javascript-challenge: JavaScript and DOM Manipulation

Background

WAKE UP SHEEPLE! The extra-terrestrial menace has come to Earth and we here at ALIENS-R-REAL have collected all of the eye-witness reports we could to prove it! All we need to do now is put this information online for the world to see and then the matter will finally be put to rest.

There is just one tiny problem though... our collection is too large to search through manually. Even our most dedicated followers are complaining that they are having trouble locating specific reports in this mess.

To solve this problem, we write code that will create a table dynamically based upon our dataset. We also allow our users to filter the table data for specific values using only JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and D3.js on our web pages. This is done in 2 levels:

• Level 1: Automatic Table and Date Search
• Level 2: Multiple Search Categories

All CSS, JS and images required are under the static folder. HTML files are in their respective folders for each level.

The evidence that aliens are real and that the truth is out there: UFO Sightings

Level 1: Automatic Table and Date Search

• Level 1 of the assignment is under the folder: UFO-level-1. This contains the index.html file, a basic HTML web page that was created to display the dynamic table of UFO sightings. A copf of this HTML file is also placed in the root of the Github repo for a github page.

• Using the UFO dataset that was provided in the form of an array of JavaScript objects, code was written in app.js that appends a table to the web page and then adds new rows of data for each UFO sighting.

• Each UFO sighting will have data for date/time, city, state, country, shape, and comment.

• A simple filter form was created using a date form where a user can select a date value from a dropdown menu. A function called filterTable() was created using JavaScript that listens for events and searches through the date/time column to find rows that match user input and displays these to the webpage.

• A function called resetTable() clears the body of the table, populates the dropdown menu with unique date values from the dataset and displays all data to the table as a starting point.

Level 2: Multiple Search Categories

• Level 2 of the assignment is under the folder: UFO-level-2. This contains the index.html file, created to display the dynamic table of UFO sightings with an advanced filter option.

• Using multiple select dropdowns, JavaScript code was written in app-advanced.js so the user can set multiple filters and search for UFO sightings using the following criteria based on the table columns:

  1. date/time
  2. city
  3. state
  4. country
  5. shape

• An additional function populateDropdowns() was written to automatically populate the dropdown menus with unique values for each category. These options were sorted in ascending order using d3.ascending for ease of use when selecting.