How-To

When Google first unveiled GMail, then GMaps, a firestorm of interest and activity was generated — not just in those Google applications, but the technologies that powered them.

These web programming techniques (now, of course, known collectively as AJAX) have become incredibly popular, especially among Web 2.0 startups and their early adopters.

The developers of Ruby on Rails recognized early on that allowing RoR developers to easily AJAX-ify their webapps would be a great addition to the framework.

With the addition of RJS Templates to Rails core, the AJAX bar was lowered even further.

Simple AJAX requests like incrementing the number of diggs a story has received, or splicing a comment into a blog, are remarkably fast, not to mention user friendly. continue

Useful AJAX Tutorials

Build an AJAX-Powered Shopping Cart
NETTUTS shows us how to build an AJAX-powered shopping cart using PHP, jQuery and some plug-ins.

AJAX Username Availability Checker Using MooTools 1.2
When allowing a user to register a username, you can use AJAX with MooTools to let them check the availability of the username being submitted. continue

Here’s an extremtly nice pluign I found mentioned in AdesBlog. This Wordpress plugin turns your normal search string from: continue

If you are generating revenue off your website or blog, chances are you serve banner ads and they are either updated manually by adding the images and URLs into the source codes or with the help of external ad-serving scripts like OpenX or OIO Publishers.

Google has a similar web service, call the Google Ad Manager. In a nutshell, it is a simple (and free) web service that helps you manage banner ads. It also comes with a pretty complete inventory report module. Ad Manager integrates with AdSense, therefore webmasters have the ability to serve AdSense ads if there’s no banner for any particular slot. Here’s a quick look into advantages of Google Ad Manager: continue

HTML clipboard

AJAX Auto Completer

1. AJAX AutoSuggest: An AJAX auto-complete text field

2. AJAX Autocompleter / script.aculo.us library

3. AJAX AutoCompleter

4. Ajax autosuggest/autocomplete from database

5. Ajax dynamic list

AJAX Instant Edit

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We’ve selected scripts of impressive slideshows, lightboxes and galleries you can use for effective presentations of your images.

• Minishowcase
  Minishowcase is a small and simple php/javascript online photo gallery, powered by AJAX/JSON that lets you put easily your images in an online gallery, without having to configure databases or changing and customising code (though you may do it if you feel so) allowing to have an up-and-running gallery in a few minutes. continue

When it comes to creating the navigation part of your Website, the first thing you might think of is an unordered list that you style as tabs. Lately, such navbars are everywhere, as many people believe they’ll make their site more Web 2.0-compatible. Personally, I just think they’re semantically better and accessible.

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How to install ruby on rails?

Ok, so this will basically be somewhat a repeat of the information made by Curt Hibbs in this great hands-on tutorial. However, the versions of all products changed from the time Curt made his tutorial, and in some areas I felt that additional description was required. So, in this tutorial you’ll get a step-by-step instructions on installing Rails on Windows 2000 Server (Windows XP would be very similar).

In order to have a fully working development environment, you can use your PC. You will need to install:

• Ruby - the language
• Ruby Gems - the plug-in manager for Ruby
• Scite or FreeRIDE - IDE for Ruby
• MySQL - the database
• MySQL query builder / MySQL admin tools - GUI to create databases, add users and create tables
• Rails Framework continue

1. Write something great about your niche and email other bloggers to let them know – there’s a good chance they’ll link to you.

2. Have a signature link in forums that  points to your site.

3. Post links to your pages to social        bookmarking sites.

4. Leave comments on other people’s blogs and link back to your site (tip: look in the digg upcoming section for blog posts about to get a lot of traffic).

5. Have the opposite opinion on everyone else on a popular topic. Everyone will link to you saying your wrong.

6. Answer questions on Yahoo Answers.

7. Post in Yahoo and Google Groups with a link to your site in your signature.
8. Make a 404 page that redirects to your homepage – no point losing visitors.

9. Have an opt-in form – trade links with someone else who has an opt in form on your confirmation page.
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You may have noticed that in certain business and marketing circles there exists a “backlash” against the design community. Despite the rise of attractive, user-friendly solutions, in such circles unattractive designs have somehow managed to remain at the verge of acceptance. You’ll hear ideas being thrown around like “design is a waste of time — we have a really ugly site which outsells our competitors 3 to 1″ or “we are not worried about the design, we’ll outsource it or use a free Wordpress theme, let us focus more on the product”.

You can almost sense a little bit of pride in how ugly their web-site is, or that they are treating design like a commodity. However off base these types of thoughts might be, there is clearly a lack of respect for designers in the business community at times. I’d like to address how you can shatter this barrier and talk to business folk in a language they understand.

This article provides you with 5 guidelines you can use as a designer to “speak business” — even if it’s just to get your foot in the door or land a big project. continue