Video For Everybody is a smartly created HTML code for embedding videos into websites using the HTML5 <video> element.

If HTML5 is not supported, it falls back to QuickTime & Flash as the last option automatically (actually, as the last option, it can display an image if the Flash is not supported).

It does not use any JavaScript or browser-sniffing & works in RSS readers, iPhone / iPad besides all the major browsers.

Video For Everybody requires the video to be encoded in 2 different formats:

• MP4 (Safari, Flash,  iPhone / iPad)
• OGG (Firefox 3.5+, Chrome, Opera 10.5+)

There is also a test page provided to see the compatibility it offers across browsers.

Uniform is a jQuery plugin that enables you to control the look & feel of form elements (checkboxes, drop down menus, radio buttons & file upload inputs).

It is unobtrusive & works by hiding the original elements + replacing them with custom ones.

Uniform is very easy to use & can be set to convert every form element on the page or any specific ones.

The plugin has theming support & comes with a theme kit to quickly create unique forms.

You remember Uptime Robot, a free website uptime monitoring service that we launched few weeks ago.

While building it, we're looking for a free & easy way for adding SMS support to the application which would notify users when their websites were down (and back up).

There are great APIs around but they are paid & we experienced that the best way to do this is using the e-mail to SMS gateways of mobile providers.

But we needed a list of providers that had support for e-mail to SMS.

After digging, we found several lists, realized that every provider has a different format where some requires a prefix & other can require a suffix, digit requirements differ, etc.

At the end we merged lists, removed invalid entries, added new ones with the help of Uptime Robot users & created a flexible MySQL table that included this data.

Now, we're sharing it (as SQL & CSV formats) at the Uptime Robot website so you can easily add SMS support to your web applications & won't lose the time we already did.

P.S. Note that there may still be some invalid entries that we couldn't get a feedback yet. If you think there are, please share them in comments, we'll updating them & always be sharing the latest version of the data.

TinyEditor is a lightweight (8kb) JavaScript WYSIWYG editor that is free to use in both personal & commercial projects.

It is a standalone script (does not require any JS frameworks) & converts any given textarea to an editor

The can be easily customized by updating the parameters (like removing some of the controls). And it is possible to style it via CSS:

TinyEditor can be resized, a starting content can be defined, set to generate HTML or XHTML code & more..

Formwizard is a jQuery plugin which can instantly convert your standard forms into wizard-like interfaces.

Once it is applied, users will be able to fill the form step-by-step (which is nice for big forms) & it becomes possible to show different steps according to the input values.

It only requires a few markup updates like wrapping every step with elements that has id tags: "firstStep, "secondStep", etc & adding class tags: "step".

Formwizard also plays nice with the popular validation & form plugins that will help enabling client-side form validation & Ajaxed submissions.

gMap is a lightweight (2kb) jQuery plugin for easily integrating Google Maps into any website.

It can embed a map with a tiny function like:

$("#map").gMap();

and can be customized further with settings like:

• latitude/longitude
• default zoom level
• markers, their positions, info to display as a pop-up, custom marker images
• mapping controls on/off
• & more..

Plupload is a very flexible, feature-rich & open source file uploader that enables you to upload files using:

• HTML5 Gears
• Silverlight
• Flash
• BrowserPlus
• normal forms

It can be used via the JavaScript API or the ready-to-go jQuery plugin.

Plupload has great features like image resizing, displaying upload progress, drag'n drop, multiple file uploads, unique filename generation, max-file-size limit & more.

As expected, it has a server-side file to handle the uploads (PHP file is included with the download).

It is possible to define multiple runtimes (Flash, HTML5 Gears, etc) in the code. The uploader will check their availability in the configured order & select the most appropriate method.

The library is very well-documented & comes with various examples.

FeedBurner's popular chicklet FeedCount is the most-used way to display the number of subscribers for a feed.

Also, a similar design is used by TwitterCounter to display your Twitter followers.

We'll be creating a dynamic FeedCount-like interface that can display your website's statistics like pageviews, visits, etc. (one or all of them) using PHP.

At the end of this tutorial, we'll have 2 different counters:

• a counter that can display only one metric – basic version
• a counter that can display multiple metrics (some jQuery fun here) – advanced version

Read the rest of this entry »

SlickBoard is a pretty different tool, built by the developers of XML/SWF Charts, for creating:

• unlimited graphics
• attractive interface elements (buttons, menus, tabs, drawers, etc.), animated slideshows
• live dashboards (dials, gauges, ticker tapes, etc.)
• interactive presentations (drag, dock, etc.)
• dynamic web pages
• & more..

It works by describing the output with XML & passing it to the SlickBoard's SWF file, that's all.

The tool offers unlimited output variations with the flexibility & built-in features it has (like rotating/sliding/minimizing objects, form/menu/tab controls, advanced drawing capabilities, etc.).

ColorBox is a jQuery Lightbox plugin which is lightweight (9kb) & supports photos, photo groups, slideshow, ajax, inline, and iframed content.

The lightbox has a very nicely designed interface which can be improved or customized with CSS.

ColorBox is unobtrusive, every option is mentioned in the JS & requires no changes to the existing HTML.

For faster displays & slideshows, it preloads background images and, optionally, can preload upcoming images in a photo group.

The plugin comes with a bunch of settings, including transition types-speeds & opacity, for maximum customization.