Interspire Tutorials - Articles - Programming

Getting started with CAPTCHA

no@spam.com (Rodney Amato) — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 00:00:00 CDT

The most common use of CAPTCHA on the web today is to try and prevent the automatic submission of forms by programs designed to submit a form repeatedly, typically called a bot, usually for the purpose of spam. In this article we will learn the basics of CAPTCHA and how to build our own.

Syndicating Content with RSS and ArticleLive

no@spam.com (Jordie Bodlay) — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 00:00:00 CDT

Most of the news, article and blog websites on the Internet use RSS feeds to syndicate their content to users and other websites. In this article I will give you a brief introduction to RSS and what its uses are, as well as a quick guide on how to include an external RSS feed as a panel in ArticleLive.

Version Control 101 With CVS

no@spam.com (Rodney Amato) — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 00:00:00 CDT

How can version control make your job as a web developer easier? Well, version control adds a small amount of time to your day-to-day activities, however if you are planning on working on a web site or product for more then a week, or want multiple people to be able to work on the same code at the same time, then version control systems can make things much easier in the long run.

Development Diary of ActiveKB NX

no@spam.com (Rodney Amato) — Mon, 29 May 2006 00:00:00 CDT

I've spent the last 4-5 months working on what has become ActiveKB NX. In that time I've fixed bugs, but I've also added dozens of new features. Today, I'm going to explain some of those features, and also how I accomplished them from a technical point of view.

Database Joins

no@spam.com (Chris Smith) — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 00:00:00 CST

In part three of this series I showed you how to index your database. I also mentioned table joins and how to index them. In this tutorial we will take a further look at table joins and how we can use them effectively.

Introduction to Database Indexes

no@spam.com (Chris Smith) — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 00:00:00 CST

In part one of this series of tutorials I discussed the process of designing a database. In part two I looked at some of the different types of data you can store. Today, part three looks at how to speed up your database using indexes.

3 Practical Uses For AJAX

no@spam.com (Mitchell Harper) — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 00:00:00 CST

AJAX is the newest buzz word in web development. In this article I'm going to give show you 3 simple and practical uses for AJAX on your web site.

An Introduction to Database Variable Types

no@spam.com (Chris Smith) — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 00:00:00 CST

In part one of this series of tutorials, I discussed the process of designing a database. Databases contain many different types of data, including integers, text, dates and so forth. Selecting the right data for your application can improve performance and make your code easier to maintain. Today I'll look at some of the more common data types.

An Introduction to Databases

no@spam.com (Chris Smith) — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 00:00:00 CST

The first step in creating a database is not actually anything technical - it is designing and planning. In this article I'll introduce you to databases and we'll touch on how to design a robust database.

Using Inline Form Validation

no@spam.com (Eddie Machaalani) — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 00:00:00 CST

Javascript alert boxes have long been used for validating HTML forms. For example, if you forget to type your name into a contact form, then a Javascript alert pops up telling you about your error and how to correct it. While this is a lot better than no warning message or validation at all, I find alert messages quite annoying, ugly and outdated.

What I'd like to do in this article, is show you a more elegant way of displaying error messages cleanly, using some easy to implement Javascript. This not only makes your forms a lot cleaner and more usable, but also shows your attention to detail as a web designer.