thefrozencoder Programming and Technology blog

The following describes how to use a custom validator function along side TinyMCE to validate the contents of the textarea.

Add the custom validator and setup the properties as you normally setting the ControlToValidate to the ID of the textarea and the ClientValidationFunction to the function name you see below (this can be changed of course).

The key is to call TinyMCE's triggerSave() method so the editor can synch up to the underlying textarea. Once this is done the textarea now has content.

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
function validateTinyMCEText(source, args) {   
var txt = document.getElementById(source.controltovalidate);
tinyMCE.triggerSave();
args.Value = (txt.value.replace(/^W+/,'')).replace(/W+$/,'');
args.IsValid = (args.Value != '');}
</script>

Hopefully this will help out a few people

Seems that everyday you hear about Vista and how poorly it is doing when it comes to adoption and basic performance. It also seems that end users are not the only ones that are crying the Vista blues, even MS’s own employees are now getting on the band wagon.

Well sort of...

There are several documents showing up on the internet as well as Microsoft’s own MSDN blog sites on how to make Windows 2008 into a super desktop OS. I guess if Microsoft’s own employees are scoffing at Vista then it must be true. Vista is as big a flop as the PS3. But for all you MS fanboys out there Windows 7 is churning full steam ahead and will probably be a smash hit. Why you ask?

Windows 3.0 = Bad
Windows 3.11 = Better
Windows 95 = Bad
Windows 98 = Better
Windows ME = Bad
Windows XP = Better
Windows Vista = Bad
Windows 7 = ?????

Get the point?

I recently read a couple of articles about some of the speakers and going-ons at the recent SD West 2008 conference and come across Neil Ford's Software Development West presentation, 10 Ways to Improve Your Code. The session was geared towards Java developers it probably can be applied to any language. I found the list and the summary of each point on Dev Register.

While it's not the end all and be all of how you should develop these kinds of tips make you think about how you are writing your code and ways to make it better.

Do I agree with all of them probably not but then again it does not really matter if you agree with them or not as long as you are willing to actually think about the ideas that they represent that counts; and to me that is a sign of a good developer.

The new IE8 beta was released yesterday and is available as a Virtual PC hard drive from Microsoft. You can download the following hard drive images from this location.

• XP SP2 w/IE6
• XP SP2 w/IE7
• XP SP2 w/IE8
• Vista w/IE7

You can also check out the IE Blog for more information on what kind of changes will be implemented. The big news is CSS 2.1 compliance, get the VPC image and start testing your sites.

Hang on boys and girls it’s going to be an interesting ride...