Well, folks, today officially marks the final day of The Javascript Weblog. I've had a lot of fun blogging here for the past 7 months, and hopefully my posts have been helpful and informative to you as well.
If you are so heartbroken at the thought of this blog going dark because you just can't get enough of Amber Rhea, worry not! You can find me at the Georgia Podcast Network, where I pontificate about a variety of topics; and my personal blog, Being Amber Rhea. And you might just catch me somewhere else 'round the Weblogs, Inc. network, as well.
I'll leave you with links to some of my favorite Javascript/webdev information sites:
Here's another cool and useful thing you can do with Ajax: serve rotating ads. Instead of settling for a static ad on a page a user might not refresh for minutes or even hours, you can set the ads to rotate at a predetermined interval. The concept and implementation are so simple, it's a wonder this hasn't taken off more. Just put the ad inside an iframe and refresh its contents on every XHR call. (Caveat: if you're using a Strict doctype, your page won't validate, since iframes aren't valid in Strict. Perhaps there's a way to achieve the same thing using the object element?)
James at Brothercake brings us Docking Boxes (dbx) - drag-and-drop, snap-to-grid boxes with show/hide functionality. (All the functionality is fully accessible via keyboard, as well.) When I first saw this, I thought, "Cool!" - but I couldn't think of any practical uses for it.
However, the more I thought about it, I realized Docking Boxes could actually serve a practical purpose all across the Internet. There are tons of sites that offer customizable profile pages, including the option to show or hide various pieces of content (Yahoo and Frappr are two that immediately come to mind). Currently, customizing your Yahoo profile is kind of a pain; it takes forever and the interface is clunky. But what if you could simply drag and drop content boxes to wherever you want them on the page? Hell, if Docking Boxes really took off, even MySpace might start to suck a little less!
MyStickies is a burgeoning service-cum-Firefox extension that allows you to place virtual sticky notes all over the web via - you guessed it - Ajax. Its creators describe it as "bookmarks on steroids." For it to work, you have to sign up for a MyStickies account and install a Firefox extension. That's how the magic happens.
And MyStickies isn't alone in its incorporation of extensions. The phenomenon has led Dietrich Kappe to propose the term Bejax - "Browser Extensions and Ajax." He wonders whether combining the power of Ajax with the ease-of-use of browser extensions could be the future of web apps.
Storm has created a wonderfully simple Ajax chat module which can function either as a live chat interface or a "graffiti board." There is a demo available for your chatting pleasure.
In the blog post that accompanies the module, Storm poses the question of whether Ajax applications can truly be "push" applications. It seems to me that Google's GTalk is an embodiment of an answer in the affirmative. However, since I'm not familiar with all the intricacies of GTalk, I'll invite readers to discuss the issue in the comments section. (Sadly, I can't embed the Ajax chat module right here in the blog post.)
Michael Mahemoff at Ajaxian addresses the issue of native XMLHttpRequest support in IE 7. The IE 7 team has repeatedly stated, with relative fanfare, that the new browser will include native XMLHttpRequest. But, as Michael points out, the question remains: just how native is this native XMLHttpRequest?
Two points worth mentioning are 1) xhr.prototype fails and 2) IE has an option to disable native XHR. So, when native XMLHttpRequest support in IE is being touted, remember to take it with the appropriate serving of salt
Want to show off your high Google ranking? Show the world who links to you with Chris Heilmann's Smugpanel. This lightweight tool displays a list of incoming links on your site, and features some cool dynamic behavior that "shuffles" the list when you click a link.
Smugpanel utilizes the Yahoo Site Explorer Inbound Links API, so you'll need to register a Yahoo application ID in order to use it. Other than that, it's just a matter of dropping the code on your server, and you're ready to exercise your bragging rights.
Mozilla has released Firefox beta 2 for testing purposes only. Among its many new features is support for Javascript 1.7, making it the first browser to support the latest Javascript features. One of the most notable components of Javascript 1.7 is the iterator object, which allows for iteration over data.
If you've installed the new Firefox beta, feel free to share your impressions here!
Ajaxian is soliciting presenters for the fall 2006 Ajax Experience conference in Boston. Applications will be accepted and reviewed until September 1, 2006, but those received by August 4th will be given the highest priority. If you're selected as a presenter, Ajaxian will cover your airfare and lodging.
Suggested topics include:
User Experience / User Interface design
JavaScript
Frameworks: JavaScript, .NET, PHP, Java, Ruby, etc.
Case Studies / Practical advice learned from developing real Ajax applications
Google has created a new search API that allows you to add an Ajax version of Google search to your web site. This way, instead of driving users onto a separate page when they search, users remain on your site while searching. The API is currently available as a beta (version 0.1) and Google is soliciting feedback from developers. Test the Ajax-ified search at Google Code, and then sign up for an API key.
Are you ready for some craziness? Take a look at the web site for FlyakiteOSX, a neat tool that makes Windows look more like OS X. That's not the craziness I'm referring to, though - after all, customizing your desktop is so last century. I'm referring to FlyakiteOSX's web site itself, which essentially recreates an OS X desktop in a browser window, thanks to some serious Ajax kung-fu. It's by far the coolest, most mesmerizing site I've seen in a long time - not to mention a little creepy. Take a look; you have to see it to believe it.
For anyone out there who uses Blogger, check out this Javascript hack that provides a flexible pagination solution - a feature that's not currently built into the Blogger code. The lightweight Javascript has been proven to work in IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Netscape (which means it should work in pretty much anything else you can imagine, as well). The HTML for the pagination is semantic (an unordered list, to be exact) and easy to customize with CSS.
If you like Flickr's navigation, now you can have it anywhere. badgr blends the magic of PHP, old-school Javascript, and CSS to create a dynamic photo navigation badge a la Flickr. Simply provide a link to a directory of images, assign class="badgr" to the anchor, and voila! You've got your dynamic photo gallery with previous and next arrows. It's sort of mind-boggling in its simplicity.
Update: Good call, Commenter Matt. I've added a relevant image.
Vitamin has a good article about how to optimize your Javascript for speed and efficiency, as old techniques won't fly in a "Web 2.0" world. Cal Henderson's best practices include compression, caching, and letting PHP or other server-side technologies do some of the work.
The article is sort of long, but it's a good read, complete with code examples so you can actually see what he's talking about. There is also a good discussion going on in the comments, with people questioning some of the techniques and adding their own.
Drew McClellan of the Web Standards Project (WaSP) writes about Adobe's new endeavor, Spry Framework for AJAX. Its goal is to "demystify" Ajax for developers and designers with basic HTML/CSS skills.
The cause is admirable - and much needed - but unfortunately, McClellan writes, in its quest to make Ajax usage more accessible to developers, Adobe overlooks fundamental best practices such as valid markup and separation of content from presentation. The good news, however, is that Spry is still in beta and Adobe is soliciting customer feedback. Take a few seconds to drop them a line, and maybe the ready-for-primetime version of Spry will be better.
Well, folks, today officially marks the final day of The Javascript Weblog. I've had a lot of fun blogging here for the past 7 months, and hopefully my posts have been helpful and informative to you as well.
Here's another cool and useful thing you can do with Ajax: 
Mozilla has released 
Ajaxian is 
Google has created a new search API that allows you to add an Ajax version of Google search to your web site. This way, instead of driving users onto a separate page when they search, users remain on your site while searching. The API is currently available as a beta (version 0.1) and Google is soliciting feedback from developers. 
Are you ready for some craziness? Take a look at the web site for 
If you like Flickr's navigation, now you can have it anywhere. 
Drew McClellan of the Web Standards Project (WaSP) 
