AJAX Magazine

Ptwix, PHP and Ajax Twitter Client

2009-07-05T09:18:59Z

Ptwix is a very new PHP/AJAX web component to show tweets on web pages. With ptwix people can follow your twitter account directly in your site. The script simply uses PHP and Curl to fetch your feed and friends timeline then display it in a colorful way. There are already three themes available red, green and blue, but it won't be difficult to customize it with your own colors or design. Released under GNU GPL.

Download Ptwix, demo and install instructions at ptwix.toforge.com. And since we are talking about twitter you can also follow us @phpmagnet.

10 Ways To Increase jQuery Performance

2009-06-24T11:28:45Z

Nettuts+ have a new tutorial by Giulio Bai about increasing jQuery performance in your Ajax Apps. 10 Ways to Instantly Increase Your jQuery Performance provides 10 tips to make jQuery usage faster, to use with moderation especially for the first tip.

This article will present ten easy steps that will instantly improve your script's performance. Don't worry; there isn't anything too difficult here. Everyone can apply these methods!

1. Always Use the Latest Version
2. Combine and Minify Your Scripts
3. Use For Instead of Each
4. Use IDs Instead of Classes
5. Give your Selectors a Context
6. Cache. ALWAYS.
7. Avoid DOM Manipulation
7. Avoid DOM Manipulation
9. Return False
10. Bonus tip - Cheat-sheets and Library References

dhtmlxVault v1.3 Released, DHTML JavaScript File Upload component with Progress Bar

2009-06-24T11:14:39Z

dhtmlxVault (DHTML extensions File Uploader) helps you to implement a modern and feature-rich file uploading part of your web application. So much wanted, the Progress bar will inform your customer about the ongoing process during a long-time operation. Different file types are displayed with the corresponding icons (you may add more file types when required). Built with AJAX technology, the control allows files to be uploaded seamlessly without reloading the entire webpage.

Version 1.3 introduces many new features :

- PHP support (with progress bar) - now you can use progress bar with pure PHP server-side (PECL extension is required);
- Ability to control number of uploaded files - for example, you can allow only one file to be uploaded by user;
- Ability to check file types (extensions) - this feature allows you to check file extension while user chooses a file, and disable adding wrong files;
- Callback events for better integration with dhtmlxSuite - you may write your code to react on upload events to update other DHTMLX controls;
- Add custom form fields - you may add more hidden fields with any name to the file uploading form, so you can post any additional data to the server;
- Localization for text Labels - all text labels can be replaced with localized text. There are still some labels hardcoded in images (buttons).

dhtmlxVault v1.3 package also includes some fixes (e.g. for MacOS browsers bug related to file path with reverse slashes) and examples of usage of the uploader with different server-side technologies (PHP, JSP, .Net, Perl).

Ajax Libraries Usage for .NET developers

2009-06-24T10:46:12Z

Simone Chiaretta, Italian .NET developer, architect, Microsoft MVP, have made a survey last month about Ajax Libraries usage and found that jQuery is the most used Ajax/JavaScript library among .NET developers with 71.4%, followed by Ajax Control Toolkit with 58.8%, then the ASP.NET Ajax library with 44.8%.

Simone have done similar survey on 2007 and the difference with this year is very interesting : jQuery marked the highest gain with 437.2%. Ajax control toolkit gained 18.5%, while ASP.NET Ajax library lost -39.3% ! Something interesting also noted in this survey concerning commercial 3rd party libraries which have good market share so far : 1 developer out of 4 is using a commercial library according to the survey results. Commercial libraries top spot is held by Telerik with 15,6%, followed by Infragistics with 3,9%.

JavaScriptMVC Framework

2009-06-22T09:13:05Z

JavaScriptMVC is a framework that brings methods to the madness of JavaScript development. It guides you to successfully completed projects by promoting best practices, maintainability, and convention over configuration.

JavaScriptMVC's focus on Model View Controller concept allows :

Separate business logic from user interface for a highest maintainability
Better organize your JS code and load on the fly the scripts as needed by the code
keeps your application light as possible and loads with fewer HTTP requests
Usage of your favorite JavaScript library, whether Prototype, jQuery, Mootools, or another.
Easy usage of testing library that includes event simulation, unit testing, Ajax fixtures, and a console.
Monitor your application when it break with a detailed report to help rapidly find and fix bugs.
Cross Browser compability Firefox, IE 6 & 7, Safari, and Opera

Download JavaScriptMVC, Documentation, demos and getting started guide available here. Released under the MIT license.

Phototype, Image Manipulation With PHP And Prototype

2009-06-21T11:45:58Z

Ajaxorized have an interesting javascript library to manipulate images using PHP GD and prototype. Phototype could be used to resize, rotate, flip, drop shadow, or to add special effects on any photo such make it sketchy, greyscale, adding caption ... etc. Phototype supports chaining, and you can write something like :

Original photo

Photo manipulated with Phototype

Phototype is released under GPL license and available for download here. More information and usage samples could be at ajaxorized website

IPWEditor, In-Place WYSIWYG Editor

2009-06-21T11:24:35Z

In-Place edit is a very practical solution for content management systems to edit any content live without having to use a control panel or an administration area. Usually In-Place editor uses textarea or text input field but if you need a rich text editor ? IPWEditor is a jQuery plugin that integrate the WYSIWYG editor FCKEditor to provide an In-Place editing functionality over your content. Pretty easy to use and extend, and it won't be difficult to add other editors such tinymce.

Infovis, Interactive Data Visualizations for the Web

2009-06-17T11:53:15Z

The JavaScript InfoVis Tookit is an advanced JavaScript solution that provide tools for creating interactive visualizations for the web. InfoVis support multiple data representations such Treemaps, Radial layouts, HyperTrees/Graphs, SpaceTree-like layouts and more. Compatible with IE6+, FF2+, Safari3+ and Opera9.5+, InfoVis should easily fit with any other JavaScript library in your project.

Version 1.1 of the toolkit have just been released with many new features including :

- Split into modules for code reuse
- All visualizations are packaged in the same file. You can create multiple instances of any visualization. Moreover, you can combine and compose visualizations.
- This Toolkit is library agnostic. This means that you can combine this toolkit with your favorite DOM/Events/Ajax framework such as Prototype, MooTools, ExtJS, YUI, JQuery, etc.
- You can extend this library in many ways by adding or overriding class methods.
- Custom visualizations are created by adding or changing Node/Edge colors, shapes, rendering functions, etc. You can also implement many controller methods that are triggered at different stages of the animation,

A project by Nicolas Garcia Belmonte, released under the BSD License. More information, documentation, demos and download at http://thejit.org/

FluentDOM, PHP DOM Manipulation ala jQuery

2009-06-14T12:39:21Z

FluentDOM is a very new project that provides an easy to use fluent interface for DOMDocument. The idea was born in a workshop of Tobias Schlitt, about the PHP XML extensions at the IPC Spring in Berlin.

We implemented most of the jQuery methods into FluentDOM, but here are differences. Most important: we use XPath for expressions, not CSS selectors. Since XPath is supported by the ext/xml extension, no extra parsing need to be done. This should be faster processing the selectors and btw it was easier for us to implement. And as a nice topping it supports namespaces, too.

A very nice way to read and edit XML document on the fly and using xpath selectors. You can read more about the project http://fluentdom.org/, nightly build also available for download to give it a try http://nightly.fluentdom.org/.

dhtmlxScheduler, a Powerful Ajax Event Calendar

2009-06-01T22:15:18Z

Yet another amazing new product from DHTMLX, and this time it's about an Ajax Event Calendar. dhtmlxScheduler is a Web-based JavaScript event calendar that provides rich and intuitive scheduling solution similar to Microsoft Outlook Calendar, Apple's iCal or Google Calendar.

dhtmlxScheduler is very lightweight (about 19KB gzipped), cross-browser and highly customizable. Each aspect of the calendar interface can be configured through JavaScript API. Developers can easily add/update events, change date format, time scale or calendar language.

Although dhtmlxScheduler is a pure JavaScript solution, it can be easily connected to the backend database with the help of dhtmlxConnector, a PHP extension that enables data communication between client-side interface and server-side datasource. You can also use your own server-side code written in any language (PHP, Java, ASP, etc.) to bind scheduler content to the database.

dhtmlxScheduler is distributed under GNU GPL and commercial licenses. More information about dhtmlxScheduler and live demo are available here.

Visual WebGui Releases the First Coding Free Point and Click Web Design Tool

2009-06-01T22:03:25Z

Available in the new 6.4 Free Preview Version

Gizmox have recently released a Free preview edition of Visual WebGui 6.4 allowing users to create rich, customized, and creative web AJAX user interfaces (UI�s) without any need to code in JavaScript, HTML, CSS, or XAML with Silverlight. The Point & Click Web Design Tool is a ground breaking approach to simple, intuitive developer/designer interface. Below the press release :

Gizmox the provider of the Visual WebGui (VWG) rich internet application (RIA) development and deployment platform, announced today the release of Visual WebGui 6.4 Free Preview Version. This cutting-edge version introduces a new Point & Click Web Design Tool that, for the first time, provides a complete coding-free cycle for the creation of complex, enterprise-grade web applications. VWG 6.4�s coding-free application development and coding-free UI designer combine the ease of Visual WebGui Drag & Drop development with sophisticated visual design for DHTML UI�s or Microsoft Silverlight.

The new 6.4 Point & Click Web Design Tool integrates with existing design software such as Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Expression Blend, Adobe Flash CS, and more, and allows UI designers to fully customize their application themes and Visual WebGui's more than 80 out-of-the-box controls. The .NET third party control wizard wrapper enhances productivity and flexibility. Designing creative, professional Web 2.0 UI's with the Point & Click features of the 6.4 Web Design Tool eliminates any need for high level HTML, CSS, or XAML skills.

jsDraw2D Javascript Graphics Library

2009-04-20T22:08:40Z

jsDraw2D is a pure JavaScript library to draw 2D graphics on web pages inside web browser without using SVG or VML. JavaScript developers, web developers and webmasters can take advantage of the library to add graphics drawing functionality to their web applications or websites using the library. The library is entirely written in JavaScript and does not need any plug-in or additional software to run/execute. The JavaScript source code of the library is open and free under a "Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported" License.

The library provides the option to set co-ordinate system, origin, scale, and many other interesting features. Below a sample code using jsDraw2D :

DHTMLX Released Version 2.1

2009-03-17T17:46:07Z

DHTMLX announced the update of their Ajax UI Toolkit, a comprehensive set of full-featured JavaScript components which enable developers to create rich and high-performing web applications with less efforts and time.

Version 2.1 introduces lots of significant improvements and bug fixes. The updated components bring better stability and performance, and provide compatibility with IE8 RC, Google Chrome 2 and Safari 4 in addition to other supported browsers.

One of the key products, dhtmlxGrid, was enhanced with extended grouping functionality and faster rendering capabilities.

Also, a couple of innovations have been introduced:

The first one is dhtmlxConnector which provides an easy way to connect client-side components to the server-side database (currently available for PHP only). This extension handles client - server interaction for DHTMLX components which content is bound to the server database, such as grid, treegrid, tree, and combo. It also provides such functionality as loading/editing data, server-side sorting, filtering, paging, etc. The video demonstrating some dhtmlxConnector�s features is available here.

Nitobi Open Sources Ajax Component Suite

2009-03-09T20:48:51Z

Nitobi announced today that it has open sourced Complete UI, its suite of popular Ajax-powered user interface components.

The open source version can be used without charge according to the General Public License (GPL), Version 3 license agreement. It includes:

Nitobi Toolkit--the Ajax library that the backbone for Complete UI
Complete UI Components - nine fully-featured user interface components developed with JavaScript and CSS
Popular server libraries - libraries for binding our Ajax components to data on your PHP, Classic ASP, or ColdFusion MX server platform.

Complete UI is publicly available on Google Code and Git Hub. It's also available for download at www.nitobi.com/download/.

Below the press release :

Qooxdoo 0.8.2 Featuring A Cross-Browser "Inspector" Tool

2009-03-06T18:54:29Z

Qooxdoo 0.8.2 has just been released with some cool new features to not miss ! Qooxdoo is one of the most popular Open Source RIA Frameworks. Here are some of the highlights of the brand new 0.8.2 release:

Inspector, a cross-browser debugging tool a la Firebug
Tons of improvements and bugfixes over the previous version
Tested for all common browsers, including betas like IE8
Optimized packaging and loading of qooxdoo applications
CSS3 selector engine and a jQuery-like low-level API
Preview of the upcoming data binding layer
Preview of the new infrastructure for virtual widgets

For more information please see the 0.8.2 announcement as well as the detailed release notes.