jQuery is a javascript framework that is becomming insanely popular. It is fast, easy to use and creating custom plugins and components is done in a breeze. These days, everyone is a jQuery developer and the plugin repository over at jquery is virtually exploding with new plugins being added every day.

In light of all this, here are my eight best tips for becomming a better jQuery coder that you might consider before taking on your next project.

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Not even a week after I posted about the initial beta of Galleria the project has already grown into 1.0b and I can see true potential in scalability and usage for this javascript gallery.

The project now has a home page, a code repository, documentation, wiki and developers info at google code, a couple of new demos and soon-to-come real-world examples.

Major changes from 0.9 to 1.0

• A new history extension will take control of the back button and present the previously viewed image without re-loading the page, if you prefer to do so.
• Event methods for the image and thumbnails that fires when displayed, so you can customize their behaviors when they appear in your markup
• The image is no longer placed inside each list item and positioned absolute, instead it’s injected into a custom selector of your choice or in a default division, created for you
• Public previous/next methods to simplify the creation of navigational elements

File bug reports at the google code page. Other comments/suggestions/questions etc. can be commented here in the kitchen. Enjoy!

About 6 months ago I posted about a lightweight javascript gallery that could take an unordered list of images, add the source of each image as a background-image rule to it’s <li> element and present them as clickable thumbnails via CSS. It gained some popularity, since it was so easy to implement and style to an individual style. It was also popular because the images where already loaded when the thumbnails showed, which created a snappy browsing experience.

Now it’s time for a new round, presenting Galleria - a fantastic gallery plugin for jQuery.
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We just finished a new web site for the swedish brand Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair last week. This was my first flash project in years and the first time we connected our beloved django backend with XML content and actionscripted front-end.

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When handing over a project to the client, you sometimes loose control over the content HTML source. Sometimes the client uses a CMS that allows them to have full control over certain parts of the HTML, and sometimes the client simply uses your templates to insert their own HTML content in the document.

It can be hard enough to inform the client about how to use the templates or CMS you provided, and sometimes there is simply not enough room to educate and lecture about semantic HTML and standards. The client will use their plain old markup they once learned, simply because it still works and looks the way they are used to. That will most likely involve some deprecated HTML tags and attributes, such as bgcolor, align and the dreadded <font> tag. This article is about disabling the deprecated tags using CSS, thus gracefully guiding the client in the right direction.

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