When building websites with scripting languages that require compiling (Sass, Less, Stylus..), compiling them manually (or via refreshing the page) is usually an extra step.

Prepros is an open source application for Windows OS that can do that automatically for Less, Sass, Scss, Stylus, Jade, Coffeescript, Haml and Markdown.

It auto-compiles the source and injects the CSS (also HTML and JS) to the browser so that no refresh is needed.

There are options for the compiling process like the output format or its style (compressed, nested..).

Prepros also has a built-in + static HTTP server for testing any ajax requests.

GoodUI is a website that regularly shares handy tips for creating “converting and easy-to-use” user interfaces.

The tips are described in detail, visualized nicely and usually easy to apply.

Some of the tips in the list include: “try recommending instead of showing equal choices” or “try undos instead of prompting for confirmation”.

New tips are being added regularly and they a mailing list to update you about these fresh items.

For any dynamic website, if it is not the performance of the network/server, database queries are usually the source of performance issues.

They should be optimized for sure and minimized with the help of caching.

phpFastCache is an open source PHP caching library that comes as a single-file and can be integrated so quickly.

It has support for multiple caching methods (apc, memcache, memcached, wincache, files, pdo and mpdo), the period of caching can be defined and has a very simplified API.

Drawing anything using modern web technologies is possible, however, the default APIs are not that user-friendly.

Two.js is an exciting JavaScript library that provides a 2-dimensional and single drawing API for SVG, Canvas And WebGL.

The library has only (currently) support for shapes (no text or images) and allows importing SVG data.

It can group multiple elements which is useful when transforming them together.

There is a built-in animation loop, methods to draw well-known shapes and lots of options to customize them.

Web apps are taking the places of desktop apps and the same is happening to our development tools as well.

ICEcoder is an open source and web-based IDE that is built with PHP and works fast.

It works by simply dropping its app folder to anywhere we prefer and any files there (and inside subfolders) are ready to be edited.

The syntax of the code is highlighted, broken tags and HTML structure are displayed + allows selecting them easily.

There is support for Emmet and comes bundled with Adminer (for managing MySQL).

ICEcoder has a powerful JavaScript API for easily interacting with it and it works with many popular languages (PHP, JS, CSS, LESS, Ruby, etc.).

IM Creator is a very easy to use and hosted website builder that allows anyone to create good-looking websites without diving into any HTML-CSS or JavaScript.

There are many creative templates to choose from where all of them are optimized for search engines and looking good on mobile too.

Once the template is picked from a well-categorized list (it is also possible to start with a blank template), the site can be edited live with drag ‘n’ drops.

Inserting new galleries, slideshows, contact forms or menus is just a click away. All of them presented nicely and user-friendly.

One of the most frequent jobs while creating a website, editing images are also handled within IM Creator. There is a built-in image editor for resizing or cropping images.

Also, there are lots of widgets to enhance the website like Google Maps, Twitter timeline, SoundVCloud, Vimeo, Facebook and more.

Websites can integrate with any Google Analytics account, come with free e-mail accounts and new templates are introduced regularly.

How to join the giveaway?

3 lifetime subscriptions (valued $95/year) are being given away. In order to join:

• Leave a comment below telling us what your favorite template from IM Creator is (view their collection and please share the link)
• “Like” IM Creator page on facebook.com/imcreator

Winners will be announced a week later (13 May 2013) and announced here. Good luck to all.

The winners

Here they are:

• Ciril Trcek (comment #1264273)
• Firebit (comment #1264343)
• Lukas Janda (comment #1264236)

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone for being a part of this giveaway.

When working on a web project, many of us usually keep a scratch document open to copy/cut/paste code snippets without losing them.

Capsule is a free WordPress theme that is specifically built to replace that scratch document.

It comes with a built-in code editor and supports Markdown Extra syntax + GitHub-style fenced code blocks.

The code editor has support for syntax highlighting of many languages, tags can be added quickly with metadata and they can be filtered.

Any number of entries can be added, they are listed with their creation dates and quick links exist for locating them faster (tags or adding to favorites).

Also, there is Capsule Server which makes “team collaboration” possible by replicating selecting entries with other Capsule installs.

A beautiful font can easily turn a standard text into a good-looking title, logo, etc..

Solomon Font Family is definitely one of the most exciting font packs out there with 6 decorative fonts in 6 different weights (12 fonts total).

It has a well-finished geometric design with optimized kerning and looks elegant without being too much flowery.

The fonts have support for characters of 50+ languages so they can easily be used in multilanguage projects.

They are normally priced $279 but discounted for $9 at MightDeals. You can choose to get the desktop version or the web font version for the price (or get both for $18).

iio Engine is an open source framework for creating HTML5 applications with JavaScript and canvas.

The framework is lightweight (45kb) and packed with a debugging system + cross-platform deployment engine.

It doesn’t require any JS frameworks and can work side-by-side with Box2D.

iio Engine’s website provides a full documentation and many examples to simplify development.

Displaying video on websites is both easy and hard as a good video experience usually requires a custom-styled, cross-browser and fast player.

Flowplayer, the popular HTML5 video player, offers a great experience with a completely customizable feature set.

One of the most important things when playing video is probably the browser support. The player does that perfectly with HTML5 by default and falling back to Flash when needed.

Flowplayer’s interface is completely customizable and it comes with 3 beautiful skins. Also, its layout is fluid and works in any screen size with no extra settings.

There is a web-based designer to create a completely new skin and also see how flexible it is.

It can be controlled very easily (keyboard and touch events support) and offers a (native) fullscreen mode too.

Cuepoints can be defined for any video, sub-titles can be added and the videos can even be displayed in slow-motion.

For a better customization, any HTML can be shown when the videos are preloading and once they are ended (good for presentations and branding).

Flowplayer integrates well with Google Analytics and can track “how long a video is played, how many times it is played and in which format (HTML5 or Flash).

Each video file is embeddable (if enabled) with the help of a share button that auto-generates an embed link.

All the functionality of the player can be controlled with a powerful API and it has callbacks on every level to interact with any event.

The player is open source and free to use under the GPL license. For commercial use, it requires a license.

And, Flowplayer team provides great support (paid support exists) and an active user community that discusses on their product forum.

How to join the giveaway?

Flowplayer is giving away 3 * Commercial licenses ($95 value/each) and in order to join:

• please comment to this post

And, the winners will be selected randomly on 06 May 2013 (1 week later) with the query below:

SELECT * FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_post_id=4037 AND comment_approved=1 AND comment_type='' GROUP BY comment_author_email ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 3

Good luck to all.

The winners

Here they are:

• bigcloud (comment #1263775)
• Techspy (comment #1263756)
• Federico Garcia (comment #1263809)

Congratulations.