Open Source Resources for Web Application Developers

One of the least used properties in CSS is the Clip property. Clip is part of the visual effects module of CSS 2.1 and its job is to place a visible window on top of an object that is being clipped.

It is useful for clipping images and creating thumbnails without having to create additional files. Creating Thumbnails Using the CSS Clip Property can be used to create square thumbnails, or to create other varieties of thumbnails without actually duplicating files on the server.

You can also add some drop shadow to the clipped thumbnail by using three wrapper divs with negative offsets of slightly varying background colors to create a shade effect.

Requirements: -
Demo: http://www.seifi.org/css/creating-thumbnails…
License: License Free

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Aviary has just launched Screen Capture Talon that can let you capture any webpage from any browser, by simply putting Aviary.com/ in front of the URL. You can capture a page at different resolutions or to only capture a portion of the page as well.

After capturing the page, you can edit it, add simple markup to it and save it to your desktop (or host it online with a single click). It works on almost any public page on the Internet, with any browser. It can even capture Flash. However, it does not support multiple browsers / operating systems at the moment.

Source: http://aviary.com/launch/talon

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Many websites offer syndication formats such as RSS, JSON, or XML based services to allow for easy content delivery. But what happens when a website doesn’t offer one of these services? How do you syndicate content from a website that doesn’t offer a news feed?

Nettus has gaven us a a simple solution using JQuery’s AJAX functions and PHP’s cURL library that allows us to syndicate external content. This is a simple solution if you require content from an external website.

Although JQuery’s easy syntax and CSS-selectors give us the convenience of styling and selecting what we want from the client-side, this is not speed optimized. Remember you have no control over whether or not the content creator changes what tags and classes they use, it is always best to style general elements that will be commonly used.

Requirements: jQuery Framework
Demo: http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/php/how-to-syndicate-content…
License: License Free

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MooTools ScrollSpy is a unique but simple MooTools plugin that listens to page scrolling and fires events based on where the user has scrolled to in the page. Now you can fire specific functionality with just a few simple parameters. David has shown us 4 examples of using ScrollSpy.

Example 1: “Top the Top”
When you scroll down a defined number of pixels, you get a “Scroll to Top” link in the lower right hand part of the screen. When you’re back at the top, ScrollSpy is directed to hide the link.

Example 2: “The Show”
When you click the link, the window scrolls to the right. During the scrolling process, ScrollSpy shows and hides content blocks based on where in the scrolling process the window is.

Example 3: “Team Colors”
This displays a different background color depending on where you are in the page.

Example 4: “Position Pointer”
This displays imagery in different positions on the page based upon where the user scrolls.

Requirements: MooTools Framework
Demo 1: http://davidwalsh.name/dw-content/scroll-spy.php?
Demo 2: http://davidwalsh.name/dw-content/scroll-spy.php?page=1
Demo 3: http://davidwalsh.name/dw-content/scroll-spy.php?page=2
Demo 4: http://davidwalsh.name/dw-content/scroll-spy.php?page=3
License: License Free

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In today’s web2.0 era, more and more websites are user generated and boast dynamic content. Users sumbit text, images, videos, providing content for entire web sites. Most of the time, people submit photos straight from their camera because they don’t have photo editing programs or they don’t know how to use them. This simplified tool gives your users the ability to create a selection area that can be used to crop an image, live on your web site.

With UvumiTools Crop, you don’t have a dozen handles and double-click features. Drag from the middle to move, tug on the lower-right corner to resize, and that’s it. Simple. To use this plugin you’ll need Mootools 1.2. UvumiTools Crop must be paired with a server-side script that will actually be able to so something with the coordinates.

Requirements: Mootools Framework 1.2
Demo: http://tools.uvumi.com/crop.html
License: License Free

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Jcrop is a powerful image cropping engine for jQuery. It’s been designed so developers can easily integrate an advanced image cropping functionality directly into any web-based application without sacrificing power and flexibility.

It combines the ease-of-use of a typical jQuery plugin with a powerful cross-platform DHTML cropping engine that is faithful to familiar desktop graphics applications. Jcrop also features clean, well-organized code that works well across most modern web browsers.

Requirements: jQuery Framework
Demo: http://deepliquid.com/projects/Jcrop/demos.php
License: MIT License

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WebSnapshot is a simple Adobe AIR application which allows you taking snapshots for any websites easily. Enter the Url and Press Snap. Or Drag and Drop it from your browser. Click on the Thumnails to Save. With Auto Save Checked, the thumnails are immediatly saved to your ’save’ folder. You can select the type of Snapshot you want to make: Thumbnail, Browser size, or Full Page. You can tailor the way the snapshots are take in the Preferences pane as well. Set the download folder as needed.

Requirements: -
Demo: http://myspyder.net/tools/websnapshot/
License: License Free

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Easiest Tooltip and Image Preview is one of those tooltip-like bubble popups that appears when you roll over link or a thumbnail. What this script does is adds an element to the body when you roll over a certain object. That element’s appearance is predefined with css (positioned absolute and styled) so all we need to do is fill the element with content, calculate mouse position and make it move accordingly. When cursor is moved over he object, element moves with it and when cursor roll out, the element is deleted. Easiest Tooltip and Image Preview is powered by jQuery.

Requirements: -
Demo: http://cssglobe.com/post/1695/easiest-tooltip-and-image-preview…
License: License Free

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PopBox is an image magnification javascript solution for dynamically moving and resizing images on your web page. Javascript? Yes – I know it’s nothing new and that you’ve been able to move and resize things in Javascript for years, but only now is there a prepackaged solution that makes it as easy as 3 lines of HTML without knowing a lick about positioning! If your web site has a thumbnail image gallery then you need PopBox!

Requirements: Javascript Enabled
Demo: http://www.c6software.com/Products/PopBox/Default.aspx
License: License Free

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Wanna test your web application or website in different browsers and different patforms? Browsershots can help you. It makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers. It is a free open-source online service created by Johann C. Rocholl.

When you submit your web address, it will be added to the job queue. A number of distributed computers will open your website in their browser. Then they will make screenshots and upload them to the central server of Browsershots. It supports Windows ( Firefox 1.5, Internet Explorer 5.0 and 6.0 ), Mac (Firefox 2.0, Safari 2.0 ), Linux ( Iceweasel 2.0, Konqueror 3.5 ).

Requirements: No Requirements
Demo: http://browsershots.org/
License: License Free

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