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.

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 »

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.

1 Bit Audio Player is a lightweight & free Flash MP3 player that can be automatically inserted into webpages with JavaScript.

It is not a feature-rich or complicated player, rather, it is so simple & ideal for offering quick in-page previews for audio files.

The player comes in flavors

• Standalone version (for implementing it into any website)
• Wordpress plugin
• A bookmarklet for displaying the player besides any MP3 link on any website

1 Bit Audio Player uses its own unobtrusive JavaScript and SWFObject to embed Flash players into the pages.

It is possible to display players near every MP3 link or selected ones using CSS selectors.

The icons can be customized by simply editing the .FLA source file.

Brosho is a jQuery plugin which helps you to minimize the editor-browser switching while creating/editing websites.

It enables you to select elements in a webpage, edit the CSS properties with an in-browser editor & see the outputs instantly (similar to editing with Firebug).

Once you are satisfied with the changes implemented, copy-pasting the new code to the CSS file is enough.

The editor has few functions that makes the usage easy like:

• setting the position (top-bottom-left-right)
• enable/disable element highlighting
• one-click CSS code generation

It may be a good idea to disable links while using Brosho as a selected element can forward you to a new page & selections can become useless. There are code examples for this in the comments of the resource.

Grimace is a free Flash-based component for displaying emotions through facial expressions.

It is developed in pure AS3, delivered as a lightweight SWF file & supports 6 emotions: joy, surprise, fear, disgust, sadness, anger (and their combinations).

The component can be integrated into any project using Javascript, Flex, Flash IDE or pure Actionscript.

The configuration of the Grimace is accomplished through external XML-based files, which allow full customization.

Some usage ideas for the component:

• visually displaying emotions in a chat application
• using it as a password-meter (a bad password can be "shocked", good one can be "joy", etc)
• online games (status of a player)

P.S. The component is only free for personal use.