Open Source Resources for Web Application Developers

Phusion Passenger is an Apache module, which makes deploying Ruby and Ruby on Rails applications on Apache a breeze. It follows the usual Ruby on Rails conventions, such as “Don’t-Repeat-Yourself” and ease of setup, while at the same time providing enough flexibility.

Phusion Passenger is a commercial supported open source product that enables people to deploy their Ruby on Rails applications in an upload-and-go manner, which is very reminiscent of the PHP way of deploying. Also, you can always get community support on Discussion board.

Requirements: Any OS, except Microsoft Windows
Demo: http://www.modrails.com
License: GPL License

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Superfish is an enhanced Suckerfish-style menu jQuery plugin that takes an existing pure CSS drop-down menu (so it degrades gracefully without JavaScript) and adds the some nice features as well. The reveal of sub-menu is animated, uses a fade-in by default but can be given a custom object to be used in the first argument of the animate function. The animation speed is also customisable but is set to “normal” by default.

There is a set of callback functions (onInit, onBeforeShow, onShow and onHide) available as well, allowing for further enhancements and functionality to be added without needing to alter the core Superfish code.

Requirements: jQuery v1.1.3.1+
Demo: http://users.tpg.com.au/j_birch/plugins/superfish/
License: MIT and GPL License

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Flash 3D Wall PRO displays images on an engaging interactive 3D wall using the Papervision3D engine. It can also display FLV videos and SWF’s. YouTube videos can be played directly in the 3D Wall PRO as well as videos from streaming servers that use the rtmp protocol. The wall can be flat or set at any curvature to create a truly unique look. The viewer can also scroll, tilt and zoom the wall freely. Includes a built-in preloader for seamless transitions between thumbs and large images. Over 80 parameters to customize your wall ensures unlimited number of looks and an enticing viewer experience.

You can see many different kinds of image galleries and css galleries. As videos are getting more and more popular, it would be nice to have some video galleries as well. If you are interested in creating a video gallery, Flash 3D Wall PRO would be really useful to you then. I think it looks so nice, and it lets you creating a stunning video gallery easily.

Normally, a copy of Flash 3D Wall PRO costs you $179.95 each. However, Flashloaded is really kind to give away 3 copies of Flash 3D Wall PRO to WebAppers readers. All you have to do is leaving a comment under this post, and you will have a chance to win a copy of Flash 3D Wall PRO. We will draw the winner on 30th August. WebAppers has been helping web developers for over a year. We will continue bringing the best open source resources for web developers.  Thank you for supporting WebAppers.

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The Open Handset Alliance, a group of more than 30 technology and mobile companies, is developing Android which is the first complete, open, and free mobile platform. It is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. This beta version of the Android SDK provides the tools and APIs necessary to begin developing applications on the Android platform using the Java programming language. They’re offering the Android Software Development Kit as well. There are four major features Android provides.

Open
Android allows you to access core mobile device functionality through standard API calls.

All applications are equal
Android does not differentiate between the phone’s basic and third-party applications, even the dialer or home screen can be replaced.

Breaking down boundaries
Combine information from the web with data on the phone, such as contacts or geographic location to create new user experiences.

Fast & easy development
The SDK contains what you need to build and run Android applications, including a true device emulator and advanced debugging tools.

Requirements: -
Demo: http://code.google.com/android/
License: Apache License 2.0

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WebSnapshot is a simple Adobe AIR application which allows you taking snapshots for any websites easily. Enter the Url and Press Snap. Or Drag and Drop it from your browser. Click on the Thumnails to Save. With Auto Save Checked, the thumnails are immediatly saved to your ’save’ folder. You can select the type of Snapshot you want to make: Thumbnail, Browser size, or Full Page. You can tailor the way the snapshots are take in the Preferences pane as well. Set the download folder as needed.

Requirements: -
Demo: http://myspyder.net/tools/websnapshot/
License: License Free

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Crowd Science Demographics is a new audience measurement service that gives website publishers insight into the demographics and attitudes of their audience. Focusing on more than page views, clicks and behavior, Crowd Science Demographics builds an audience profile including age, gender, income level and other demos that provide you insight to your audience.

Crowd Science can help you create a model of your audience that reveals more than the records of IP addresses and page views. Their audience measurement service is able to build deep, topic-area-specific statistical models of the demographics and attitudes of the visitors to your website.

Their research methodologies are as polite and non-intrusive as possible – they recognize the advantage of an engaged audience and the very obvious disadvantage of having one that won’t come back. Activating your website is a breeze. The data will be yours to keep and to use for any purpose, evil or otherwise. Whether you are a publisher, a blogger, an advertiser or a researcher, Crowd Science can help you understand your crowd.

Crowd Science is currently under Close BETA. However, they are very kind to give WebAppers readers 100 invitations. You can sign up with invitation code: WEBAPPERS. Hurry up!

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

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Some applications look great in a screenshot, but deliver disappointing results when they are actually used. The driving force behind the development of SQL Buddy was not to produce a great-looking screenshot but rather to create a product that would enable developers to enjoy their work and get more done in less time. SQL Buddy is a web based MySQL Administration Tool similar to phpMyAdmin.

It is really easy to install SQL Buddy, just unzip the files to your server and its ready to use. You can easily find the data you are looking for with columns that can be ordered and resized. And instead of reloading the entire page structure with each request, ajax is used to fetch just the content that has changed. At the same time, it still plays nice with bookmarks, the back button, etc.

Requirements: -
Demo: http://sqlbuddy.com/
License: MIT License

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DryIcons has released a new beautiful free icon set called “Coquette“. “Coquette” will make sure to bring all attention and admiration to your software applications, websites, blogs.This playful free icon set contains curvy and colorful free icons made with one goal, to get all the affection to your projects.

These free icons flirt with style. “Coquette” free icon set contains 50 high quality, free icons in these sizes: 16×16px, 32×32px, 48×48px, 64×64px and 128×128px and 32-bit transparency PNG file format.

Requirements: -
Demo: http://dryicons.com/free-icons/preview/coquette-icons-set/
License: Terms of Use

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iPhone Web Apps combine the power of the Internet with the simplicity of Multi-Touch technology, all on a 3.5-inch screen. When you find a web app you like, you can put it on your Home screen for easy, one-tap access.

There are over 600 Web Apps available, I found many of them are useless to be honest. So,what are the best ones? iPhone Toolbox has carefully selected top 25 iPhone Web Apps for us. Feel free to share your favorite ones on the post as well.

Source: Top 25 Free iPhone Web Apps for Your Daily Life

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The YUI team is pleased to announce the public availability of YUI 3.0 Preview Release 1, an early look at what they’re working on for the next generation of the YUI Library. Documentation for YUI 3.0 is on the YUI website; the download is available on the YUI project area on SourceForge;  Keep in mind that this is an early preview, not a production-quality (or even a beta) release. This release is not suitable for production use, but it will give you an idea of what they’re working on, and it should provide a good framework for conversation about the future of the library. They’ve set five design goals for the next generation of the library. What you’ve told us is that YUI 3.0 should be:

• lighter (less K-weight on the wire and on the page for most uses)
• faster (fewer http requests, less code to write and compile, more efficient code)
• more consistent (common naming, event signatures, and widget APIs throughout the library)
• more powerful (do more with less implementation code)
• more securable (safer and easier to expose to multiple developers working in the same environment)

Requirements: -
Demo: http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/3/
License: BSD License

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