I’ve just updated my prettyComments plugin and made a project page for it (the old post was too dirty for me )

You can view/test the updated version on this page. Feel free to leave any comment in this post as this will become the main post for the plugin.

Thanks!

I have just put online a new version of prettyPhoto, this version now supports titles.

As usual, if you have any comments/bugs feel free to leave a comment in the main prettyPhoto post.

Head to the project page to view the latests changes.

Google and Adobe has been working together in order to improve Flash indexation. While this seem like a really good news, there are some important points to consider.

Googlebot does not execute some types of JavaScript. So if your web page loads a Flash file via JavaScript, Google may not be aware of that Flash file, in which case it will not be indexed.

Does this mean we’ll have to go back to the old way of embedding flash in webpages and drop SWFobject ?

We currently do not attach content from external resources that are loaded by your Flash files. If your Flash file loads an HTML file, an XML file, another SWF file, etc., Google will separately index that resource, but it will not yet be considered to be part of the content in your Flash file.

That’s a big stopper. Most rich flash websites load either external SWF or XML files, the website should be considered as a whole and not as separate entities. I guess it’s a technical challenge for Google/Adobe to work this out.

I’m also wondering how Google will rank the content in the web pages. We know that in HTML the title tag is the most important after that comes the headings, etc, etc. As far as I know that content in flash is most of the time not formatted this way, even if it’s possible.

So overall this is very good news, but there’s still some work to do.

In a previous blog post I talked about the release of processing.js and how it could change how we see/use Flash. Upon experimentation and research, I looked at the canvas element and all the possibilities it offers. And…it’s sick!

First of all the canvas element is a part of the HTML5 specification and it allows for dynamic scriptable rendering of bitmap images. I won’t go much into details as of how to use it, since all I did with it is a lame paint clone. Instead i’ll provide links to example so you can see how you can use it.

Please note that all those demos work best with Firefox 3 or the latest version of Safari, since their JavaScript processing is much, much faster than what it used to be.

So here are the examples:

• 3d Counter Strike like game
• Hairy div
• Interactive 3d models
• 3d racing “game”
• My lame paint clone

It’s really worth it to take a look at that element and follow closely what will happen in the future as more and more browsers will support it.

P.S: I told you my paint clone was lame…

I’ve just put online the new version of prettyPhoto. This release include a bunch of fixes and improvement that makes it much, much better, it is recommend to update your current version if you are already using it.

Here’s a list of updates:

• New button design;
• Fixed a glitch on image resizing;
• The images bigger than the viewport are now resized to fit;
• The pictures now follow the scroll when the gallery is opened;
• CSS has been tweaked a bit.

To view a demo or download the latest version, go to: http://www.no-margin-for-errors.com/projects/prettyPhoto

Feel free to leave your suggestions/comments!

I’ve just finished prettyPhoto, a lightbox jQuery plugin.

You can find it here: http://www.no-margin-for-errors.com/projects/prettyPhoto/

My new jQuery plugin is on it’s way, it’s done, tested, I just need to make it ready for wide usage. That means, clean up the code, optimize the css, dynamize the images, basic stuff like that. Nothing like the hell I went through the past couple of days to make it work in IE…

Basically it’s a lightbox clone for jQuery (yes, another one!). The reason is simple, the clones already available either don’t reproduce lightbox close enough, or were not flexible enough for my needs. So I went ahead and created one of my own!

Release is expected to be around mid-week next week. I really do hope to get the same feedback as the ones I got for my Pretty Comments script.

Let me say first off, that I’m am more than happy with the response I had for my pretty comments jQuery plugin. More than 1500 people visited my blog last month and more are coming just for that bit of code. Really, I am impressed, never tought I’d get such response.

I have been on vacation for 2 weeks, I’ll be back at work and in fully working shape next week. That means I should get more active. I’m currently working on another jQuery plugin that takes the standard browser drop downs (we all know they can’t really be styled with css) and give you the ability to customize them. The script is started, pretty advanced, I only have some issues with accessibility and needs to test it some more to make sure it doesn’t break anything in the forms when you use it. The name? Pretty dropdown You can see I am very inspired
Thanks again for all the positive feedback!

Blogged with Flock

UPDATE: Please refer to this post for support/updates on prettyComments

Here’s a small jQuery plugin that allow textareas to strech as content is put in. If the content goes over the defined height of the textarea, the textarea will stretch.

So no need to more scroll up in that cramped space to take a look at what you wrote 10 lines before.

It’s really easy to use, just download the file pretty-comments.js and include it in the html page where you want to allow the comment box stretching. Then put that bit of code in that same page to include the script:

<script src=“the-path/js/pretty-comments.js” type=“text/javascript” charset=“utf-8″></script>

You can then play a bit with the options which are located at the top of the javascript file, you can define if you want to have it animated or not and the speed of the animation.

Then put that bit of code in the same page you have your comment box, you need to pass the comment box id as a parameter for it to work.

<script type=”text/javascript” charset=”utf-8″>
$(document).ready(function(){
prettyComments.init(’comment’);
});
</script>

That’s really all there’s to it, if you want a demo, just leave a comment, you’ll see the box stretch

Files: Un-compressed (3kb,options)
Packed (1kb, animated, no options)

Demo: Right in that page, just enter a lot of content in the comment box.

If you notice any bug, need any support, just leave a comment, I’ll do my best to help you!

Note: You also need the jQuery library in order to use this plugin

Update: Version: 1.1 relased! Now the textarea can shrink back to it’s original size when you delete content from it!