Author: Flash Junkie | Website: http://www.flashkit.com

Frame 2 - Filtering the List

This is where the link filtering happens. This is the only frame in this entire project that is really unique and that I can take credit for. Although to be honest, I got the idea from Microsoft's 'Help' index system, where this same effect happens. I liked it. I wanted one. So I made one. There are no really original ideas are there? Just new implementations of old ones.

The logic:
Here is where I sat down with pencil and paper and pre-thought out exactly what I wanted the script to do in order to perform the filtering list. In many cases, I highly recommend sitting down with pencil and paper BEFORE touching the computer. You will end up saving yourself a LOT of time.

It also helps to break large problems into the smallest possible pieces. The individual components of how this works were easy to solve. When I first though 'Hey this is what I want to do...' the overall project was to complex for me to solve all at once. So here are the individual components I broke the problem down to to be more easily programmed:
I decided:

1. When the user types, I need to keep track of what he types live.
2. As soon as it changes (not all the time -- to save on CPU processing -- no use continually running this code -- ) start checking.
3. Checking involves the following: comparing the amount of characters that have already been typed (say there are five) in five character chunks against the items in the list.
4. If a match is found, add that item AND ITS LINK to the new list.
5. I immediately decided I wanted this to work in a non-case sensitive manner.

Easy, right?

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Added: 2000-05-01 Rating: 9 Votes: 113 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (10 being the highest) Thank you for voting! We have encountered an error. Please try again later. You've already voted.

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Flashjunkie is a self-professed obsessive addict of life. Due to the highly artistic nature required of an Art Director for an Ad agency, he took up Flash to add some math to his diet

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