Another blog about web technologies
sNews is a completely free PHP and MySQL driven tool for publishing and maintaining news articles on a website. Integrating sNews into your existing design is simple, but you could also use sNews on it’s own, as a simple Content Management System. Consisting of only one file, sNews is extremely lightweight, very easy to install, and easy to use via a simple web interface.
What is the PAJAJ framework, it stands for (PHP Asynchronous Javascript and JSON). It is a object oriented Ajax framework written in PHP5 for development of event driven PHP web applications. The framework follows 5 basic principles:
You do not have to be an expert at PHP, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS to use the framework. You can do most, if not all, your coding in PHP, and the framework will generate HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for you. There are object for most of the HTML element, with method to manage common task, like updating the content of a Div or items in a forms Select pull down. A lot of the other frames include a simple example that is anything but simple. For my simple example I have been asked where the rest of the code is!
the framework supports 3 different development models: i. the developer develops the whole application and interface in PHP, since the framework knows about HTML elements you want to interact with, i.e. there are objects for Select, Div, Table with instances with unique IDs; it is easy to have the framework generate simple html and CSS for you. ii. A designer generate a pretty but dump page, and you then hook events to it to make it a real application (see Last Binding of Event below) iii. You design an interface as a template (example Smarty), and have the framework make html, CSS, Javascript that you pore into the template.
I would rather have events delivered to the back-end, and decide there what actions to take then to write a lot of JavaScript in the front-end. What happens after an event?:
When an event happens there are 3 action that can be taken:
The pages HTML does not need to changed event and there logic (event handlers) are bound at run time. So your wed designer could delivery a pretty, but dump from, and without changes to the HTML you can make it into a AJAX enabled application. This make for simpler markup and an easier separation of design and code.
There are not only objects for the Ajax plumbing, but for page elements that you are interacting with. The page element objects have method to make this interact easier to program. Read the rest of this entry »
activeCollab is an easy to use, web based, open source collaboration and project management tool. Set up an environment where you, your team and your clients can collaborate on active projects using a set of simple, functional tools. 100% free!
Highlights
homepage: www.activecollab.com
Read the rest of this entry »
Symphony is a web publishing system made for web developers. It gives you all the power and flexibility you’ll need, while keeping out of your way. The Symphony developers have spent an inordinate amount of time making sure that tedious tasks are quick and simple, and that your workflow is intuitive and streamlined.
Symphony has a bucket-load of features, but rather than tell you about them all, it’s better to let you discover them for yourself. Check out the live demo or download the Symphony installer and try it for yourself. Below is an overview of Symphony’s main features. Read the rest of this entry »
Although it may come to a shock to some of you, Microsoft has actually put together a cool web application called Keyword Forecast. Using it you can compare up to four keywords and it will spit out some pretty graphs forecasting the impression count vs. time, keyword age distribution, and keyword gender distribution. This is similar to Google Trends but Google’s tool just gave a historical view of keywords and didn’t get into age and gender distributions although it did break it down geographically. Can someone say mashup opportunity here?Very cool for anyone out there like myself who is always looking for new ways to identify not only good keywords but an innovative concept that you’re not sure will still be viable in a few months.
On a whim, I decided to try the tool out with the keywords: ajax, javascript, rails, and php and here’s the output: (as you can see Ajax is expected to sky rocket in the coming months)
Here’s the time vs. impression count graph:
Snipshot is an intuitive picture editor produced with Mochikit and Twisted.
Probably one of the best features I like about this app is that you don’t have to upload or download anything. You can open an image from your computer or you can specify a URL of an image and you’re off and running. Once you’re done editing the image you can save it to your Flickr or WebShots account. Very cool!
Another great feature is that they provide an API so you can use the technology in your own website! The API uses simple form posts and callbacks with the request parameters in JSON format. Nothing language specific there which is great.
Snipshot is one of the best implementations of an Ajax application I’ve seen in quite a while. Great job guys! Read the rest of this entry »
The admin piece is built using Prototype, Scriptaculous and the TinyMCE rich text editor. It uses Object Oriented PHP5 and talks to MySQL backend.
There is a nice feel to using the explorer interface to manage files (e.g. hit rearrange and you can drag and drop), and then seeing your site in preview mode. A really nice touch is being able to see your site in draft, and compare it to the published version
Ironically the demos are downloadable samples that focus on showing of ajaxian database applications.
The demos available are:
source: ajaxian
Google actually relies on our users to help with our marketing. We have a very high percentage of our users who often tell others about our search engine. — Sergey Brin
So spake one of the co-founders of Google. But what happens when your users start to tell others about your search engines in ways that you don’t like? When they present your search results in ways that hurt or confuse your brand? You would probably try to control how those users used those results. That seems to be what Google has done with the release of their new Google Ajax Search API.
Somewhat lost in the hype around the release of the Ajax API was the discontinuation of the Google SOAP Search API. It’s still available to existing subscribers, but no new ones are being signed up. To see why this discontinuation is an exercise in brand discipline, you just have to look at the terms of use for the Ajax API:
You agree that you will not, and you will not permit your users or other third parties to: (a) modify or replace the text, images, or other content of the Google Search Results, including by (i) changing the order in which the Google Search Results appear, (ii) intermixing Search Results from sources other than Google, or (iii) intermixing other content such that it appears to be part of the Google Search Results; or (b) modify, replace or otherwise disable the functioning of links to Google or third party websites provided in the Google Search Results.
The key terms here are that the order and appearance cannot be modified. And that is the essence of the Google brand: the order of the search terms. Fortunes are made and lost based on Google search position. Business plans are build around it. Millions of people around the world use the top ten results to find information, guide purchasing decisions, and so on. Mess with that order in some consistent way — in some, god forbid, way that people find valuable — and you’ve lost control of your brand, who you are, and likely your ability to advertise. Read the rest of this entry »
YUI 2.2.0 has been released one year after YUI was released into open source.
The major changes are:
Congrats on the new release. Read the rest of this entry »
