Techno World

Javascript: Invoke functions dynamically

2009-07-22T04:10:00.000-07:00

What if you were required to invoke functions at runtime dynamically?

For example.
You have Global jsp files in which functions are written for submission and form are created by a combination of predefined form header and footer parts.Users just create the contents which comprise the body part of the html..

Now if you had to write custom validation before submitting the form, how do we do it?

Here is the solution...
When you hit the submit button on the form, it calls a function called on_Completion, which will have a code like this

function onCompletion()
{
if(typeof window.validation_check == 'function')
{
validation_check();
}
else return true;
}

In the above code, my function for pre-submit validation is called validation_check and I check it by using the typeof operator. What this does is that in the current browser, is there any object by that name and is it a function. If yes, then we can safely invoke the function without the fear of object not declared/object not found.

In the form part that the users can define, then may define the field checks by defining a function in their form part with the name specified earlier - validation_check. Even if they don't it is still ok as the global function onCompletion will return false in the typeof statement.

Hope it helps

The case for India's talemts

2008-06-12T05:53:00.000-07:00

a wonderful article and have set me up on a thinking trip..

http://sramanamitra.com/2008/03/31/an-open-letter-to-iit-students/#comment-170433

For years, I have built the passion to do "Something Big and meaningful" and have been exploring different ways of getting there.. Have I gotten to the end point where I want to be .. Hmmm no.. Why?? Because, like some of the posts ( yours and other commenters ), it s not the inspirations but the mentors that were missing.. I come from a modest middle class family starting to combat the basic layers of need and along the way looking for the guiding beacons while wanting to stay afloat. Somewhere its the basic umbilical cord thing which every entrepreneur must break free and take the risks and uncertainty in his stride.

Couple of points here..
1. In early 90s, I quit my job in accounting ( me is a commerce grad ) to get into software. Why?? because I wanted to see the world. Wanted to see how people lived their lives abroad, what practices they followed in workplace and other things. IT was a means for me to get there. I thoroughly enjoyed my jump, learnt software development skills and excelled at it. It is not as if people chose to brain dead themselves by joining IT after doing IIT,engineering etc. But when the aspirations built from pre-GATE exams, of getting ahead somewhere in life hits you during your comparison with a modest IT developer, the person hits ground zero of his ambitions and fancies. Money talks. If ideas are getting somewhere, again money talks.. read VC greed..

2. Despite being in IT, I strongly support those proponents that IT has caused major disruptions in developing this country as a superpower. Yes. IT has bought magnificent amounts of dollar revenues, making themselves and other participants fabulously rich. But they have also sucked the engineers talents from where they should be rightly so..So, what happens now? we have IT coders, project managers and consultants implementing their masters' diktats while infrastructure projects can't be implemented because the skill sets are no longer present in the market. Having done with engineers, these mega corps are after Bsc, Bcom, BA grads as well. The avarice is unabated and is just killing. Take a look at the call centre business too.. good talent wasted on managing some dumb customer's product pains. In all my years and having gone through it personally, I ask to these decision makers, what is so much about software development that it needs only engineers ?? First, we have to halt these marauders of talent on their tracks. What is already invested must be effectively shaken up from the zombie state and galvanized into an IP generating monster.

3. IITs.. They have these aura on them that is sooo elitist.. Agreed, they fought hard at the exams and got there ahead of the other kids. But are they the brightest.. Hmm I have my reservations.. I deal with talents from various engineering institutions, and am yet to see some bright sparks..with a burning desire to build something and not just do the job/work.

4. I think the key solution is education and infrastructure. Education is getting fantastically better.. The number of free openware courses from premier institutes have put good course material for our educators and to anybody alike to build upon. Companies like Educomp, NIIT are taking the learning virus all over the rural landscape, equipping schools and colleges with new thinking. That is a very important thought enabler..Secondly, Infrastructure.. Earlier we used to think, Bombay-Bangalore road trip... Oh! thats only for those folks who can't afford trains/air travel and have to take a bus to do that. Thanks to the new building blocks and road transformation, we are beginning to think distances are achievable because the supporting framework is getting there. Thats wonderful

5. We are not going to see corruption off anytime soon. But change is happening as evident from the computerization efforts in birth,death and land records. Hope does exist..

as i mentioned earlier the post was very overpowering and awesome...

Blackberry 7105t with Airtel GPRS - Working Finally!!!!!!!

2008-03-18T06:25:00.000-07:00

It all started when my sister gifted me her old T-Mobile Blackberry 7105t and I decided to give it a spin.. Accustomed to the faithful Nokia, the UI and the functions were a tad bit cumbersome... But over the last 3 weeks got used to it.. It is quite easy to use actually. The keyboard is nice but the bluetooth restrictions suck..

Anyway, with the addressbook transfered on the unlocked phone, making phone calls on the Airtel connection, was accomplished. Next stop to get the GPRS surfing .. Was not interested in Blackberry Internet or Enterprise services...

Seeing the phone was traumatic during my attempts to surf. Launch the blackberry browser and surf.. Data Connection refused!! What the hell.. I paid good money to surf on this connection... OK .. Download Opera browser and launch.. Fail ... I see the connectivity arrows go to and fro furiously and bang.. Failure after the 20 tests... Where the hell were the arrows going over the air???

Even wiping the device clean did not reset the device to factory setting.

Absolutely frustrated and determined to hack thru it.. Read and Read and Read and Read on pinstack, blackberry forum, russian sites etc.. on APIs , CID unlocking, and other possible insights which can resolve my grief.. The blackberry FAQ site was good where the author said for vanila gprs there should be no issues.. But even airtel technical support fellas told me that the port is blocking on the handset and that I need to subscribe to the BIS to surf. No way am I going to do that..

Tried all the Access Point settings .. still no solution.. Being a techie and not being able to solve a problem, drives me nuts...

Today I downloaded update to my device OS.. I had v4.1.0.310 and new one was 4.1.0.377...
Got the install done and still thought that all the erasing of memory and reloading of OS
would make some difference.. Went to TCP settings and set airtelgprs.com and uid pass as guest..
Next stop.. launch opera.. what do I see??

Voila.. a new screen with some help stuff.. It downloaded the stuff from the opera site !!!!!
Tried out google.com and some other sites and they all worked. Closed the app and launched gmail app on the phone.. set the uid pass and launch.. infinite loading screen.. no good.. Ok so back to Opera.. Launch app and here tooo it goes for an infinite spin.. Shit.. what the hell did I do which caused it to stop???

Ok.. reboot.. again same tests.. launch opera .. it works.. close app.. launch gmail.. it works!!! I just can't understand the device's thought process flow... But I will leave it at that.. Maybe the connection is not getting closed upon app exit.. Maybe I need to wait for 2-3 mins between app switching.. Dunno.. but that is a matter for further testing...

But for now the GPRS surfing works!!!!!! Period and I am off to buy myself a beer to celebrate !

Technology for living

2005-07-09T04:45:00.000-07:00

Man invents gadgets and we must solely blame him for the convenience and the inconveniences that he creates.

We have so many gadgets and so many technologies powering our lifestyles. Do we really need them to touch our life in such a pronounced manner ??