JQuery or Yahoo DOM libraries?

After using the Yahoo DOM library for a few image carousels, I needed to add a popup panel into the mix. I looked briefly at the Yahoo Panels, but ended up selecting the smooth Thickbox, which is easy to work with and based on JQuery. Now I’m looking at replacing my carousels with a JQuery option— this will cut down on the scripts introduced and hopefully make the site run a bit faster.

Customizable Menu

I needed to let visitors customize a Quicklinks menu as is done on the Humboldt State site. I ended up using PHP and Javascript (as well as the JQuery based Thickbox panel) to set cookies for the menu items. Then I used PHP in the menu (and in the form) to recognize if the cookie is on or off for each item and determine the CSS class accordingly.

Here are some resources I came across while researching how to do this:

• Using a form & PHP to set cookies
• PHP reference materials on cookies, and more
• A List Apart on PHP
• Discussion on using Javascript & cookies
• Using Javascript to pass data from a form to cookies
• Lists of code snippets at paulspoerry.com.
• Lists of list options at maxdesign.com.
• Using Javascript for a customizable start page

Javascript and Accessibility

Here are some good articles about accessibility and Javascript:

• Quirksmode
• w3.org
• Onlinetools.org
• Boutell.com
• … for accessible forms: Websemantics.co.uk
• … for accessible dropdown menus: Dreamincode.net

AJAXY Tabs

For nice fluid tabs within one page, I ended up using code from Dynamic Drive.

Standards Compliant Scrolling Image Carousel

In looking for a good way to create a scrolling image slideshow (I later found this is referred to as a “carousel”), I found some good info, including:

• General information at maxkiesler.com
• Information about the Amazon scroller at ajaxian.com
• Carousel code via ibm.com</a.
• A variety of samples at weeklystray.com.
• And, ultimate, my selected direction at billwscott.com.

{Later note: I’m also going to look in to JQuery-based carousels because I started using the JQuery Thickbox on this project– makes sense to cut down on the code introduced.}