Open Source Resources for Web Application Developers

SimpleModal is a lightweight jQuery plugin that provides a simple interface to create a modal dialog. The goal of SimpleModal is to provide developers with a cross-browser overlay and container that will be populated with data provided to SimpleModal.

Requirements: IE 6+, Firefox 2, Opera 9, Safari 3
Demo: http://www.ericmmartin.com/simplemodal/
License: MIT and GPL License

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Transparent messages are the brainchild of Jef Raskin. It’s simply a large and translucent message that’s displayed over the contents of your screen. They fade away when the user takes any action. In practice, the message is both noticeable yet unobtrusive. And because the message is transparent, you can see what’s beneath it. It’s just humane. Humane Messages is a system for displaying and temporarily logging non-modal messages, for use in web applications. Humane Messages requires the jQuery javascript library.

Requirements: jQuery Framework
Demo: http://binarybonsai.com/misc/humanmsg/
License: Apache License 2.0

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We have published a post about Send Notifications Instantly with Growl Mootools few days ago. And then one of our readers, Oskar Krawczyk has pointed out that there is another Growl-like notifier called Roar which is more configurable.

Roar is a notification widget that streamlines incoming messages, such as updates or errors, without distracting the user from their browser experience or breaking their work-flow by displaying obtrusive alerts. Roar is inspired by Growl, and is realised with MooTools as well. You can check out the following 3 examples below.

• Never-ending Feed Showing feed items with link but without end.
• Random Alerts Random notifications for all 4 corners of the document.
• Update Ticker Timed updates on events.

Roar has been tested on all A-Grade Browsers and it is available under the MIT License.

Requirements: Mootools Framework
Demo: http://digitarald.de/project/roar/
License: MIT License

• 3 Comments

When we are developing web applications, we always need some kind of dialog boxes to inform the users the status of the system. Leigeber has put together a lightweight (~4.5kb) JavaScript dialog box library. The script currently offers four dialog styles: alerts, warnings, prompts and success.

JavaScript dialog box library is nothing to add to your page except references to the JavaScript and CSS if you choose not to incorporate them in your existing files. The Divs are dynamically added to the DOM when the function is called. The function currently relies on a content wrapper to calculate the page height however you could use the body height but the background overlay would only cover the currently visible content. The variable for the wrapper ID as well as the speed and timer settings are available at the top of the JS file. The script is tested working in IE 6/7, Firefox 2/3, Opera and Safari.

Requirements: -
Demo: http://sandbox.leigeber.com/dialog/dialog_box.html
License: License Free

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If you are using Mac OS X, you should have come across Growl. Growl is a notification system for Mac OS X, it allows applications that support Growl to send you notifications. Notifications are a way for your applications to provide you with new information, without you having to switch from the application you’re already in. I think this feature is really useful for our web applications as well. Daniel Mota has created Growl 2.0 with Mootools, so that we can easily integrate this effect into our web applications.

Requirements: MootoolsFramework
Demo: http://icebeat.bitacoras.com/mootools/growl/
License: License Free

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Few days ago, one of our readers asked if there is any free image magnifier script available on the internet. And then I have done some research and found this nice script. TJPzoom is an open source image magnifier that is written in JavaScript / DOM. If you move your mouse over the picture, you can see a little zoom window with a magnified version of a part of the picture in it.

The zoom ratio will be increased and decreased if you click and drag upwards/downwards your mouse. The zoom window will be increased and decreased if you click and drag to the right/left your mouse as well. Have you found any open source image magnifier that you would like to share with us too?

Requirements: Internet Explorer 6+, Firefox 2, Opera, Safari 2, Konqueror 3.5.6
Demo: http://valid.tjp.hu/tjpzoom/
License: Creative Commons 3.0 License

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We have seen many modal box script (e.g. Prototype Window, Multibox, Modalbox and etc). I would like to introduce something a little bit difference to you guys. Here are the following two Facebook-style modal boxes. Both of them have a sexy transparent border which looks really stylish.

1) Facebox is a jQuery-based, Facebook-style lightbox which can display images, divs, or entire remote pages. It’s simple to use and easy on the eyes. Download the tarball, view the examples, then start enjoying the curves.

2) GlassBox is a compact Javascript User Interface (UI) library, which use Prototype and Script.aculo.us for some effects. With GlassBox you can build transparent border, colorful layouts and “Flash-like” effects. The GlassBox library is easy to use, customizable and skinnable, and it comes with a coherent API and documentation.

Requirements: Any Modern Browsers, IE 6, Firefox 2, Opera 9 and Safari 3
Demo: http://famspam.com/facebox, http://www.glassbox-js.com
License: License Free, MIT License

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The mooSlideBox v3 is a small and slim ajax based extension or replacement of the common “lightbox” that can be found on nearly every page. This lightbox clone works in IE 6/7, Opera and Firefox. Some users complained that the slider isn’t unobstrusive through its use of the bump effect, you can change the effect in the mooslide.js. Replace the Fx.Transitions.Bounce.easeOut with something like Fx.Transitions.linear.

Requirements: -
Demo: http://www.artviper.net/test/ajaxslide/
License: License Free

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Shadowbox is a cross-browser (supports Firefox 1.5+, Camino, Safari 2+, Opera 9+ and Internet Explorer 6+), cross-platform, cleanly-coded and fully-documented media viewer application written entirely in JavaScript. In other words, it is similar to lightbox but focusing on displaying different media formats, e.g. Flash, QuickTime, and Windows Media Player.

It’s easy to use Shadowbox with your JavaScript library of choice for a given project as well. Shadowbox comes bundled with adapters for Yahoo! User Interface Library, Ext (standalone), Prototype + Scriptaculous and jQuery. Using Shadowbox, website authors can display pictures and movies in all major browsers without navigating away from the linking page.

Requirements: Firefox 1.5+, Camino, Safari 2+, Opera 9+ and IE 6+
Demo: http://mjijackson.com/shadowbox
License: LGPL License

• 5 Comments

There are many popups and galleries scripts we can use, Multibox is one of them as well. Multibox is lightbox that supports images, flash, video, mp3s, html. You can set the color of the background or use a semi-transparent background. It supports Firefox 2 (mac / pc), IE 7, IE 6, Safari (mac). However, it requires Mootools v1.1+ to run properly.

Requirements: Mootools 1.1+
Demo: http://www.phatfusion.net/multibox/
License: MIT License

• 31 Comments