Open Source Resources for Web Application Developers

boomerang is a piece of javascript that you add to your web pages, where it measures the performance of your website from your end user’s point of view. It has the ability to send this data back to your server for further analysis.

With boomerang, you find out exactly how fast your users think your site is. boomerang comes to you from the Exceptional Performance team at Yahoo!, aided by the Yahoo! Developer Network. boomerang is opensource and released under the BSD license, and they have a whole bunch of documentation about it.

Requirements: -
Demo: http://yahoo.github.com/boomerang/doc/
License: BSD License

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CloudApp allows you to share images, links, music, videos and files. Here is how it works: choose a file, drag it to the menubar and let it take care of the rest. They provide you with a short link automatically copied to your clipboard that you can use to share your upload with co-workers and friends. Additionally you can view, track and delete files right from your menubar.

CloudApp is powered by Heroku and Amazon’s Simple Storage Service. Files are redundantly stored on multiple devices across multiple storage facilities preventing data corruption and loss. You can sleep well at night knowing your files are safe.

Source: http://www.getcloudapp.com/

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Broken links and 404 Errors are a problem that have plagued almost all websites since the dawn of the internet. There’s nothing attractive about clicking a link hoping that it’ll take you to your destination only to find out that the page doesn’t exist.

Addy Osmani has written a new jQuery Plugin called Catch404. Through the magic of jQuery we are going to catch 404 errors without your users even having to leave the page and then suggest some other options they have got using an inline jQuery Modal window. The benefit of Catch404 is that you can offer your users a better experience when errors are encountered on your site.

Requirements: jQuery Framework
Demo: http://www.addyosmani.com/resources/catch404/catch404.html
License: GPL License

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Whichloadsfaster is a fun way to spread the word that web performance matters. It’s about friendly competition and about testing in everybody’s browser, not just ones that have nice performance tools already.

Whichloadsfaster is open source, written in HTML and JavaScript and runs entirely on the client-side. You can host the files on your own site and tweak them to suit your own nefarious plans. You can download Whichloadfast on github.

Requirements: -
Demo: http://www.whichloadsfaster.com/
License: BSD License

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WebMatrix was built to streamline Web development and make it easy, whether you’re getting started or you just want to get things done. WebMatrix is a free Web development tool that installs in minutes and elegantly brings together a Web server, a database, and programming frameworks into a single, integrated experience. WebMatrix lets you code, test, and deploy both ASP.NET and PHP applications side by side.

WebMatrix connects you to a world of popular and free open-source Web applications, including DotNetNuke, Umbraco, WordPress, Joomla!, and more. Simply select an application from the built-in gallery, and WebMatrix handles the downloading and installation of your new Web site. The days of hand-editing configuration files and making sure you have all the right components are long gone. Customize your site using the built in code editor and make it yours.

Requirements: Windows OS
Demo: http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/
License: Read License Agreement

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Launchlist is intended to help and encourage web designers and developers to check their work before exposing it to the world at large.

The process is simple – Enter your name and email and the same for a recipient, your project details and website URL, and then proceed through the list of provided fields. If a question is irrelevant, you can tick N/A and it will be disregarded. You can even add your own custom fields at the bottom of the checklist if required.

Once submitted, you and your recipient/s will receive a report of your checklist with a summary for your records. Launchlist is and always will be free to use.

Source: http://launchlist.net/

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Dragdealer is a drag-based JavaScript component that embraces endless front-end solutions. Elegantly crafted for JavaScript-aware coders. It supports 2D drag and tap, mouse and touch (mobile tested). Basically it gets dragged, tapped, even somehow stretched; then it slides, snaps, responds and reacts.

The file size is just 12kB unminified with No dependency. You can also easily change the shape and look of the slider, with modest CSS skills.

Requirements: Javascript Enabled
Demo: http://code.ovidiu.ch/dragdealer/
License: MIT License

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Would you like to create music on the web? Whether you are an amateur or a pro you will be able to satisfy all your needs with Soundation Studio — a powerful online sequencer with 11 real time effects, 3 synthesizers, a drum machine and a fully integrated Sound Shop.

Soundation Studio offer you an introductory library of over 400 loops, the possibility to buy more sounds and in short, a place where you can store all your sounds as well as your own productions. Anything you create in Soundation is your production, the only exception is you cannot transfer, upload, share, give or sell any of the isolated or individual sound files. They are licensed to you to use in your productions but not to give away, upload or sell as individual loops or samples.

Source: http://www.soundation.com/studio

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Can your website handle the stress? Slow websites means lost customers and revenues. Be proactive and find out the performance limits of your website before you learn the hard way. Load Impact is an online load testing service that lets you load test your website with just a few mouse clicks.

Load Impact generates simulated user traffic to your site – for example it might simulate that 50 users are trying to load your web pages at the same time. While simulating the traffic from these 50 users, it also records how fast pages are loaded from your server. This lets you know how fast your site is (as experienced by a user) when it is being accessed by 50 users at the same time.

Load Impact runs on the servers, over the Internet. You will always have access to your test configurations and your test results. You will never need to install or maintain any special software or servers for your testing. It is completely free to run simple load tests with up to 50 concurrent, simulated users.

Source: http://loadimpact.com/

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BrowserLab lets you preview web pages across multiple browsers and operating systems. Accurately pinpoint compatibility issues and compare web pages at a glance to easily identify differences and potential problems. Preview full screenshots with multiple view options and customizable test settings.

You can get a full-view screenshot, even beneath the fold, or compare how your web page looks in two browsers, side by side. With the Onion Skin View, spot discrepancies at a glance by overlaying two screenshots on top of each other. You can focus on specific areas with custom positioning of the screenshots and adjust the opacity from 0–100%.

Source: https://browserlab.adobe.com/en-us/index.html#state=browse

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