Thursday 31 March 2016

Implementing sliders using Angular JS


It feels great when we implement something interesting and it’s such a pleasure to share that with you all. I hope this blog would help you in creating amazing things.
We use sliders in situations where we have lots of content but very small space to display that content. In this blog we will try to implement sliders using Angular JS scripting language.
Let’s start from the view of the slider which we are going to create:



Now let us see how we can do this:

Required:

Files used:
Type of file:
Purpose
Slider.js
JavaScript file

Implementing navigation arrows functionality

SliderView.html
HTML file
UI for slider

Style.css
Css file
Styles for elements


1. JAVASCRIPT FILE: ‘slider.js’ file.

Below code is intended for functioning of previous and next arrows. First of all we have to pushed images into the array. Then we have defined the working of previous and next arrow placed on the sides of slider. Indexing of array gets incremented or decremented depending on which arrow we have clicked. 
We have used slice function to slice our array of templates/images and then the sliced set is returned for display purpose. Slice function slices the array of images from its startindex and endindex and then returns it to the calling function.
 Using limit variable we have just shown one image at a time on the page. We can change that limit according to requirement.

Here is our code:-

app.controller ('maincontroller', function ($scope, $http)
{
  //variable initialization
    $scope.templateStartIndex = 0;
    $scope.templateEndIndex = 10;
    $scope.limitTemplate = 1;
    $scope.templates = [];
    $scope.isPrevious = false;
    $scope.isNext = false;

   //adding required images into array
    $scope.templates.push ("/Templates/slide1.jpg");
    $scope.templates.push ("/Templates/slide2.jpg");
    .
    .
    .


//function for showing next template/image
    $scope.ShowNextTemplate=function (limit)
    {
       
        $scope.isPrevious = false;
        $scope.isNext = true;
      
        if ($scope.templateStartIndex<$scope.templateEndIndex-limit)
        {
            $scope.templateStartIndex = $scope.templateStartIndex + 1;
//suppose we have pushed 10 images
            if ($scope.templateEndIndex<11) 
     {
                $scope.templateEndIndex=$scope.templateEndIndex+1;
            }
            if ($scope.templateEndIndex=10){}
//call to TemplateItems() for returning sliced set of images 
            $scope.TemplateItems();
        }
    }

    //function for showing previous template/image
    $scope.ShowPrevTemplate = function (limit) {
     
        $scope.isPrevious = true;
        $scope.isNext = false;
    
        if($scope.templateStartIndex>0){
            if($scope.templateStartIndex<=$scope.templateEndIndex-(limit-1)){
                $scope.templateStartIndex=$scope.templateStartIndex-1;
                $scope.templateEndIndex=$scope.templateEndIndex-1;
            }
            $scope.TemplateItems();
        }
    }
    //function for returning set of sliced templates
    $scope.TemplateItems=function()
    {
        return $scope.templates.slice($scope.templateStartIndex,   $scope.templateEndIndex);
    }
});


2. HTML FILE

Let’s say we have SliderView.html file

Below is the code.

<div class="content">
        <a class="slider-arrow left" >
            <img src="Images/arrow_left.png" ng-click="ShowPrevTemplate(1)"/>
        </a>
        <div class="slider-container">
            <span ng-repeat="template in TemplateItems() | limitTo:1">
     <img src="{{template}}" class="img-responsive" ng-class="{'slideright': isNext, 'slideleft':isPrevious}" id="slideimage"/>
            </span>
        </div>
        <a class="slider-arrow right" >
            <img src="Images/arrow_right.png" ng-click="ShowNextTemplate(1)" />
        </a>
    </div>

On Previous and Next arrow clicks we have called functions to get new image. We have used ng-repeat for looping through set of array elements. 
ng-repeat is the key behind this slider which gives us sliding effect. It calls TemplateItems () which returns the sliced set of images. Number of images which are returned after slicing depends upon the limit which we have set i.e. limitTo.
Secondly, ng-class directive is used to dynamically add classes to the image based on which arrow is clicked. If previous arrow is clicked then slideleft animation is applied and if next arrow is clicked then slideright animation class is applied. 
The following variables are used in the .js file to check the scenario:
 $scope.isPrevious and $scope.isNext. 
If the isPrevious variable is set true then slideleft animation is applied else slideright animation is applied and vice-versa to get a feel of sliding from left to right and right to left.

3. CSS CLASSES

slideleft and slideright classes are responsible for Animation effects.


.slideright
 {
  animation: animslide 1s ease-out;
 }
 @keyframes animslide 
 {
    0% 
    {
        transform: translateX(500px);
    }

    100% 
    {
        transform: translateX(0);
    }
  }

.slideleft
{
  animation: animslideleft 1s ease-out;
}
@keyframes animslideleft
{
    0% 
    {
        transform: translateX(-500px);
    }

    100% 
    {
        transform: translateX(0);
    }
}

.content
 {
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  position: relative;
  overflow: hidden;
}
.slider-arrow 
{
    height: 64px;
    width: 64px;
    position: absolute;
    top: 45%;
    right: 0;
    cursor:pointer;
}
.slider-arrow img 
{
     width: 100%;
     height: 100%;
}
.slider-arrow.left 
{
    left: 0;
}
.slider-arrow.right
{
    right: 0;
}



Thank you friends.
I hope this will help you in implementing sliders using Angular JS!

Saturday 19 March 2016

Sharing my thoughts – Part 2: It’s the OPPORTUNITY that one needs

To my young friends,
In my previous blog I shared my opinion on the importance of our inner voice. This time I would like to share my thoughts on deciding the right priorities - at least in the beginning of your career.
Every day, we come across many people who have excelled in their fields, who have acquired a lot of wealth and who seem to be very successful. They inspire and encourage us. In most cases, their external success is very visible to everyone but the story on how they got there, largely remains unheard. We also don’t spend enough time trying to find that out. I will talk about a little bit of this today.
For most of us, a job is means to earning money so that we can lead a comfortable life. That is fine, however, the problem starts when we directly link potential of a job with the salary and monetary benefits it is offering. Since our society links wealth with status and success, we are told that a high paying job is what we must have.  We tend to give low priority to find out what other opportunities are hiding in the job. It is hard to ‘see’ and evaluate an opportunity because unlike the money, it is normally not measurable and might take some time to deliver the results whereas, money is right there. Also, in today’s fast life and because of the demand to make it big quickly, there is less room for long term thinking and patience.
In my previous blog, I mentioned Kalyan Verma (world renowned wildlife photographer who left his high paying job at Yahoo to pursue his passion). Being a wild life photographer myself, I have attended his workshops and am very impressed with him and his skills. In the very beginning of his photography career, Kalyan got an offer to work at Jungle Lodges and Resorts near Bengaluru for a few weeks as a naturist for no salary but with food and accommodation. He accepted that. He actually ended up working like this for more than six months. He made great use of this opportunity. He learnt a lot about wildlife and photography, made friends and later that year, he got the “Wildlife Photographer of the year” award from Sanctuary Asia magazine (a very reputed nature and wildlife conservation magazine published from India). He never looked back after that. He valued the opportunity that came his way, he had much bigger picture in his mind than thinking that he is not getting paid. After few years of hard work and dedication now he now enjoys status and wealth.
Now let’s see another example that could have gone better. Few years ago I came across Rajesh (name changed) who was looking for a new job. Rajesh was in the initial stage of his career and possessed the skills that were very common in the industry. It looked like he didn’t have a stable job either. Through a reference, Rajesh applied in a very reputed firm. Fortunately, that firm was looking for that kind of profile at that time. The potential employer informally enquired about the expected salary from Rajesh before inviting him for the interview. Rajesh quoted high salary compared to the prevailing range in the industry. To make things worse, when he did not hear back, he tried to negotiate and asked how much can they offer. For obvious reasons, it did not go well. A good opportunity was lost because of the wrong priority. In my opinion, he needed to first understand and evaluate his situation and every aspect of the job before coming to remuneration.
20 years ago, I decided to move from being a manufacturing engineer to a software professional. When I got the job offer which I was eagerly waiting for, I found that the offered salary was lower than my salary at that time. Initially, I was a little disappointed. However, I am happy that I prioritized my requirements correctly and I accepted it. It changed my life and brought many more opportunities and satisfaction.
In this information age, the young generation is very smart, confident and aware, however, my advice to them is to be matured and not always keep money on top of their priority list. Have a bigger picture, clear priorities and long term planning.
When it comes to a job, let’s see what aspects of that we should carefully check:
-          Opportunities to do what you really want to do, what you enjoy
-          Opportunities to learn and to try new things, environment that brings out the best in you
-          Opportunities to take more responsibilities, get more exposure and go beyond your comfort zone
-          Opportunities to be yourself and not compromise on your integrity and values
Obviously, it is not always possible to evaluate a job up front, we have to rely on related information, friends and our own judgement before making the decision. That is where our maturity, long term thinking and ability to judge the situation come into picture.  
I also want to point out that you must also realize that it is not always possible to get everything you are looking for in the job. Always remember, when opportunities are not easily available YOU MUST CREATE THEM. You will realize that it is very possible only when you try. We will discuss this point in future blogs. 
At the end I like to summarize it this way, Worry about how much you are learning, not about how much you are earning because Learning brings earning with it.
              Good Luck! 

Tuesday 15 March 2016

Development in MongoDB with NoSQL Manager!

Hello Guys,

 I would like to share some information about development in MongoDB with NoSQL Manager Studio. So the very first question will be, what is MongoDB?
MongoDB is basically an open source database which falls under NoSQL category.
With NoSQL I mean, it does not follow the traditional way of storing data in tables and rows. Instead, it stores data in the form of documents. These documents are in JSON format. 
MongoDB is fast and scalable. A database in MongoDB is a set of collections, which holds set of documents, one single document is a set of fields which is of key value pair. For e.g. Employee collection will have following information; 
{“EmployeId": 101, “EmployeName”:"James", "Email”:”none@none.com”,”City”: “New York”} 


NoSQL Manager
It is a tool for MongoDB Administration, Development and Management.  It gives you document viewer and editor with Tree, Table and JSON view modes. It allows import tables from MySQL and SQL Server databases.

Before moving into development, a very important step is to start database engine. 
To do so, 
1) Open command prompt and make this path “C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\3.2\bin” your current working directory. 
2) Type “MONGOD” and hit enter. This command will start mongo server process. As shown in below screen.
Now you are ready to develop and using MongoDB!!!

Development in MongoDB composed of below major steps:
1) Create a Database:-For creating new database in MongoDB, click on databases and select create new database. Enter the database name as shown below.

2) Query the Database: - Open shell prompt in NoSQL Manager and execute below commands for creating new collection and Insert some data into the Employees MongoDB database.
db.createCollection ("Employee", {size: 2147483647})
db.Employee.insert ({EmployeId: 1, EmployeName:"Rajesh", Email:"none@none.com", City:"Mumbai"})

Now, let’s execute a select query on Employee collection we just created, db.Employee.find ({EmployeName: "Rajesh"}). 
It will show you the actual document view in result of NoSQL Manager Studio.

 What’s more for SQL users??Import MS SQL Server Database into MongoDB:- 
Step 1:-Choose “Import data from External data sources” on Employee Database. Select your data sources (MS SQL Server Database) and database as mentioned in below screen.

Step 2:-After selection of database the next screen shows available tables in SQL Server SampleDB. I selected country table, which I want to import into my Employees MongoDB database as shown in below screen

Step 3:-Click next on same window and Execute selection. It will show number of document imported into MongoDB.
You can see new country collection is added into the collection of Employees Database.
Now let’s do select query on Country Collection for US country which shows below result.
One more interesting feature is that you can render same data in different views e.g. Tree view, Table view, Text view (JSON format). You can find those options in section highlighted in the below image.

That’s all friends!!
 I hope this will help you getting familiar with MongoDB.