Searching for some Web 2.0 / Ajax / Javascript Help

1/12/07: UPDATE to the Original Post

A programmer out of Austin, Chris Bauman of etypical.tv (a small collective that does film and video work in the bay area) emailed me with a solution he had posted on his site. Since it seems to work pretty well and he was able to do it so quickly and affordable I think this case is closed!

Thanks, Chris!!

Original Request

DDM is looking for some freelance scripting help. Our ideal relationship would be with a modern programmer (in other words, buzzword compliant) that we could hit up with some, “We want to have this functionality … is it possible” questions. ;~) If the answer is yes then that programmer would whip up some scripts for us and we would pay for them.

To get us started in the relationship, we have a real-life example of functionality we actually need to find a way to implement right now. I’m sure I could find a way to do it with hours or days of head-banging … but I want it done better than that, and frankly … faster too. Here’s the deal – you take a look at this project and let us know how long it would take you, how much it would cost, and what technologies would be employed. We get back to you and ask you to bust it out if it seems like an elegant solution.

The Test Page

The test page is here. This is for a travel company. What you see displayed here are all the results of an executed search. To be clear: The entire database structure is already in place – the backend is fully developed 100% (in Python). We’re just looking to do something additional with the search results in terms of users being able to sort them – ideally using javascript and css or other technologies to manipulate the data on the front end.

If possible we would like the script to give classes of “first” and “last” to the trips that are displayed (or something like that), so that we can turn on specific styles for the first or last of the trips (like no top border on the first trip, for instance).

Areas

Each area represents a different geographic location.

Types of Trips

There are three types of trips, Biking, Hiking, and Multisport. The default view is All – which shows all the trips. The trips will be displayed alphabetically. When you click on the Biking, Hiking, or Multisport tabs, we want only the corresponding trips to display and for the tab to become active.

If there are no biking trips, we would not want the biking tab to be displayed, and the same goes for hiking and multisport trips.

Types of Lodging

For each trip, there are three lodging possibilities, which are Premier, Casual, and Camping. For each type of lodging there are three further possibilities, which are Classic, Solo, and Family.

Any combinations of lodging are possible. If there are no camping trips, we would not want the camping section to display, and the same goes for casual and premier trips.

The XHTML / CSS

I have created the XHTML in a way that I thought might be most flexible and with plenty of hooks. However, if you needed it done any differently that is definitely doable. We can write it however we want.

The CSS is bare-bones at the moment, but we do have a fancy design that we intend to implement via CSS once the functionality is figured out.

Expectations

We would expect the solution you come up with to be compatible with all modern browsers (Firefox for PC and Mac, Internet 6 and 7, Opera, and Safari), and to employ contemporary practices (Modern JavaScript, DOM and Remote Scripting/Ajax).

Thank you!

UPDATE

A programmer out of Austin, Chris Bauman of etypical.tv (a small collective that does film and video work in the bay area) emailed me with a solution he had posted on his site. Since it seems to work pretty well and he was able to do it so quickly and affordable I think this case is closed!

Thanks, Chris!!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 at 8:55 pm and is filed under Business, Javascript. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Searching for some Web 2.0 / Ajax / Javascript Help”

  • David Hucklesby Says:
    January 9th, 2007 at 11:32 pm

    “Remote Scripting” and Ajax implies server-side – any restrictions as to technology here?

    Also, what are your requirements regarding accessibility, unobtrusiveness, and maintainability of the code?

    Oh – and what are you prepared to pay for a suitable solution?

  • Sheriar Designs Says:
    January 10th, 2007 at 9:35 am

    David:

    I will ask our resident programmer about technology restrictions. The truth is that I don’t really know about this stuff and have no idea. I didn’t even really know what “remote scripting” meant, but just copied that out of some description that I found – so I don’t know if we need that, but I have a vague enough understanding that we probably want someone who knows a bit about that.

    In terms of our requirements regarding accessibility, unobtrusiveness, and maintainability of the code well … at the moment the site we need this particular code for isn’t the most modern, up-to-date site around, but it’s not archaic and table-ridden either. I think we would love to work with someone that can accomplish the highest standard of coding, but we would be ok relaxing the quest for perfection a bit for projects such as these that are being used on less up-to-date sites if it meant saving significant time and money.

    As to payment, I think we would probably pay the programmers hourly rate, or we would take a bid from the programmer for the job. I actually have no idea how long such a thing might take – hours or days? So I’m looking for some cost proposals, and hopefully I get more than one so I can evaluate the range.

    But more important than cost is the solution itself and the hope of establishing an ongoing relationship with a programmer that meets our needs, is able to communicate well, and can respond within a reasonable amount of time to requests. Someone who just seems cool to work with would be nice too. ;~)

    Hope this helps. As you can see, I’m more ignorant than I’d like to admit – but that’s why I’m looking for help! Please feel free (anyone) to ask questions that would help to understand the project requirements.

    Thanks!!!

  • David Hucklesby Says:
    January 10th, 2007 at 1:49 pm

    Mani:

    Thanks for the clarification. I’m just not understanding the issue, it seems.

    Wouldn’t this be done on the server more easily? (And more accessibly?) It looks to me similar to the results of a Google search, only with four sets of results instead of one. Wouldn’t you create the results sets server-side? You could then use your famous “multiple pages in one” JavaScript to reveal one set at a time.

    I’d love to help, but don’t know Python.

  • Sheriar Designs Says:
    January 10th, 2007 at 5:18 pm

    The entire backend solution is already in place – this is just a functionality upgrade we want to give to an existing site.

    Please feel free to call me with questions – I know it is challenging to try to describe these things briefly.

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