June, 2010

jQuery.Canimate is a jQuery plugin that enables on-site animation with image files other than gif by printing image files at rapid speed. You can easily change the frame rate; furthermore, you can still do everything (e.g. add borders) with the element that holds the image.
You can also determine whether or not the images will be preloaded via the “preload” event and set the number of frames.

Canimate is a straightforward plugin that will find its uses – for it has plenty of them -, although we can imagine that, especially for bigger images, this script can put some extra burden on the server due to the high amount of queries made.

Juris Galang has written jQuery.sexypost, a jQuery plugin which “sexifies” forms to enable extensive form monitoring and placing events, which happen during form submitting, file upload, etc.

This is how a form gets sexified:
$(document).ready(function(){
$(form).sexyPost({
onprogress: function(event, completed, loaded, total) {
$("#status").text("Uploading: " + (completed * 100).toFixed(2) + "% complete...")
},
oncomplete: function(event, responseText) {
$("#status").text("Upload complete.")
}
})
})

Sexypost can come in handy for monitoring upload progress and checking the validity of form information; the plugin can as well allow extended error reporting with its onerror() event.

Ntikku has just released a radial (pie) menu plugin for jQuery - jQuery Radmenu. The easy-to-implement context menu is a powerful navigation tool for any contemporary web designer, as pie menus are among the most easiest to understand for the visitor. This plugin can add a touch of creativity to any design, and comes packed with fun effects you can play with or implement in your projects – show/hide items; menuitem shuffle; creating custom animations; etc.

Be sure to check out the full examples section on the site–it really shows how neatly the plugin can be used.

Renan Viegas has written jQuery GlobalMoneyInput – a jQuery plugin which allows local currencies to be imported into input elements.The plugin can be customized to include or exclude the display of the currency symbol. Its main advantage is the wide selection of currency available. This plugin, if used together with other currency plugins, could see use in on-site currrency convertors or international shopping carts.

Facebox is a jQuery based modal box (lightbox), reminiscent of that Facebook has. Facebox is ridiculously easy to use and can display images, divs, or even remote pages.

Facebox was initially made for FamSpam, a discontinued “Family-spam” project on Facebook, and it can be best used for applications that interact with Facebook.

Facebox’s simple design is also pleasing to the eye, and in addition to Facebook applications, it can be used for basic image galleries.

TRNSFR is an upload progress bar plugin for jQuery written by Gianni Chiappetta. TRNSFR’s main advantage is that it shows progress bars for multiple items.

The data sent to TRNSFR has to be gathered from an upload script (Uploadify, SWFObject, etc) as TRNSFR is an UI plugin.

TRNSFR can be customized to base upload progress on either chunks (files) or the total size of the upload.

A demo is available on the website.