Xml Calendar

As you probably already know, javascript has the built in limitation that it cannot read or write from the server. This is done for security reasons. It has been part of javascript from day one.

This limitation makes it impossible for javascript to read from a database, or even a text file. There's no method for javascript to read from the server. So you cannot have a database in a pure javascript solution.

XML is the next best thing. It's a simply a text file containing well organized data. If so don't or can't have a database, XML text files are the next best thing. Most modern languages including javascript can parse an XML file. Plus, XML has the added benefit of being able to hold relational / hierarchical data.

But we still have the problem of javascript being unable to read the file. The solution here is Asynchronously load the XML through Ajax. Modern javascript libraries like JQuery allow you to load file and execute javascript code when it finishes. All you need to is load the XML data and parse it after it is loaded

Leaves theme example

The scriptcalendar is an xml calendar written entire in javascript. It loads the xml events from the server in an Ajax like manner. An asynchronous call to the server is made to load the event data. When the load is complete the javascript parses the xml. The parsed events are then added to the calendar.

This entire process is the if the best approximation of a true database available in javascript. As described above, it uses the event data stored in the xml formatted text file. The asynchronous load "reads" the xml from the server. The XML is them parsed on completion of the async load and translated into events displayed on screen.

Snow theme example

You can generate your events data from a database and supply it to the calendar. Simply create an ASP.NET, PHP or JSP page that renders the xml. Then, supply this page as the xml event source to the scriptcalendar software. When the scriptcalendar is requested, it will aysnchronously load the xml from the dynamically rendered page and display the events screen.

By rendering event xml from a page instead of creating a file on the server, you avoid any concurrent user issues with file IO.

<events>

<event>
<month>7</month>
<day>23</day>
<year>2009</year>
<text>My Birthday</text>
<style>scEventRed</style>
</event>

<event>
<month>7</month>
<day>30</day>
<year>2009</year>
<text>End of the Month get together</text>
<style>scEventBlue</style>
</event>

</events>

See the Javascript Calendar in action
or download the code for your website.

javascript calendar