I had a problem that I got to solve using something I rarely (if ever) use: jQuery.inArray(). While working on a new tool for doing Improv practice, I came across an interesting problem that might be worth sharing.
In my last installment, I covered loading external JSON files into your code. That works great, if you have reasonable control over the data format.
If you’re dealing with a vendor or open data source, you may not have the control you want to make a JSONP call (or the data is in XML instead of JSON). There’s a way around this by using a proxy.
I love using external JSON files for data configuration. Maybe it’s my old XML/XSL training, but there’s something solid about separating the content and presentation layers. That said, you need to set up your JSON in a clean and solid format to make it as future-proof as possible (we’ll cover that another day).