Hi Ho Silver – I’m back!
Wow. I can’t really believe these are my first words of blogging again in almost two months. It always feels a bit funny getting back in the saddle, but once there, I’m as happy as a butterfly on a flower!
Wow. I can’t really believe these are my first words of blogging again in almost two months. It always feels a bit funny getting back in the saddle, but once there, I’m as happy as a butterfly on a flower!
The end of 2008 is near, and I felt it was time to summarize the passed year.
When I review web sites, and also in my own projects with a number of different team members, I almost constantly stumble across something web developers should really refrain from: inline styling and inline JavaScript code.
Currently I’m working a fair bit with JavaScript and teaching different ways to use it, and what I want to talk to you about is if and how you use inheritance in JavaScript.
Version 2.7.2 of DOMAssistant has just been released, and beside from some small improvements and minor tweaks, it has two new and very interesting methods.
January 25th 2007, I released something I fondly nicknamed DOMAss, which step by step evolved into the today full-fledged DOMAssistant. Today, it is time to let it go.
Some time ago I released PictureSlides, a DOMAssistant plugin to create compelling slideshows and thumbnail galleries, with a number of customizable options. Recently, I ported PictureSlides to also work with jQuery, so if you want to do something spiffy with images, I recommend you check it out!
After a spring filled with varying degrees of turmoil, summer is finally here. And with that, my friends, comes my break from development, blogging and any other computer-related activity.
Looking at how JavaScript has and its usage has evolved, and also taking in how most JavaScript libraries seem to try to cater for every possible need people might have, I thought it was about time to get back to the basics. To me, that is spelled dLite.
As most of you are aware of, me and a small group of very talented people are working on our JavaScript library of choice, DOMAssistant, because we have a strong belief that light-weight code, fast and accurate performance, Unicode support and modularity is very important, and crucial for the future state of the web.
DZone asked me to write an article about DOMAssistant, so I chose to give an introduction to how to work with element selection and especially different ways of making AJAX calls. Please read Making Element Selection and AJAX simple with DOMAssistant for more information.
Many people ask me how I choose to address an situation where all content in a web should be available without JavaScript, but certain parts hidden if JavaScript is enabled.
We have just released a PictureSlides plugin for DOMAssistant, with which you can create picture slideshows, image presentations and also complete picture galleries.
There has been a fair share about JavaScript and event delegation, but since a lot of people doesn’t seem to have read it, I thought I’d re-iterate the point here. The more the merrier, right? ๐
I have been interviewed for DZone/Web Builder Zone, where I mainly talk about DOMAssistant. Hopefully you get answers to some questions you have possibly had. ๐
The new version of DOMAssistant, 2.7, is finally out and my impression is that it is a very stable and solid release. Faster CSS selector performance, new features while at the same time a smaller file size.
Today I though it would be a good time to tell you about two web developers who I would really like to recommend to you: Lim Cheng Hong and Pelle Wessman (Pelle’s blog).
A number of exciting things have been going on in the DOMAssistant camp, so I thought I’d fill you in with some of the latest. We’re talking plugins, developer tools and taking a glimpse into the future.
Almost a month ago, I wrote a hesitant post about DOMAssistant in DOMAssistant – Why bother?, so it’s about time to talk about that again.
Maybe I’m just writing this because I’ve been feeling a bit low lately, but I do wonder if there’s any idea that I put any more time into DOMAssistant.
I’ve had some people worrying about the GPL license I’ve used for DOMAssistant, and it being too strict so they can’t use it in their commercial project.
Therefore, DOMAssistant has now changed to a MIT License, which basically means you can pretty much do anything with it! ๐
Enjoy!
I just released DOMAssistant 2.5.5 yesterday, but with the feedback given, some tweaks had to be made to the new AJAX module post
method. Instead of updating the same version multiple times, which is wrong, I’ve new made a new minor release where the issues have been taken care of.
So, download the new 2.5.6 version if you’re using DOMAssistant.
Just as mentioned by chenghong, I made a mistake and stripped the URL in AJAX GET requests as well. Something I knew, but that’s what I get for preaching about assertions but not applying it properly to my own code. I guess my intuition took overhand for a while. ๐
Anyway, I’ve released a 2.5.7 version of DOMAssistant now (available for download) where everything should be sorted. If you’re using the 2.5.5 or 2.5.6 version, everything should be working fine but the AJAX module’s get
and post
methods, but please update to make sure you have the latest working version.
I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this might cause you.
I have just released DOMAssistant 2.5.5, which contains some very useful features and improvements, and a CSS selector bug fix.
After listening to a number of JavaScript developers, seeing how they work in real life and analyzing their needs, I’m happy to provide the heavily updated DOMAssistant 2.5!
DOMAss now has a new name, DOMAssistant, and it is also possible to run it side-by-side with other JavaScript libraries such as Prototype and jQuery. For more information, please read: DOMAss renamed to DOMAssistant, with added Prototype/jQuery compatibility.
Per Zimmerman made me aware of the fact that I wasn’t as consistent when checking for names and whitespace in the addClass
and removeClass
as I am in the hasClass
method, so this has been fixed to address any potential issues you might have had. Just download the DOMAssistantCSS JavaScript file and you should be good to go. ๐
Changed the license to a Creative Commons Deed.
Minor fix for strange behavior in IE when using the addEvent
method on the window
object. For more information, please see DOMAssistant fix for addEvent method peculiarity in IE.
PDF documentation added, kindly created by Michael Frรยผhmann.
The DOMAssistantCompressed JavaScript file has been updated. My compression approach was a little too effective for the special DOMReady fix for Internet Explorer, so necessary code for optimal performance was unfortunately removed. This has now been addressed, so please download the new version if you use the compressed file.
The DOMAssistantCompressed JavaScript file is updated again. I noticed a problem with the elmsByAttribute
method in IE where the compression resulted in a wrong reference, returning incorrect results. Download the new version and it will be fine.
When I released my EJ code, while I felt that it contained very useful functions, it didn’t feel properly packaged. Also, I’ve always wanted a proper base to stand on for various DOM interaction, so I didn’t have to start from scratch in every project.
So now, I proudly present DOMAss!