That right guys, prototype 1.6.0 is on it's way and there is one aspect I want to share with you. In stead of using the old-fashioned 'http-header' way to transport JSON, the prototype framework now eats files with the content-type 'application/json'. A short example:

1. First, we will use prototype to make an ajax request.

    new Ajax.Request('ajax.php',{ onSuccess: handleSuccess }, method: 'get' });

2. After this, on the serverside we set the json headers and output the formatted data using the Services_JSON class:

   <?php
   require_once "services_json.class.php";
    
   /* Set the JSON header */
   header("content-type:application/json");
    
   /* Format some data */
   $aData = array("Car", "Plane", "Train");
    
   $oJson = new Services_JSON(SERVICES_JSON_LOOSE_TYPE);
    
   /* Output */
   echo $oJson->encode($aData);
   ?>

3. And finally this alerts 'Car', 'Plain' and 'Train':

   function handleSuccess(transport) {
     $A(transport.responseJSON).each(function(str) {
       alert(str);
     });
   }

I made some improvements on the password strength meters available on the web. Using prototype/scriptaculous, I stole some code from ZeBadger (thanks!) and created a new meter which dynamically changes while typing your password.

Click here to see the demo

If you want to use this script, feel free to download the source and use it on your website.

Enjoy.

While playing around with the prototype framework, I wrote 2 code snipplets I want to share with you:

 
var _ = function(sEName, id, classname, attributes) {
	var e = document.createElement(sEName);
	if(id) { e.id = id; }
	if(classname) { e.className = classname; }
	if(attributes) { for(var p in attributes) { e.setAttribute(p, attributes[p]); }	}
	return $(e);
}
 
Element.addMethods({
	_a: function(element, e) {
		element.appendChild(e);
		return $(e);
	},
	_r: function(element, e) {
		element.removeChild(e);
		return$(e);
	}
});

Using the functions above, you will be able to create HTML structures on the fast DOM-lane:

 
var oHTML = _('div', 'head', 'headClass');
oHTML._a(_('div', 'second', 'secondClass'))._a(_('img', 'myimage', 'images', {src:'pica.jpg'}));
document.body.appendChild(oHTML);

Which results in:

 
<div id="head" class="headClass">
<div id="second" class="secondClass">
     <img src="pica.jpg" id="myimage" class="images" />
  </div>
</div>
 

Enjoy.

I've written a GreaseMonkey userscript that recognizes dates and replaces them with links to Google Calendar. So, suppose someone sends you an invitation for a particular date, it will be transformed to a link to that day in Google Calendar.

(more...)

Once, long before the Ajax and Web 2.0 era , there was a time we used HTML <center> for text-alignment and javascripts stunning alert() function for debugging our websites and applications. But times are changing. To develop high performance Web 2.0 'killer apps', we need more tools and better applications to create web applications based upon Javascript frameworks (such as prototype, jQuery, scriptaculous, moo tools etc.) feeded by PHP as a backend. Below I will sum up some free Firefox-extensions to build web applications quick, efficient and flawless. Ok, almost flawless then. (more...)