Hi Everyone, I just upgraded the site to WordPress 2.3 and added a tag cloud on the sidebar. Please let me know what you think.

Here’s a handy jQuery plugin to speedup development and greatly enhance debugging.

http://happygiraffe.net/blog/archives/2007/09/26/jquery-logging 

This lets you simply add a .log command to a jquery chain and have the result logged to the firebug console with all relevant contextual information.  Fast, easy and simple.

Coda Slider is a slick, sliding panel widget plugin for jQuery.  It smoothly scrolls between a series of dynamically created tabs and provides a slick, circular navigation.

• Some Features:
• Clean and Valid XHTML Strict
• Circular Navigation
• Dynamically Created Tab Set
• Multiple Sliders Can Exist On One Page
• Cross Browser
• Navigation is queued to prevent sudden jumps.

Some Drawbacks,

• Text not selectable in Firefox 2 PC
• Not Possible to Hyperlink to Selected Tabs / Anchor Support

Get It Online Here:

http://www.ndoherty.com/demos/coda-slider/

Read the Blog Post:

http://www.ndoherty.com/blog/2007/09/15/introducing-coda-slider/

Here’s a handy take on the lightbox image gallery that preserves the browsers back button.

The Back button closes the gallery.

Get it here:

http://www.cloversigns.co.uk/backbox/backbox.html

Ajax Bestiary will be hosting a Blog Carnival titled “Getting It Done With Javascript”  next Monday, October 29th.

If you are interested in participating please submit your articles at BlogCarnival.com

Although, links back to Ajax Bestiary are appreciated, they are by no means necessary.

I apologize for the rather low volume of posts over the past few days.  Some circumstances beyond my control kept me away from my writing.

We will now resume regular updates!

Here’s a handy plugin to attach elements to view port so they don’t scroll with the page.  Scripts for both pinning and unpinning are available. 

To pin:

$(‘fxtarget’).pin();

To unpin:

$(‘fxtarget).unpin();

You can get it online from clientside here:

http://clientside.cnet.com/code-snippets/visual-effects/new-elementpin/

Frequency Decoder has released a handy client side pagination script that could be great for your next project handling larger data sets.

Some Features 

• Unobtrusive and nameSpace friendly
• Supports the pagination of multiple tables on the same page
• No JavaScript knowledge required, all parameters are passed within the table’s className
• Two pagination lists created for each table, the first positioned above the table and the other positioned below
• If required, the pagination lists can be positioned within a wrapper element of your choice
• A JavaScript callback function can be declared, called immediately after a new page is shown by the script
• It’s keyboard accessible

Check it out online here:

http://www.frequency-decoder.com/2007/10/19/client-side-table-pagination-script

IBM Developer Works has released an excellent article on AJAX interface development with a focus on best practices and a recomended work flow.

Check it out here:

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-aj-frontend/index.html?ca=drs-tp4207

What is WebRunner:

WebRunner is a simple XULRunner based browser that hosts web applications without the normal web browser user interface. WebRunner is based on a concept called Site Specific Browsers (SSB). An SSB is an application with an embedded browser designed to work exclusively with a single web application. It doesn’t have the menus, toolbars and accoutrement’s of a normal web browser. Some people have called it a “distraction free browser” because none of the typical browser chrome is used. An SSB also has a tighter integration with the OS and desktop than a typical web application running through a web browser. (From Wiki.Mozilla.Org )

What This Means For You

A webapp packaged with WebRunner looks and acts more like a native desktop application than a traditional web application. It provides a streamlined deployment environment and allows you to dramatically reduce the visual noise a browser provides.

Low Cost of Entry

At a bare minimum, a WebRunner app is simply a file that describes the url of your web application and a few basic settings. Your existing apps will port to the WebRunner environment without any changes at the server.

Added Functionality

Since a WebRunner app is executing in a known browser environment. Many additional capabilities are available. Using the XUL & XBL capabilities of firefox, Applications can take advantage of the OS native widget set. Firefox’s excellent native SVG support can be harnessed for powerful visuals & the relaxed security environment can allow for greater integration between the web application and client desktop.

Read More:

• LifeHacker Article
  
• WebRunner + Google Gears