Learning is Interactive

Chickenfoot mixed with jQuery.

Chickenfoot is a Firefox extension design for website automation.

Chickenfoot is a Firefox extension that puts a programming environment in the browser’s sidebar so you can write scripts to manipulate web pages and automate web browsing. In Chickenfoot, scripts are written in a superset of Javascript that includes special functions specific to web tasks.

Basically, it let’s you take control of Firefox and simulate a user. The API is fill with basic operation, like go(url), append(content), onClick( function, window) and etc. You can get more power and functionality by including other JavaScript libraries and frameworks. That’s when the fun begins.

Since the goal in website automation is a lot of HTML manipulations then, jQuery is the best framework for the job. jQuery can be easily included with a simple fix here.
Here are some examples of Chickenfoot scripts. Once Chickenfoot is installed hit f8, press the “New” tab, then insert one of the following scripts.

Downloading a URL

include( "fileio.js" ); //Enables the write and read commands.
var url = "http://google.com",
content = read( url ),
filename = desktopDir().path + "\\google.html";

write( filename, content );


Clean up craigslist.org

include( "http://bateru.com/js/jquery-1.4.2-mod.js" );
$ = window.$;
var url = "http://houston.craigslist.org/sss/";
go( url, true ); //Refresh the page to the url
sleep(2); // So you can see the different.
var cleanHTML = $(document.body).html().toLowerCase();
cleanHTML = cleanHTML.replace( /[$\*!]{2}|[~\*]/gi, "");
$( document.body ).html( cleanHTML );


Overall, Chickenfoot is a great extension to have. These few examples shown here only scratch the surface of what it’s capable of.

Chickenfoot 1.0.7 link
jQuery link

jLed – jquery led banner plugin

Working on jLed. Converting it to a jquery plugin soon.
Inspired from http://www.ajaxray.com/blog/2010/02/28/jquery-led-scrolling-banner-fun-plugin/.
Here’s a demo.
jLed demo

Book Review: Don’t Make Me Think

After months of delay, I finally sat down and read “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug.

Link: Don’t Make Me Think

Finished this short but informative book in 2 days. Steve Krugs gives advice on avoiding common usabilities issues.
With that, here are a few things I picked up.
- Test rather than argue with your team.
- Users read in a hurry, so kill the noise by having less design and small talk, while filling the page up with unique content.
- Avoiding ads on your home page, even though it has the highest traffic.
- Provide aid for lost users. That includes a way to get to the home page, a site id, and other means of understanding their location.
- Test each stage of your project at least once. The earlier the testing, the cheaper to repair.

Learn Those Kana v0.8

Hey Everyone,
I’ve been working hard to push out a great example of the potential jquizme has to offer to learning.

“Learn Those Kana”, demonstrate the true power of scripting, by providing plenty of exercise for mastering character recognition by sight and sound.
Anyhow check it out at at the link below.

Learn Those Kana v0.8