Google announced the release of a new charting API that can be easily embedded within a webpage using the <IMG> HTML tag. You send the parameter for charting specification using HTTP request, and then Google will return the chart as a PNG images. Currently, Google provides these following charts:
• Line chart
• Scatter plot
• Bar chart
• Venn diagram
• Pie chart
To illisturate how easy it is to embed a chart to a webpage, here is an example taken from Google Chart faq:
<img src="http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?
chs=200x125
&chd=s:helloWorld
&cht=lc
&chxt=x,y
&chxl=0:|Mar|Apr|May|June|July|1:||50+Kb"
alt="Sample chart" />
The boundary of web applications is over and we are now pushing forward to the next killer applications era. More and more mash-ups applications are lighten up with new unpredictable features provided for free. Google is taking the upper hand to cast aside old convention of web design and use ready-on-the-shelf professional web applications.
AppJet, a new online IDE for developing client or server sided web applications. The IDE supports syntax highlighting, editing, reviewing, and publishing the code within the web browser.
More and more web-based applications are appearing in the market nowadays. One of the greatest is Buzzword, an online word processing program acquired lately by Adobe. Also, Bungee Labs, a beautiful on-demand web based application to develope web applications for free for non-commercial projects.
So there is a web gravity to mobilize computer applications and webitize it. Hmmmm, formula for web gravity = (Web Constant) X (2007) / (Windows + Mac) – (Flash + Ajax)^2 !!!
Warning: Spoiler!
Problem 1: A nerdy web developer is attempting to create an application. He is considering two platform options to work on. One of these options is making the application a web based application. He decided the Windows factor will be 1.3 and Mac to be 1.1, however, the Flash factor is 2.875 and Ajax factor is 3.2. Answer the followings:
a) What is the web gravity value?
b) Should he invest his application on the web?
Papervision 3D version 2.0 is now out in Alpha (pre-beta) version. According to Ralph Hauwert the alpha version is not yet optimized so expect a lot of updates to come.
The announcement came 6 day after celebrating the first anniversary for Papervision as an open source project. Papervision has been used by many Flash developers to create 3D interactive environment in Flash using Actionscript programming language. It even goes further, as it is being used to create 3D games for consoles such as Nintendo Wii!
Jeffrey Hammond, a senior analyst, writes about whether to choose Ajax or Flash for business web application. In addition, he shows some advantages and disadvantages of both technologies and when to choose the each one of them.
In selecting an RIA technology, application development professionals should choose AJAX when time-to-market is critical and updates are frequent. Experienced Web developers ramp up on AJAX quickly. AJAX also makes it easy to build RIA capabilities into existing apps with small, frequent releases. Finally, AJAX’s customization capabilities make it possible to tune client frameworks to meet specific application footprints; this makes AJAX the better solution for smaller RIA deployments and for deployments where performance is critical.
Graphing is an important tool for business. In fact, my first freelancing Flash program was about graphing. A new tutorial by W. Jason Gilmore in Developer.com about using PHP/SWF Charts system to create a chart/graph has been posted.
PHP/SWF supports a wide variety of charting formats, including bar, candlestick, 3D columns, pie, 3D pie, and advanced charts such as scatter, polar, and composites.
He starts off by showing how to install the charting system. After that he goes into coding and shows an example of using bar chart. He also shows how to use a 3D column chart which really looks amazing!
So you have been programming with JavaScript? Usually programmers write the JavaScript code in the header of the HTML page or load it externally:
But sometimes there is no need to load some of the JavaScript codes because it won’t be used on the page. That will waste you unnecessary bandwidth and will cost your website users their precious time.
The solution is to load the JavaScript file dynamically only when is required. Ed Eliot posted an article shows how load a JavaScript dynamically. However, loading the JavaScript file asynchronously causes some problems when calling a function written in the loading file. Ed Eliot has written his idea on how to solve this overwhelming problem. He simply uses the event handling to check whether the file finished loading or not. Read more about this in his article.
An article for beginners on how to write a better JavaScript code and be a better programmer. It talks about a better way to use getElementByID and to add events. How to write a better send request (for Ajax) and better way to change styles is also a part of the article. It is a small article, so there is no harm for experts to read it and extend their knowledge.
Switch blog has a new tutorial post which shows how to create shadows for UI components in Flex. Shadows have become more popular after the release of Visa and Leopard with their ‘shadowed’ dialogs and windows.
As many of you know, Flex is mainly for creating Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) using Flash technology. Anything done in Flex can be also done in Flash. But Adobe wants to make life easier for web developers by making Flex a more coding environment and more easy to programmatically create your UI.
I’ve already read this book as previously stated and I’m a fan of it. I loved this book and I’d read it over and over. I think it is one of the best books out there for web developers. I have already read this book as an E-Book, but now SitePoint has a Special Limited Edition of this book with Hard Cover. The limited edition includes a free PDF file and a free Hexadecimal Color Card. Hurry and purchase this awesome book, there will only be 1000 copy for the signature edition. Luckily I was one of those 1000!
Big news for the Flash community, developers can now download the new Flash Lite 3 Developer Edition stand alone player. This is a prerelease version for developers to test their Flash applications before mobile phones start shipping with full version of Flash Lite 3.
Technically it should work on any Nokia S60 3rd edition or later devices. Adobe has not certified Flash Lite 3 Developer Edition on any other Nokia S60 3rd edition devices and cannot guarantee that the player will work on them. Other Nokia S60 3rd edition or newer models include: 3250, 5500 Sport, 5700, 6110 Navigator, 6120 Classic, 6121 Classic, 6290, E50, E51, E60, E61, E61i, E62, E65, E70, E90, N71, N73, N73 Music Edition, N75, N76, N77, N80, N80 IE, N81, N81 8GB, N82, N91, N91 8GB, N92, N93, N93i, N95, N95 US 3G, N95 8GB.
