This is the 3rd post in a series on techniques, strategies and patterns for writing JavaScript code.The Prototype Pattern shown in an earlier post works well and is quite efficient, but it’s not the only game in town. One of my favorite overall JavaScript patterns is the Revealing Module Pattern since it’s cleaner with less usage of the “this” keyword. I also like the fact that it doesn’t separate code into constructor and prototype sections. Although it doesn’t offer the benefit of sharing functions implementations across objects through JavaScript’s prototype feature, it’s definitely a viable option.

This is the 2nd post in a series on techniques, strategies and patterns for writing JavaScript code. In my previous post I introduced what I call “function spaghetti code” and explained some of the problems it introduces. I also talked about the impact of global variables and how closures add a much needed solution. In this post I’ll introduce the Prototype Pattern and show how it relies on built-in functionality in the JavaScript language.

Whether we like it or not, HTML5 is all the rage now days. With the recent news on “code name” Windows 8’s upcoming support for HTML5 and JavaScript that hype has intensified even more. I’m personally in favor of what HTML5 brings to the table although I do worry about browser compatibility issues that will naturally crop up. Compatibility issues are something that Web developers have been dealing with since the days of Netscape 4 (layers) and IE4 (divs) though so it’s really nothing new; it’s just intensified with all of the new functionality that the various HTML5 specs define. Fortunately, there are several options available that can help reduce cross-browser issues.

The HTML 5 canvas is capable of rendering lines, shapes, images, text and more without relying on a plugin. Although the canvas element isn’t supported by older browsers, the latest version of all major browsers (IE, Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Opera) now support the canvas making it an option for rendering charts, graphs and other types of visual data. In cases where a browser doesn’t support the canvas, a fallback can be provided that renders data using Silverlight, Flash or another type of plugin.

I’ve been using IIS Express lately with Silverlight and WCF services and have learned to appreciate the “real-world” advantage it gives you versus the built-in Visual Studio “Cassini” server. Although I’ve always preferred to use IIS whenever possible, sometimes that’s not an option when you’re first starting a project and working on a machine that doesn’t have IIS installed.  By using IIS Express you can identify security, configuration and other issues that may occur as you move an application to a real IIS 7+ server upfront rather than finding out about the issues after you move an application to a dev/staging server. In this post I’ll walk-through some of the lessons learned and walls encountered when I started working with authentication in IIS Express. It’s easy to work with once you know a few fundamentals. If you don’t already have IIS Express installed (it comes with Visual Studio 2010 SP1) you can get it through the Web Platform Installer or here.

Rendering complex graphs or designs to the Web has always been a challenge that has typically been solved by using images, server-side processes or plugins such as Silverlight or Flash. Although drawing charts with straight lines has never been a problem (with some creative CSS), rendering different types of shapes and gradients in the browser such as ellipses, bezier curves and other custom shapes has always been a problem. With the addition of the HTML 5 canvas in the latest version of all major browsers, a lot can be done with only JavaScript and HTML tags now.

Security is a key component of applications and something that developers often struggle with to get right. How do you authenticate a user? How do you integrate roles and use them to show or hide different parts of a screen? These and other questions commonly come up as I talk with developers working on ASP.NET and Silverlight applications.