Whilst working on the Ajax Link Tracker and MapSurface I have come across an inconsistency in how the href attribute is retrieved using DOM Scripting. The href attribute is different to other element attributes in that the value set can be relative to the context of the page URL. If…
MapSurface is a tool that tracks user activity within a web page. Its purpose is to provide an understanding of how users find, navigate and value web pages. It displays this information in a compact widget which sits above the web page. If you press the “Alt” and “X” keys…
I am building a new and hopefully interesting way of displaying information about how people use web sites. I have for a long time thought that most web statistics software is blotted with lots of information that is of no interest. The larger web statistics software seems to be only…
There is now a new downloadable version. Ajax Link Tracker 2.2 Take a look at the next generation, MapSurface a modular JSON/On-Demand JavaScript interface that inculdes link tracking. One of the more interesting aspects of Ajax is the ability to track a user’s interaction within the browser. I wanted to…
Over the last couple of weeks I have been experimenting with unobtrusive JavaScript, building standard html pages and then dynamically enhancing the interaction. I have built a simple collapsible list example using the ‘page-hijacking’ technique for the links section of this site. This work is not fuelled by a wish…
I really enjoyed d.Construct 2005 it was thought provoking and interesting. Andy Budd’s opening speech was well balanced asking us all to look through the hype and buzzwords to find the real value of Web 2.0. I liked his idea that what we are seeing now is not a new…
Web Developer extension just got better. In fact it got better without even telling me, I opened Firefox and it had all these new menus. For anyone who has not come across this great little utility it is an extension to Firefox/Mozilla. Web Developer allows you to interactively interrogate and…
What I really like about tagging is its freeform individualism and simplicity. Most categorisation systems contain vast centralised taxonomies. These systems tend either to be to overly complicated or not granular enough to be of practical use. Allowing users to create their own taxonomies using single words and then merging…
This is a old post taken from my previous blogging system unfortunately I have temporary lost all the great comments with coding examples that people posted on the subject. Its worth checking out Nathanael Jones post on different pitfalls to avoid in image resizing and his module. A lot of…
As a web user, I have come to accept that without advertising revenue some of my favourite sites would not exist. As a designer, I have also come to accept that integrating and balancing advertising needs is a fundamental part of commercial web design. The problem with web adverts is…