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03 January 2006

Ajaxy request I have no desire to learn how to do ajax ui. But if someone out there is pretty good at it, I'd like to see a demonstration of the following. When it's agreed that it works well and looks good, I've an idea or two for putting it to good use.[More:]

1a. Fetch a list from the server. For our demo, please make it a series of words: Alligator, Bunny, Coyote, Dolphin, etc. A dozen will do the trick.
1b. Sort the list on the client side.

2a. Display the list vertically over the MetaChat homepage.
2b.Use a semi-transparent background behind the list, a la selected icons on the OS X desktop. If possible, use rounded corners and the box outline, same as OS X. It's very attractive.

3a. Dynamically size the entries in the list according to their position in relation to the mouse cursor. This will look a lot like the OS X Dock, but using text.
3b. The entry that the cursor is hovering over will be the CSS 'large' size; the most distant and smallest entries are CSS 'xx-small' size; intervening entries should be smoothly sized between the two. The CSS 'sans-serif' face will be used. The letters are white with a black border, unless you have a better idea.

4a. As a demonstration that will be put to good use in the next iteration, dynamically adjust the text colour between white and black; and the text background colour between MeCha orange (dude's shirt, to the left) and 50% grey.

If you can get a cool, Dock-like, vertically-oriented, dynamically-adjusted list on the go, I got some cool ideas for extending its functionality and applications where it'd make a helluva great UI. But first things first -- I don't even know if this first bit is possible!

Please credit the concept to me and the implementation to yourself!
OH BLOODY HELL'S BELLS!
posted by Five Fresh Fish 03 January | 19:53
Why oh why oh why does MeCha not try to stop users from fucking up the FPP like that? There should be some sort of sanity checking!
posted by Five Fresh Fish 03 January | 19:54
It usually won't let you do this, fff.

Don't worry. No one will yell at you or snark like they do on the blue, and an administrator will hope you soon.
posted by Specklet 03 January | 19:58
Thanks for pissing on the front page, asswipe.

Just to prove Specklet wrong.
posted by knave 03 January | 20:00
* waves the wand, just to be an ass *
posted by mudpuppie 03 January | 20:02
No worries, fff. We'll get the Ajax pixies on it right away.
posted by bmarkey 03 January | 20:04
Fixed fff's cock-up. Next time, don't be such a dick, OK?
;-)
posted by dg 03 January | 20:05
See?
posted by bmarkey 03 January | 20:06
wants 'ajaxy', buzzwordy, maximum cool UI, hasn't mastered simple BBS textbox yet.

SHUT UP QUONSAR YOU BASTARD
posted by quonsar 03 January | 20:09
Sounds like something to do in flash. I don't know if you can dynamicaly resize things in DHTML (the correct term, damnit!) Although I suppose you could do images and and grow and shrink the padding/margins/etc in theory.

But yeah, what does this have to do with Ajax? It's just the J. No a, no x. and thus no second a for 'and'.
posted by delmoi 03 January | 22:38
DHTML? I prefer to call it html/css/javascript.
posted by puke & cry 03 January | 22:57
I thought the fetching-the-list thing made it Ajaxy. 'cause the next step will be to fetch other lists. And then link them together in a pretty fashion.

If it makes a difference, put the list into XML. Then at least I'll have a JX. I honestly have no idea what the leading "A" stands for.

Actually, I have no idea what's so special about Ajax that wasn't being done five years ago. So maybe it's better to ask that someone with HTML/CSS/JS chops make this bit of magic happen.

Or maybe this whole this is an abortion from the get-go. I was stoned when I conceived it (though not when I typed it, I'm embarassed to admit.)
posted by Five Fresh Fish 03 January | 23:27
Also, free blowjobs for everyone who was inconvenienced by my FPP disaster.
posted by Five Fresh Fish 03 January | 23:33
Ugh. I hate the Dock UI.
posted by stilicho 04 January | 01:39
You mean, like this
posted by seanyboy 04 January | 03:55
Um, I think I'll pass.

Funnily enough I have been looking into (and have a prototype of) an Ajax Recent Comments page which would possibly save a bit of bandwidth. The only reason I haven't finished it is that it's very low on the list of priorities what with bandwidth not being much of an issue at the moment.
posted by dodgygeezer 04 January | 08:33
Almost like that, seanyboy.

The next bit of the interface would be to load the subtrees on a priority basis (those nearest the cursor load first), indicating their completion through saturation or value. I think this is probably the bit that would make it more Ajaxy.

The subtree could be generated based on wiki page titles and the pages they link to, allowing a person to "drill down" the wiki. Same thing with blog histories, drilling down via date. Same thing with folksonomic tagging: list A-Z, then the tags that start with said letter, then the tags that tag is associated with.
posted by Five Fresh Fish 04 January | 13:49
Nothing so sad as a bad idea cut down in its prime...
posted by Five Fresh Fish 05 January | 20:09
Dame! I did it! || A quick UWS technoish set on the radio

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