I have been a developer for nearly 20 years and a web developer for about 10 years. Over the years, I have considered creating a blog to share the things I have learned (and am learning) about web design and development, but I never seemed to have the time. When I began learning about web development using Ajax and Ajax Frameworks, I decided to take the time to create this blog.
My intention for this blog is to focus primarily on Ajax Frameworks, but since web development requires knowledge of many technologies, I will occasionally write about things such as CSS, Javascript, PHP, MySQL, Flash, etc.
Lately, I have been using JQuery as my primary Ajax tool. Although I have used other Ajax Frameworks in the past (Dojo Toolkit, Yahoo! User Interface Library, Scriptaculous/Prototype), JQuery has thus far been the easiest to learn. In my first few posts I will discuss some of the JQuery Plugins that I have created. Some of these include: a plugin for Google Maps (jquery.imGoogleMaps), Form validation and submission (jquery.imValidateForm), Page Populater (jquery.imPagePopulate), and a plugin to create lists (jquery.imList).
While I am still learning about some of the other Ajax Frameworks, I hope that what I have learned will be helpful to others. Just remember, “When you can pull the pebbles from my hand…”
I created YUI 2 login widget, imYUILogin, for an intranet project that I am working on. I originally created it as a Dialog Container, but I recently updated it so that it could be configured as a Panel or a Module. Logging in is done ajaxally, of course.
I recently had to update my imGoogleMaps JQuery Plugin due to problems that arose from the Geocode request rate limitations. As I researched the problem, I delved even more into the Google Maps API. Although this is a minor release, I decided to add custom marker icons to this version. Now you should be able to easily add custom markers to your Google Maps without having to worry about creating the underlying Google Maps API code – JQuery and the imGoogleMaps plugin helps you create a customized map in the fraction of the time. I also added the ability to display a phone number and a description for each address in the infoWindow.
While working on the imGoogleMaps upgrade, I realized that I had to add a progress bar. Rather than creating the progress bar functionality in imGoogleMaps, I decided to create a separate JQuery plugin – imProgressBar. It was simple to develop and easy to use – and I even took the time to create over 20 bar graphics.
I finally found the time to upgrade imGoogleMaps JQuery plugin. When I first began the upgrade, my plan was to only add the handful of items that were requested by a few users (and fix a few bugs). When the upgrade was complete, I had incorporated the GStreetviewPanorama object and Street View Overlay into the plugin. I also added the ability to plot multiple addresses ajaxally via a json object and add a business name to the infoWindow.
I was surprised to find that the YUI Dialog does not have a onClose event. I have been working on a login dialog widget using the Yahoo User Interface Library. I want to display a message if the user closes the dialog.
I created a JQuery Plugin, imValidateForm. As the name suggests, the plugin is used to validate forms. In this post, I will discuss how to use the imValidateForm plugin with CodeIgniter.
I have recently been updating the JQuery imGoogleMaps Plugin that I created earlier this year. The new version of the plugin will display multiple addresses on a Google Map. I’ll discuss the updated version of the imGoogleMaps plugin in another post. In this post, I’ll discuss how to use JQuery to load multiple addresses from Json data.
I just read an interesting article on Ajaxian.com that discussed Google Closure. I began to look at the API documentation this afternoon and found it to be a quite robust Javascript Library. I was especially geeked with the number of ui widgets available with this Library (currently 138).
Some the names of the ui widgets are interesting (AnimatedZippy, AbstractImagelessRoundedCorner, DimensionPickerRenderer). But the documentation and demos seem to be adequate enough to quickly learn how to use each widget.
The library also comes with a Closure Compiler – a JavaScript optimizer that compiles web apps down into compact, high-performance JavaScript code.
I can’t wait to use it.
I recently started converting an existing PHP project to CakePHP and YUI 2.8. The first decision that I had to make was where to place the YUI CSS files. I tried to find a quick, yet elegant solution, but I ended up with solution that was not so quick (or elegant).
I copied all of my YUI files from webroot/js/yui/ to webroot/css/yui/. I then opened each folder under webroot/css/yui/ and removed all of the js files (leaving the assets folder). If a folder contained js files only, then I deleted the folder.
I opened each folder under webroot/js/yui/ and removed all asset folders and css files. If a folder contained css files only, then I deleted the folder.
I spent about an hour trying to find another solution, so I guess the few minutes it took to remove the files/folders was worth it.
I have used Dreamweaver on my PC for many years. I think that it is the best IDE on the market. Why? Because both novice and seasoned web developers can use the same tool. And both will find it beneficial.
That being said, when I began to use my Mac for web development, I did not want to dish out the bucks for Dreamweaver, so I started using Aptana Studio.
I was moving deeply into Ajax development and I like the fact that Aptana Studio had built in support for many Javascript Frameworks (JQuery, YUI, Dojo, etc).
I also am a PHP developer, so Aptana Studio’s built in support for PHP was also a consideration. I’ve used this IDE when developing with CakePHP and CodeIgniter.
More recently, I have used Aptana Studio on my Ubuntu box while doing Django development (see my post: Setting Up Ubuntu For Web Development).
So what is your favorite IDE and Why?
To create...