Web Info & Tutorials

October 2007
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EBAY DESKTOP MOVES TO PUBLIC BETA

By admin

eBay’s San Dimas project has finally moved to public beta. The application, developed using Adobe’s AIR runtime, provides the ability to manage your eBay experience via a well-designed desktop interface:

The product has also graduated to public beta, thanks in no small part to the enthusiasm and support of all of you. Whether or not you installed San Dimas, you can now download eBay Desktop, for free, from http://desktop.ebay.com

eBay Desktop works with eBay US, and in the coming weeks and months we will be extending support to other countries. You can continue to use San Dimas to shop on any eBay site in the meantime. The response to San Dimas worldwide was incredible, and we are committed to bringing this desktop eBay experience to everyone.

The application team made substantial changes for this release to ensure a more personalized feel. Changes included:

Revamping the home screen to dedicate more area to highlighting your eBay activity — your watch list, bidding list, recent items, recent categories, and favorite searches.
A new browse feature
Favorite search feeds allow you to automatically pull down items that match a favorite search
Ability to run in the background even when the application itself is closed, so that you can get reminders or outbid alerts at any time.
Performance improvements
Numerous bug fixes

eBay Desktop is a free download and all you need to use it is a valid eBay account. You can download eBay Desktop from http://desktop.ebay.com

Posted in Ajax | Comments Off

OPTIMIZED SPEEDY AJAX CODE

By admin

Dustin Diaz has revisited his seven JavaScript techniques and has updated his XHR-getting-function to be faster, using the Lazy Function Definition Pattern, which ends up looking like:

PLAIN TEXT

JAVASCRIPT:

var asyncRequest = function() {
function handleReadyState(o, callback) {
if (o && o.readyState == 4 && o.status == 200) {
if (callback) {
callback(o);
}
}
}
var getXHR = function() {
var http;
try {
http = new XMLHttpRequest;
getXHR = function() {
return new XMLHttpRequest;
};
}
catch(e) {
var msxml = [
‘MSXML2.XMLHTTP.3.0′,
‘MSXML2.XMLHTTP’,
‘Microsoft.XMLHTTP’
];
for (var i=0, len = msxml.length; i <len; ++i) {
try {
http = new ActiveXObject(msxml[i]);
getXHR = function() {
return new ActiveXObject(msxml[i]);
};
break;
}
catch(e) {}
}
}
return http;
};
return function(method, uri, callback, postData) {
var http = getXHR();
http.open(method, uri, true);
handleReadyState(http, callback);
http.send(postData || null);
return http;
};
}();

Posted in Ajax | Comments Off

COMPLETE UI 2007 FOR DREAMWEAVER

By admin

Awhile back we discussed Dreamweaver as a potential Ajax IDE.

Here's the press release:

Nitobi"s Complete UI is a powerful set of components that will give Dreamweaver users the ability to present data in an engaging format in a fraction of the time," states Michael Lekse, Vice President of Sales and Services at WebAssist. "Dreamweaver professionals looking to enhance their user interface functionality should turn to Nitobi with confidence."

The easy drag and drop feature for Dreamweaver reflects Nitobi"s philosophy of fast, easy web application development--a key selling point of Complete UI. Complete UI components are designed to be easy to implement and to help create web applications with intuitive and graceful user interfaces. The Complete UI suite includes:

Grid -- A cross-browser spreadsheet with Excel "copy/paste", LiveScrolling, and more.

ComboBox -- A drop-down menu with autocomplete functionality, similar to Google Suggest.

Calendar -- A high-performance calendar picker that can be used with Nitobi Grid or in standalone web applications.

Callout -- A rich, skinnable tool-tip that prompts users with real-time feedback and helpful instructions as they navigate through an application.

Fisheye -- A tool bar menu featuring fisheye magnification, similar to Apple OS X tool bar.

Spotlight -- A tool for creating stylish guided tours of websites and applications.

Tabstrip -- Folder tabs for navigating to different sections of a web application via Ajax or iFrame requests.

Tree -- A hierarchical data view, similar to the folder view in Windows Explorer.

Ajax Toolkit -- A library of fully-documented tools used in Nitobi components that can be re-used in your own applications, or to build your own components.

In addition to Dreamweaver support, Complete UI includes enhancements to Nitobi Grid, including expanding spreadsheet-style rows and even better performance.

What better way to check this out than a set of screencasts?

Using Grid in Dreamweaver: This is a great look at things.
Using Calendar in Dreamweaver
Using ComboBox in Dreamweaver
Using Tree in Dreamweaver
Using Spotlight in Dreamweaver
Using Tabstrip in Dreamweaver
Using Fisheye in Dreamweaver
Using Callout in Dreamweaver

What do you think of Dreamweaver now?

Posted in Ajax | Comments Off

ADOBE THERMO: “CONVERT ARTWORK TO …”

By admin

I remember sitting in a Microsoft presentation that first showed off Expression Web, and the promise of finally moving past the current way of working with designers:

Designer: "Here mate, enjoy this jpg"
Developer: "Ok, I cut it up and made it into a web page, but now I need to tweak this area, can you send me a new one?"
Designer: "Here mate, enjoy this jpg"
... repeat ...

Now it is Adobe's turn to have a swipe at the problem, and they have released Adobe Thermo to help you design RIAs and really use artifacts.

Peter Elst has got the first video of the demo:

Posted in Ajax | Comments Off

EBAY DESKTOP MOVES TO PUBLIC BETA

OPTIMIZED SPEEDY AJAX CODE

COMPLETE UI 2007 FOR DREAMWEAVER

MONTHLY AJAXIAN ROUNDUP FOR SEPTEMBER, 2007: JAVASCRIPT MASHUPS TAKE A STEP FORWARD

ADOBE THERMO: “CONVERT ARTWORK TO …”