JavaScript: 3D rotating images

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I've recently needed to display products in 3D. It is a quite often requested feature, especially for commercial web sites, where items need to be shown from different perspectives.

Different solutions are available, but they usually contemplate the use of Flash or Java Applets. I must say, I don't like that kind of tools, especially Flash, because they require the installation of specific plugins on the client machine.

I started to search a JavaScript solution as soon as I realised that animated gifs involved a big (BIG!) work and not satisfactory result.
I knew that if the client have JavaScript disabled, it might pose a problem as well. However detecting JavaScript status and creating fallbacks is not a big issue. Thus I decided to follow the JavaScript solution.

What I've found is a remarkable script that I would like to share: 3D rotating images.
The author (Mark "Tarquin" Wilton-Jones) explains the script thoroughly in his page, so I won't get into it too much. It is enough to say that the script:

"[...] allows a normal image of a product to be replaced by images that appear to rotate. The images can be rotated or tilted automatically, or manually by the user. Manually, they can be changed using buttons, links, or simply by dragging the image with a mouse. Basic zooming is also possible. All of these features can be seamlessly combined, so the image could begin rotating automatically, then the user could take over and rotate it manually."

Just follow the above link and enjoy.

jQuery: Simple Fixed Previous & Next Buttons

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The following article has been kindly submitted by Ben Rogerson. It shows a simple way of creating Previous & Next buttons with a short jQuery snippet and some CSS. I hope you like it!
 
Here's a simple little usability update you can quickly apply to your existing blog or results pages.

It will allow users that have a slightly larger running resolution to lessen the time taken to find the 'next page' and 'previous page' buttons which are normally at the bottom of your page.

The first task is to make sure your existing previous and next buttons at the bottom of the page have a class or id attached to them. This is so we can easily target them for replication.

ASP: calculate if a number is odd or even

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In this short post I will explain something that I see asked often on forums and ASP help site.
How can we calculate if a number is even or odd?

The question is quite easy and the answer is hidden in the MOD function. I've talked about that function in a past article (ASP: resulting recordset in two columns), where we used the MOD function in order to create a two columns table and display data using the same table.

As a reminder, "the MOD function provides the remainder value in a division. The remainder is what's left over after you do a division."
Apart from the fact that I'm starting to quote myself - and I probably should talk to my wife who is a psychotherapist, it is quite easy, even if you are not a math expert, to understand how we can benefit from the MOD function to determine if a number is odd or even.

ASP: dynamic variable names

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I've been programming in ASP for such a long time that sometimes I do not really value its power. Today we are going to see an extreme example: dynamic variable names. I say "extreme" because I believe that the real use of the following code might be quite rare, however in some extreme situations, we need extreme - I know I repeat myself - solutions.
We are going to use different ASP stuff: an array and the execute and eval functions. At the same time we are going to use the split function, in order to create the array.

SQL SERVER & ACCESS: working on large tables

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When dealing with large tables, with big quantities of data, it might be a good idea to link a SQL Server table to Ms Access.
I know that the above statement doesn't sound too much professional, but in my experience it is incredibly easier to manage data using the Ms Access interface than using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).

Linking a SQL Server table to Ms Access is fairly easy. From the file menu we can find the appropriate command to link an external table. We actually have different choices, but what we need to do is to connect to the ODBC service and link to a SQL Server database. It is clear that the first step is to create a System DSN for the appropriate SQL Server database. To do so is quite easy, because the ODBC control panel will guide us through the procedure: just follow the steps and create the DSN connection.
Once we have done that, we can link a specific table inside the connected database directly from Ms Access.

When Ms Access has a linked table, we can freely work on the data contained and benefit from the flexible tools provided by Access. Some of this basic tools are not really available in SSMS and even every day shortcuts like cut, copy and paste are managed in an easier way through the Ms Access interface.

Some little tricks need to be follow, though.

ASP: the split function and arrays

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The ASP split function is used to - guess what - split a string into specific parts. The resulting number of items is variable and depends on how we use the function.
Basically the split function has the following syntax:

VarArray = split(string, delimiter, numberOfItems)

where:
1) string is the string to be split;
2) delimiter is the element used to determine where to split the string;
3) numberOfItems is optional and limits the number of returned items in the array.

ASP: make the first letter uppercase in a string

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There are two ASP functions that allow us to change the case of a string: UCase and LCase.
The first change all the string in uppercase:

<%=UCase("string")%>

 The above gives us the following output:

STRING

While

<%=LCase("STRING")%>

gives us:

string

If we don't know what is the case of a string, because, for example, we get it as a query result, how can we make the string with only the first capital letter?