Pluralink is a tiny JavaScript library for displaying multiple links inside one link.

Rather than mentioning all your links one-by-one, a major link will be displaying all the options when clicked.

Usage is pretty simple:

<a href="http://firstlink.com/||http://secondlink.org/" title="First link description||Second link description">Some pluralink</a>

is all to do after inserting the JS file into our webpages.

The cons are:

• not unobtrusive (if the JS is off, the links won't be working)
• no RSS support (Pluralink team says "they are working on it")

The library also comes as a Wordpress plugin for easier integration.

Chroma-Hash is a jQuery plugin that aims to offer a better password input experience.

The Problem:

A standard password field replaces the entered characters with "●" characters. The problem is "we never know if we made a typo or not until the form is submitted & a reply is received from the server".

The Solution:

Chroma-Hash, "converts the values entered" into a colored visualization.

A user filling the password field can easily recognize that if the colors are the usual equivalents of the password or not. And, anyone who sees the colors won't have any idea what the actual password is.

The script can also be used to visualize password confirmations (password & confirm password fields).

P.S. A detailed info on the method & security concerns can be found at the developer's related post.

Closure Tools is set of opensource (release info) developer tools by Google which are used while building Gmail, Google Maps, Google Docs  & many others.

The tools include a JavaScript compiler, library & templating system.

JavaScript Compiler

It compiles JavaScript into compact, high-performance code. The compiler removes dead code and rewrites and minimizes what's left so that it downloads and runs quickly.

It also checks syntax, variable references, and types, and warns about common JavaScript pitfalls.

The compiler also offers a Firebug extension, named Inspector, for better debugging.

Closure Library

It is a broad, well-tested, modular, & cross-browser JavaScript library.

Only what you need can be pulled from a large set of reusable UI widgets, controls, lower-level utilities for DOM manipulation, server communication, animation, data structures, unit testing, rich-text editing, & more.

Closure Templates

They simplifty the task of dynamically generating HTML.

In contrast to traditional templating systems, in which you use one big template per page, you can think of Closure Templates as small components that you compose to form your user interface.

nopCommerce is an open source shopping cart software that is built with ASP.NET & uses MSSQL for storing the data.

It comes with a powerful backend & highly customizable frontend.

nopCommerce has all the features of a standard e-commerce websites & offers more like:

• support for kit products (e.g. build your own computer)
• real-time currency exchange rates
• multilingual interface
• compare selected products
• highly flexible shipping calculation (integrated providers, width/height/order total based & more)
• tax calculations by country/state/product & more
• built-in forum & polls
• wishlist

One of the most impressive parts of the software is the integrated marketing capabilities it has. You can customize the design of a product or category page, create any type of discounts & even activate an affiliate system.

nopCommerce supports most of the popular payment gateways & with its pluggable modular/layered architecture, new ones can be added with ease (some are already created).

Adobe AIR applications are great considering the ease-of-use & simplicity they offer.

Almost regulary, WRD is sharing the fresh Adobe AIR applications that web designers & developers will find useful, like:

• 15 New Adobe AIR Applications For Designers & Developers
  
• 16 Fresh Adobe AIR Applications For Designers & Developers
  
• 27 Adobe AIR Applications – Handy For Web Designers
  

Since then, new applications are created & ready to use. And, here they are:

Image Editing, Debugging & Invoicing

zFlick

This is an awesome Flickr search tool that makes browsing between images fun.

Once you find what you're looking for, just drag'n drop that image to your desktop to download it.

PixelWindow

It helps measuring the width/height of any item on the desktop. With a semi-transparent background & custom-presets, it is a great helper when prototyping websites.

Read the rest of this entry »

Gaya Design is featuring a very nice tutorial (with source) on creating an image slider with a progress bar.

The slider uses the powerful jQuery Cycle plugin (see WRD post) which can rotate images with various effects.

The progress bar is created automatically to reflect the number of images that wi,ll be displayed.

Besides the look & feel of the slider, variables like speed of the slideshow & transitions can be set too.

Here are several examples provided to better findout how it functions.

Flash is a highly creative medium & ActionScript 3 is a powerful language.

On the other hand, it is mostly hard to speed up when working with Flash as AS3 can be quite time-consuming & there are things to do (planning & setup of Flash movies) before you can actually get anything done.

This is where HYPE comes in.

HYPE is a creative coding framework built on top of ActionScript 3 which aims to enable Flash developers of every level to creatively play & express themselves.

The framework is extendible as it is possible to write new classes & improve it.

There are lots of examples provided at the HYPE website which are worth checking out.

Android Icons is a set of 30 free vector icons that are originally developed to be used for Android applications but all are also great for websites.

They come in transparent PNG + EPS formats and can be freely used in personal/commercial projects.

Thematic maps are very useful when describing statistical data about places. The data, simply, becomes much easier to understand.

Cartographer is a JavaScript library for creating thematic maps on Google Maps which supports custom styling.

It is only a one JavaScript file that relies on the powerful Raphael.js vector-graphics library.

It supports 3 visualizing types:

• Chloropleth (color coded regions)
• Pie charts
• Point clusters

The areas on maps are mentioned as latitudes or regions (depending on the type) which means no hacking or manual calculations.

Every visualization type comes with different options like colors, opacity, stroke & more.

P.S. The library is currently on alpha state but pretty solid.

Photo Booth is a tiny open source Flash application that can capture images from a webcam.

The script is built with AS3 + PHP5 and can be instantly implemented to any website.

It can be a great add-on when asking users to upload an avatar or creating a web application around photos.

To see how it works, a demo can be found here.