Ryan Kanno: The diary of an Enginerd in Hawaii

Update

After finally getting time to play around with the Google App Engine Django helpers, here’s a few more steps to integrate nicely with the helper suite.

• Move the appengine installation from C:\AppEngine\ to where the Windows installer would have installed it to: C:\Program Files\Google\google_appengine (make sure to clean up your .pyc files)
• Add the following to your PYTHONPATH system variable: %APPENGINE%\;%APPENGINE%\lib;%APPENGINE%\lib\yaml\lib;%APPENGINE%\lib\webob;

After following the instructions, you should be good to go with Django + AppEngine! FTW! Whee.

I sense some pure, unadultered haterade. (j/k)

Since Python is one of those insert_any_synonym_for_fun languages that just works, here’s how to get the Google App Engine SDK working in Win2K.

• Download the Linux/Other platform package and unzip to somewhere neat.
• Add a System Environment variable called ‘APP_ENGINE_HOME’ that points to your App Engine installation. (Notice, I installed mine into C:\AppEngine)

  

• Add the System Environment variable to your System Path so the Windows shell can execute the included Python files.
• Make sure you have .py files associated with the python.exe executable located in your Python installation. (Check file types under folder options)
• Follow the tutorials: here and here, or learn with others - just to name a few.
• Oh, and before I forget, if you develop an application and realize that you can’t kill the development appserver (dev_appserver.py) by pressing Ctrl-C, I found a solution here. Basically, press Ctrl-C, hit the server with your browser one more time and voila, the development application server dies. Thanks Frank!

As an added bonus…

Last but not least…

Big ups to Mr. Fitz for solving all my Google App Engine issues and thanks to Mr. Harper for causing them.

Voila! (Enjoy)

Three things spurred me to release django-yui-layout-templates.

1. I’ve always wanted to see what GoogleCode offered in relation to SourceForge / RubyForge.
2. I’m so caught up in corporate America staring at Java / Ruby code all day, not only haven’t I blogged about anything Django related in quite a while, but it’s nice to get some commentary from the community, i.e. “your code sucks”. (Brings me back to reality)
3. I found myself using the same templates on a variety of projects and figured that I could do my part and help eliminate unncessary cruft/duplication.

So without further adieu, check out the project here. I know, I know - nothing revolutionary here, but I figure since Django is picking up some steam, these templates might help a Djangonaut get a head start on their next million dollar idea.

Voila! Enjoy!

A few months ago, I wrote a blog about implementing footerStickAlt using jQuery & Yahoo! UI Grids. Fast forward to the present and I have a small update to post. In my previous implementation, one of the required libraries was the jQuery Dimensions plugin because of its nifty window/document height() calculations. However, after reading the plugin’s changelog and seeing as how jQuery 1.2 core now supports the height function, this plugin is no longer required. So without further adieu, here’s the updated footerStickAlt implementation instructions.

It’s been tested in IE 5.5+ and Firefox 2.

*Note*: In this implementation, I don’t check for the margin on the ‘body’ element since we’ve set all our margins and padding on to 0. See the demos for details.

Requirements

• Yahoo! UI Grids [download]
• JQuery 1.2+ [uncompressed] [compressed]
• Place the Javascript below in a file of your choosing! Don’t forget to include it in your page!

$(document).ready(function() {
     if ($(window).height() > $(document).height()) {
          $('#bd').css({
               height: $('#bd').height() +
                         ($(window).height() -
                          $(document).height()) + 'px'
          });
     }
});

Check out the demos here: page with short content, page with long content!

(Notice the pages no longer depend upon jQuery Dimensions! Wheee!)

Enjoy!

My co-worker, Stephen, and I have implemented our layouts using the Yahoo! UI Grids library. One of the dilemmas we’ve been facing is the inability to use Cameron Adams’ footerStickAlt CSS solution @ The Man In Blue.

Basically, footerStickAlt is best described as

sites that require the Web page footer to be positioned either at the bottom of the browser window or at the bottom of the Web page – whichever is visually lowest.

Fast forward to the present, and using JQuery, JQuery Dimensions plugin, and a little nifty Javascript, we wrote up a solution at work for our Yahoo! layouts. One thing to remember is that this solution won’t work in browsers with Javascript disabled, i.e. it degrades to whatever Yahoo! grid layout you’re using.

It’s been tested in IE 5.5+ and Firefox 2. (I think =P).

*Note*: In this implementation, I don’t check for the margin on the ‘body’ element since we’ve set all our margins and padding on to 0. See the demos for details.

Requirements

1. Yahoo! UI Grids [download]
2. JQuery 1.1.2+ [uncompressed] [compressed]
3. Dimensions plugin 1.0.0-b2 [zip]
4. The Javascript below in a file of your choosing! Don’t forget to include it in your page!

$(document).ready(function() {
     if ($(window).height() > $(document).height()) {
          $('#bd').css({
               height: $('#bd').height() +
                         ($(window).height() -
                          $(document).height()) + 'px'
          });
     }
});

Check out the demos here: page with short content, page with long content!

Enjoy!