Scripting can be our best ally or worst enemy. Depends on how you use it in your website, it can optimize the performance (or accessorize your website), or it can decrease the performance of your website. With the introduction of web2.0 along with Ajax and Ruby on Rails Framework, it should be safe to say that scripting techniques should be able to be made more efficient and harmless in any way. As you will find out, ModalBox will do just that.

ModalBox is a JavaScript technique for creating modern (Web 2.0-style) modal dialogs or even wizards (sequences of dialogs) without using conventional popups and page reloads. And yes, it may also be useful for showing bigger versions of images, or even an image slideshow. ModalBox supports transitional effects, so you can do a slide down appearing or on-the-fly resizing. Pretty cool, huh? ModalBox is built with pure JavaScript and is based on Sam Stephenson’s excellent Prototype JavaScript Framework and valid XHTML/CSS. ModalBox uses AJAX to load content and industry-standard libraries — prototype and script.aculo.us. Since ModalBox is a browser and platform independent, it can create a 100% browser-compatible dialog box to go around popup blockers that most modern browsers use. Furthermore, you can also customize the its look and feel by using CSS to make ModalBox any way you want to.

Overall, ModalBox is a pretty handy technique to create an Ajax-based popup box. The newest version, Ver 1.4, allows you to easily create custom Ruby helpers for using ModalBox with Ruby Javascript. ModalBox uses AJAX instead of deprecated iframe for content loading. It’s also more secure — you can’t access pages which are not on your host. With only about 10 KB of code, ModalBox works in most modern browsers (IE6, Firefox 1.0 & 1.5, Safari, Camino, Opera 8 and 9). A nice tool to have, indeed. So be sure to try it out yourself!

You can see the ModalBox code samples by clicking HERE!

FlickrShow is a simple slide-show tool that allows you to display images from a Flickr photoset on your web site. It is easy to use – photographs can be displayed by adding a few simple lines of HTML and Javascript code to your site. It is also unobtrusive and compact, the script only adds an additional five kilobytes to your page.

FlickrShow is a hosted service making it simple to install without any maintenance worries. Download the example pages to see how easy it is add one or more FlickrShow slide-shows to your web pages. FlickrShow uses the Prototype framework, and so will run on any browser that it supports, (that includes Internet Explorer 6+, Safari 2+ and Firefox/Camino).

xmlhttprequest – News aggregator filtering topics such as ajax, javascript, web2.0, dhtml, css and xmlhttprequest from the most popular web sites on the internet.

Ajax IM (“asynchronous javascript and xml instant messenger”) is a browser-based instant messaging client. It uses the XMLHTTPRequest object in JavaScript to send and receive commands to and from the server. No refreshing of the page is ever needed for this “web application” to work, as everything is updated in real-time via JavaScript. Try out AjaxIM and see if you like it!

14Dayz is a simple web based time tracking tool for groups of loosely connected professionals that collaborate on a professional basis. Finally distributed teams can also have simple and easy to use time tracking software that does what you need and then leaves you alone. In-house teams and individual professionals can enjoy 14Dayz benefits too! a multi tiered application.

14dayz uses Ruby on Rails and Perl and other JavaScript frameworks in other projects, as well.

We have a new Ajax framework just released.

Jitsu contains an integrated set of tools to enable developers to build and deploy sophisticated user interfaces for web applications. These include an Xml markup language, page compiler, data binding engine, JavaScript runtime, control library, runtime inspector, animation engine, cross-platform library, Ajax, and back button support.

The framework focuses on offering:

• Designer friendly
• Rapid iterations
• Open source

Hello World looks like:

[html xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'
xmlns:j='http://www.jitsu.org/schemas/2006']
[body]
My first application:

Hello World!
< /j>
[/body]
[/html]

(Change “[]” with “<>“)

(Ajaxian)

Who needs debuggers and add ons, when you can simply put the following in your IE address bar:

Edd Dumbill got down and wrote a two-part series on The future of HTML

In this two-part series, Edd Dumbill examines the various ways forward for HTML that Web authors, browser developers, and standards bodies propose. This series covers the incremental approach embodied by the WHATWG specifications and the radical cleanup of XHTML proposed by the W3C. Additionally, the author gives an overview of the W3C’s new Rich Client Activity.

In Part 1, Edd focuses primarily on two specifications being developed by WHATWG: Web Applications 1.0 (HTML5) and Web Forms 2.0.

In Part 2, Edd focuses on the work in process at the W3C to specify the future of Web markup.

WhatWG and HTML 5

The first part discusses the ideas that came out of the pragmatic WhatWG:

• HTML 5
• Web Forms 2.0
• Canvas

The second part discusses the ideas from the W3C group:

• XHTML 2
• XForms
• Web APIs
• Web Application Formats

Edd finishes comparing the two:

In these two articles, I’ve presented the salient points of both WHATWG’s HTML 5 and the W3C’s XHTML 2.0. The two initiatives are quite different: The grassroots-organised WHATWG aims for a gently incremental enhancement of HTML 4 and XHTML 1.0, whereas the consortium-sponsored XHTML 2.0 is a comprehensive refactoring of the HTML language.

While different, the two approaches are not incompatible. Some of the lower-hanging fruit from the WHATWG specifications is already finding implementation in browsers, and some of WHATWG’s work is a description of de facto extensions to HTML. Significant portions of this, such as XMLHttpRequest, will find its way into the W3C’s Rich Client Activity specifications. WHATWG also acts as a useful catalyst in the Web standards world.

Looking further out, the XHTML 2.0 approach offers a cleaned-up vocabulary for the Web where modular processing of XML, CSS, and ECMAScript is rapidly becoming the norm. Embedded devices such as phones and digital TVs have no need to support the Web’s legacy of messy HTML, and are free to take unburdened advantage of XHTML 2.0 as a pure XML vocabulary. Additionally, the new features for accessibility and internationalization make XHTML 2.0 the first XML document vocabulary that one can reasonably describe as universal, and thus a sound and economic starting point for many markup-based endeavors.

As with its past, the future of HTML will be varied — some might say messy — but I believe XHTML 2.0 will ultimately receive widespread acceptance and adoption. If it were the only XML vocabulary on the Web, there might be some question, but as browsers gear up to deal with SVG, XForms, and other technologies, XHTML 2.0 starts to look like just another one of those XML-based vocabularies.

What really matters of course, is implementations. Specifically, what will IE implement. An IE with canvas and full SVG support would be fantastic… but maybe not likely

Dustin Diaz is at it again, this time discussing “custom events” and how to create and use them. A custom event is an event that you define (e.g. onDrool vs. onBlur).

Dustin uses the Yahoo! UI event util library to show off how to play with events:

To see it in action you can check out a couple of examples:

• Animation Menu with Custom Events
• Drag and Drop Custom Events