Welcome to ITarama - Scripting in HTML pages

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HTML scripting

This page will briefly discuss scripting within web pages. Since Javascript functions as the de-facto standard for web page scripting, it is the language we will discuss here. Javascript is an interpreted (it can be read and executed in real time), as opposed to a compiled (must be read and executed before it is run) language, its code can be put directly into an HTML page. To keep older, non-javascript aware browsers from having trouble, you must surround the Javascript code with HTML comment tags.

Writing scripts is a light version of programming. To write scripts is to write programs. Programming is outside the scope of this Web site, so if you actually want to learn how to write your own scripts, just go to your favorite search engine site and search for scripting or Web page scripting and you will find many sites to show you how.

Javascript commands must be placed within a pair of SCRIPT tags. You must always close script tags. There are two places where Javascript can reside on an HTML page. Javascript can live within the HEAD tags and also the BODY tags. All of the pages which make up ITarama contain some Javascript. On this page we will show you the scripts we used and will provide brief explanations of what is going on.

The following script is a Javascript function that checks to be sure that something is entered into each required field on our sign up page. If the user tries to submit a form by hitting the "Sign me up" button and any of the required information is missing, an alert box pops up and tells the user what is missing and places the cursor into that field to await input.

<html>

<head>

<title>This script is a function to check for required user input</title>

<!-- Hide script from old browsers
	
	function validForm() {

if (document.signup.FirstName.value =="") {

alert("Please enter your First Name")

document.signup.FirstName.focus();

return false;

}

if (document.signup.LastName.value =="") {

alert("Please enter your Last Name")

document.signup.LastName.focus();

return false;

}

if (document.signup.StreetAdd.value =="") {

alert("Please enter your Street Address")

document.signup.StreetAdd.focus();

return false;

}

if (document.signup.StreetName.value =="") {

alert("Please enter your Street Name")

document.signup.StreetName.focus();

return false;

}

if (document.signup.City.value =="") {

alert("Please enter your City")

document.signup.City.focus();

return false;

}

if (document.signup.State.selectedIndex==0) {

alert("Please pick your State from the list")

document.signup.State.focus();

return false;

}else{

return true;

}

// End hiding script from old browsers -->

</script>

</head>

</html>

This next script is a function that generates the pulldown link box at the top of each page. This script can also work with non Javascript browsers via a CGI script housed on the server through the use of the NOSCRIPT tags.

<html>

<head>

<title>This script is a function that creates a pulldown menu containing links.</title>

<!-- Hide script from old browsers

function jumpPage(newLoc) {

newPage = newLoc.options[newLoc.selectedIndex].value

if (newPage != "") {

window.location = newPage

}

// End hiding script from old browsers -->

</script>

</head>

<body>

<body bgcolor="WHITE" onLoad="document.myForm.newLocation.selectedIndex=0">
<div align="left">
	<form action="gotoLocation.cgi" name="myForm">
		<select name="newLocation" 		onChange="jumpPage(this.form.newLocation)">
			<option value="" selected>Links to the rest of IT-arama

<option value="default.htm">Home
			<option value="members.htm">Member login
			<option value="headings.htm">Headings
			<option value="lists.htm">Lists
			<option value="tables.htm">Tables
			<option value="scripting.htm">Scripting
			<option value="resume.htm">My Resume
			<option value="signup.htm">Sign up
			<option value="mailto:tonirene@bellsouth.net">Contact Us

</select>

</body>

</html>

This script reads the system date and converts it into the day of the week, the month and the year and displays it near the top of all ITarama pages.

This script creates a clock and displays it in the title bar of every page of the IT-arama site. This script does not work in the Mozilla Firefox browser.