After 2 years from the release of Twitter Bootstrap, an amazing open-sourced CSS/HTML framework, Bootstrap 3 is finally released.
Solving a Dilemma: Raw JavaScript vs. JS Frameworks
There has been a huge dilemma among web developers as to what to get acquainted with first, the basic JavaScript or the more advanced features that use it such as jQuery, MooTools etc. The popular answer to such a question has always been the latter option. Learning the latter might be the easiest way around. But taking shortcuts always have their repercussions. Learning jQuery without getting acquainted with the basic Java script may lead to the developer running into problems later on.
The Pros and the Cons
Using script libraries is the easier way but not the best way. When one has ready made libraries of scripts in their possession and the library is user friendly and provides good tutorials for the beginners, it may not take a long time to master it. There are some great tutorials that may make even an absolute beginner master it and start working within a short period of time. There is a huge library of codes which can perform a huge range of functions. One does not have to write extensive lines of code as in raw JavaScript or others. The programming can be done with some speed as there is a lot of support for the library such as available plug-ins that speed up the process and can be downloaded readily. Yet all these come for a price.
Animated WordPress-Like Row Change Status Effect: Powered by jQuery
Greetings my fellow readers,
While using WordPress, I’ve seen a very cool effect when I either approved or deleted comments. When you click “Delete” it uses AJAX to call the PHP script that will perform the action as well as highlighting that row with a fading color change effect. If you are a web developer and need to implement a similar approach in your scripts (using AJAX with UI state effect) then this post is for you.
We’ll need jQuery and jQuery UI Effects (for the background fading) libraries for this.
Build Applications for Mobile and Touch Devices: DHTMLX Touch
DHTMLX Touch is an HTML5-based JavaScript library for building mobile web applications. This JavaScript framework allows you to create eye-catching, cross-platform web applications for mobile and touch-screen devices. It’s compatible with the major browsers for mobile platforms. Applications built with DHTMLX Touch will run smoothly on iPad, iPhone, Android-based smartphones, and other popular devices. In order to display and work correctly, DHTMLX Touch require a mobile device. You can also run the samples on usual computers in FireFox 3.6 and above and WebKit browsers (Safari, Chrome, etc.), but there still can be some issues since the library is oriented mostly for mobile devices.
Upcoming features and release plans:
- Full-featured visual designer
- Server-side integration
- Global data-store
- Carousel component
- Additional animation
- Extended support for mobile & touch devices
- Detailed documentation
- Support for client storage
- Source: http://www.dhtmlx.com/touch/
- Live Demo: http://www.dhtmlx.com/touch/samples/
Select, Traverse, Style and Animate DOM Elements: $dom .js library
$dom is a lightweight JavaScript library for selecting, traversing, styling and animating DOM elements. This tiny JavaScript library weights only 5k (2kb gzip’d) and it can be used as an alternative to other well known.js libraries such as JQuery or Prototype. Sometimes, you just need a library that loads faster and has only the features you need to use. Many developers are using only 10% of other frameworks’ features while still having to download 100% of the code.
Features include:
- CSS selectors and animations
- DOM manipluation and traversal
- Element styling
- Completely unobtrusive
- Source: http://www.keithclark.co.uk/$dom/
- Live Examples: Accordion | Content Slider
- Tested in: Internet Explorer 6+, Google Chrome, Firefox 3+, Safari 4+, Opera 9+