New job and Adobe Flex

Things have been quiet on the blog front but lots has been happening on other fronts. I can catch you up in about three paragraphs. Here goes.

I switched jobs! I left my job as Web Developer at 3000k, a small web shop in Worcester, about three weeks ago to join Meridias Capital. The Meridias Capital public site is a bit sparse so let me fill you in. The company is a mortgage finance lender centered out of Las Vegas with a secondary office in Salt Lake City. They have a couple of enterprise-level web apps that help faciliatate the mortgage finance process internally. This is where I come in.

I’ll be working out of Boston with Michael Lowry, Director of UI, to architect, design, and build the UI for these apps. I was hired for my traditional front-end skills: XHTML, XML, CSS, JS, etc. but soon after my arrival there was a strong push to investigate Adobe Flex. After some research and prototyping we came to the conclusion that Adobe Flex was a better solution for our RIA then a traditional HTML/AJAX approach. So we have cast off into a brave new world!

Note: We will be looking at add another member to our small Boston UI team shortly. If you have Flex experience or experience developing web apps with Flash, drop me a note. We will post proper details on the opening shortly.

Messageboard

634 comments into the game, a new forum is up for discussing modifications, features, troubleshooting, etc. related to the Lightbox scripts. You can find it here: Huddletogether.com Forum

Better late then never? The forum is run with Vanilla, a web forum created by the team over at Lussumo.

Hello!

Don’t think the gap between posts means I’m not keeping busy. I’ve got a bit of a queue but I’m doing my best to address all the emails and comments related to the Lightbox scripts. And yes, I really should have setup a messageboard of some sorts. Next time.

There are new projects in the works as well. More info shortly.

Lightbox JS v2.0

Lightbox JS v2.0 - Go check it out!

Use the comments on this entry to post and discuss bugs, questions, and troubleshoot the script. I’ll be in and out of here.

3/31/06: I’ve Released a minor update v2.01 that fixes IE6 centering and smooths out the kinks in the resize transition. If you’re looking for multi-line captions or keyboard navigation, expect another minor update this weekend.

4/4/06: New update v2.02 that keeps the layout in check when captions extend to multiple lines. Keyboard navigation has also been enabled. Lastly, the addition of a variable in the lightbox.js configuration section to control the speed of the resize transitions.

Behind The Scenes

There will be things moving around and nameservers pointing here and there over the next couple of days. If all goes well, you won’t notice.

• Switching hosting: From MyQth to DreamHost
• Transferring domain name: From NameRoute to GoDaddy
• Upgrading Wordpress: From 1.5.1 to 2.0.1

Update: All done! I did have a little downtime during the Wordpress Database move and upgrade, but overall a big success. The feeds seem to be okay now as well.

Squeaky Clean CSS

I thought I’d share a little bit of what I’ve learned from noodling around with stylesheets these past few years. Here are some basic organizational practices I try to follow. ( Much of this might be old hat for you, and if so, just think of it as a refresher. I run into enough messy stylesheets that I thought this might be of some interest. )

Sorry for the delay, hang really tough

I’m unbelievably busy at the moment so the gallery script is on the back burner. Once things slow down just a bit I’ll jump back on it, promise.

Also, I’m having no luck with my RSS feed as it shows up empty. The W3C feed validator is having trouble finding it so I’m unable to analyze it for syntax. Any ideas? FYI: feed is generated by Wordpress 1.5.1

Update: I’m planning on upgrading to Wordpress 2.x shortly. That should resolve the RSS issue.

But.. while I have your attention. Go check out Chris Campbell from Particle Tree’s excellent work in extending the script to allow for non-image content: Lightbox Gone Wild

Lightbox != Lightshow

Lightshow JS script is still in the works, just taking a bit longer then expected. It is similar to the Lightbox JS script with a few bonus features helpful for viewing photos in ’sets.’ More details to come. For now I’d recommend you browse the recent comments and take a look at others who have extended the script with ‘gallery’ functionality.

Question: Anyone have an idea why my RSS feed appears ‘broken’ at the moment? I’m using Wordpress 1.5. hmm…

Lightbox JS - update

Now with captions! I’ve also fixed a couple of minor issues involving extra-large images falling out of the viewport and a small gap in the overlay in Firefox. Also, it’s more keyboard friendly now. Thanks for all the comments and suggestions.

Grab the latest files here: Lightbox JS

Just a teaser, but per many requests for extended functionality, I am working on a complimentary ‘photo-gallery’ script. It will include forward/back navigation, preloading, and much more. Check back next week.

Lightbox JS

I wrote a simple script for bloggers and other friendly folk to overlay images on their site called Lightbox JS. I’ve recieved lots of nice words and feedback, all of which is soaked up and appreciated.