New jQuery Version Released Version 1.3

jQuery, in my opinion the best Javascript framework for web development, has a new version, 1.3, with some changes that could affect the way you use jQuery.

First things first, you should read the release notes at the jQuery site: http://docs.jquery.com/Release:jQuery_1.3 to familiarize yourself with the changes.

A couple of the more important changes that I will need to make in my own code:

• The ready() method no longer waits for the css to load. The script should be placed after css files.
• Toggle() now accepts a boolean value.

Also, according to the NetTuts article, the jQuery development team has put some serious effort in optimizing a couple of features that I use in almost every project with jQuery.
The Hide/Show feature of jQuery and DOM Manipulation and HTML Insertion were the focus of these optimization tasks, and I promise you, if you use jQuery, you will use these functions.
For example, in a recent project I did, LesleyBarrPhotography.com, I used an image replacement technique which is very simple and easy to maintain:

$(document).ready(function() {
$("#showcustom img").hover(
function()
{
this.src = this.src.replace("_off","_on");
},
);


The idea here is to have 2 images, 1 named custom_off.png, and 1 named custom_on.png. On mouseover, jQuery will just replace one image with the other, as specified in the this.src = this.src.replace(”_on”,”_off”); code, via manipulating the DOM. I will test this under jQuery 1.3, as I have noticed that in FireFox version 3.x, the DOM Manipulation under jQuery 1.2.6 can be a little flickery. Hopefully the new version will have smoothed that out, as it is one of my favorite jQuery functions.

Technorati Tags: jQuery, jQuery, Ajax, jQuery 1.3, jQuery Tutorial

Developing IPhone Apps From The Ground Up

One of the most exciting development platforms in the last few years is the IPhone device/application platform. I’ve just now gotten into the idea of developing IPhone apps, though I’ve owned an IPhone since they were first released. Along with my usual posts about building applications/sites for the web, I’m going to be doing a fair amount of articles about developing for the IPhone. Specifically, information for beginner IPhone developers, as I am a complete and utter beginner. Here’s the checklist you’ll need to get started from scratch:

1. An Intel-Based Mac. I bought a used MacBook Pro off of eBay for a good price, since I had never been a fan of the OS before now. Smart move by Apple, forcing people not only to buy a Mac to develop for the IPhone, but also a relatively new Mac, as the Intel Proc Macs have only been out for a relatively short time.
2. The IPhone SDK. This is freely available from Apple, though you do have to sign a fairly restrictive NDA/License agreement. Ah well.
3. XCode. This is my first exposure to the XCode IDE, and I habe to say, I am a fan. It’s nice and clean, failry easy to use and self-explanatory, and free. The documnetation is great. My only complaint is the Interface Builder, which offers drag-and-drop programming, but I found it less than intuitive and a little hard to navigate.
4. Finally, you must pay Apple to actually sell Apps on their App Store. First, for a developer license, then a 30% fee on each sale you make on your app. Another smart move, as much as I hate to admit it.

There’s the building blocks you need. I’ve just set up my own dev environment and peeked into the docs tonight, so I will be posting more as I progress.

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Technorati Tags: IPhone For Beginners, IPhone, IPhone Developer Tutorial

How To Build For The Web As Quickly As Possible

I build a lot of websites. I have ideas for a lot more websites/services/applications. The question is, do I have time to build out all my website ideas? The answer: yes! I’m going to provide 2 examples of websites I’ve built where the total time from idea to implementation was less than a week. Next week I will do another site of mine, CleanCrews.com. The main focus of this artice will be explaining how I, as a mediocre PHP programmer and mediocre web designer/developer, can build websites quickly and easily, using freely available resources off the web.

Antivertise.com – this was a site I built last year based on an idea I had for a Facebook application. I actually did create a Facebook application, but while I was doing so, the Facebook API went through some major changes, and I was not able to make the FB app like I had originally intended. I still do want to finish the FB app – but in the meantime, I created Antivertise as the frontend. I integrated Twitter into Antivertise - users can post their own bad experiences with products and let the rest of the world see and comment on those experiences. Not exactly a groundbreaking idea, but something I thought could be useful, with enough interaction with the social web. As you can see, its still a work in progress – I am actively developing a more social aspect to the site that will leverage social applications like Facebook, OpenSocial, Twitter and FriendFeed.
I decided on making Antivertise a blog – my intention was to allow Facebook users to post bad product experiences in the facebook app, pass those posts through a review process, and then post the results to the blog and to Twitter. I haven’t to date finished the review process code, as I became sidetracked with other projects, but I still think its a pretty cool idea, and I look forward to making Antivertise into more of a Service than a site. I want to make it interactive, allow OpenSocial and Facebook users to login through Antivertise, and show advertising based on the poor product reviews posted.
The upshot is that the Theme is modified from a free theme I downloaded, refreshed a bit, and using a Twitter PHP library from the web
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Free EBook Woork Handbook CSS HTML Ajax Web Programming

Another invaluable resource from Nettuts , a FREE 200 page E-Book with all kinds of in-depth information about CSS HTML Ajax Web Programming, JQuery, Mootools, and Scriptaculous. Chances are you’ll find some great code snippets, or at least some tips and tricks for quick web-building. Enjoy!