you get a new challenge. This week’s challenge he’s dubbed the double crunch challenge: 250 abdominal muscle crunches a day, and a new green vegetable each day.
Blogging
Well, obviously, if you’re reading this, you see why I want to blog. As the tag line of the blog says, I’m going to write about technology, new fatherhood, politics, health and just about anything I feel the need to write about. I’m just going to write what I want, when I want; but try and do it at least once a week.
I’ve made my resolutions… wait, no. I’ve made promises to myself. Resolutions just seem to get broken. What about you?