Scripts

Freeware JavaScript code released under GPL/MIT.

In the begining...

The codes I provide here are part of the Forms system from my Web Development Platform Tanara, which is the one I used to built all of my sites with.

Tanara was inspired by Drupal, with whom I've developed some sites before, and learned to like it's forms API.
However, at the time, Drupal was a little heavy for my needs, and I wanted more interaction with JavaScript codes to be built-into the system. I also wanted to create the smallest and fastest HTML and JS code possible so that sites could load as fast as possible.

The result was Tanara. I haven't released its code yet, mainly because I'm still beta testing it and writing it's documentation, but I am releasing some code snippets from it here.

Damn Small Rich Text Editor v0.2.3

This piece of code creates a Rich Text Editor ("RTE") from an IFRAME element. Yes, I know, there are tens of such scripts, and most of them are probably more sophisticated than mine, but my script's purpose is to provide enough basic functionality while having the smallest footprint possible.

The code relays on the fantastic jQuery library, which is incorporated today into most Platforms anyway, so no code overhead there...

Apart from jQuery, you'll need to include one JS file and one CSS file and you're done.
I recommend using the minified/packed versions in conjuction with GZIP compression, to get the best results!

Getting DSRTE

First, grab the tarball here. It contains both JS and CSS files, an example PHP file and a subdirectory with all needed images.

Now, unpack it into your web dir, and point your browser to it. Voila! you're done!

Testing

I've tested this code on FF2/3 and IE7, which are the only browsers I have available.
I believe it should work on IE6 as well. I'd love to know how it's working on other browsers, though, so feel free to mail me any comments or bug reports.

gMSN - Gmail MSN Gadget v0.9

Gmail is a great e-mail service and a great application. The fact that it incorporates Calendar and Gtalk into it basically makes it an almost complete communication center for me. The only thing missing, in my opinion, was Twitter and MSN Messenger integration.

I found a great Twitter gadget but since no MSN gadget was available, I decided to write one.

My gMSN is 90% JavaScript and 10% PHP back-end which takes care of things I am unable to do with AJAX due to security restrictions and also some tasks which facilitates the protocol handling in JavaScript.

It is not a fancy script, but it does the job. Since I only implemented MSNP8, there's no Status Messages, Offline Messages, Contact Images, etc. but you can Manage your Contact list (Add/Remove), switch between statuses (Online, Busy, etc) and chat with your Contacts. This is enough for me, and if it's enough for you - feel free to try it!

Since gMSN comes with a Back-end part, you will need to put the PHP script on some web-server. There are plenty of free PHP servers available out there, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Getting gMSN

The zip file contains all source code (JS and PHP) in both compressed and original form.

Unpack it into your web server directory, edit and then add the gmsn.xml to your Gmail gadgets in the "Settings->Gadgets->Add a Gadget by it's URL textbox".

Like DSRTE, this code also relays on the fantastic jQuery library. You will need to download the latest version and put it in the js folder.

Testing

gMSN was tested to work on Chrome, FF3+ and IE7/8 (although not really recommended). I also tested it on FF3 and Chrome on Linux, and it should work fine.

Final notes

• Due to browser limitations/restrictions, the chat windows will open in a new window. You will need to disable any pop-up blocker for the mail.google.com domain, in order to receive incoming messages.
• It's important to remember that this code is Beta software, and although it should work flawlessly, it might show problems sometimes. Please report these problems to me, if you encounter any or feel free to solve them and send me the patch so I can make it available for the rest of the world. Thanks!