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News Wire: Dojo, jQuery, and YUI forge ahead

by Kevin Yank

• RESTful Rails Development PDF Released
  A free 30 page PDF primer on building Rails applications using REST. The English is pretty patchy given it has been translated from German, but some of the examples are great. (thanks, mattymcg)
  (tags: rubyonrails)
• Find A Domain Name You Want To Show Off
  A list of tools to help you find a great domain name. (thanks, SRTech)
  (tags: business)
• Em Calculator
  A handy tool for calculating font-size values in ems to achieve desired sizes in pixels at the browser’s default font size. Offers a nice, visual way to factor in the effects of inheritance. (thanks, bsytko)
  (tags: css design)
• iText 2 released!
  iText, the powerful, free, and open source Java library for manipulating and generating PDF documents has just announced its 2.0 release. This version adds support for a number of Acrobat 8 features, and removes a number of obsolete classes and methods.
  (tags: java acrobat opensource software)
• Ajax Form Validation Using Spring and DWR
  Client-side validation can drastically improve your forms, but it can lead you to write twice as much validation code. This article shows how to use the DWR Ajax library to …

Friday, February 23rd, 2007 | Posted in Industry Links | 6 Comments »

News Wire: The Secret Origin of Ajax

by Kevin Yank

• Upcoming CSS3 support in Opera
  Just when I’d given up hope on CSS 3, Opera insider David Storey posts this run-down on the features that are up and running in their current internal build. It’s mainly selectors at this stage, but support for CSS2’s text-shadow makes up for that!
  (tags: opera css)
• WordPress 2.1 Ella
  WordPress 2.1 is out. The most visible improvements center around the WYSIWYG writing experience, but the added goodness is baked right through.
  (tags: software php)
• Seven accessibility mistakes you don’t want to make
  SitePoint pal Roger Johansson gives a great summary of this two-part article series from Digital Web, offering up advice for web development shops struggling to meet accessibility standards in real-world projects.
  (tags: accessibility)
• HTML Standards Process Returning from the Grave
  The Safari development team chimes in with detailed feedback on the proposed charters for the W3C’s new HTML working groups. Dan Connolly of the W3C responds in the comments to this post.
  (tags: html standards safari)
• Practical, Entry-Level Web Accessibility
  Work with developers who don’t know a thing about web accessibility? Point them at this article. Free of hand-wavy notions and idealism, it …

Thursday, January 25th, 2007 | Posted in Industry Links | 2 Comments »

News Wire: Chris Wilson to Chair W3C HTML Working Group

by Kevin Yank

• The Adobe PDF XSS Vulnerability
  A new XSS vulnerability has been found in Acrobat and Acrobat Reader 7.0.8 and earlier for Windows. If a vulnerable user follows a malicious link to a PDF on your site, the browser will silently execute the attacker’s JavaScript code on the user’s behalf.
  (tags: security acrobat)
• OpenID for non-SuperUsers
  Sam Ruby walks through setting up your site to provide your OpenID for auto-discovery. With OpenID quickly becoming the flavour of the month for de-centralized ID solutions, this is as good a time as any to get up to speed on the topic. (thanks, andrewk)
  (tags: http php identity)
• Really easy field validation
  Requires prototype, but if your project is already using it this is a nice and simple form validation method. Just remember, only fools leave input validation solely in the hands of JavaScript… (thanks, andrewk)
  (tags: javascript)
• IE Developer Toolbar Beta 3 - Now Available
  This latest beta from Microsoft adds a number of features that bring it closer to a tool like Firebug. It also adds a couple of unique features, such as the ability to track down CSS selectors that don’t match any elements …

Friday, January 12th, 2007 | Posted in Industry Links | 1 Comment »

News Wire: How’s Your Uncached Performance?

by Kevin Yank

• Make your pages load faster by combining and compressing javascript and css files
  With the combination of a few URL rewrite rules and a PHP script, you can automate the process of combining, compressing, and caching the JavaScript and CSS files used by your site to vastly improve performance.
  (tags: php css javascript)
• Developer Notes for prototype.js
  Updated to cover Prototype 1.5.0_rc2, this excellent set of developer notes will get experienced JavaScript coders up to speed on Prototype in no time. With official documentation still lacking, unofficial sources like this remain vital references.
  (tags: javascript ajax)
• The Dojo Offline Toolkit
  The Dojo Offline Toolkit project will enable anyone to build a web application that works transparently offline by caching the data it needs locally. Users will need to install a small runtime the first time they use an application offline.
  (tags: javascript)
• JSON vs. XML: The Debate
  Thanks to Ajaxian, a comprehensive round-up of the JSON vs. XML debate that seems to have raged over the holiday break.
  (tags: javascript xml ajax)
• IE+JScript Performance Recommendations Part 3: JavaScript Code Inefficiencies
  The third in the IE team’s series on improving …

Wednesday, January 10th, 2007 | Posted in Industry Links | No Comments »

News Wire: CSS Turns Ten

by Kevin Yank

• Adobe Photoshop CS3 Beta
  Adobe has released Photoshop CS3 Beta for all licensed CS2 users. Others can download it to get a 2-day trial. The revamped UI is very nice, while other new features are nice, but not ground-breaking. Universal Binary support for Intel Macs at last!
  (tags: software design)
• Photoshop CS3 Beta One-on-One Preview
  About 90 minutes of free video training with Photoshop expert Deke McLelland from Lynda.com, to get you up and running with the new Photoshop CS3 beta.
  (tags: design software)
• Circumventing browser connection limits for fun and profit
  Another look at the technique of using “dummy” domain names to overcome the default 2-connection limit enforced by current browsers when connecting to HTTP 1.1 servers. In this particular case study, a 40% reduction in load time was achieved.
  (tags: http)
• Transforming MODx: Tales of OO, MVC, and O/RM
  Nearing 1.0, the MODx CMS is currently undergoing extensive rewrites of its core functionality in order to make it cleaner and more extensible. This article is an extensive discussion of how the MVC design pattern is being implemented in these rewrites.
  (tags: php programming)
• Google Web Accelerator Debate
  Google’s re-release of Google …

Thursday, December 21st, 2006 | Posted in Industry Links | 3 Comments »

News Wire: Bill Gates on Web Standards

by Kevin Yank

• Who Questions Bill Gates’ Commitment to Web Standards?
  Molly Holzchlag was among a number of high-profile bloggers invited to discuss the issues of the day with a number of Microsoft insiders, including Bill Gates himself. What does Gates really think about web standards? Read the transcript and judge for yourself.
  (tags: microsoft standards ie)
• Firefox 3.0: Passes Acid 2 CSS Test
  The latest nightly build of Firefox 3.0 passes the Acid 2 test for CSS standards compliance, joining Opera, Konqueror and Safari. Internet Explorer is now the only major browser not to pass the Acid 2 test.
  (tags: css standards firefox)
• GWT 1.3 Release Candidate is 100% Open Source
  With this latest version, Google has released all components of the Google Web Toolkit (including the previously closed-source compiler and runtime debugging frameworks) under othe Apache 2.0 open source license.
  (tags: google opensource)
• google’s own cornershop
  Sick of generating rounded corner images yourself? Google has a script to do this installed on most of its online services, and for now at least you can simply reference that service to get rounded corner images for your own site!
  (tags: design …

Saturday, December 16th, 2006 | Posted in Industry Links | 3 Comments »

News Wire: Google Rips Off Yahoo!

by Kevin Yank

• Google Blatantly Copies Yahoo!?
  Google has apparently ripped off Yahoo!’s page to market a branded version of Internet Explorer 7. The designs match very closely, and the screenshot has been tweaked in a few conspicuous places.
  (tags: google yahoo! ie)
• Java Platform, Standard Edition 6 Release
  A major new version of Java is now generally available. Major new features include scripting language support, core support for web services, improved performance, subpixel antialiasing on LCD monitors, and better support for desktop OS features.
  (tags: java)
• calc5.com - online calculator with symbolic calculations and graphs
  This graphic calculator is an amazing example of what can be accomplished with the canvas support in browsers like Firefox, Safari, and Opera. In Internet Explorer, which doesn’t support canvas, graphs are generated more slowly with VML. (thanks lox)
  (tags: javascript html)
• HTML Pie Chart at TheGoogleCache
  Web-based tool for creating pie charts, resulting in a downloadable image you can post to your blog or web site. Based on GDGraph library for PHP. (thanks jamesbooker)
  (tags: design php)
• Is your plugin Naughty or Nice?
  WordPress 2.1 is on the verge of release. This post provides vital pointers for …

Wednesday, December 13th, 2006 | Posted in Industry Links | 9 Comments »

News Wire: Developers Don’t Design?

by Kevin Yank

• kuler
  Wicked-cool color theme creation tool from Adobe Labs. Generate themes using different color combination algorithms, rate themes that other users have shared, and download any theme you like for use in Adobe Creative Suite 2 applications.
  (tags: design)
• Showing Good Form
  This entry in the 24 ways series provides a fantastic example of why using a table to lay out a form—even when it has a tabular structure—is not a good idea. Screen readers don’t process tables and forms at once, and so your form isn’t accessible!
  (tags: accessibility css html)
• Algorithms
  More than 300 pages and a free download (but possibly not for much longer), this late draft version of the new book, “Algorithms” by Sanjoy Dasgupta, Christos Papadimitriou, and Umesh Vazirani contains a wealth of information on programming algorithms.
  (tags: programming)
• JUnit Reloaded
  A very nice run-down of the changes that have been made in JUnit 4. If you’re familiar with test-driven development and Java, this article may be all you need to get started with unit testing in Java.
  (tags: programming java)
• Google Checkout Now Free Until 2008
  Google Checkout will continue to waive its 2% + $0.20 fee …

Tuesday, December 12th, 2006 | Posted in Industry Links | 8 Comments »

News Wire: “Flash Killer” WPF/E Preview

by Kevin Yank

• Anatomy of a Drag and Drop
  An enlightening breakdown of just what makes a JavaScript-powered drag-and-drop effect work, and how the implementations of the major JavaScript libraries (script.aculo.us, YUI, and mootools) differ from one another.
  (tags: javascript)
• Beta II: The Audio Fix
  A bit late off the mark on this one, but beta 2 of Flash Player 9 for Linux is now out, and it contains big improvements to audio output, which was reportedly flakey in the first beta.
  (tags: flash linux)
• ColorJack: DHTML Color Picker
  Small and simple, this color picker control is free to use in your own projects. Unfortunately, the sample code is quite obtrusive and fails completely when JavaScript is turned off. Anyone up for crafting an unobtrusive version of this?
  (tags: javascript software)
• Google Code - Updates: JSON in GData
  JSON is now supported by Google Base, Blogger, and Calendar feeds, greatly simplifying mashups based on these services. Still waiting for JSON Google Search results though. (thanks andrewk)
  (tags: ajax javascript google)
• Rails 1.2: Release Candidate 1
  Again, playing catch-up a little with this one. Rails 1.2 is nearing release with the addition of REST-aware controllers, …

Friday, December 8th, 2006 | Posted in Industry Links | 7 Comments »

News Wire: Liquid vs. Fixed

by Kevin Yank

• Resolution vs. browser size vs. fixed or adaptive width
  An excellent collection of links to the current thinking on fixed width vs fluid width layouts (and the grey areas in between).
  (tags: css design usability)
• IE expressions ignore CSS media types
  Using Microsoft’s proprietary CSS expressions in your screen style sheet will see those property values applied when printing as well, despite your having a completely separate print style sheet.
  (tags: ie css)
• script.aculo.us morph effects
  script.aculo.us 1.7 beta 1 is out, and includes new CSS morphing effects. Specify a new set of CSS properties that an element should morph to, and script.aculo.us will take care of animating its colors, border sizes, and more.
  (tags: css javascript software)
• How To Subclass The JavaScript Array Object
  JavaScript guru Dean Edwards discovers a way around difficulties with extending JavaScript’s Array object in Internet Explorer by stealing an iframe’s copy of the Array object. Dean suggests this technique might resolve inter-script interference entirely.
  (tags: javascript)
• Thoughts About How to Subclass The JavaScript Array Object
  Following up on Dean Edwards’s breakthrough using an iframe to extend the Array object, Hedger Wang instead uses …

Wednesday, December 6th, 2006 | Posted in Industry Links | No Comments »