APE (Ajax Push Engine) is an open source solution which is designed to push real-time data with only JavaScript on the client side.

The core of APE is an epoll-driven HTTP server, entirely written in C, which provides patterns such as XHR long-polling (cross browser), forever frame and many more.

The other part of APE is the Javascript Framework based on MooTools which deals with the APE protocol. On the other hand, users can decide what Javascript framework they want to develop with.

APE only uses web standards, no plugins are needed to be installed on the browsers & it works with all browsers.

It is possible to create various multi-user applications with APE as it can broadcast to hundreds of users with ease.

With a module support (currently with C but PHP support is on the way) the application can be extended & customized more.

FancyUpload, the popular Ajaxed file uploader, now has new version with more features.

To remember, FancyUpload is an unobtrusive file-input replacement with multiple-file selection & queued upload with an animated progress bar.

It uses MooTools, works with the help of Swiff (a MooTools class) & as a SWF file is used for uploads, it is server-independent.

Other great features of FancyUpload:

• the look & feel can be totally customized via CSS/XHTML
• uploads can be limited with file count, file type or size
• upload speed can be displayed
• browse-button can be an invisible overlay or an interactive image sprite
• useful file information before the upload starts can be collected & many more.

The API is very flexible, offers lots of options & very well-documented.

When sharing codes on a website, even they are wrapped with code tags or styled differently, it is always a challenge to read them without syntax highlighting.

There are various syntax highlighters which can format the codes & color them appropriately according to the languages used. Whether it is a HTML page or runs on PHP, Ruby, Python, ASP, there is a suitable syntax highlighter.

And, here is a collection of 11 Syntax Highlighters To Beautify Code Presentation:

GeSHi (Generic Syntax Highlighter – With PHP)

GeSHi is a powerful syntax highlighter script that supports almost every language.

It is first created for phpBB forum system but became a project itself. It requires PHP to run (there is also a hack to make it work under ASP).

SyntaxHighlighter (With JS)

This is a flexible & extensible syntax highlighter built with JavaScript. It supports a wide range of languages from CSS to PHP or C++ to SQL.

SyntaxHighlighter offers ready-to-use themes an new ones can be created easily for a custom presentation.

It has support for 3rd party applications like Blogger, Wordpress, Joomla & many others.

Read the rest of this entry »

SlideItMoo is a free MooTools image slider that can be used as an image gallery or a banner rotator.

Images can be browsed via prev-next buttons (or mouse wheel) & it’s design can be customized totally via CSS.

SlideItMoo offers several options like:

• Ability to limit the images to be shown once
• Show-hide controls
• Auto-slide on-off
• Transition effect
• Initial image to be shown once the slider is loaded & more..

Images in the slider are mentioned in the code (not Ajaxed) & original-sized images are displayed in Slimbox (or any other Lightbox clone).

JavaScript, with the rise of Ajax, is definitely a must-know-well for every web designer/developer.

Besides form controls, alerts & similar simple JavaScript usage, you can almost do anything with the help of JavaScript (& Canvas). Some samples are:

• Drag’n drops
• Animations
• CSS manipulations, Ajax & more.

And there are JavaScript libraries which make them easier like jQuery, MooTools, Prototype, etc.

For any developer looking for advanced JS techniques, games are a real treasure.
 

You can easily see examples of animations, interactivity, smart solutions for browser related math functions & so.. And they are definitely a source of inspiration as you sometimes face with a feature that you never thought could be existed.

Also, this is the last month of a busy year & every web designer/developer deserves some fun : ).

So, here are 25 amazing (sometimes not the game itself but how beautifully it’s done) JavaScript games that you’ll love.

Bunny Hunt

A classic hunting game with an easy to play interface.

Make sure you check the source of the website to see how simply it is built with the power of XHTML, CSS & JavaScript.

JavaScript Library: none.

Travians

A character game (like Sims) where you’re a villager.

It is a multiplayer game & totally Ajaxed. You can move your character, communicate with other user & more.

JavaScript Library: xajax.

Digg Attack

This is certainly a Web 2.0 game. It is a JavaScript / Canvas 2D Shooter using live data via the Digg API to spawn enemies.

All the images are rendered with Canvas in real-time.

JavaScript Library: none.

Read the rest of this entry »

Open Flash Gauges is a set of open source Flash files, supported with serverside connectors (ASP & PHP), to display any numeric data as gauges.

Gauges in the set are:

• Percentage
• Thermometer
• Dual
• Resource Meter
• Meter
• Status
• I/O
• Digital readout

Demos can be found here.

There is also a pure JavaScript-Canvas gauge that uses MooTools & JSON as the data + a Flash gauge again uses MooTools & JSON presented in the website..

JxLib is a JavaScript library for creating graphical user interfaces just like jQuery UI, Ext JS or Dijit.

It is based on MooTools & well-document with a list examples.

The library includes:

• layout managers
• buttons
• tabs
• toolbars
• dialogs
• panels
• trees
• grid control

JxLib helps creating very clean & easy to use interfaces that can be seen from the examples.

Imago is an Ajax image gallery built with MooTools.

This gallery has connectors for Flickr, SmugMug & SimpleViewer to call images from them or use their XML files.

Imago is fully customizable with CSS & very easy to use.

A detailed "how to use" information guides you on setting up your Ajax image gallery.

This is a nice animated menu built with MooTools.

The trick of the menu is a Flashy hover effect of the arrow (or any element you want).

To use this menu script, you don’t even have to play with JavaScript except defining the variables:

• background image container
• nav elements
• current nav element’s div id
• background image’s y coordinate
• left offset of the image

A well-described usage of the menu including the download of all the necessary files can be found at the script’s website.

NETTUTS presents a very nice tutorial on "Creating A MooTools Photo Gallery".

All the steps of creating this MooTools gallery is very well described and the source code is ready to download for instant use.

The gallery has a functional interface which enables you to browse between thumbnails and the original-size images easily.

P.S. It is not dynamic & all the thumbnails are loaded when the gallery loads. For this reason it may be suitable for galleries with <30-40 images.