February 10th, 2010
The media frame is located on the right side of the application window. Media might be an image, an audio, a video, a graph, a flash animation, or a java applet. Conventional Web pages or self-contained Web applications may also be displayed in the media frame. In these cases, they are displayed within an iframe for security reasons.
The media frame features the title bar, the tool bar and the status bar. The title bar contains the name of the media currently being displayed. The tool bar provides buttons to perform actions. The status bar helps the user to be aware of which media is currently being displayed. The buttons provided in the toolbar are also available from a menu on the status bar.
On limited-size screens, the tool bar may be hidden, appearing only when the user hovers over the top part of the screen.
Posted in itop | No Comments »
February 9th, 2010
The form frame is located in the middle of the application window. Just like the list, the form may be populated from the server-side by calling an appropriate service. To allow secure cross-site access, JSONP is used.
The form frame features the title bar, the tool bar and the status bar. The title bar contains the name of the form currently being displayed. The tool bar provides buttons to perform actions. The status bar helps the user to be aware of which part of the form is currently being displayed, since the form might be broken into several parts. The buttons provided in the toolbar are also available from a menu on the status bar.
On limited-size screens, the tool bar may be hidden, appearing only when the user hovers over the top part of the screen.
Posted in itop | No Comments »
February 8th, 2010
The list frame is located on the left side of the application window and its main purpose is to help users browse different services. The list may be populated from the server-side by calling an appropriate service. Services may be interlinked with the serviceLink metadata. To allow secure cross-site access, JSONP is used.
Since browsing services is fundamental, a navigation bar is available on the left corner. The navigation bar allows the user to go back and forth, refresh, check the history, and access shortcuts. On limited-size screens, the navigation bar may be hidden, appearing only when the user hovers over the left part of the screen.
Besides the navigation bar, the list frame also features the title bar, the tool bar and the status bar. The title bar contains the name of the list currently being displayed. The tool bar provides buttons, as well as a search box, which allows users to perform actions or filter the list. The status bar helps the user to be aware of the current services being displayed. To navigate, a user may click on one of the items in the list. A user may also select one or more items to perform an action. The buttons provided in the toolbar are also available from a menu on the status bar.
Posted in itop | No Comments »
February 5th, 2010
Each application window is divided in 3 frames: list, form and media. The framebar may be used to show or hide these frames. The three frames might appear simultaneously, or any combination of two, or just one.
On limited-size screens, only one of the frames may be visible at a time. The framebar may be hidden, appearing only when the user hovers over the right part of the screen.
Posted in itop | No Comments »
February 4th, 2010
On the lower part of the screen, we have the taskbar. The right corner of the taskbar is reserved for status information. The tasks are represented by icons on the left corner of the taskbar. When the user hovers the mouse over one of these icons, four options appear: maximize, minimize, replicate and close.
On limited-size screens, such as mobile phones for example, the taskbar may be hidden, appearing only when the user hovers over the lower part of the screen.
Posted in itop | No Comments »
February 3rd, 2010
Overview of an ITOP Application
Posted in itop | No Comments »
February 2nd, 2010
Posted in travel | No Comments »
January 22nd, 2010
I recently bought a netbook and installed Ubuntu Netbook Remix. This is a list of my favorite applications I added to the default installation:
Graphics:
- GIMP: Image editor;
- Inkscape: SVG editor;
- gThumb: Image resizer;
- Xsane: Image scanner.
- pdftk: PDF editor.
Internet & Netwok:
- Skype: Landline caller;
- Samba: File and printer sharer.
Sound & Video:
- Audacity: Sound editor;
- RecordMyDesktop: Screen recorder;
- FFmpeg: Video editor;
- WinFF: FFmpeg frontend;
- VLC: Video player;
- Ubuntu-Restricted-Extras: Proprietary video, sound, flash formats.
Web Development:
- Apache: Web server;
- MySQL: Database;
- PHP: Script language;
- PhpMyAdmin: Database frontend;
- Drupal: CMS;
- ExtJS: JavaScript library;
- Firebug: Bug tracking for Firefox;
- FireFTP: FTP for Firefox;
- CVS, SVN, Git: Version-control system.
Language Support:
- Portuguese (language-support-pt);
- French (language-support-fr).
Posted in linux | No Comments »
January 20th, 2010
One of the main features of the upcoming Drupal 7 is the ability to add custom fields to content types in a user-friendly way. For example, one might add a content type called Recipe, where it has the following fields: Title, Ingredients, Instructions and Photo. On earlier versions of Drupal, such content type had to be hard-coded by a web programmer. With Drupal 7, a webmaster may create it with a few clicks.
Now imagine a generic content type called iContent that could be transformed into anything instantly by the average user. This content type would include all available types of fields (text, number, date, file, etc) with an unlimited cardinality (i.e. the fields could be repeated if necessary).
So let us suppose a user wants to enter a Recipe. He selects the iContent and starts building the structure on the fly. He adds the Title, then the Ingredients, later the Instructions, and finally a Photo. Now, he might want to enter a Movie. So he adds a Title, then the Director, later the Duration, then the Release Date, the Genre, a Picture, and finally the Plot. He might want to save both the Recipe and Movie structures for later use as templates. But notice that only one content type was necessary to build such different content structures.
This is a simple idea, but a very powerful one. It makes us rethink how we create information today. Email, for example. You only have the option to enter the Title and the Body. No other fields are allowed, with the exception of Attachments, which provide the flexibility we are looking for since it has an unlimited cardinality. Why not extend that same flexibility to the other fields? Blogs are another example. Imagine how much richer would the Web be (semantically) if blogs had this kind of flexibility?
Posted in drupal | 10 Comments »
January 18th, 2010
Me and Debbie are currently living in London, ON. This is part of her Ph.D. program. She is continuing her research on Math Education at the University of Western Ontario. We rented a room in a ranch house 400 meters from where she works, so this is nice given all the snow we have outside. Here is a photo of Debbie in the frontyard of our new home and in the backyard with her first snowgirl:
Posted in family, travel | No Comments »
