We Keep Coding

keeping localStorage objects that iterate whilst using clear() within the same function

I'm trying to clear all local storage when the user either completes the game loop or starts a new game, but also keep some values.
I can do this already with my sound values for volume:
// inside a conditional statement that fires when the user chooses to start a new game.
if (newGameBool === '1') {
var tst = myAu;
//myAu is the stored value that the user sets as sound using a range type input
localStorage.clear();
localStorage.setItem("Au", tst);//A newly cleared localStorage just got a new value, and it's the same as it was before.
UI.myLoad();//reload the function that uses LS to do things.
}
How do I do this for key's that have an iterating number attached to them?
Here is how I save them:
var i = +v + +1;
localStorage.setItem("v", i);
var vv = localStorage.getItem("v");
localStorage.setItem("LdrBrd_" + vv, JSON.stringify(LdrBrd));//saves all data with the iterating key name.
Calling them the way i did the sound function:
var gv = v + 1;//v calls the value from LS and adjusted for off-by-one error. gv is a local variable.
if (newGameBool === '1') {
var ldd, vg;
for (var ii = 0; ii < gv; ii++) {
var ld = localStorage.getItem("LdrBrd_" + ii);
if (ld != null) {
//these are the values that i want to pass beyond the clear point
ldd = JSON.parse(ld);//JSON string of data saved
vg = ii;//how many of them.
}
}
localStorage.clear();
for (var xx = 0; xx < vg; xx++) {
var nld = localStorage.getItem("LdrBrd_" + xx);
if (nld != null) {
localStorage.setItem("LdrBrd_" + ii, JSON.stringify(ldd));
}
}
localStorage.setItem("v", vg);
UI.myLoad();
}
I have been using console.log() in various spots to see what is going on. I comment-out the clear function just to see if the values were wrong and they don't save all all. I tried to make a fiddle, but the local storage wasn't working at all there. In visual studio, it works fine but the script to this file is almost 2000 lines long, so i tried to dress it up the best i knew how.
Thanks in advance for any help or guidance.

I was stuck on this for a few days, but i think i found something that will work, so i'll answer my own question in case there is value in posterity.
locatStorage.clear();
/* ^LS clear() function is above all new setItem codes, some variables are declared globally and some are declared at the top of the functional scope or as param^ */
var itemClass = document.querySelectorAll(".itemClass");//the strings are here
if (itemClass) {//make sure some exist
for (var p = 0; p < itemClass.length; p++) {//count them
mdd = JSON.parse(itemClass[p].innerText);//parse the data for saving
localStorage.setItem("v", v);//this is the LS item that saves the amount of items i have, it's declared at the top of the functions timeline.
localStorage.setItem("LdrBrd_" + p, JSON.stringify(mdd));//this setItem function will repeat and increment with 'p' and assign the right string back to the key name it had before.
}
}
The key is to keep the strings physically attached to an element, then call the class name. The i ran a loop counting them. 'mdd' will spit back each item i want. So then all that is left to do is re-set the item back to it's original status.
This has allowed me to create a way for my users to collect trophies and keep them even after clearing the localStorage when the he/she decides to start a new game.
I use CSS to hide the text from the string.
color:transparent;
In my gameLoop, i have a function that will read the saved strings and show them as cards just below the hidden strings.

Since you want to keep some values I recommend one of two things:
Don't call localStorage.clear() and instead only wipe out the values that you want using localStorage.removeItem('itemName'). Since you said the item names have a numeric component, maybe you can do this in a loop to reduce code.
Pull item(s) that you want saved first and restore them after calling clear(). This option is best if there are way more items that you want removed rather than saved (see below)
function mostlyClear() {
var saveMe = {};
saveMe['value1'] = localStorage.getItem('value1');
saveMe['anotherValue'] = localStorage.getItem('anotherValue');
localStorage.clear();
for(var prop in saveMe) {
if(!saveMe.hasOwnProperty(prop)) continue;
localStorage.setItem(prop, saveMe[prop]);
}
}

Alert once when user is outside geofence

I have the bellow code checking if a map marker is inside or outside of a geofence.
i am going to make it alert detected out of the bounds.
My problem is the map markers a refreshing constantly and i do not want the alert to be repeated over an over.
I need to set something when the alarm is played. Then only do the alert if that thing is unset.
When the user is detected back inside the bounds it will unset it also.
if (name === f.contact) {
var fence = new google.maps.LatLng(f.lat, f.lng);
var dist = google.maps.geometry.spherical.computeDistanceBetween(posi, fence);
// check if in/out of fence
if (dist > f.radius) {
console.log(f.contact+" : "+dist+" meters - outside the fence");
// OMG outside the fence play an alarm
} else {
console.log(f.contact+" : "+dist+" meters - inside the fence");
// Back inside the fence, reset the alarm
}
}
i was thinking possibly making an array like this
var alertSent = [];
and then if outside the geofence adding the users name to it
alertSent.push(name);
how would i check if the name exists in the array?
and how would i delete the name from the array when back inside the fence?

You could use an Object as an asociative array and use the names as keys and a boolean value for sent / not sent. alertSent[name] also evaluates to a falsy value if it doesn't contain name at all.
var alertSent = {};
// if user outside: check
if (!alertSent[name]) {
// show alert
// remember that alert was shown
alertSent[name] = true;
}
// remove name from alertSent:
alertSent[name] = false;

If you end up using array, then you have search it for every index till you find the string like
How do I check if an array includes an object in JavaScript?
or
Best way to find if an item is in a JavaScript array?
You can also think about, registering events and eventlisteners for handling this problem, it would be a better design.
Or you can also use hashmap kind of javascript implementation like using
alertSent["driver1"]=true;,
Lookup will be simple in this case just use ,
alertSent["driver1"]
to get the boolean value. But take care of array space in this case.

How to reference an array in a function argument

I have a series of arrays that contain words I want to use as text in various HTML divs (there are about 35 of these, I included only a few for brevity).
var bodyplan = ['Anguilliform', 'Compressiform', 'Depressiform', 'Filiform', 'Fusiform', 'Globiform', 'Sagittiform', 'Taeniform'];
var mouthposition = ["Inferior", "Jawless", "Subterminal", "Superior", "Terminal"];
var barbels = ['1', '2', '4 or more'];
var caudalshape = ['Continuous', 'Emarginate', 'Forked', 'Lunate', 'Rounded', 'Truncate'];
I have a switch function that is supposed to change the text based on user selections:
switch(n){
case 1:
changelabels(bodyplan, 8);
break;
case 2:
changelabels(mouthposition, 5);
break;
case 3:
changelabels(barbels, 3);
break;
case 4:
changelabels(caudalshape, 6);
break;
case 5:
changelabels(dorsalspines, 8);
break;
default:
alert("handquestsel error")}};
Finally, I have the function which I would like to make the changes (except it doesn't):
function changelabels(opt1,opt2){
var i = opt2;
var im = opt2 - 1;
var c = 1;
var index = 0;
while (i>=c){
var oldlbl = document.getElementById("rb" + c + "lbl");
var newlbla = opt1.slice(im,i);
var newlblb = opt1.toString();
oldlbl.innerHTML = newlblb;
c = c + 1
index = index + 1
}};
I know the code for my function is just plain wrong at this point, but I have altered it so many times that I'm not sure what's going on anymore. At one point I did have the function able to change the text, but it did so incorrectly (it parsed the name of the array, not extracted a value from the array as I wished). Please help. I know I am overlooking some fundamental concepts here, but am not sure which ones. I've lost count of the hours I've spent trying to figure this out. It's seems like it should be so simple, yet in all my chaotic attempts to make it work, I have yet to stumble on an answer.
EDIT: I want my switch statement to call the function and pass to the function, the appropriate array from which to pull the labels from. The purpose of the app is to help a user learn to identify fish. When the user makes selections on the page, a series of pictures will be shown for various character states with an accompanying label describing the state. For example, when the user selects Mouth Position a series of divs will show the different mouth positions that fish have and have a label below the picture to tell the user what that certain character state is called. I can get the pictures to change just fine, but I am having a hell of a time with the labels.

Why not just something along the lines of:
document.getElementById("bodyplan_label").innerHTML = bodyplan[bodyplan_index];
You seem trying to put everything in really abstract data structures, I see no reason to. Just keep it simple.
Also bodyplan has only 8 elements, so bodyplan[8] will give you an out of bounds exception because arrays start at 0 as is common in all modern programming languages.

If I'm reading your requirement and code correctly, in your switch statement you are passing both a reference to the appropriate array and that array's expected length - you don't need the second parameter because all JavaScript arrays have a .length property.
You don't want to use .slice() to get the individual values out of the array, because that returns a new array copied out of the original - just use arrayVariable[index] to get the individual item at index.
So, putting that together try something like this (with your existing array definitions):
switch(n){
case 1:
changelabels(bodyplan);
break;
case 2:
changelabels(mouthposition);
// etc.
}
function changelabels(data) {
var i,
lbl;
for (i = 0; i < data.length; i++) {
lbl = document.getElementById("rb" + (i+1) + "lbl");
lbl.innerHTML = data[i];
}
}
Notice how much simpler that is than your code? I'm assuming here the elements you are updating have an id in the format "rb1lbl", "rb2lbl", etc, with numbering starting at 1: I'm getting those ids using (i+1) because JavaScript array indexes start at zero. Note also that you don't even need the lbl variable: you could just say document.getElementById("rb" + (i+1) + "lbl").innerHTML = data[i] - however I've left it in so that we have something to expand on below...
Within your function you seem to be changing the labels on a set of elements (radio button labels?), one per value in the array, but you stop when you run out of array items which means any leftover elements will still hold the values from the previous selection (e.g., if the previous selection was "bodyplan" with 8 options and you change to "mouthposition" with only 5 - you probably should hide the 3 leftover elements that would otherwise continue to display the last few "bodyplan" items. One way to do that is instead of setting your loop up based on the array length you could loop over the elements, and if the current element has an index beyond the end of the array hide it, something like this:
function changelabels(data) {
var i,
lbl,
elementCount = 20; // or whatever your element count is
for (i = 0; i < elementCount; i++) {
lbl = document.getElementById("rb" + (i+1) + "lbl");
if (i < data.length) {
lbl.innerHTML = data[i];
lbl.style.display = "";
} else {
lbl.innerHTML = "";
lbl.style.display = "none";
}
}
}
If these elements are labels for radio buttons (just a guess based on the ids) then you'd also want to hide or show the corresponding radio buttons, but I hope you can figure out how to add a couple of lines to the above to do that.
(As mentioned above, be careful about having element ids count up from 1 when the array indexes start at 0.)
If the above doesn't work please post (at least some of) the relevant HTML - obviously I've just had to guess at what it might be like.

SOLUTION: Changed the scope of the array variables to local by moving them into the function where they are used, instead of having them as global variables at the top of the page. I don't understand as I was following every rule of variable declaration. But for some unknown reason, global variables in javascript are abhorrent.
Solution Edit: Found an error in declaring my global variables. This may have been the source of my problem of why I could not access them. But it is a non-issue at this point since I corrected my code.

I don't understand what your trying to achieve exactly with your code. But to pass a variable (in this case an array) by reference you just have to add "&" before the variable.
function the_name(&$var_by_ref, $var_by_value) {
// Here if you modify $var_by_ref this will change the variable passed to the function.
}
More: http://php.net/manual/en/language.references.pass.php
Hope that helps.

Password Strength Meter

I'm trying to create my own JS Password Strength Meter.
It was working before but i didn't like how it worked so I tried using
{score +=10;}
Instead of just:
score++
This is my code:
http://jsfiddle.net/RSq4L/
Best Regards,
Shawn,
Hope someone can help

Multiple issues:
Your passwordStrength() function was not defined in the global scope in the jsFiddle so it wasn't getting called. This is probably an artifact of how you set up the jsFiddle, perhaps not an issue in your real code.
The method of getting the appropriate ratingMsg will not work because you don't have array values for every possible score so many scores will generate an "undefined" ratingMsg.
Your CSS classes are also sparse so there are many score values that they will not match for either and no appropriate CSS class/style will be in effect. If you want a specific class for each rating value, then perhaps you should put the classname in the ratings array so it can be fetched from there along with the ratingsMsg.
For the first issue, in your jsFiddle, you also have to make sure the password processing function is defined in the global scope. The way your jsFiddle is set up, it is not (it's in the onload handler). You can fix this in the jsFiddle by just setting the first drop-down in the upper left to "no wrap (head)".
For the second issue, you are using:
ratingMsg[score]
but, your array is a sparse array not guaranteed to have an entry for most possible scores. You simply can't do it that way because many elements you access will have undefined values which won't give you a meaningful message. For example, if score was 15, you would be accessing ratingMsg[15], but there is no value in that space in the array so you won't get a meaningful rating message.
The solution is to find a different way to select the right message. The simplest way would just be an if/else if/else if statement that would check which range the score is in and set the appropriate msg. There are more elegant table driven ways, but all will involve searching through a data structure to find which two values the current score is between and using that msg.
If you look at this jsFiddle http://jsfiddle.net/jfriend00/dA7XC/, you'll see that your code is getting called, but it only hits values in the array sometimes.
And, here's a rewritten algorithm that finds the appropriate msg no matter what the score show in this fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/jfriend00/jYcBT/.
It uses a data structure like this:
var ratingMsg = [
0, "Unclassified",
10, "Weak",
20, "Fair",
50, "Better",
60, "Medium",
70, "Good",
90, "Strong"
];
and a for loop like this to get the appropraite ratingMsg:
for (var i = ratingMsg.length - 2 ; i >= 0; i-=2) {
if (score >= ratingMsg[i]) {
msg = ratingMsg[i+1];
break;
}
}

Here you go: http://jsfiddle.net/RSq4L/11/
The first problem is that in your fiddle you have the onLoad option set, so your passwordStrength function is not actually being declared in the global scope. It is being declared inside of the onLoad block that jsFiddle wraps your code with. This causes the page to error out when the keypress handler tries to invoke the function.
You can fix this problem in several different ways:
By explicitly declaring the function as global as per my example above.
By choosing one of jsFiddle's "no wrap" options instead of onLoad.
By dynamically binding your event-handler instead of setting it through the element's onkeydown attribute in the markup.
The second problem is how you are keying your score messages. You have:
var ratingMsg = new Array(0);
ratingMsg[0] = "Unclassified";
ratingMsg[10] = "Weak";
ratingMsg[30] = "Fair";
ratingMsg[50] = "Better";
ratingMsg[60] = "Medium";
ratingMsg[70] = "Good";
ratingMsg[90] = "Strong";
...and you lookup the message by doing ratingMsg[score]. This will only work if the score exactly matches one of your indices. And based upon your math this will not always be the case.
I would suggest doing something like:
ratingMsg = {};
ratingMsg[0] = "Unclassified";
ratingMsg[10] = "Weak";
ratingMsg[30] = "Fair";
ratingMsg[50] = "Better";
ratingMsg[60] = "Medium";
ratingMsg[70] = "Good";
ratingMsg[90] = "Strong";
function closestRating(score) {
var bestKey = 0;
var bestMatch = 100;
for (var key in ratingMsg) {
if (key <= score && score - key < bestMatch) {
bestMatch = score - key;
bestKey = key;
}
}
return ratingMsg[bestKey];
}
On an unrelated note, are you sure you want to be using onkeydown? I think onkeyup would work better.

Your fiddler script had several errors. Here's the corrected one: new script.
You were missing a semicolon here: document.getElementById("passwordDescription").innerHTML = "" + ratingMsg[score] + ""
You forgot to escape '^' on your regular expression

I just wrote this for it:
Jquery Plugin for password strength forcing

Trying to reduce repetition of javascript using a variable

I am trying to reduce the repetition in my code but not having any luck. I reduced the code down to its simplest functionality to try and get it to work.
The idea is to take the last two letters of an id name, as those letters are the same as a previously declared variable and use it to refer to the old variable.
I used the alert to test whether I was getting the right output and the alert window pops up saying "E1". So I am not really sure why it wont work when I try and use it.
E1 = new Audio('audio/E1.ogg');
$('#noteE1').click(function() {
var fileName = this.id.slice(4);
//alert(fileName); used to test output
fileName.play();
$('#note' + fileName).addClass('active');
});
The code block works when I use the original variable E1 instead of fileName. I want to use fileName because I am hoping to have this function work for multiple elements on click, instead of having it repeated for each element.
How can I make this work? What am I missing?
Thanks.

fileName is still a string. JavaScript does not know that you want to use the variable with the same name. You are calling the play() method on a string, which of course does not exist (hence you get an error).
Suggestion:
Store your objects in a table:
var files = {
E1: new Audio('audio/E1.ogg')
};
$('#noteE1').click(function() {
var fileName = this.id.slice(4);
//alert(fileName); used to test output
files[fileName].play();
$('#note' + fileName).addClass('active');
});
Another suggestion:
Instead of using the ID to hold information about the file, consider using HTML5 data attributes:
<div id="#note" data-filename="E1">Something</div>
Then you can get the name with:
var filename = $('#note').data('filename');
This makes your code more flexible. You are not dependent on giving the elements an ID in a specific format.