Making a TABLE into a Grid
- Usual Background Rant
- The Basic Object
- Strategies for Non-Conforming Data
Usual Background Rant
As anyone knows who read my earlier article, "JavaScript as an Application Platform," I'm fairly frustrated by the untapped potential found in even basic exploration of JavaScript and DHTML. Even when truly static HTML pages are discounted, the vast majority of Web pages are not very useful. The basis of the functionality revolves around links to other pages.
This is particularly confusing as search pages and portals continue to proliferate, with few having distinguishing characteristics to cause a user to display loyalty. As I'll demonstrate, with a little effort a search engine could extend beyond frilly drop-down menus into the area of value-added service.
As always, the first step is to outline the goals and boundaries of the project. The overall goal is to create a JavaScript functional object that's capable of accepting data usually associated with a static table and instead producing a data grid with its own set of properties, methods, and events. While many bits of functionality normally associated with data grids could be implemented, I'll concentrate on making the data more accessible to the user.