Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with ajax

How can I get access to readyState 3 with VBA "AJAX"?

jozxyqk — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 10:35:51 -0800

I'm writing some VBA code (in Excel) which uses a reference to Microsoft XML, v6.0, and creates a MSXML2.XMLHTTP object. I used the clsXMLHttpMonitor example from this page as a starting-off point. How can I access the response text when readyState = 3? The example works fine for smallish requests.
But when the response is sufficiently large, Excel will freeze up into a "(Not Responding)" state and sometimes come back and sometimes seem to hang forever.

I know about readyState 3, but when I check for it, it seems that responseStream is either empty or "non-readable".

Is there something I am missing about how to get access to the stream of data as it arrives with this object?

OR...

Is there an alternative object I can use from within VBA to accomplish the desired result?
Preferably with code examples?

My stackexchange-fu has failed on this one; my similar question there has been met with silence.

How to automate a dynamic web page using VBA?

Reverend John — Wed, 09 May 2012 10:32:08 -0800

Help me automate some of my work involving taking values in a spreadsheet and plugging them into a website with dynamically generated content. I need someone to point me in the right direction. I have several tasks which are very mechanical which I would like to automate. One, for instance, involves taking a list of product numbers from a spreadsheet, entering them one at a time to a website, then printing the resulting page.

I have tried to automate this via VBA, and I can get as far as loading the page and entering the product number into the correct form field, but there is actually a step before this where a drop down needs to be selected before the product number field is active. I am actually able to set the value of this drop down, but doing this doesn't cause the page's javascript to enable the product number field and product number submit button which then ignores my attempt to programatically click it.

Basically the page I want to use is dynamically generated, but the parts I want don't show up until after the necessary info has been entered, and I can't get the page to recognize that I've automatically entered it. Further complicating the situation is that the web page I'm working with is generated by ASP (I think) which I'm not familiar with and which is inserting a lot of strange script tags with long strings of encoded data.

Any help or pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

The day after the hacking...?

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 07:04:34 -0800

My website was hacked. What now? I have a small ASP project website that I run on a shared server using a third-party hosting provider. Upon visiting the other day, I find that the front page content had been replaced by a lovely hacked-by-so-and-so message. Based on file timestamps, it looks like this happened about March 23rd and I discovered it Wednesday (the 18th).

There appear to have been about eight files uploaded to the main site directory and the content of index.asp was changed. The new files appear to be all manner of ASP scripts designed to glean information about the other pages on the site, access to system files, etc. I can restore the original content, and I'm not as worried about the changes that were actually made. So far, it looks like none of the files in any of the important subdirectories were modified. I've already changed my password.

My questions are about the following;

1) Should my hosting provider be expected to help out or bear some responsibility for this? I called as soon as a noticed what had happened and was told to write an e-mail to technical support. The reply came the following day and basically said that I had waited too long to report the issue, that they don't have any logs remaining that would show what had happened, that they couldn't provide me with any details about whether the attacker had somehow gotten my password, and that I should change my password immediately — in other words, nothing of any use.

Is it reasonable for them to take any more responsibility or do any more to help me investigate the issue? Without more cooperation from them I can't determine what happened, so it's possible that they're at fault here. Should I demand that they look into it in more detail? Ask for my money back? Badmouth them to all my friends and clients? Or is this just the way it goes with third-party hosting?

2) Without the help of my hosting provider, how do I determine what happened?. The front page runs on ASP and AJAX — one ASP page uses AJAX to call static content from another ASP page based on the contents of a GET request. Where can I read up on AJAX vulnerabilities? What sorts of things should I look at to prevent this from happening again — if, indeed, it was my fault? With only those technologies in use, how, conceptually, might one have hacked the page? Anyone care to speculate?

How do I make a Firefox smart keyword to search all my Toodledo tasks?

grouse — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 14:59:51 -0800

I want a Firefox smart keyword that will search all of my Toodledo tasks, not just the ones in the current view. I used to have one that used a carefully constructed URL, but Toodledo has switched the interface from a simple GET form to one that uses Ajax and JavaScript. I can get the behavior I want by going to http://www.toodledo.com/tasks/index.php#search and then entering this into the Firefox web console (to search for [pancakes]):

document.getElementsByName("value2")[0].value = "pancakes"; document.getElementsByName("srchbtn")[0].click()

However I can't seem to figure out how to get a single line of JavaScript to first visit that page, and then enter in the search value and submit, so it seems like a smart keyword is right out. I've read on Stack Overflow that visiting a page from some other domain and then interacting with it, even from a javascript: URL is not permitted by the same origin policy.

Is there a way around this?

Java App monitoring

blueyellow — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 08:29:47 -0800

What is a good way to monitor/control a Java application? I need to come to a design decision. I have an application that currently has no UI that will run on multiple machines in different configurations. The application's state will change fairly regularly, lets say once per second. I would like to build a UI so that I can watch the applications running on multiple machines and sometimes send them commands if it's warranted.

What would be the best way to implement this? JMX and a proprietary plugin for VisualVM? A lightweight web server on each application and an Ajax implementation on a web server? Or something else? I don't have experience with either direction so before I pick one I would like some advice about pros/cons and experience with these or similar technologies.

Why do http://example.com/#!/123456 URLs not redirect me to the page I want to view?

ilumos — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 11:49:27 -0800

Why do http://example.com/#!/123456 URLs not redirect me to the page I want to view? Example:
Clicking http://uk.lifehacker.com/#!/5783790 takes me to the lifehacker homepage, rather than the article I want to read. To get to that article, I have to delete the #!/ manually from the URL bar, which is kinda annoying.

Firefox 3.6 and Firefox 4 on Windows 7 and OSX 10.6

As far as I can tell, I have javascript enabled (noScript installed but disabled)

Many thanks

How can I force the back button to remember an AJAX/Javascript state (preferably using JQuery)?

gramcracker — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 07:05:14 -0800

How can I force the back button to remember an AJAX/Javascript state (preferably using JQuery)? I'm making a quiz website. You get a question, click an answer, and then get an AJAX'd/JQuery'd bit which shows the correct answer and explanation, hides the submit button, and then you click to move forward to a new page and next question.

When the user clicks the back button, however, I don't want them to be able to do the question over again if they've already answered it: I want the answer and explanation to be displayed with the submit button gone.

I've looked into the BBQ plugin and Hashjax, but they look like they work only for inline content back buttoning. I've also tried putting PHP and Javascript into the header to force these things, but I think the browser's just loading the page from the cache, not re-processing it. Suggestions? Thanks!

How can I make the BBC liveblogs update?

proj — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 08:11:23 -0800

How can I force the Ajax/jQuery style pages on the BBC website to update on the user end? I frequently use the BBC to follow sports and news. They favor a liveblog style that updates automatically as new information is added, without a page refresh. However, these pages seem to get "stuck" a lot for me, where a page refresh does nothing but 5-6 updates will come rolling in at random. Tab focus doesn't seem to affect this. I'm using Chrome on OS X, though I have had this happen in Safari as well. Is there any way to make the page update?

Showing all posts from a given day, in list form.

jbickers — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 11:59:47 -0800

PHP/AJAX gurus: Please help me figure something out. Want to display all Wordpress posts from a single day, but want it to be as sexy and intuitive as possible. So I've got a feature I want to add to one of my Wordpress blogs, and I'm not sure if it's simple, or if it's going to require hiring a coder.

I want visitors to be able to select a month/day/year (from three separate drop-downs), hit "select," and the area below that will show a list of all the posts published that day. Not the posts themselves, just a list of them. I'm guessing AJAX would be the way to make that sexy, but I would also be OK with having the site load a new page with the results.

How would I go about doing this? I'm going this route as an alternative to the clickable sidebar calendar, which is just hideous and takes a long time to load if there are a lot of posts.

Why doesn't Ajax work on my server?

EndsOfInvention — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 17:57:42 -0800

When I upload this W3Schools Ajax example to my own web hosting, it doesn't work. Why? The example works fine when I try it on the W3Schools website. But if I copy the Ajax code (the whole section of code in the lefthand panel) into a separate HTML file and upload that to my web hosting, the page loads fine but the Ajax doesn't work - i.e. when I click the button, nothing happens.

Is there something obvious I'm missing about how to get Ajax working?

override XHR policy

nihlton — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 09:21:54 -0800

override XMLHttpRequest security policy in firefox? im working on a page locally which requests data (via ajax) from a remote server. dummy data wont work - this page needs to grab the data off the server.

when it goes live, this file and the data will be on the same domain so the origin policy wont be an issue. however, while im developing, its becoming quite a nuisance.

is there some preference in about:config that would let me turn it off for a moment?

(after googling, i found security.fileuri.strict_origin_policy, but that only seems to allow local files to see other local files)

What Javascript trickery is this?

Biru — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 07:05:41 -0800

How do I create forms such as those on Facebook which expand/show extra options when you click the mouse into the text box. Examples are the "What's on your mind?" (status update) box you see on your home page and the "What are you planning?" event box on the right of your home page. I'm conversant in PHP and can follow Javascript code if not write it off the top of my head. I'm therefore looking for a simple code example that I can look at/dissect and understand. (I learn by taking things apart and putting them back together again).

Python programming: what next?

randomname25 — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 12:49:57 -0800

I know basic XHTML and CSS, and I'm almost done with my first Python book. I want to build a database-driven website. What should I learn next? Book/website recommendations and general advice welcome. This is the Python book I've been using, and though I'm not quite finished, I've had absolutely no problems with learning from it so far. Actually, I've been finding programming super fun.

I've been told the next obvious step CS-wise is data structures and algorithms, but everything I've seen at the library has been very C++/Java-centric. Also, right now I feel like my (limited) web development knowledge and my (very limited) programming knowledge are two separate things that I don't know how to fit together. The database-driven website I want to build is entirely my own project, so there are no real deadlines. I'll learn whatever languages/tools I need to, but I gather that Python is appropriate for most web development tasks from previous questions. If I'm wrong, please correct me. (And point me to relevant tutorials for what you do recommend!)

So, here are my questions:

1. Any recommendations for data structures and algorithms materials that use Python? (Or do I really need to learn C++?)

2. I've seen a lot of intro to back-end development books and tutorials that center around PHP/MySQL. Are there comparable ones that use Python? At what point should I start learning Django?

3. How should I go about learning JavaScript/AJAX? To what extent can Python substitute for these, if any? Either way, books/tutorials?

Thanks!

How do I read a JSON object in Python?

lovetragedy — Mon, 17 May 2010 10:55:06 -0800

I'm mostly a front end guy, but I have worked with Django and Python before, so I thought it would be perfect for a web app idea I had. I actually understand it pretty well (or maybe not!), but I'm having an issue with an Ajax call I am trying to make. I'm passing a JSON object back to Python with jQuery and it seems to accept it in the correct format, but I have no idea how to actually access and iterate through the object in Python. If I simplify the code down to



a = request.POST 

return HttpResponse(a)

and console.log it to Firebug, it looks like a valid JSON object. I also tried passing it through as plain text, with equaly frustrating results. Every time I try to access it in Python I get an error about the QueryDict or unicode not having the attribute I'm trying to access. Googling has turned up something about serializing/deserializing, but I don't know the correct syntax to handle a JSON object made up of other objects like this:
[{name:"name", message:"text"}, {name:"name", message:"text"}, {name:"name", message:"text"}]

How do I iterate through the object and get at the data so I can save it to the database?

Other domains don't necessarily have cooties

burnfirewalls — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 08:29:22 -0800

Why does the cross-domain restriction exist on the XMLHttpRequest object? Plenty of sites explain that the XMLHttpRequest object cannot fetch data from a different domain for security reasons. This makes plenty of sense.

However, there is no such restriction on the script tag/element. It's trivial to write out a script tag via the DOM and fetch any old script that was necessary. In fact, from what I understand that's how JSONP works (with the support of a remote script) to circumvent the cross-domain restriction.

If the cross-domain restriction is easily circumvented, isn't it simply a roadblock on the path of legitimate developers?

Thanks!

Dynamic content swapping without reloading the page

Phire — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:42:26 -0800

I'm building a website in which part of the page remains static, and part of the page is swapped out using server side includes. Is there a way to do this that doesn't make the page jump up to the top when a link is clicked? The structure of the site is basically the same as my personal home page, http://www.phirephoenix.com. This is the PHP code that's doing the work:

if (isset($_GET['page'])) { $Page = $_GET['page']; }
else { $Page = 'home'; }

if (!ereg('^(list of pages on my site)$',$Page))
{ header("Location: index.php"); }
include("content/$Page.html");

If you're scrolled down part-way on the page when you click a link, you're taken back to the top of the page. My understanding is that there's an AJAX script I could incorporate into the website that would allow me to change the content within a specific div tag without reloading anything else, while maintaining your position on page. Kind of like the Facebook tabs, I guess?

Does anyone know what that script is? Alternatively, does anyone have any other suggestions for how to accomplish this?

I hope this isn't like the blink tag 4 years from now

four panels — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:31:58 -0800

Is there a way/site/method to filter out retweets on Twitter?

Multilingual Chat

kaozity — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 07:59:08 -0800

Is there open source code for a multilingual chat like babelwith.me? I want to implement a multilingual chat on my system like www.babelwith.me

In the system, there is already a username and login, so I would like to incorporate that into the chat. This is why I am looking for something open source and pretty simple to customize.

Strangely enough, I find myself doing actual work-type programming

Dr Dracator — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 13:26:21 -0800

What happens to my php script if the user exits the browser before it's done? I have a php form served by apache that updates some records in a mysql database. If the database grows, it is conceivable that the update might take a significant amount of time to finish. What happens if the user exits their browser before the update is complete? Will apache kill the script or is it guaranteed to run to the end?

Does it matter if I submit the form as a straight POST request or via the prototype.js AJAX framework?

Also, what happens if the browser times out while waiting for the page to load?

Help Turn a Flash Guy into an HTML5 Guy

grumblebee — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:05:11 -0800

I want to design an HTML5 (+JS & CSS), self-study course for myself. I'm a seasoned Flash/Actionscript developer, but I want to keep relevant if Flash dies. (Please spare me from pro/anti-Adobe politics. I don't care which technology wins. I want to be good at them all.) HTML5 may well win out over Flash, but I'm convinced that won't happen next year. My clients want Browser/OS compatibility, and until everyone gets on board with standards for HTML5/CSS3/etc., Flash is still going to be relevant (in my opinion).

But I want to be able get work three-to-five years from now, when it's certainly possible that Flash's day will be over.

So please note that I'm less interested in today's web technologies than in the ones that will probably be used "tomorrow." I am not in a hurry. I want to be thorough.

Given a real or alternate future in which most web apps are built using HTML5 and its associated technologies, how should I best prepare myself? What are the best books, websites, training videos, tutorials, etc.?

Note: over the years, I have played with HTML, CSS and JS (including Jquery). I'm not a neophyte, but I'm also not an expert on best practices, security concerns, etc.

I've always found CSS the most confusing of the three core languages. I sort of get it, but the browser incompatibilities do my head in -- especially since for each problem, there seems to be 19 different competing solutions. All the tricks using negative positioning also confuse me. So great CSS resources are especially needed!

If there are related issues I should know about, such as what's going on with web fonts and video, please let me know.

Finally, since HTML5 (& co.) is in a state of flux, what are the best blogs to keep abreast of the latest changes and issues?

Can you help me find a particular Javascript charting library website?

chocolate_butch — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:25:22 -0800

Can you help me find a website about a charting library that I saw recently? I'll be darned if I can find this particular web based charting library, that I believe was javascript based. Here is what I can recall about the website:

- I visited the site in the last 90 days.

it was unlike any other charting site that I had seen before.

- There was a 3-d animated chart on the starting page that resembled the ripples in the surface of water after a droplet hit it.

- each page in the site had large explanatory text on primary color background. pages were rather spare content-wise.

- the site presented the information more like a series of slides that demonstrated the capabilities of the library. Like a ppt slide deck.

- the charting feature may have been part of a larger "ajax" library.

- 3d charts could be animated to spin around like Matrix "bullet-time". IIRC zoom in/out may have also been possible.

- I may have found it either via the blue, reddit or delicious.com/popular . A search through my history is turning up nothing, I think I was on a different computer.

- I recall seeing x-y charts, x-y-z charts, and pie and exploded-pie charts.

Does that ring a bell with anyone?

Firefox and ASP.Net 1.1 and Ajax and Validators, oh my!

antifuse — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:20:32 -0800

How can I get Ajax and client side validators working with my ASP.Net 1.1 application in Firefox? Ok, long story short - I've got an ASP.Net 1.1 website, which uses Validator controls and Ajax (ajax.dll, v5.7.22.2)... All of these elements of the site were chosen/implemented before I got here, and before anybody asks, no, it's not within our budget (timewise) to upgrade even to ASP.Net 2.0, let alone the latest and greatest of everything.

The site works fine in IE (of course), but in Firefox (or Chrome... Haven't tried Opera or Safari) I've found that ASP renders the site without any javascript code for the validators, nor does it render the site with any javascript code for the ajax methods that I call.

I've checked, and our web.config is setup to treat Firefox as an "uplevel" browser... And it *does* seem to be using the correct HtmlWriter (ie my pages on FFox are rendered with spans and divs). I've tried creating a PageClient alias using an IE7 user agent in the web.config, and forcing the page to use that PageClient. NOTHING seems to let it generate the Ajax and validator javascript. My research on the net seems to be pointing towards validators simply not ever able to work with ASP.Net 1.1 and Firefox... And I presume that whatever the validators do, the Ajax library is doing as well... But I'm really really really hoping there's a workaround for this. It'll be extremely embarrassing to have to tell the client in this day and age "Sorry, we don't support non-IE browsers with this release".

Great destinations, routes and experiences in and around Toronto.

maudlin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:54:55 -0800

I want to go to there, but I need your advice on where "there" is. Starting point: Toronto. Range: any land within 100 km (60-ish miles) of High Park, but I can go further for something really special. Means of transport: my trusty steed. Time frame: now until November-ish. I'm looking for great routes or awesome destinations, urban, rural or suburban, like the best roti in Scarborough, a tiny potter's studio somewhere in Peel, or a gorgeous path by some body of water that isn't Lake Ontario. I want to go somewhere to do something neat, like picking apples or riding horses. And this is not Torontofilter or bikefilter. I'm looking for creative ideas from anyone, anywhere. If you're from the GTA or any place within reach, what places, routes and experiences would you recommend? For example:

- A great view or nearly-secret thing that few other people know about. I never got around to the secret swing, and I regret it.
- The best [meal / farmer's market] in [area of your choice].
- Galleries are an obvious choice for me, but beyond that, is there, say, a raku studio nearby that gives demos or classes?
- Some place I should go to with my camera or sketchpad, or else.
- Where is a movie or tv show being filmed right now? I don't care about star-stalking, but am curious about the ebb and flow of work on site.

If you're not from around here, what kind of place or experience do you have in your neck of the woods that I should try to find locally?

Restrictions: very few.

- These have to be day trips, thus my soft limit of 100 km (200 km round trip). However, if need be, I can justify taking a train partway to get to someplace great and back in one day.
- I favour free or cheap over expensive, but can justify spending some money on an awesome experience.
- I can carry a fair amount on my bike, but there are limits, so I don't think I'll be furniture shopping any time soon.

Otherwise, suggest away!

Point me to the web...

gjc — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:48:24 -0800

Are there any Access-like tools for building data access pages in a web+sql format? Here's the thing. I have a few databases that I've done up in Access. That's great for when I have my computer.

But my needs are becoming such that I would like to have access to the data on any machine.

(I've searched the archives and saw a great many other answers, but none seemed to address what I'm looking for, or at least in a way I understood.)

I'm good on the server and the web space and the backend. What I'm looking for is basically something that works like Access's form builder: I drop the elements in and fill in the logic as need be. Publish it to the server, and disco.

I really don't want to run a "product" (like a CMS, or a knowledgebase, or forum software) where I'd have to wrestle with it to get it to do what I want. I would also prefer something that doesn't require oddball things to be installed on the client or on the server, like .net or frontpage extensions.

Partially because I don't really know what I'm doing (and that's OK, it's just for personal use/learning), and partially because that's just how my thought processes work- I like the idea of dropping pre-built elements in and making the connections work. And because the idea of writing html for a bunch of buttons and text boxes seems daunting.

I've tried all manner of searching, and while I know such a tool *has* to exist, I'm clearly not searching the right way.

Extra points for fancy ajaxy web 2.0 coolness. Thanks!

Which forums do the best web programmers hang out at?

jackson5 — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:15:45 -0800

Which forums do the best web programmers hang out at? Long story short: I've got a web site that already does over 1 million pageviews per month. I've got a great idea to take it to the next level, but I'm looking for someone who can handle the coding and technical aspects in exchange for an equity stake.

I'm wanting to bring aboard a great programmer who doesn't necessarily need the work but will be motivated by the equity.

Which forums would you recommend I post on to find this person?

Also, if there's anyone interested here, let me know.