Open Source Resources for Web Application Developers

Couloir Slideshow is a demonstration of Flash-like behavior implemented solely in Javascript, HTML, and CSS. It is a very good resources for creating a gallery with resizing and fading effects. You are permitted to use it on your own project so long as you do so according to the rules outlined in the Creative Commons ‘Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0′ License and the license terms contained in the associated, third-party APIs.

Requirements: Any Modern Browsers with Javascript Enabled
Demo: http://www.couloir.org/js_slideshow
License: Creative Commons License

LightWindow is the most powerful modal window I have seen so far. It has so many features, you have the complete ability to style and position it. It is very easy to implement as well. Lastly, most moal window application didn’t actually test for their media types and how they behaved in other browsers and operating systems. However, LightWindow has done a great job, other than images, inline content, iframe content and ajax content, it also supports Quicktime Movie, SWF and PDF.

Requirements: Any Modern Browsers
Demo: http://stickmanlabs.com/lightwindow/#demos
License: MIT License

ThickBox is a webpage UI dialog widget written in JavaScript on top of the jQuery library. Its function is to show a single image, multiple images, inline content, iframed content, or content served through AJAX in a hybrid modal. A modal window is a child window which requires the user to interact with it before they can return to operating the parent application. Modal windows are commonly used in GUI systems to absorb user awareness and to display emergency states.

Requirements: Internet Explorer 6.0+, Firefox 1.5+, Opera 9.0+, Safari 2.0+
Demo: http://jquery.com/demo/thickbox/#examples
License: MIT, GNU License

SmoothGallery is a javascript gallery and slideshow system using MooTools. It allows you to have simple and cross-fading image galleries, timed slideshows and showcases.Unlike Lightbox 2, you can define the time of switching pictures automatically.And also, you can jump to a specific picture from the pictures menu and do not need to flick through all pictures in between.

Requirements: Firefox, Opera, Safari, Internet Explorer 6.0+
Demo: http://smoothgallery.jondesign.net/showcase/gallery
License: GPL License

Sometime, we need a way to show one or a set of images in a more elegant way. Lightbox is a simple, unobtrusive script used to overlay images on the web pages. It is extremely easy to setup and works on all modern browsers. The best thing of it is that if you have a set of images, the script will preload all images before you clicked to the next image. So that you do not have to wait for loading everytime you click to the next image.

* Lightbox uses the Prototype Framework and Scriptaculous Effects Library.

Requirements: Any Modern Browsers
Demo: http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox2/#example
License: Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License