Open Source Resources for Web Application Developers

Google has announced it’s going to retire Google Reader. If the service has been an essential part of your media diet, don’t despair. Feedly is the best alternative of your Google Reader, partially because it’s free, cross-platform, and available on multiple devices. Plus, they make importing your Google Reader subscriptions so ridiculously easy that it’s worth a try.

You can easily organize your favorite blogs, news sites, podcasts and Youtube channels and access them all in one place or sync with Google Reader. There are multiple layout options, auto-mark as read, tagging, advanced sharing, keyboard shortcuts.

If you do not like RSS Feeds anymore, you can always follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. You can also subscribe to our newsletter with freebies and exclusive deals from webappers.

Requirements: -
Demo: http://www.feedly.com/
License: License Free

Countable.js is a JavaScript function to add live paragraph-, word- and character-counting to an HTML element. Countable does not rely on any libraries and is very small in size.

Countable takes the value from an HTML element and counts paragraphs, words and characters (without and with spaces). Those numbers are then returned in an object, accessible by a single parameter in the callback function. Countable has been tested in Chrome (latest), Safari (latest), Firefox (latest), Opera (latest) and Internet Explorer (7+). It is built to support both newer and older browsers.

Requirements: JavaScript Framework
Demo: http://radlikewhoa.github.com/Countable/
License: MIT License

Spoiler Alert is a happy little jQuery plugin to hide spoilers on your site. Don’t spoil it! Hide anything with a bit of blur. Hint on mouseover. Reveal on click.

To make your site spoiler free, simply include spoiler.js, then, add this somewhere: $(’spoiler, .spoiler’).spoilerAlert(). To control the maximum and partial blurs, you can pass arguments to the function. Spoiler Alert has been tested in Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Mobile Safari.

Requirements: jQuery Framework
Demo: http://joshbuddy.github.com/spoiler-alert/
License: MIT License

We love that neat little “pull to refresh” feature on our devices, but wouldn’t it be awesome if it was for the web? Well, that’s what Hook is here to do.

They took a concept from mobile phones and tablets and made it work for the web. Simply scroll down a bit, and then back up to the top. The page will be automatically refreshed. Hook is as simple as it gets for all kinds of users. From developers to novices, just follow the easy set of instructions and you’ll be Hooking in no time.

Requirements: JavaScript Framework
Demo: http://usehook.com/
License: License Free

With Paperkit you can easily generate online the exact type of graph paper (grid paper) that you need. Use the toolbar to adjust the settings. You have full control over spacing between grid lines, margin size, stroke color and width as well as paper size. A live preview will help you evaluate your design. There are five formats available: A4, A3, legal, tabloid and letter. You can use units that you are comfortable with (millimeters or inches).

Once you decide on the parameters of your template and you are satisfied with its design you can download it to your hard drive. A blank template will be provided as a ready to print PDF file. It will open in a new window – you can immediately print graph paper or save it by clicking the right button. Whether you need to write something down, draw a sketch or a wireframe you can easily adjust the paper to your needs.

Requirements: -
Demo: http://paperkit.net/
License: License Free

Conditionizr is a fast and lightweight (3KB) javascript utility that detects browser and pixel ratio, allowing you to serve conditional JavaScript and CSS files. Rebuilt from it’s jQuery predecessor, it’s now 50% faster. Combined with class name additions, Conditionizr has an integrated script and style loading facility, allowing you to specify which scripts and styles you’d like to load for which browser.

Browser sniffing is often considered unreliable, and Conditionizr was built to overcome this goal. The core functionality within Conditionizr is detecting and serving Internet Explorer legacy scripts and styles. With this in mind, using a similar method to the way Google Analytics detects browsers.

Requirements: JavaScript Framework
Demo: http://conditionizr.com/
License: MIT License

Docverter lets you get going immediately without having to set up your own document conversion tools. Docverter wraps several open source projects to make your documents come out perfect every time. Convert plain text documents written in HTML, Markdown, or LaTeX to PDF, Docx, RTF or ePub with a simple HTTP API.

When you make an API request, Docverter takes your input documents and runs them through pandoc, the incomparable document conversion system. Depending on your output selection, Docverter may run it through a customized HTML->PDF converter or an ebook converter. Docverter then returns the beautifully rendered document to you. Docverter is open source software. Run it on your own hardware or on Heroku.

Requirements: -
Demo: http://www.docverter.com/
License: License Free

A visitor to your site decides to follow you on Twitter. You have a link in your footer — but their search for “Twitter” comes up empty and they move on. Unfortunately, you named the link “@username” instead.

Cinnamon.js prevents just this situation, taking some of the pain out of naming things. It allows users to find links, images, and other content by their synonyms, using the browser’s built-in Find function.

Requirements: JavaScript Framework
Demo: http://thomaspark.me/2013/02/cinnamon-js-find-in-page…
License: MIT License

Lazy Line Painter is a jQuery plugin for path animation using the Raphaël Library. First of all, Export your line art from Illustrator as an .SVG, Ensure their are no fills, No closed paths – Line needs a start and end, Crop Artboard nice & tight.

And then drop your .SVG file into the ‘SVG to Lazy Conterter’ and Copy the .JS code. At the end, you can import jQuery, Raphaël & Lazylinepainter. Paste Lazyline code with’in DOM ready function and publish.

Requirements: jQuery Framework
Download Link: http://lazylinepainter.info/
License: WTFPL License