Here’s some holiday cheer: Flot, a new plotting library/plugin for jQuery by Ole Laursen. The initial 0.1 release has some stunning features, including interactivity with your charts. Flot looks very promising, and we like to highlight promising developments in the jQuery community!
See also:
Flot Announcement
Flot Examples
Ajaxian article on Flot
The jQuery services are mostly back to normal now, John has since moved the jQuery SVN to Google Code and is working to move the remaining mailing lists to Google Groups. So, the most important parts have weathered the recent server move, no problem.
Of course, moving providers when a dedicated server is required usually brings with it a significant investment of capital. With that, we wanted to thank the jQuery community for springing to life and donating generously to help with the transition. In fact, the donations completely cover the initial cost of the new server.
Obviously, we don’t really push for donations around here, so it’s great to see so many lend a helping hand. Thank you all.
And now for some extra-good news!
Media Temple has stepped up to donate a great hosting package, to jQuery, complete with the industry-recognized support reputation preceding them. We anticipate being fully up-and-running on their hardware in the coming months, and welcome this new partnership and the benefits it will bring the jQuery community.
Leave your answers in the comments.
We would really like to get to know a lot of you better, not just the hardcore developers but the everyday users. So give us the scoop!
(Or, “let us know a little about you, and shamelessly plug your projects, too!”).
UPDATE: Thanks to all who have responded so far.
I have to say, I am astonished at how many of you are using jQuery for corporate sites. Many of you (or your companies) might consider donating to the jQuery project from the homepage. Of course, this is not required, but it does ensure jQuery stays strong by covering the costs of development and keeping the monthly server bill in check. :)
And to that I will add: bug reports, plugins, and other contributions to the community are equally valuable as donations. My point: Let’s remember to all give back in whatever ways we can.
All of your comments are invaluable, whether you’re a big-timer working on corporate sites or a small-timer building a webapp just for fun. Keep ’em coming!
If you’re new to jQuery, you might not know that it has a very extensible plugin architecture. That’s not to imply that it’s a complicated one; it’s not!
One of the popular features of jQuery is the built-in effects library. Using jQuery’s plugin architecture, a number of smart people have taken the built-in effects one step further, creating some very pleasing modules for image enhancement.
Three to check out:
jCarousel
http://sorgalla.com/pages/jcarousel.html
jCarousel by Jan Sorgalla displays image thumbnails in a horizontal or vertical component. Configuration is pretty straightforward, and sufficient documentation is available on the plugin page. jCarousel can tie into Flickr, load static images, or dynamically load via AJAX.
Interface
http://interface.eyecon.ro/ [main]
http://interface.eyecon.ro/demos/slideshow.html [slideshow demo]
Interface Elements by Stefan Petre has a slideshow component for displaying individual images. Fade-in/fade-out between numbered images with next and previous links. Very usable overall, sharp look and very professional feel.
Thickbox 2.0
http://jquery.com/demo/thickbox/
Cody Lindley recently updated Thickbox to version 2.0, so if you haven’t yet, give it another look.
Browse the full list of plugins to find more enhancements for your projects.