I AM ALPHA

Debugging XSL can be a whole lot of fun. Hopefully, you've got an XML editor that allows you to run your transformation, which should help some, but if you run into problems once you've uploaded your module, it can be a bit of a pain to troubleshoot what's going on.

Help is here! You can use this form to run your transforms through our cleverly named Transformer (we like to think of it as a lawnmower that turns into a nerd). If it fails, you'll get a really disgusting java error, but it will hopefully lead you to your real problem.

One thing to keep in mind is the Transformer expects you to output valid XML from your transformations, which means you have to have a root element in your output. This one bit us, hence creating this form. Out of tragedy comes hope, right?

Here's a handy-dandy checklist to follow when creating modules that should help you get from beginning to end. If it helps, great. If not, please let us know on the message board.

1. Use the Module Maker to create your skeleton
2. Create a directory that uses your "module name" as its title.
3. Save your skeleton in that directory as index.html
4. Write some markup
5. Write some CSS that stays local to your module.
6. Validate your module. If it doesn't, check out the validation checklist (we like checklists).
7. Zip up your module directory
8. Upload it, but don't check the "deploy to AIM Pages" box.
9. Go to the playground and test it (it'll be in the User Created folder)
10. Make sure it works in both in at least Internet Explorer 6 and Firefox 1.5
11. Go back and re-upload your module and this time, you can check the "deploy to AIM Pages" box.
12. Go to AIM Pages and try it out (it'll still be in the User Created folder)!
13. Tell all your friends about your butt-kicking module, and then maybe go see a movie, read a book, take a nap, or go back to step one and create another module!

If you run into trouble with any of those steps, come tell us.

• Requirements
• The Process
• Conclusion

If you've already got a Web page, or a piece of a Web page that would make a cool module, why not reuse it? We certainly can't think of a reason not to, so we created these instructions so you can transform your existing HTML into modules like magic.

Requirements

First the bad news: Not just any old page will work as a module. There are some things that a module requires that a lot of pages out there on the Web don't have. Here's are two requirements:

• Design
• Make It Interesting with Ajax
• We're Done
• JavaScript Code
• Complete Code

This is where we take everything we learned in Workshop 3 and push it up to the next level by consuming another RSS feed, this time on the client side with AJAX (XmlHttpRequest). (We're going to need to use the JavaScript SDK, and our local development environment for this one, too.) Okay, let's go!

• Before You Begin
• Changing the Module View
• We're Done
• XSL Code
• Complete HTML

Now we are going to build a module that consumes an RSS feed on the server side. Server-side modules are mostly for folks who have web services and transformations in place. The two pieces that you need on your server are the RSS feed and an XSL transformation file. In our example, we'll take the CNN Top Stories RSS feed and use an XSL stylesheet on a different server to display it all gorgeously.

• Adding Flash to the Module View
• We're Done
• Complete Code

One of the easiest ways to create a great-looking module is to embed a Flash movie into the module view. This workshop will show you how to do just that.

Adding Flash to the Module View

Inserting Flash content is pretty simple. We begin by taking the module we created in Workshop 1 and adding the HTML for the Flash movie at the correct location in the document:

• Module Skeleton
  • Module Wrapper
  • Module View
  • Module Description
  • Module Detail
  • Author Information
  • License
• We're Done
• Complete Code

This workshop will take you from start to finish building a brand new module. Hopefully, by the end of this workshop, you'll be able to build your own modules without looking back.

Tutorials for building modules, from easy to crazy.

We're working on documentation for our SDK, but for now, you can check out the JSDOC and our introduction to the Dojo Toolkit.