Web Info & Tutorials

Ryan Stewart of Adobe and I got to give a joint talk this morning that covered Adobe AIR, Gears, and how you can build offline and desktop applications right now.

Obviously, Ryan gave an overview of AIR, and I did the same for Gears. We also discussed reasons to be excited about Web development, some of the ideas that are out there in the community, and how AIR and Gears can be seen as complementary.

We had some requests to put the slides online, so here they are below. I know it is hard to peruse slides without the talk over, but just think of it as a fun exercise to wonder what we said :)

If you are at Web 2.0 Expo, give me a shout on twitter.

One part of the Ext JS 2.1 release was the prominence of the sub project Ext GWT, a project that lets you code in Java with GWT while using the Ext components and framework.

But wait a minute, I thought that that project was GWT-Ext? Or wasn’t there something called MyGWT too? Confused?

Didier Girard has come to the rescue. He has discussed the different projects, how Ext GWT (the new one) is actually a repurposing of MyGWT. He also lists the differences, in his opinion, between the two projects (noting that the latest one is going to be rev’ing quickly):

Simon Willison pointed out the part of the HTML 5 spec that discusses a way to add attributes to HTML elements for your own needs via data-.

For example, a spaceship for a game:

Every HTML element may have any number of attributes starting with the string "data-" specified, with any value.

These are intended to store custom data private to the page or application, for which there are no more appropriate attributes or elements.

The dataset DOM attribute provides convenient accessors for all the data-* attributes on an element. On getting, the dataset DOM attribute must return a DOMStringMap object, associated with the following three algorithms, which expose these attributes on their element:

Simon points out that "this will be incredibly useful for unobtrusive JavaScript where there’s no sensible place to store configuration data as HTML content. It will also mean Dojo has an approved method for adding custom attributes to declaratively instantiate Dojo widgets."

Stephen Celis got tired of wiring together two date pickers for the common use case of grabbing a date range, so he created timeframe, which is "Click-draggable. Range-makeable. A better calendar."

Based on Prototype, you can whip up some code such as:

And then you get:

Check out the live example to really see it at work.

We fresh saw the grounds of construct for a JavaScript recording contestant in JSONVid.

Pascal Vuylsteker has matched JavaScript and Quicktime to create OraoWeb. He puts a call discover to debate that Flash isn’t the exclusive power of recording and talks most the shortcomings:

• Clean alacritous forward
• Fast rewind
• Jog Shuttle
• Frame by inclose travel nervy and backward
• Direct admittance to whatever inclose
• Precise aggregation most the currently displayed frame
• Precise aggregation most the turn of already downloaded accumulation (in proportional download)
• Selection curb (constraint the guidance within the video)
• Can feature whatever format
• Encrypted cache, no cushy artefact to pillager the video, modify in proportional download

He then says that he wishes Quicktime would hold flooded concealment better, and the multi-platform news isn’t as beatific as Flash (no Linux).

Check discover his demonstrate to wager whatever of these features in action: