Nettuts+ have a new tutorial by Giulio Bai about increasing jQuery performance in your Ajax Apps. 10 Ways to Instantly Increase Your jQuery Performance provides 10 tips to make jQuery usage faster, to use with moderation especially for the first tip.

This article will present ten easy steps that will instantly improve your script's performance. Don't worry; there isn't anything too difficult here. Everyone can apply these methods!

1. Always Use the Latest Version
2. Combine and Minify Your Scripts
3. Use For Instead of Each
4. Use IDs Instead of Classes
5. Give your Selectors a Context
6. Cache. ALWAYS.
7. Avoid DOM Manipulation
7. Avoid DOM Manipulation
9. Return False
10. Bonus tip - Cheat-sheets and Library References

Posted by Hatem at 1:28 PM to jQuery | Permalink | Comments (0)

dhtmlxVault (DHTML extensions File Uploader) helps you to implement a modern and feature-rich file uploading part of your web application. So much wanted, the Progress bar will inform your customer about the ongoing process during a long-time operation. Different file types are displayed with the corresponding icons (you may add more file types when required). Built with AJAX technology, the control allows files to be uploaded seamlessly without reloading the entire webpage.

Version 1.3 introduces many new features :

- PHP support (with progress bar) - now you can use progress bar with pure PHP server-side (PECL extension is required);
- Ability to control number of uploaded files - for example, you can allow only one file to be uploaded by user;
- Ability to check file types (extensions) - this feature allows you to check file extension while user chooses a file, and disable adding wrong files;
- Callback events for better integration with dhtmlxSuite - you may write your code to react on upload events to update other DHTMLX controls;
- Add custom form fields - you may add more hidden fields with any name to the file uploading form, so you can post any additional data to the server;
- Localization for text Labels - all text labels can be replaced with localized text. There are still some labels hardcoded in images (buttons).

dhtmlxVault v1.3 package also includes some fixes (e.g. for MacOS browsers bug related to file path with reverse slashes) and examples of usage of the uploader with different server-side technologies (PHP, JSP, .Net, Perl).

Posted by Hatem at 1:14 PM to Commercial | Javascript | Press | Permalink | Comments (0)

Simone Chiaretta, Italian .NET developer, architect, Microsoft MVP, have made a survey last month about Ajax Libraries usage and found that jQuery is the most used Ajax/JavaScript library among .NET developers with 71.4%, followed by Ajax Control Toolkit with 58.8%, then the ASP.NET Ajax library with 44.8%.

Simone have done similar survey on 2007 and the difference with this year is very interesting : jQuery marked the highest gain with 437.2%. Ajax control toolkit gained 18.5%, while ASP.NET Ajax library lost -39.3% ! Something interesting also noted in this survey concerning commercial 3rd party libraries which have good market share so far : 1 developer out of 4 is using a commercial library according to the survey results. Commercial libraries top spot is held by Telerik with 15,6%, followed by Infragistics with 3,9%.

Posted by Hatem at 12:46 PM to Ajax and .NET | Commercial | General | Permalink | Comments (0)

JavaScriptMVC is a framework that brings methods to the madness of JavaScript development. It guides you to successfully completed projects by promoting best practices, maintainability, and convention over configuration.

JavaScriptMVC's focus on Model View Controller concept allows :

• Separate business logic from user interface for a highest maintainability
• Better organize your JS code and load on the fly the scripts as needed by the code
• keeps your application light as possible and loads with fewer HTTP requests
• Usage of your favorite JavaScript library, whether Prototype, jQuery, Mootools, or another.
• Easy usage of testing library that includes event simulation, unit testing, Ajax fixtures, and a console.
• Monitor your application when it break with a detailed report to help rapidly find and fix bugs.
• Cross Browser compability Firefox, IE 6 & 7, Safari, and Opera

Download JavaScriptMVC, Documentation, demos and getting started guide available here. Released under the MIT license.

Posted by Hatem at 11:13 AM to Implementations | Javascript | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ajaxorized have an interesting javascript library to manipulate images using PHP GD and prototype. Phototype could be used to resize, rotate, flip, drop shadow, or to add special effects on any photo such make it sketchy, greyscale, adding caption ... etc. Phototype supports chaining, and you can write something like :

Original photo

Photo manipulated with Phototype

Phototype is released under GPL license and available for download here. More information and usage samples could be at ajaxorized website

Posted by Hatem at 1:45 PM to PHP and AJAX | Prototype | Permalink | Comments (0)

In-Place edit is a very practical solution for content management systems to edit any content live without having to use a control panel or an administration area. Usually In-Place editor uses textarea or text input field but if you need a rich text editor ? IPWEditor is a jQuery plugin that integrate the WYSIWYG editor FCKEditor to provide an In-Place editing functionality over your content. Pretty easy to use and extend, and it won't be difficult to add other editors such tinymce.

Posted by Hatem at 1:24 PM to | Permalink | Comments (0)