Ajax and Ajax Frameworks

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…”

Posts Tagged ‘CSS Drop-Down Menu Framework’

I needed to add Dropdown menus to a site that a designed using Drupal. I found a few modules (Nice Menus, etc) that would enable me to easily add dropdown menus to my site, but I wanted to use the CSS Drop-Down Menu Framework that I discussed in a previous post. With a little help from JQuery, I was able to add dropdown menus to my site without having to use a Drupal module.

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CSS

As a freelance developer, I am always looking for more work. The other day I was reading the skills required for a particular job and it mentioned that the candidate should have knowledge of the Blueprint CSS Framework. I had never heard of the framework before and was curious as to why one would need a framework for CSS. I consider myself to be an expert CSS designer, but I decided to check out this Blueprint thingy.

The website says that by using the Blueprint CSS Framework, I can cut down my development time and it eliminates the discrepancies across browsers. Sounds intriguing. After a bit more research, I found that Eric Meyer’s Reset CSS is incorporated into the framework. I have learned a great deal about CSS from Eric Meyer over the years:

Since I was beginning a redesign for a client, I decided to use the Blueprint framework as the basis for the effort.

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