BeauScott.com

While FireFox 2.0 hasn’t officially been released (I believe the official release date is tomorrow), you can obtain the final release version from Open Source Lab’s download site.

If you’re not “in the know” about what FF2.0 is bringing to the web-browser world, you’ll probably want to visit the official FireFox 2.0 Release Notes page to get full details.
The major enhancement (in my humble opinion) to FF2.0 is JavaScript 1.7. This new version of javascript introduces generators, iterators, let expressions and destructuring assignments, as well as client-side sessions. While it will probably be a while before you can actually use all of this (due to competing browser support) it’s still a major step for JavaScript.

Download your copy of FF2.0

I’ve never really liked the floating-DIV approach to existing AutoCompleters (like Google Suggest). I figure: why break the UI? So in my approach I use a regular HTML SELECT object to serve the options. Again, this widget is based on the prototype.js library. And, again, the API is very simple and flexible.
Click here to see the example.

Click here to download this widget.
Update: I’ve made a few updates to the script to better handle all keyboard and mouse interactions. I’ve tested it on PC Mozilla (FF), IE and Opera — I’d love some feedback from the Mac community.

Update #2: I’ve enabled optional Scriptaculous effects. Simply include the scriptaculous library somewhere in your HTML and this widget will use the blinding effects.

Recently a co-worker of mine was interviewing with a large internet retailer of some Brazillian-jungle influence, and was asked to write a word ladder application in Java using a given dictionary. The object of the application was to find the shortest transform path from word A to word B using one-letter word-variants. For example to get from “load” to “bald” the ladder would look like this:

load -> lord -> lard -> bard -> bald

After going over the basic restrictions I decided it would be fun to launch a code challenge to my readers. After JavaScript, PHP is my language of choice, so I set out to code up an example of what this WordLadder might be. Of course, to keep in in queue with the AJAX tone of this site, I made the interface all pretty with prototype.js and scriptaculous.So here’s the challenge: I want to see your best efforts in creating this application using your language of choice. Here are the requirements:

• It must use the same dictionary file I use. (Click here to download this dictionary file)
• It must find the SHORTEST path, not just any path
• It must be web-accessible. So if you write it in C, you must have a way of calling it through a web interface.
• It must be usably fast.
• It must be able to handle up to 5-letter words. If you go over that and it’s usable then you get bonus points.
• For more bonus points, make a slick interface to it using Ajax (any framework you want)

Of course there’s no real reward to the challenge other than a kudos to you for exercising your mind

Click here to see my working example

I just wrote a review of the Eclipse-based Web IDE called Aptana. With features like code completion for JavaScript, CSS and HTML, DOM compatibility checking, and cross-browser quirkiness testing, it’s shaping up to be a very good editor.

Read the full review @ AJAX-Resources

Today I bring to you the second installment to my fledgling widgets library (which, by the way, I intend to packages together when I get enough components): AJAX Rating Stars. You have probably seen examples of these used all over (like Netflix), and I recently had the need to make some for a personal project. So I figure, if I could use them, you might want to as well.

Again, I’ve chosen the prototype.js javascript framework as the basis of this widget. These stars feature form-field binding, javascript callback support and AJAX posting for easy ratings.

Click here for usage examples and API documentation.

Click here to download this widget. (zip, 7kb)