Ben Alman » News

Jonathan Neal - Ben Alman Dot Com

Ben Alman — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:48:23 -0800

I never really expected to categorize a post as both “code” and “music,” but you know those “there’s an app for that” iPhone commercials? Well, apparently, “there’s a Ben Alman jQuery plugin for that.”

After I had gone to sleep last night, Jonathan Neal, author of the jQuery SWFObject plugin, jQuery sIFR plugin, CMS.txt and the creator of the yayQuery podcast theme song posted a new track into IRC…

jQuery longUrl v1.0

Ben Alman — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:10:48 -0800

jQuery Long Url, the “Uniform Resource Elongator,” uses the longurlplease.com short URL lengthening API to expand short URLs from at least 80 services, including bit.ly, is.gd, tinyurl.com and more!

And not only has jQuery Long Url been written to take advantage of the longurlplease.com API “batch” ability, where up to ten URLs can be lengthened per request, but it can optionally use any lengthening service, supporting any URL-per-request “batch” limitations, which minimizes the number of external requests made for faster performance.

Simplified, my Linkinus Style, utilizes an earlier, unreleased version of this plugin.. but now that it’s finally available for general consumption, consume away!

jQuery BBQ v1.1.1, also BBQ + jQuery 1.3.2 or 1.4?

Ben Alman — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:00:00 -0800

First, this minor jQuery BBQ bugfix release incorporates the just-updated jQuery hashchange event v1.1 which fixes a pretty obscure (but not entirely surprising) IE8 bug. No changes were made other than this very minor tweak, so if you’re not using the X-UA-Compatible IE=EmulateIE7 meta tag, you can safely ignore this update. If you are, then run—don’t walk—to the plugin page right now for the v1.1.1 update!

Second, a lot of people ask which version of jQuery they should use with BBQ. Since the plugin has been coded with both jQuery 1.3.2 and 1.4+ in mind, it fully works (and has been unit tested) with both versions. And since 1.4 has seen some major speed increases, as well as some powerful event enhancements and a much improved .param method (both of which BBQ utilizes) I recommend that version.. but either will work just fine!

Please note that if you’re using jQuery 1.4, due to an event namespacing bug I recommend that you upgrade to jQuery 1.4.1 ASAP, which addresses this and a few other issues.

Also, I want to thank Vincent Voyer for not only bringing the IE8 issue to my attention, but also using the GitHub issue tracker to report the bug, which made it easy for me to address!

Simple PHP Proxy v1.6

Ben Alman — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:19:07 -0800

I’ve just updated my Simple PHP Proxy script. It now defaults to JSON mode, which can be changed to native mode by specifying ?mode=native. Also, native and JSONP modes are disabled by default because of possible XSS vulnerability issues, but are configurable in the PHP script along with a URL whitelisting regex.

Check out the script, example, documentation and, yes, feline endorsement to see how everything works, download it onto your server, and have fun!

And then there were two!

Ben Alman — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 04:51:23 -0800

Back in October, Robyn and I got an adorable kitten, Loki, and he’s been the perfect little bundle of playful kitten awesomeness since then. He’s definitely a lot bigger now than when we first got him, but he still continues to be a lot of fun! Especially at like, 3am, when we really need our sleep…

Well, a little over a week ago, the breeder at CC Bay Rags let us know that two of Loki’s littermates had been returned to her due to owner allergies, which apparently has never happened to her before, and did we know anyone who wanted a kitten or two, and by the way here are some photos of two super-cute kittens?

jQuery hashchange event v1.1

Ben Alman — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:51:31 -0800

This release fixes a bug in IE8, when jQuery hashchange event is used on a page with the X-UA-Compatible IE=EmulateIE7 meta tag. Apparently IE behaves a little differently when the meta tag is used versus when the “IE7 Compatibility Mode” toolbar button is pressed, so the code has been updated and an additional unit test has been added.

If you use the hashchange event plugin and the X-UA-Compatible IE=EmulateIE7 meta tag, please update to v1.1 to fix this issue.

I want to thank Vincent Voyer for not only bringing this issue to my attention, but also using the GitHub issue tracker to report the bug, which made it easy for me to address! Also, I will update jQuery BBQ as soon as possible to take advantage of this bug fix.

The Official jQuery Podcast, Episode 6

Ben Alman — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 04:22:04 -0800

Recently, Elijah Manor and Ralph Whitbeck asked me if I’d like to be a guest on the Official jQuery Podcast. Of course, I agreed.. and last week, Episode 6 was recorded.

First, let me just say that it was a lot of fun! We had a lot of laughs, and not all at Elijah’s expense (but mostly), and actually talked about some useful, jQuery-related stuff.

We talked about plugin development, code organization and one of my contributions to jQuery 1.4 core. We also discussed some general suggestions for developers who want to contribute to the jQuery project, but aren’t sure how to get involved, and I gave a rundown on a handful of my plugins, what they’re called, what they do, etc.

In addition to the actual “useful” stuff, we heard a few of my tunes, I explained where the nickname “Cowboy” came from, and oh yeah, we talked about the hottest new John Resig-related internet meme!

If you haven’t heard The Official jQuery Podcast, Episode 6 yet, what are you waiting for? Check it out now on the jQuery Blog, and let me know what you think!

jQuery BBQ v1.1 and jQuery hashchange event v1.0

Ben Alman — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 13:31:15 -0800

Version 1.1 brings some substantial changes to jQuery BBQ. I reorganized the plugin code substantially, which allowed the core window.onhashchange event functionality to be broken out into a separate jQuery hashchange event plugin.

The end result is that while jQuery BBQ is still just as awesome as it’s always been, if you’ve wanted just a very basic, streamlined, normalized, cross-browser jQuery hashchange event without all the extra awesomeness that BBQ provides, it’s now available separately as jQuery hashchange event.

In addition, BBQ now has a new $.bbq.removeState method, which a few people have requested, as well as updated unit tests that utilize the most recent version of QUnit.

Check out the jQuery BBQ project page as well as the new jQuery hashchange event project page for more information, and let me know what you think!

jQuery Enlightenment by Cody Lindley

Ben Alman — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:29:34 -0800

Recently, Cody Lindley asked me to take a look at his new book, jQuery Enlightenment, and write up my thoughts. Now, I’ve never written a book review before, but since I’ve spent a lot of time helping novice jQuery users understand programming and design concepts as they relate to both jQuery and JavaScript, I saw this as a good opportunity for me to weigh in on a book written for exactly those people.

jQuery Message Queuing plugin v1.0

Ben Alman — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 08:23:07 -0800

With jQuery Message Queuing, you can process and manage operations on large queues of items or elements. You can throttle, giving each operation a little breathing room (firing tracking pixels, performing DOM manipulations). You can force multiple asynchronous operations to execute serially (AJAX requests).

Either way, this is a useful plugin.. but, of course, only if you need this kind of thing. Check it out now on the project page and let me know what you think!

Simple PHP Proxy v1.5

Ben Alman — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 04:25:26 -0800

After using Simple PHP Proxy in countless projects, I’ve finally decided to clean up my code, document everything, and share!

With Simple PHP Proxy, your JavaScript can access content in remote webpages, without cross-domain security limitations, even if it’s not available in JSONP format. Of course, you’ll need to install this PHP script on your server.. but that’s a small price to have to pay for this much awesomeness.

So, check out the script, example, documentation and, yes, feline endorsement to see how everything works, download it onto your server, and have fun!