The primary new feature ( from my perspective ) was a brand new UI that made use of AJAX, which I built on top of the Prototype JavaScript library. There was a lot of dynamic element creation based on the data coming back from the AJAX calls, and thus a lot of document.createElement calls, along with the appendChild and insertBefore and the element-property-setting statements. It’s very verbose.

Website: http://www.arantius.com/article/dollar-e

The much-anticipated new version 1.1 of Ruby on Rails hit the streets with fanfare a couple of days ago. And while even I am wary of the hyperbole that sometimes surrounds Ajax and Web 2.0, I’m very pleased to say that Ruby on Rails is the genuine article.

Website: http://web2.wsj2.com/ruby_on_rails_11_web_20_on_rocket_fuel.htm

In this article, the first of three parts, you will start creating a simple web-based POP 3 client using AJAX, which will use “XMLHttpRequest” objects to retrieve messages from a mail server.

Website: http://www.devarticles.com/c/a/XML/Take-AJAX-to-Your-Email-Inbox-Developing-a-Webbased-POP-3-Client/

Lightbox JS is a simple, unobtrusive script used to overlay images on the current page. It’s a snap to setup and works on all modern browsers.n

Website: http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox2/

I recently found an entirely new way to interact with a website. Last week one of our clients at Ideacodes launched a virtual showroom in Second Life. When you visit Stylehive’s virtual showroom you can see objects that users of the Stylehive website have bookmarked at the website. These objects such as furniture have been rendered in a 3-D format which you can interact with in the virtual space. You can even sit on a sofa or chair and then click on it which will launch your browser, and take you to the users bookmark page of that particular object. Very interactive and very fun. “

Ruby? Rails? Ajax? Is this cluster of confusing buzzwords swarming around your head like a mob of angry bees? Then fear not, gentle padawan — Jedi help is at hand! For I, too, was just like you once: confused, jumping at shadows, sinking into the depths of yet another custom Python web framework while softly weeping behind a stack of dog-eared PHP books. But not anymore. Today I build my applications in Ruby on Rails.

Website: http://www.sitepoint.com/article/ruby-on-rails

Javascript is present on almost every recent web page. But are you sure your scripts work on every browsers?

Website: http://jtf.ploki.info/

The mp3act digital music system is designed to be a central location for your digital music collection and a means to easily organize and listen to your digital media through your stereo, over a local network, or anywhere in the world.

Website: http://mp3act.net/

During my daily reading of the Ruby on Rails mailing list I ran across a post asking about RJS templates. I hadn’t heard of them before and I was intrigued to find out more.

Website: http://www.codyfauser.com/articles/2005/11/20/rails-rjs-templates

I was truly impressed by the development of the Hoverbox Image Gallery written by Nathan Smith of SonSpring. It was great to come across some optimization of the code by Craig Erskine and I thought it was a really creative way to show a collection of images in a gallery.

Website: http://www.mondaybynoon.com/2006/03/27/suckerfish-hoverlightbox/