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.

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.

The Fluid Grid System is a CSS framework which combines the principals of the typographic & baseline grid into a resolution-independent one.

It has a comprehensive logic. The classes are mentioned like: six_column section or three column which makes it easier to use & understand.

With the simple layout & use of CSS, the Fluid Grid System degrades well in both older web browsers, scales with text nicely & presents content to screen readers in a logical manner as well.

The framework is also great for rapid prototyping besides final production layouts as designers can quickly design complex layouts.

Script.aculo.us is the most widely used add-on for the Prototype JavaScript Framework with the features like animations, drag'n drop, Ajax control & more.

Its second version, renamed as Scripty2, is out with a complete rewrite. It is lightweight (5kb compressed), flexible & works faster.

The library is currently in alpha status & there are still parts that need to be developed or improved. On the other hand, it is very promising & already being used by several big projects.

And, besides the Scripty2 homepage itself, the demos show how it will be empowering Prototype JS.

Retrospectiva is an open source project management & bug-tracking application that is focused on development teams.

It is built with Ruby on Rails & requires a MySQL database for storing the data.

It has 3 main modules:

• ticketing: to manage issues/requests
• code review / revision management: supports Subversion & Git)
• milestones / goals: to set & manage objectives for the project

And, comes with various add-ons like:

• wiki: manage documentation
• blog: to interact with the community, make announcements.
• agilePM: comprehensive support for your agile development process
• & more, which can be found in the wiki's installation pages.

Retrospectiva has an easy-to-use admin interface, a XML-REST-based API for integration with 3rd party applications & RSS support for following every content much simpler.

Floom is a MooTools slideshow plugin that can present images & their captions beautifully.

It displays them with a blind-effect & a chic loader that shows when the next image will be shown.

The plugin has various options like:

• defining the number of blinds between transitions
• slideshow interval
• loader on/off
• captions on/off

To mention, Floom is not a complicated script, rather, it is a lightweight (4kb compressed) one with very few features (just auto-slides images) which is sometimes "what is needed".

P.S. The download link in the website, currently, has a typo. You can use this address until it is fixed.

eCSStender is an open source JavaScript library, created by Aaron Gustafson, that helps browsers (including IE6) pay attention to the CSS code you write.

It aims to prevent the usage of browser-specific properties & hacks but make leaner & meaner CSS possible.

eCSStender is an extendible library with its API support & has ready-to-use extensions like CSS3 selectors, @font-face, rotation & more.

How does it work?

• it loops through the document's stylesheets and begins collecting information
• parses the rules it understands
• checks if the parsed rules are supported by the extensions
• applies the supported rules to the document via JavaScript

Read the rest of this entry »

xCSS is a CSS framework that makes developing complex style structures easier within an object-oriented workflow.

Using xCSS can save a lot of development time by:

• using variables
• having a intuitive overview of the overall CSS structure
• re-using existing style cascades
• & more..

xCSS requires PHP 5 to run & can be configured very quickly by inserting few lines to the webpages + the stylesheet.

The framework is lightweight, can seamlessly integrate into any existing workflow & well-documented which lowers the learning curve.

Also, besides minimizing the CSS overhead, it still keeps (X)HTML attributes semantic.

gRaphaël is an open source JavaScript charting library that is based on Raphaël graphics library (WRD link).

It is capable of generating both static & interactive outputs including pie, bar, line or dot charts.

The charts are created with VML & supports the most popular browsers like Firefox 3.0+, Safari 3.0+, Opera 9.5+ and Internet Explorer 6.0.

There are some beautiful demos provided including the interactive pie chart & the dot chart.

WMD is a lightweight HTML editor which is ideal for blog comments, forum posts & basic content management.

It can be implemented into any textarea with one line of code & with an extra line, live preview functionality can be implemented.

This is not a WYSIWYG editor. Rather, it is a WYSIWYM Markdown editor (what you see Is what you mean).

WMD produces clean semantic HTML, leaving presentation details like fonts and colors up to style sheets.

Markdown: a simple markup language that’s as easy to read and write as plain-text email.