Open Source Resources for Web Application Developers

There are many fantastic javascript/AJAX solutions out there to view a larger version of an image by displaying it as a in-page pop-up or lightbox pop-up. It is rare to visit a website with a photo gallery that does not already utilize one of these solutions.

So why not make it a standard? Why not let the browsers take care of the heavy lifting rather than us web developers via javascript? Drew Wilson proposed adding a fullsize attribute to the <IMG> tag. By which you can references a larger (or fullsize) version of the SRC image. Browsers could then include native support to display the fullsize image in a pop-up. You can vote for Fullsize and add your name to the list of those who support this Fullsize idea.

Even though Fullsize is not currently in the next HTML spec yet, you can still get Fullsize jQuery plugin now. Since there is no fullsize attribute for the <IMG> tag yet, he is using the longdesc attribute instead. longdesc is a completely valid image attribute and is meant to contain a URL to a description of the image. The Fullsize jQuery plug-in is super easy to use, and provides a kick start to standardizing the way image pop-ups look and work.

Requirements: Safari, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, IE 8, IE 7, and IE 6
Demo: http://www.addfullsize.com/
License: MIT, GPL License

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There are a number of tools such as DataTables which provide enhanced access to HTML tables for Javascript capable browsers. However, these tools often lack keyboard accessibility. KeyTable addresses this by allowing Excel like cell navigation on any table.

KeyTable is a Javascript library which provides keyboard navigation and event binding for any HTML table. With KeyTable Excel style table navigation can be employed to provide features such as editing of a table without requiring a mouse. Simply navigate to the cell you wish to edit and hit return. This initialises the excellent jEditable plug-in for jQuery – make your edit and then hit return again to save.

Requirements: IE 6+, Firefox 3+, Safari 3+, Opera 9.6
Demo: http://www.sprymedia.co.uk/article/KeyTable
License: GPL or BSD License

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SundayMorning is a jQuery plugin which allow site-owners to offer their visitors some easy and fancy ways to translate their content in more than 30 languages. It uses the Google translate API. You can have Inline translation with menu, Word translation or Translation with remote trigger. It is available as a Bookmarklet as well. SundayMorning has been tested on Internet Explorer 6/7, Firefox 3, Safari 3.

Requirements: jQuery Framework
Demo: http://sundaymorning.jaysalvat.com/
License: MIT and GPL License

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(mb)Tooltip is a beautiful tooltip for your webpage in jQuery. Simply by placing a “title” attribute with your content as value, and then you can replace the ugly default tooltip with this smart and nice one. You can also disable and enable (mb)Tooltip at anytime.

Requirements: jQuery Framework
Demo: http://www.open-lab.com/mb.ideas/index.html#mbTooltip
License: GPL License

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Uploadify is a jQuery multiple file upload plugin which allows you to change any element with an ID on your page into a single or multiple file upload tool. The plugin uses a mix of JQuery, Flash, and a backend upload script of your choice to send files from your local computer to your website server. It has been tested on IE7, FireFox 3, Safari 3 and Opera 9.

Requirements: jQuery and Flash Required
Demo: http://www.ronniesan.com/examples/file-upload.html
License: GPL License

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You can find lots of outstanding Open Source Shopping Carts on WebAppers. However, we have just found out that we have missed Ubercart in our free online shopping cart collection.

Ubercart is an exciting open source e-commerce package that fully integrates your online store with Drupal. It was designed to take advantage of Drupal’s major core and contributed systems, providing users with shopping cart functionality that seamlessly integrates with other parts of your company or community website.

One of the key strengths of Ubercart is its design that allows official and third party developers to add to or alter its features to accommodate virtually any e-commerce need. This means you’ll never have to change the source code to add new features, so you’ll have an easy upgrade path when the core gets improved or bugfixes are released.

Could you tell us your favourite one from our Shopping Cart Collection? Ubercart, Magento, PrestaShop, VirtueMart, OsCommerce or Zen Cart?

Requirements: -
Demo: http://www.ubercart.org/
License: GPL License

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DataTables is a jQuery plugin for building tables. It was designed for progressive enhancement of tabular HTML data, giving the end user a wide range of options for customising the display of that data as they wish. It is very easy to integrate DataTables directly into your web-site or web-application.

The core features of DataTables includes Ajax auto loading of data, Variable length pagination, Multi-column sorting, Single column filtering, Type detection for dynamic data, Smart handling of column widths, Fully internationalisable, Themeable by CSS and it is Free!

Requirements: jQuery Framework
Demo: http://www.sprymedia.co.uk/dataTables-1.4/example_zero_config.html
License: GPL, BSD License

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Chevereto is an open-source image hosting script that allows you to mount your own one-click image hosting on your server.  It is very simple to use, you will love it by their appearance.

It allows you to resize images, verify its integrity and integrate it with url shorteners like TinyURL. And also, you can install Chevereto quickly, requires no database and is configurable.

Requirements: PHP
Demo: http://demo.chevereto.com/
License: GPL Licenses

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jQuery Scrollable is to provide generic scrolling capability to your pages. Anytime you want to scroll your HTML elements in a visually appealing way you should use this tool. The difference between “normal” scrolling is that you don’t have browser’s default scrollbars available and you can perform scrolling in more sophisticated ways.

Items can be scrolled horizontally or vertically. Elements can be scrolled with navigational buttons, arrow keys, API calls and mouse wheel. You can specify the amount how many items are scrolled at once. Possibility to add and remove scrollable items dynamically. And also, the file size is roughly 6.0 Kb when minified.

Requirements: jQuery Framework
Demo: http://www.flowplayer.org/tools/scrollable.html
License: MIT and GPL Licenses

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Stephen Bau has been looking for a means of rapidly developing interactive prototypes for his site designs. He has been building a library of commonly used HTML elements, combining these with CSS for typography and layout.

He finally created Fluid 960 Grid System Templates (960 pixel fixed width, 12-column fluid width and 16-column fluid width) which have been built upon the work of Nathan Smith and his 960 Grid System using effects from the Mootools JavaScript library.

These templates are offered free of charge in accordance with the applicable licenses for 960 Grid System and Mootools.

Requirements: -
Demo: http://designinfluences.com/fluid960gs/
License: GPL, MIT License

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