Project Name: Name Translator -- Your name in Chinese Website: www.USDiner.com/Chinese Implementation: MySQL, Perl, GD::Graph Description: As the Chinese language grows in popularity, more and more American friends ask me what their name is in Chinese. I decided to write a small utility script to do that automatically just for fun.
Later I created a mobile version for Windows Phone. Users can install the app on their cell phone and do the same thing.
I developed an App version for Windows Mobile 6.0 phones. You can download and install it in a Windows Mobile 6.0 phone form here (cab file).
This webpage is hosted on the CSE (UNR) server with limited resources and this small utility requires database, perl and GD::Graph.
The database and the actual software (in Perl) that do the actual translation are located on a different domain (www.USDiner.com). First I used Ajax to do the partial page loading. I tried to send the input (name) directly to USDiner.com. It did not work. You cannot do cross-domain with Ajax. Luckily my CSE account support PHP and the allow_url_fopen is on. So I wrote a php script on CSE server and let Ajax call the PHP script. The PHP script then calls the utility on USDiners.com along with the input. The program on USDiner.com parses the input (name), translate and paint it, and send the drawing back to CSE server. The PHP script then serves it back to Ajax.
Note: I created a DIV for the drawing, some Ajax javascript code in the header area, and a text input with a button (Translate). When a user clicks the button, it will call an Ajax function and start the whole trip. It did not work the first time. I HAD to put the button inside the DIV.