SpryMap is a dependency-free JavaScript library for making drag&drop Google-Maps-like maps.
The plugin weighs a mere 2.8 kilobytes, and has quite many features for such a small library.
For example, you can specify the default position in the map; you can also beautify the animations with an animation cooldown, and even lock the edges of the map.
A nice plugin overall.
Exposure is a jQuery image gallery plugin. Its 0.51 version was released yesterday.
Exposure offers a neat way of creating highly functional image galleries.
It weighs about 17kb, which is pretty standard for high-end plugins.
There are features, too: disable or enable thumbnails and controls; show or remove captions; keyboard navigation on and off; etc.
Perhaps the most remarkable features of Exposure are the numerous function calls, which allow you almost complete freedom of managing the plugin.
This is a great collection of POI maps that you can use for replacing the “ugly” standard icons.
Although a bit old, this nice list of icons will really spice up your existing maps.
These icons should be used together with Google’s API to add explanatory tooltips, as some icons can be quite confusing.
You can, however, simply replace the icons in an existing map without writing a single line of code.
Baseline is a CSS framework for developing quick websites with an emphasis on typography.
To start using Baseline, you only need to include the base files, or a compressed version of the framework.
The pages designed with Baseline have a really solid feel, and the grid system seamlessly supports most fonts.
A standard Baseline page consists of four columns, but the optimal layout is usually achieved with two columns.
There are two downsides to Baseline, though: the site’s slow download speed (took me half an hour to download the 400 kb zip), and absolutely no IE6 support.
However, the framework is solid overall, and would work wonders for textual websites; plus, although no IE6, Baseline supports numerous mobile clients.
TinyFader is a non-jQuery plugin for making a Javascript slideshow. It weighs a mere 1.3kb.
The plugin gracefully degrades if JavaScript is disabled.
TinyFader creates slideshows from unordered lists, and supports all content.
TinyFader also supports automatic rotation; you can opt for an auto-resume.
There is also a variable for the “active” class – you can also opt for not using it.
ChillBox is a jQuery plugin, designed by Christopher Hill.
As one might guess, ChillBox has something to do with lightbox, perhaps the sole Javascript plugin which has a wikipedia entry.
Why should you prefer this lightbox instead of others?
Well, first of all, it’s really small (5kb).
It also has a really appealing, chilly design.
01 November, 2010
By Lauris Veips
