I need to write an extension application on top of my popular jQuery Form Builder plugin so I finally took the time necessary to perform some long-wanted updates. The xml-based form loading system is finally gone, replaced by a pure JSON solution. There’s a lot more code cleanup, some bug fixes, and now some sample MySQL integration in addition to existing static data loading examples.

The extension layer I’m working on will add functionality for building basic quizzes and scoring them, and hopefully, some MongoDB support. When completed I’ll push that functionality as well. But for now, I need your help in testing the changes in 0.4.

As usual, source code and downloads are on GitHub.

I’ve never been satisfied with issue tracking software. It essentially boils down to the fact that developers seem to sacrifice a clean design and usable product for features or vice versa – the tools our clients would find usable were never the same tools that the developers and designers could find usable.

This will never be a problem again, thanks to Snowy Evening. Snowy-Evening.com has been in development for almost two years and despite an amazing list of features (all listed on the home page) it has an incredibly clean and very easy to understand design. Our clients have been using it for a year and there are several well known web companies already using it for their projects.

I highly recommend you checkout Snowy Evening – it’s free while it’s in beta.

A frequent problem with text on the web is that there’s no way to automatically adjust the font size based on the dimensions of it’s containing element – at least in a way that changes size when the container does.

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I’ve always used MySQL fulltext indexes with a match query for keyword searches but I’ve never been happy with the results and lack of configuration choices. The limited nature of word interpretation and the boolean searches were useless when visitors didn’t know how to use search operators. Fulltext indexes require the MyISAM table structure – yet we generally prefer InnoDB because of performance and foreign key constraints.

For a recent project I decided to finally (long overdue, I know) make the the transition to an external search and indexing application called Sphinx.

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I’ve been using Git for just over two years now. It’s one of the few systems left that doesn’t have a graphical user interface I prefer. In the past years, many choices have either been launched or announced but I’m still a command-line only person.

I grew tired of typing the full push/pull commands so I’ve finally spent some time searching for the best bash function on the net… which appears to be http://forrst.com/posts/My_gitstuff_bash_shortcuts_for_working_with_g-BwI

Edit your bash profile and place the “gpush” and “gpull” functions after anything that currently exists. I personally didn’t use the aliases shown in the pasted code sample, as I already use a different set.

vi ~/.bash_profile

When running gpush or gpull they will activate the associated commands on the current branch.

I’ve worked with WordPress for at least six years now – on both personal and client projects. As a company we’ve been focusing on larger custom-built projects in the past few years so staying current in the WP community has been a lot more difficult.

Because of this, I’m transitioning the WordPress courses to a new instructor so that I can focus on my series of web development courses (which are my primary focus anyway). Before I put the materials I’ve developed for the WordPress courses into eternal digital storage I thought it would be best for me to share the list of tips and plugins used or mentioned in any of these courses.

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I’ve been using the Mac application Snippets and it’s been getting better with each new release. One essential feature that’s still missing is any support for syncing a library through a service other than MobileMe. I’ve even contacted them about the issue, as many have.

However, I’ve recently learned that there is a way to share the library using Dropbox – not sync it, but share it. Simply move the library itself. I had considered this option before (since it’s how I use 1Password) but there seemed to be no way to move the Snippets library.

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I began writing a few web development articles for WebDesignerDepot.com a few months back, and the first of the series has been published this morning. Head on over to read HTML5 & CSS3: Wireframing in the final product. I’ve already turned in the next two articles and I have a few more underway.

At the end of the current term, it will be two years since I began teaching evening web development courses for Portland Community College. I’ve taught a wide range of topics including Javascript, jQuery, HTML5, CSS2 & 3, PHP, MySQL, and WordPress. In the past few months I’ve also been involved in planning a new structure and flow of courses for Summer 2011 and beyond.

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I’ve recently been exploring alternatives to SQL-based databases, primarily MongoDB.

MongoDB essentially stores records as JSON-encoded values and you interact with those records through the API rather than running any SQL. The following instructions are for getting mongodb installed on CentOS 5, along with the extension necessary for PHP support.

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