I’ve begun using a set of visual guides to streamline my blueprint development process.  They are simple png files that I drop into photoshop, illustrator & indesign as layers and then dial down the transparency / set fill color to something visible but not distracting.  I plan on integrating them into the next release of the blueprint layout tool as well.

• Blueprint Layout template with baseline.
• Blueprint Layout Template Without Baseline

When you’re using a robust toolkit like jQuery, there’s usually a date picker of some kind.  With jQuery it’s a widget plugin.

Originally Written by Marc Grabanski & Extended by Keith Wood.  The jQuery Calendar v2.7 is a powerful and useful tool to add to your jQuery arsenal.

You can find it online here:

http://marcgrabanski.com/code/jquery-calendar/

Earlier this month I posted on a powerful ExtJS extension for handling multiple file uploads. Today we will delve deeper into this widget and explore handling the uploads on the server end.

Keep reading →

YUI provides for the creation of forms dynamically without the need for pre-existing markup through the Button object.

Despite its name, the button is a rich widget that supports the creation of:

• Push Buttons
• Link Buttons
• Submit Buttons
• Reset Button
• Checkboxes
• Radios
• Menus
• Split button (hybrid button menus)

Today we are exploring the creation of buttons dynamically from javascript.   Creation itself is simple. 

Keep reading →

Rich, powerful AJAX tables provide a greater impact in usability to web applications than just about any other widget.  One of the best of these is the extJS table. Some highlights:

• Inline editing based on data type (calendar for date, spinner for numeric etc)
• Validation of inline edits
• Custom sorts
• Able to utilize existing tables, XML data files & JSON data
• Paging & Remote data support

More information on ExtJS table will be coming in part 3 of the extJS POG tutorial

I got a bit of work done on version .2 of the Blueprint layout tool.  Some improvements to expect when I release it next week.

• Upgrade to blueprint .6
• prepend & border support
• support for elements other than columns 

phatfusion has developed an awesome image based menu using mootools. Similar to the menu located at http://www.mootools.com; this Image Menu delivers a beautiful user experience.

Some Key Features

• onClick event keeps selected item open.
• Click open item to close.
• Specify a function for the onClick event.
• Auto open when the page loads

See it in action at: http://www.phatfusion.net/imagemenu/index.htm

Version 0.6 of the Blueprint CSS framework has been released with several dramatic improvements.

• A much more sensible directory structure.
• A new plugin system.
• Lots of functionality extracted into plugins, keeping the core files sweet and nimble.
• New test suite for proper browser compatibility testing.
• We’re back to using em units for all vertical sizing, although with a much better implementation than what we had in 0.4.
• New ruby scripts for compressing and validating the CSS.
• Proper styling of forms.
• Tons and tons of bugfixes.

For more information visit the Blueprint site.

Codepress is the new must have widget for all those annoying little times were you need a web interface to a systems internals.

Need to rework your template after the latest corporate merger, or fix the bug an intern introduced 3 hours before go live in a coffee induced haze?  How does a programmers text editor built into your interface sound?  Complete with syntax highlighting, code completion and shortcuts.

http://codepress.org/

I’ve put together a drag & drop layout builder for the Blueprint CSS framework. It’s still pretty rough around the edges but it is usable for quickly putting together layouts.

http://www.ajaxbestiary.com/Labs/LayoutTool/index.htm

Deep thanks goes to the YUI & Blueprint teams for developing such robust tools & to Dav Glass who created both the inspiration for the toolkit & several solutions needed to put this together.

Please let me know what you think!