10 interesting projects from Google Code

10 interesting projects from Google Code


I may not like how Google is building a monopoly on the
internet, but, I have to admit that most of their services are useful.
As developers, it is useful to know that Google hosts a lot of open
source projects. Today, let’s have a look at the 10 most awesome
projects hosted on Google code. ZeroClipboard


Do you remember the old days of web development, when IE6
was the king? (ok, it sounds soooo bad now but if you were already
building sites in 2002 you know what I’m talking about!) It was
extremely easy to force copy to clipboard.
But, for obvious security
concerns, Firefox doesn’t allow clipboard access by default. This is a
good thing, but for some sites, being able to copy into clipboard is a
must.Using powerful Javascript and a .swf file, ZeroClipboard
allow you copy information into the user clipboard. For a live demo,
just have a look to my Coupons
For Bloggers site.
» Visit ZeroClipboardyourls


As a blogger, I know how important Twitter is to stay tuned
with my readers and share my favorite links with them. But as you know,
Twitter allows only 140 characters in messages. In order to create
shorter urls, you can use a service like bit.ly or Tinyurl.com, or you
can get yourls, and create your own service.Yourls is built in
PHP and is very easy to configure. If you’re using WordPress, you’ll
probably be happy to know that yourls has its own WordPress plugin.
»
Visit YourlsMinify


I know I already talked about Minify in a previous article,
but I simply cannot resist to spread the word about this very cool
piece of code.
Minify is extremely simple to install and will
combine, minify, and cache JavaScript and CSS files on demand to speed
up page loading.Installing minify is extremely easy: you just
have to upload a directory to your site document root and Minify will
start to speed up your blog. Wonderful, isn’t it?
» Visit MinifyThematic


Being a WordPress fan, I really love the concept of Theme
frameworks. For those who doesn’t know what it is, Theme frameworks are
WordPress themes which contain lots of functions and styles. You can
extend both in looks and functionality by adding a child theme.

For example, my other blog Cats Who
Blog is using the Thesis theme framework that I extended using my
own styles and functions.Many commercial frameworks are
availables, but Thematic is 100% free. A definitive must download
if you’re into WordPress!
» Visit ThematicFlexlib


As you may guess, Flexlib is an open source Adobe Flex
library. It provides lots of components that you can freely use in your
Flex or Air projects.
The currently available components include:
AdvancedForm, Base64Image, EnhancedButtonSkin, CanvasButton,
ConvertibleTreeList, Draggable Slider, Fire, Highlighter,
HorizontalAxisDataSelector IconLoader, ImageMap, PromptingTextArea,
PromptingTextInput, Scrollable Menu Controls, SuperTabNavigator,
Alternative Scrolling Canvases, Horizontal Accordion, TreeGrid, FlowBox,
Docking ToolBar, and Flex Scheduling Framework.
» Visit FlexlibZen
Coding


As a web developer, I often find it frustrating having to
type lots of tags and attributes to reach the desired result. HTML tags
are necessary of course, but that doesn’t mean it should consume so
much typing.
This may be the idea Sergey Chikuyonok before he
started to develop Zen Coding. What is Zen Coding? It is a handy set of
tools for high-speed HTML and CSS coding. It integrate in your favorite
text editor and then provide functions and shortcuts to speed up your
development.As an example, if you type this:div#content>h1+pYou’ll
get the following output:<div id="content">
<h1></h1>
<p></p>
</div>If you want to know more about Zen Coding, Smashing
Magazine has a
nice article about it.
» Visit Zen CodingSexybuttons


On the internet, design matters. Some people are good for
designing, some, like me, aren’t. Happilly, those who aren’t designers
(or who are bad designers!!) should take advantage of projects like this
one.
Sexybuttons is a small CSS framework that allow you to
instantanely create gorgeous buttons for your blog, websites and web
apps. If you like CSS buttons, don’t forget to have a look to my Top
10 CSS buttons tutorial list.
» Visit SexybuttonsjQuery
transmit


Who doesn’t like jQuery? This very handy Javascript
framework allows developers to enhance both the design and usability of
your website. Thanks to plugins, jQuery can be easily enhanced with the
functionalities you need. There’s a bunch of very cool jQuery plugins
available from Google code so it was very hard to choose one. However,
file upload has always been a major problem in web development and this
jQuery plugin will be extremely helpful.Using jQuery transmit is
incredibely easy :$(document).ready(function() {
var options = {
allowedFileTypes: [{
description: "Images",
extensions: "*.jpg; *.gif; *.png"
}]
};

$("#transmit").transmit("http://mysite.com/upload/", options);
})» Visit jQuery Transmitdompdf
: Convert HTML to PDF using PHP


The PDF format is useful for many thing such as invoices,
and is largely used in business. dompdf is an advanced HTML to PDF
converted which can download and read external stylesheets, inline style
tags, and the style attributes of individual HTML elements. It also
supports most presentational HTML attributes.
» Visit dompdfstop-spam


Spam is definitely a big problem for blogs and websites.
Although it is still impossible to completely prevent spam, some tools
can help you a lot to fight it.
Stop-spam is one of those tools. It
is lightweight, compatible with all blogs and forums (WordPress, PhpBB,
Movable Type, etc) and easy to install. It automatically blacklists well
known domains and IPs used by spammers. Of course, you can edit lists
to blacklist/whitelist to add more domains and IPs.
» Visit
stop-spam