Working with Google Charts and Visualization API

Julian has just added a post with a good tutorial of how to use the Google Charts and Visualization API.

Check it out: aHref: Working with Google Charts and Visualization API

Context menu disable with JQuery

I have found a ton of tutorials teaching how to disable the context menu on browsers and in all of them I have found one flaw:

Does not work with Opera

It’s an anoying situation that got me thinking and searching for a solution through most part of the day and with no luck.

The function is simple:

$(document).ready(function()
{
$(document).bind(“contextmenu”, function(e)
{
return false;
});
});

and it works with (tested):

• Firefox (3 and 3.5 – Windows and Linux)
• Safari (Windows)
• Internet Explorer (All versions – Windows – amazing )
• Google Chrome (Windows)

and it does not work with (tested)

• Opera (Windows)
• Konqueror (Linux)
• Epiphany (Linux)

After a lot of research I have found why it does not work with Opera:

Opera (9.5) has an option to allow scripts to detect right-clicks, but it is disabled by default. Furthermore, Opera still doesn’t allow JavaScript to disable the browser’s default context menu which causes a usability conflict.

You can try to disable by disabling the mousedown event filtering only for Opera, but I do suggest a lot testing on this.

To complete just an extra note: this function does not bind the documents inside an iframe, so in this case you should complete the function by disabling the context menu in the iframe document as well.

Creating applications for Android

Google Android is becoming more and more popular with the growth of the G1 and with the upcomming new phone release.

I was checking on some documentation to see how to develop applications to the Android and I found this site (kind of slow) that have some great documentation for beginners: http://www.brighthub.com/

Here is the list of the documentation for developing Android applications:
1. Setting the Environment: Using Eclipse and Netbeans For Developing Google Android Apps
2. How-to create an Android Application: Structure I
3. How do I Develop an Android Application? Structure II
4. How-to create User Interfaces (UI) using XML : Layouts
5. How-to create an User Interface (UI) using XML : Widgets

Check it all. It will be worth your time and reading.

Google Wave

Take a sneak peak on what Google is working at now:

http://wave.google.com/

I’m watching the video and after is done, I will place a new post with more notes.

Guide to write testable code

I have received this this morning and is a good document with examples of what should be done do write code that can be tested at Google Standards.

Just follow the link: http://misko.hevery.com/attachments/Guide-Writing%20Testable%20Code.pdf

ZendX

I have just started working with a new project and, for the first time in years, I have faced something that I have never heard before – ZendX.

ZendX is a Zend Framework Extensions Library was created with the intetion of improving and building upon a solid Zend Framework.

Among a ton of things, there is a great feature from ZendX that needs a highlight: parallel processing. It provides some great libraries (to be used, in this case, in Linux Boxes) that allow a developer to perform some actions in parallel processing time.

Let’s go to a hipotetical example: Consider that you have 10 file uploads at the same time (like a flash uploader). As you already know, each file will have to be processed one at time, but imagine you being able to proccess all files in paralell! Extreme right!?

Checkout this library from the Google Code Project and what it can do for your projects. ZendX Link

Google Friend Connect is awesome!!!

I’m having tons of fun with Google Friend Connect. It took a ton of time for them to white list my request, but the wait worth every single minute.

Google Friend Connect is a simple set of gadgets (if we can say simple for this) that will allow you to make any site a social network site.

Think about this: What is the least that you will need to create a social network site?

• User registration
• A place for the users interact with each other
• A place for the users to invite friends

With the Google Friend Connect you can have this and, as long is growing, you will be able to have more.

Right now I have placed on the site SushiMadeSimple.com. Is a site, in Portuguese, that spread recepies and techniques of making sushi. The site is in Portuguese because it came from a Orkut community in Brazil. Anyway, there’s a translation feature there (not 100%) that, if you are interested, you can use.

With less than 5 minutes you can set up a whole social network feature to your site and made use of the Open Social API.

A couple of screen shots of Google Friend Connect.

Google Friend Connect Gadgets on Sushimadesimple.com

Google Friend Connect Interface

WordPress + GoodAdsense + Feedburner = Money 4 You

If you have, just like me, a WordPress blog and want to get a little bit more from it than you are getting now, I might have an exit for you. It took time, but I could finally figure out how to set up Google Adsense for feeds to work with Feedburner and display ads at my feeds. Supposedly it should be working as it is since Feedburner was bought by Google, but it still is a bit complicated to set up.

Here is how it works:

Set up an Adsense account with Google and create a new Adsense for Feeds. Adsense will ask you for a bunch stuff, but the important point is that you let adsense burn a feed for you. You will give adsense your blog feed link (usually http://yourblogname.wordpress.com/feed) and it will burn a new feed for you with feedburner.

After your Ad is saved, go back to it and see what was the channel name that it has created and take a note on that.

Now go to the manage channels, look for that channel and copy that id (save some place, you will need it).

Now go to your account details and look for your publisher id. For the feed publisher it should be something like ca-feed-pub#################. Copy everything from feed through the last number.

Go back to manage feeds and you will see a “View Feed Stats” link. Hit on that you will be redirected to the Feedburner control panel. At this control panel go to monetize.

At this tab you will see 3 textboxes to enter information.

The first you will enter your publisher id (the feed-pub#######) and on the second you will enter the channel id (only numbers).

Save it and wait about 15 minutes. Go to the “Optmize” tab and hit “View your feed”. You should see your blog posts with ads at the 1st, 3rd and last posts (not all of them).

With everything set up, your ads will be displayed at feed readers and, just like any other Adsense campaign, you will earn for each valid click on your ad, so more subscribers, more chance you will have to get some money out of it.

Advantage:

• You can really make money with your WordPress Blog

Disadvantages:

• Is a complicated setup
• Your ads will only be seen on feed readers (like Google Feed Reader) but not all of them will display the ads (like Omea Reader) and some you will see the ad but it will not work properly (like News Gator)
• If you have set up your sidebar to display the same feed, the ads will be removed (witch kind that make sense)

Want to see this working, just ad this feed link to a feed reader of yours (like the Google Feed Reader): http://feedproxy.google.com/McloidesResourcesLibrary

Have fun.

The new iGoogle

Google decided to do some changes yesterday and now iGoogle have come with a new design and some very cool features.

The first thing you will notice are the tabs that are now on the left side. If you have a lot a tabs, this will definetly help and now you can see a snipet of the tabs contents.

All boxes and elements on the iGoogle are now with a more web 2.0ish interface and finally with a font that is much more readble.

The coolest feature of the new iGoogle is the simple fact that it’s now working as a browser. If you click any element inside the tab, it will open a full page with the element details or more functionality. Take the Gmail for instance, if you click on it’s elements you will see a snipet of your inbox with full functionality.

So far the down part of this is that the new iGoogle do not have a min-width and when you are trying to see it from an iPhone it shows kind of odd at the start page.

Anyway is a great change and I would give a 4 donuts on this one.

Google Chrome first impression

I have just downloaded the Google Chrome browser and the first impression that I have is that it is insane fast. So to keep this short, some pros and cons.

 

Pros:

- Keep a visual history of the last links that you have been

- It’s insane fast

- Don’t have the menus up giving more space to browse

- I havent got any bugs so far

Cons:

- It’s not 100% CSS compliant, so you might need to check this browser as well when developing your websites

- The Chrome Inspector does not let you edit (Firebug still better)