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jQuery UI 1.5

I’m pleased to say that the jQuery UI 1.5 release is out. Here’s the full blog post for all the info:

jQuery UI v1.5 Released, Focus on Consistent API and Effects

There’s a lot there, so I won’t repeat it all here. However, I do want to mention on of my favorite parts of this release:

ThemeRoller

Wow! Give a hand to Filament Group for creating ThemeRoller.com. Now you can create a custom jQuery UI theme including colors, textures, hover effects, to match any site or app. They’ve got an extensive writeup on their awesome work, and they’ve even got guidelines on how to write jQuery UI plugins so that they’re ThemeRoller-ready.

Thank You

Finally, thanks to all who helped with tests, demos, documentation, feedback, criticism, and encouragement. Keep it coming.

The jQuery UI sprint this last weekend was great. In all we had over 35 participants and got a lot of good stuff done.

We worked on demos to showcase all the UI plugins, opened and closed a bunch of tickets, reviewed and updated the documentation, and continued writing unit tests for each UI plugin. We also had some crucial discussions about API consistency, and simplified some of the code dependencies.

We’re not quite ready for the final 1.5 release, but this sprint was a great push toward that goal. I was pleased to see that we attracted some new contributers. They made a real contribution, and we were happy to have some fresh perspective on how we’re doing, and how we can do better. They key now is to keep this good momentum going.

Paul will be doing a more complete summary post on the jQuery blog later today. But I wanted to at least mention here: Thanks to all who made this sprint a success.

I announced the first jQuery UI Sprint on the jQuery blog last Friday. It will take place all day tomorrow and Saturday. Here’s a summary:

The jQuery UI Team is pleased to announce its first Worldwide Sprint, to take place next Friday and Saturday, March 14-15, 2008. Two full days of testing, fixes, documentation, and general getting-stuff-done. Our goal is to get the jQuery UI 1.5 release (alpha, beta) ready for final, and we invite any and all to help. Whether you have an hour, or an afternoon, come and run really fast with us.

I’m really excited about this event. We’ll have a few team members there to help facilitate, and a lot of new contributors as well. So far there are 22 people signed up to participate. If you want to give UI some love, add your name to the list, even if you can’t be there the whole time. We’ve got some exciting stuff planned. See you tomorrow.

We finally got the jQuery UI 1.5 alpha out, along with jQuery 1.2.3:

jQuery 1.2.3: AIR, Namespacing, and UI Alpha

jQuery UI 1.5 alpha
What a road for UI 1.5. Originally it started as 1.0.1 (just bug fixes) following the 1.0 release in September. Then it grew into 1.1 (a little added functionality, a couple API changes). Neither of these actually got released. The closest was a fairly quiet 1.0.1a. In the end, there were so many big changes, especially in the API, but also in a couple plugins that were entirely reworked, that it was promoted to 1.5. Here’s a couple I’ve been spending a bit of time on:

Selectables
The version of Selectables in the 1.0 release was not what some might call useful. I’m happy to say this is fixed in 1.5.

Dialog
Dialog has a few fixes (like with multiple dialogs, if you click on one it comes to the top), but the most requested feature (by far) didn’t quite make it into the alpha: modal option. This will be in the beta. Stay tuned.

I had my second jQuery UI Article published on DMXzone today:

Tutorial: Dialogs and Theming with jQuery UI

In this article I’ll introduce jQuery UI Dialogs. I’ll also introduce one of the premiere features of jQuery UI: themes, and will show how they can be used to make a consistent and attractive web application. As in my last article, Drag-and-Drop Shopping Cart with jQuery UI, I’ll assume a basic familiarity with jQuery (the base of jQuery UI). You should be comfortable with jQuery syntax and basic selectors.

See my earlier post, Drag-and-Drop Shopping Cart with jQuery UI, for more information on DMXzone Premium Content.

I had my first article published on DMXzone.com yesterday. I’m going to be writing a couple tutorials a month on there, as well as on DNzone.com. I’ll mostly be focused on writing jQuery UI tutorials. Check it out:

Tutorial: Drag-and-Drop Shopping Cart with jQuery UI

In this article, I’ll introduce jQuery UI Drag-and-Drop and show you how with just a few lines of code, you can make a richly interactive shopping cart that is functional and fun to use. To get right into it, I’m going to assume that you’re at least familiar with jQuery (the base of jQuery UI). You should have a working (latest) copy of jQuery installed and be comfortable with the jQuery syntax and basic selectors.

It’s published in the Premium Content section, which means it’s not free. You can either pay a few dollars, or if you like the whole site (lots of great content, as well as an online magazine), they’ve got annual subscription options for unlimited access.

I’ve got a few more articles in the works including: dialog, theming, selectables. Leave a comment if you’ve got other ideas for articles.

Woo hoo! I’m going to be attending The Ajax Experience in Boston next week. I’ll be providing coverage right here on my blog. If you’re going to be there, I look forward to meeting you. If you’re not able to make it, then read my blog and you’ll feel like you’re there, I’m sure.

So TAE is Tue through Fri. Then on Saturday is jQuery Camp 07. I am definitely excited about meeting almost the whole jQuery Team in person. As well as about 60 other people that are surely as into jQuery as I am. They’ve got to be - jQuery Rocks.

It’s gonna be an awesome week. I’m sure I’ll keep busy helping with the next release of jQuery UI, and hopefully squeezing in a few minutes to finish some effects I’ve been working on.