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…”
The YUI Loader Utility is a client-side JavaScript component that allows you to load specific YUI components and their dependencies into your page via script. While I haven’t used the YUI Loader Utility that often, I like using the utility beacause I don’t have to remember all of the dependencies needed by each component. In addition, I can use the loader utility to load any custom plugins.
I decided to redesign my company site (intriguingminds.com). I hadn’t touched it in about 3-4 years, so it was long overdue. With its simplistic design, I decided to use the imUpSideDownTabber JQuery plugin that I had created a few months ago. I soon learned that, due to my design, the plugin was not robust enough for the functionality that was necessary, so I decided to create an upgrade. The new functionality was significant enough (it does more than just up-side-down-tabbing) that I decided to rename the plugin altogether (imAnimTabber). I never did like the name ‘imUpSideDownTabber’. The imAnimTabber plugin can be used to display content with the following animated options:
slide (imUpsideDownTabber)
height
width
fade
carousel
As with the imUpSideDownTabber, the tabs can be created dynamically (‘auto’ mode), but I added a ‘manual’ mode so that the plugin can function when the tabbing interface is already created (the ‘carousel’ option can only be used in ‘manual’ mode). One of the major changes in this JQuery plugin is that the tabs can be individually styled. I needed this functionality for my IntriguingMinds.com (link) site. Unlike the imUpSideDownTabber, I created a demo page so that you can see how to set it up.
