jQuery UI 1.8.21

Posted on by

The twenty first maintenance release for jQuery UI 1.8 is out. This update brings bug fixes for Autocomplete, Datepicker, Draggable, Position, Progressbar, and Sortable, as well as fixing some issues with ThemeRoller. For the full list of changes, see the changelog. You can download it here:

Download

File Downloads

Svn (contains final files as they are in the zip, with @VERSION replaced with 1.8.21, all themes)

Git (contains source files, with @VERSION not yet replaced with 1.8.21, base theme only)

Custom Download Builder

Changelog

See the 1.8.21 Upgrade Guide for a list of changes that may affect you when upgrading from 1.8.20. For full details on what’s included in this release see the 1.8.21 Changelog.

Thanks

Thanks to all who helped with this release, specifically: Amir E. Aharoni, coling, Courthead, Courtland, Eneko Illarramendi, gnarf, martinf55, non4eg, pablo.martinez, Pavel Stetina, rdworth, Scott González, SeanMcMillan, sharkodlak, skibler, squeakytoy, thufaila, Viktar Varvanovich, VitalyT.

Comments

Note: please do NOT use the comments section of this blog post for reporting bugs. Bug reports should be filed in the jQuery UI Bug Tracker and support questions should be posted on the jQuery Forum.

If you have feedback on us doing our twenty first maintenance release for jQuery UI 1.8, feel free to leave a comment below. Thank you.

jQuery UI 1.9 Milestone 8 – Position

Posted on by

The eighth milestone release for jQuery UI 1.9 is out. There are quite a few improvements and changes since the last milestone release. Most notably, the Position utility redesign is done.

What’s a Milestone Release?

A milestone release makes it easier to try out the latest development code of jQuery UI without necessarily having to check out code from GitHub.

With a milestone release you can try out new widgets that are pretty far along (though not yet final) and provide feedback based on released code with a specific version number.

Position

The Position redesign is now fully implemented. The using option now provides information about where the element is relative to the target. This information is useful for a variety of reasons, such as knowing where to render an arrow if you want the element to point to the target (think of tooltip with callouts). This information is passed in a second parameter to the using callback.

Accessibility

The Tooltip and Autocomplete widgets have been updated for full ARIA support. Getting these widgets to be fully accessible with various browsers and assistive technology was quite difficult. A huge thanks goes out to Hans Hillen and Everett Zufelt for their help with testing and implementation.

A ton of bug fixes

A lot of components have seen a lot of bug fixes. While we continue to maintain the 1.8 branch, a lot of bugs get only fixed in master. Here are all tickets fixed in 1.9, by component.

Download

You can download the jQuery UI 1.9 Milestone 8 – Position release as a zip file or via git:

File Downloads

Git

How to Provide Feedback

wiki page

To help with the testing of the Position utility, visit the Position page on our Development & Planning wiki.

forum

If the comments section on the wiki page doesn’t provide enough room for your feedback, post to the Developing jQuery UI Forum and tag the post:

How to Contribute Code

If you have code changes for the Position utility, fork jQuery UI on GitHub and submit a pull request.

If you’re new to git or GitHub, see our guide: How to submit a fix to jQuery UI – The Easy Way.

Comments

Note: please do NOT use the comments section of this blog post for feedback on the Position utility. This discussion should occur on the wiki page and the forum (see How to Provide Feedback, above).

If you have feedback on us doing our eighth milestone release, feel free to leave a comment below. Thank you.

jQuery UI 1.8.20

Posted on by

The twentieth maintenance release for jQuery UI 1.8 is out. This update brings bug fixes for Datepicker, Draggable, and Sortable, as well as fixing some issues with our build process. For the full list of changes, see the changelog. You can download it here:

Download

File Downloads

Svn (contains final files as they are in the zip, with @VERSION replaced with 1.8.20, all themes)

Git (contains source files, with @VERSION not yet replaced with 1.8.20, base theme only)

Google Ajax Libraries API (CDN)

Microsoft Ajax CDN (CDN)

Custom Download Builder

Changelog

See the 1.8.20 Upgrade Guide for a list of changes that may affect you when upgrading from 1.8.19. For full details on what’s included in this release see the 1.8.20 Changelog.

Thanks

Thanks to all who helped with this release, specifically: Bertjh, G Karunakar, Jason Moon, jiliwi, martinkoutny, Scott González, TJ VanToll.

Comments

Note: please do NOT use the comments section of this blog post for reporting bugs. Bug reports should be filed in the jQuery UI Bug Tracker and support questions should be posted on the jQuery Forum.

If you have feedback on us doing our twentieth maintenance release for jQuery UI 1.8, feel free to leave a comment below. Thank you.

jQuery UI 1.8.19

Posted on by

The nineteenth maintenance release for jQuery UI 1.8 is out. This update brings bug fixes for Autocomplete, Button, Datepicker, Mouse, Position, Resizable, Sortable, and Tabs. For the full list of changes, see the changelog. You can download it here:

Download

File Downloads

Svn (contains final files as they are in the zip, with @VERSION replaced with 1.8.19, all themes)

Git (contains source files, with @VERSION not yet replaced with 1.8.19, base theme only)

Google Ajax Libraries API (CDN)

Microsoft Ajax CDN (CDN)

Custom Download Builder

Changelog

See the 1.8.19 Upgrade Guide for a list of changes that may affect you when upgrading from 1.8.18. For full details on what’s included in this release see the 1.8.19 Changelog.

Thanks

Thanks to all who helped with this release, specifically: acme, Amir E. Aharoni, ArtemGovorov, Bertjh, Corey Frang, drumrock, ergec, felix, Gilmore Davidson, gromo, gw128, Harri Kilpiö, Jasvir Nagra, jngeist, Jörn Zaefferer, kswedberg, Lado Lomidze, lalalamoo, Licensed to Gil, Mamen, mdibbets, meh-cfl, paulscheltema, quasipickle, rdworth, Richard D. Worth, Rick Waldron, Scott González, sexconker, Simon, stojce.

Comments

Note: please do NOT use the comments section of this blog post for reporting bugs. Bug reports should be filed in the jQuery UI Bug Tracker and support questions should be posted on the jQuery Forum.

If you have feedback on us doing our nineteenth maintenance release for jQuery UI 1.8, feel free to leave a comment below. Thank you.

jQuery UI 1.9 Milestone 7 – Accordion

Posted on by

The seventh milestone release for jQuery UI 1.9 is out. As its been seven months since our last milestone release, we’ve got a lot of improvements and bug fixes to share. Most notably, the Accordion widget redesign is done.

What’s a Milestone Release?

A milestone release makes it easier to try out the latest development code of jQuery UI without necessarily having to check out code from GitHub.

With a milestone release you can try out new widgets that are pretty far along (though not yet final) and provide feedback based on released code with a specific version number.

Accordion

The Accordion redesign is now fully implemented. We finally have really solid animations, with no more flickering or jumping of content below. The ARIA implementation also got a lot better. A big thanks goes to Hans Hillen for his contributions.

Menu

Menu now supports other markup than just UL/LI elements. Support for disabled menu items got a lot better, too.

A ton of bug fixes

A lot of components have seen a lot of bug fixes. While we continue to maintain the 1.8 branch, a lot of bugs get only fixed in master. Here are all tickets fixed in 1.9, by component.

Download

You can download the jQuery UI 1.9 Milestone 7 – Accordion release as a zip file or via git:

File Downloads

Git

How to Provide Feedback

wiki page

To help with the testing of the Accordion widget, visit the Accordion page on our Development & Planning wiki.

forum

If the comments section on the wiki page doesn’t provide enough room for your feedback, post to the Developing jQuery UI Forum and tag the post:

How to Contribute Code

If you have code changes for the Accordion widget, fork jQuery UI on GitHub and submit a pull request.

If you’re new to git or GitHub, see our guide: How to submit a fix to jQuery UI – The Easy Way.

Comments

Note: please do NOT use the comments section of this blog post for feedback on the Accordion widget. This discussion should occur on the wiki page and the forum (see How to Provide Feedback, above).

If you have feedback on us doing our sixth milestone release, feel free to leave a comment below. Thank you.

jQuery UI 1.8.18

Posted on by

The eighteenth maintenance release for jQuery UI 1.8 is out. This update brings bug fixes for Accordion, Autocomplete, Button, Datepicker, Dialog, Draggable, Position, Resizable, Slider, Sortable, and Tabs. For the full list of changes, see the changelog. You can download it here:

Download

File Downloads

Svn (contains final files as they are in the zip, with @VERSION replaced with 1.8.18, all themes)

Git (contains source files, with @VERSION not yet replaced with 1.8.18, base theme only)

Google Ajax Libraries API (CDN)

Microsoft Ajax CDN (CDN)

Custom Download Builder

Changelog

See the 1.8.18 Upgrade Guide for a list of changes that may affect you when upgrading from 1.8.17. For full details on what’s included in this release see the 1.8.18 Changelog.

Thanks

Thanks to all who helped with this release, specifically: 2of11, bmonty, chrissmithet, clear, demimurych, Douglas, espen, gruber76, jdmarshall, jerone, Jörn Zaefferer, juancar74, kbwood, klev, LaurentGoderre, levushka, lucidwayn, Mamen, mereth, mesoconcepts, meyerovb, mikemccaughan, mikeschuld, N3RD, nickolay8, oxez, PatrickM, paul, pstadt, Richard D. Worth, Rick Waldron, runatServer, ryanolton, Scott González, SpoonNZ, stojce, TJ VanToll, tjcrowder, tshinnic, zuckel.

Comments

Note: please do NOT use the comments section of this blog post for reporting bugs. Bug reports should be filed in the jQuery UI Bug Tracker and support questions should be posted on the jQuery Forum.

If you have feedback on us doing our eighteenth maintenance release for jQuery UI 1.8, feel free to leave a comment below. Thank you.

jQuery UI 1.8.17

Posted on by

The seventeenth maintenance release for jQuery UI 1.8 is out. This update brings bug fixes for Accordion, Autocomplete, Button, Datepicker, Droppable, Position, Progressbar, Selectable, Sortable, Tabs, and the CSS Framework. The 1.8.17 release also brings support for jQuery 1.7.1. For the full list of changes, see the changelog. You can download it here:

Download

File Downloads

Svn (contains final files as they are in the zip, with @VERSION replaced with 1.8.17, all themes)

Git (contains source files, with @VERSION not yet replaced with 1.8.17, base theme only)

Google Ajax Libraries API (CDN)

Microsoft Ajax CDN (CDN)

Custom Download Builder

Changelog

See the 1.8.17 Upgrade Guide for a list of changes that may affect you when upgrading from 1.8.16. For full details on what’s included in this release see the 1.8.17 Changelog.

Thanks

Thanks to all who helped with this release, specifically: azomazo, bikeshedder, celtric, cfjedimaster, Corey Frang, David De Sloovere, Gaëtan Muller, ghostd, hunter1728, igor milla, Jason Oster, Kris Borchers, Mamen, maxbarbul, Michael P. Jung, Michel Weimerskirch, millermedeiros, Richard D. Worth, ruskom, Scott González, shnitz, sslotsky, stojce, ToastBusters, TomWolk, ts2do, tucan26, TylerRick, vegancorr2, William Griffiths.

Comments

Note: please do NOT use the comments section of this blog post for reporting bugs. Bug reports should be filed in the jQuery UI Bug Tracker and support questions should be posted on the jQuery Forum.

If you have feedback on us doing our seventeenth maintenance release for jQuery UI 1.8, feel free to leave a comment below. Thank you.

State of the jQuery UI Grid

Posted on by

We announced the Grid project back in February. Since then, we finished the first three stages and are now getting started on the fourth. In this post we’ll take a look at what we’ve built so far.

Grid

This is what we designed as the “zero feature grid”. All it does is enhance HTML tables, but it does that pretty well while also providing the right hooks for all kinds of other features that we can add on top of that. And that turns out to be really useful, as there are a bunch of things that regular HTML tables can’t do. With Grid, you get:

  • styling with the CSS framework, making it ThemeRoller-ready
  • a proper titlebar, based on the table’s caption
  • markup and styles necessary for scrolling of the table body, while keeping the header fixed

The API for the Grid controls what content to render, and how to present it:

  • The columns option specifies which columns to render. If not specified, it picks up existing table header elements.
  • The rowTemplate option allows the grid to render each row from a custom template. If this option is not provided, each row is generated based on the columns option.
  • The source option specifies the content to render, in the form of a plain array of objects. When not specified, existing table rows are used.
  • By default, the grid’s body grows with the number of rows. With heightStyle: ‘fill’, it stays at a fixed height and the body starts scrolling if there are more rows.
  • When picking up column information from the existing table headers, certain data-attributes are read. The grid itself uses only the data-property attribute (and the actual text of each header cell), but the dataFields option specifies a few more attributes that other components can use, such as “type”, “culture” and “format” to configure local sorting and filtering. If a grid add-on handles other data attributes, adding those to the dataFields option will make them automatically available as part of the columns option.

So far we only have an enhanced table, but often enough, a grid needs to be fed data from some remote resource. That’s where Dataview comes in.

Dataview

Dataview is a low-level abstraction for retrieving content. It has an API for specifying what content to retrieve, and an SPI (service provider interface), implemented by components that provide that content. There are built-in options for filtering, sorting and paging, and the design makes it easy to add more options, like grouping. The API is asynchronous by default, even for local data, so that all components relying on Dataview can work with both local and remote data.

Dataview only depends on Widget and Observable (we’ll get to that below), but not on Grid. This allows Dataview to be used in a variety of contexts. For example it could power a product listing, such as those on eBay or Amazon, where a table presentation is not the right format.

The Dataview SPI makes it easy to write implementations from scratch as well as to create reusable extensions.

As an example, we can use a custom dataview as the input for the Autocomplete widget. The same data is also displayed in the grid below the input field. This demonstrates how a Dataview can be used in multiple representations, where each decides on its own what data to show.

As for reusable extensions, we currently have three implemented:

  1. localDataview takes an input array and does sorting, paging and filtering on that array. It uses Globalize (see below) to implement filtering and sorting of localized numbers and dates. When combined with the grid on a table with existing content (without specifying the source option), you get a complete tablesorter.
  2. odataDataview takes a resource URL, pointing at a webservice that understands OData, the Open Data Protocol. While our implementation doesn’t yet cover all of the OData options, you can use it to sort, filter and page, without having to implement any custom request/response mapping. We have an example of a grid using the OData based Netflix API.
  3. preloaderDataview wraps a Dataview and adjusts the paging behaviour to load more data than rendered, paging locally before preloading another batch. In this Flickr API slideshow example we preload both the API responses and the actual images. This pushes all the loading in the background, allowing the user to page through images without interruptions.

All three need testing in actual projects before we can consider them stable. We’re also looking for other use cases for dataview that we might be missing.

Observable

Data binding is currently a common theme among newer JavaScript frameworks, with various competing solutions available. We don’t yet have a full-featured alternative, but we’ve developed a low-level abstraction that might power a data binding component in the future. We call this abstraction Observable. It provides an API for making changes on plain JavaScript objects and arrays that can be observed by listening to events that each change triggers. We’ve designed Observable to have a very small number of methods and events, with the purpose of making it easy to implement the same API in other contexts. These events are:

  • change: Triggered on objects after one or more properties have changed.
  • insert: Triggered on arrays after inserting one or more new items.
  • remove: Triggered on arrays after removing one or more items.
  • replaceAll: Triggered on arrays after replacing all items in an array.

That last event may seem odd at first, but this makes it possible to create a dataview, pass it to a grid, have the grid subscribe to events on that dataview’s output array, and then update itself when the dataview updates.

For all four events, Observable provides method counterparts:

  • property: to work on objects
  • insert, remove and replaceAll: to work on arrays.

Usage is consistent in both cases:

  • $.observable( object ).property( “name”, “Fred” );
  • $.observable( array ).insert({ name: “Peter” });

We’re still working on Observable. The next step is to find an abstraction for the array bindings, which would remove some overhead both from the Grid as well as from the todo-app demo.

When combining Observable with the Grid, we can easily add editing capabilities. In our grid editing demo, you can add, edit and remove developers from the table. Results are persisted via localStorage.

Instead of adding custom columns that have “Edit” and “Remove” buttons, we can use the selectable interaction to select one or more rows and then interact with the selection. In that demo, the selected array is also an observable array, which the second grid displays. Note that you can select rows on one page, go to the next page (you may need to add a few developers for a second page to show up), select more rows with command/ctrl-click (to extend the selection) and it will display all those rows in the second grid. The selected state is separated from the visual representation, making selection over multiple pages pretty easy.

Globalize

Globalize originally started as the jquery-global plugin. We rewrote it as part of the Grid project to be independent of jQuery, allowing usage on both client and server. Our localDataview implementation (mentioned above) uses it, and its also behind custom inputs like Spinner and Timepicker.

Mask, Timepicker, Selectmenu

These three custom inputs are being developed as part of the Grid project. They are intended to be used within the Grid for inline editing, as well as standalone in regular forms or websites. We’re getting close to landing all three in master, to release them as part of 1.9.

And more…

Work is still in progress on Template, Datepicker and other Custom Inputs. We’ll report back on those once we have more stable solutions.

Up next

We’re finishing existing components and are starting on Stage 4. For details, check out the main Grid wiki page.

So, when is it done?

Our Roadmap has the Grid on the 2.1 release, while the main focus for jQuery UI is on 1.9. In other words, there is a lot that needs to get done before we can put the Grid into a stable release and support it along with all the other components. At the same time, we encourage you to start testing the features outlined above now. Grid, Observable and Dataview are all pretty stable and working well. Globalize is a separate project that you should start using now if you want to support localized number and date handling on the clientside.

We value your input and help. Please use the Developing jQuery UI forum, comment on individual wiki pages or visit us on IRC (#jqueryui-dev on Freenode). If you found a solution to an issue, send a pull request.

jQuery UI 1.9 Milestone 6 – Spinner 2

Posted on by

The sixth milestone release for jQuery UI 1.9 is out, featuring many updates for the Spinner widget. This release also includes updates and bug fixes to existing and new widgets that will not make it into a 1.8.x release.

What’s a Milestone Release?

A milestone release makes it easier to try out the latest development code of jQuery UI without necessarily having to check out code from GitHub.

With a milestone release you can try out new widgets that are pretty far along (though not yet final) and provide feedback based on released code with a specific version number.

Note: the API is subject to change as the code is still under active development.

Spinner

The Spinner API has been updated with a few new features and bug fixes. Check out the planning wiki for documentation.

Menu

Menu now handles submenus much better.

Position

Position now has a within option, allowing you to use something other then window for collision detection, e.g., a scrolling div. The collision detection itself got a lot smarter, and has a new mode: flipfit.

Download

You can download the jQuery UI 1.9 Milestone 6 – Spinner 2 release as a zip file or via git:

File Downloads

Git

How to Provide Feedback

wiki page

To help with the testing of the Spinner widget, visit the Spinner page on our Development & Planning wiki.

forum

If the comments section on the wiki page doesn’t provide enough room for your feedback, post to the Developing jQuery UI Forum and tag the post:

How to Contribute Code

If you have code changes for the Spinner widget, fork jQuery UI on GitHub and submit a pull request.

If you’re new to git or GitHub, see our guide: How to submit a fix to jQuery UI – The Easy Way.

Comments

Note: please do NOT use the comments section of this blog post for feedback on the Spinner widget. This discussion should occur on the wiki page and the forum (see How to Provide Feedback, above).

If you have feedback on us doing our sixth milestone release, feel free to leave a comment below. Thank you.

Dialog API Redesign

Posted on by

Continuing with the API redesign, we have some changes planned for the Dialog widget. We know that API changes like this are not without cost to our users, so we’d like to make it clear that except where specifically noted, jQuery UI Dialog in 1.9 will support the 1.8 API as well, and the deprecated APIs will not be removed until jQuery UI 2.0. Read more about the full jQuery UI API redesign.

API Redesign

Contain focus in dialog
We currently only contain focus inside modal dialogs. We will be changing this behavior to always contain focus, even in modeless dialogs. This will bring us more in line with the DHTML Style Guide. We’re not sure about implementing a key command to move the focus out of the dialog (such as F6) since that would require defining a system to track where focus should move.

Allow disabling dialogs
Dialogs don’t currently support being disabled. They do inherit the default behavior of adding the ui-state-disabled class, which makes the dialog look disabled, but the user can still interact with elements in the dialog. In order to support disabling a dialog, we will place a div over the dialog to prevent mouse interaction.

Ability to configure which element gains focus
When opening a dialog, we search for which elements are tabbable and we focus the first element that we find. If there are no tabbable elements, then we focus the dialog itself. We will be adding an autoFocus option, which will allow customizing which element gains focus. The option will accept a function which will return the element to focus. The default value for the option will be the current implementation. If no element is found using the option, the dialog will be focused.

Move dialog back to original DOM position on destroy
When dialogs are created they are moved to the end of the body. When dialogs are destroyed, they currently stay at the end of the body. We will be changing this behavior so the dialog is returned to the original position, if possible. This will be done by tracking either a sibling or the parent on create.

Automatic stacking
The stack option controls whether a dialog will move on top of other dialogs when it gains focus. Since this should always be the case, we will be removing the option and forcing the behavior. In addition, we will probably remove the moveToTop method since the proper dialog(s) should always be available to the user based on when they were opened and whether they are modal or modeless.

Saner modality
The current implementation for managing modal dialogs is a bit unwieldy, comparing the z-index of elements and often causing problems. We plan to simplify the implementation and switch to a hierarchy-based solution instead of a style-based solution.

Feedback

We’d love to hear your feedback on these changes. We want to make sure we address any issues the community may have before we finalize and implement these changes. If you have any feedback, please post it on the related forum post. Thanks.