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The latest version of KCA is out. Updated default.ini to include a few examples of addons. Now you can also save all addons to default.ini. New variables, %%site_url%% and %%kca_url%% have been added to make it easier to reference certain URLs. There have been many other enhancements made as well.

It will be compatible with the soon to be released Wordpress 2.1.

Be sure to download it.

I’ve released the latest update of DOM Tooltips (dtt).

dtt basically allows you to add tooltips to any element on your page. The tooltips can be customised with your own HTML and CSS, and also comes with a couple of effects.

The script achieves all this functionality in a completely unobtrusive manner, so using the script is extremely straightforward. You only need to add one line to reference the script:
<script src="$dtt$.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

dtt then automatically searches for the specified elements on a page that has title attributes set, and converts them to tooltips. Simple.

During the process of enhancing the tooltip script, I created a few support/helper scripts. Together they provide a means to dynamically load external scripts, simplify event management, while eliminating memory leaks. I will talk more about these support scripts at a later date.

For now, you can download dtt 1.5 from the Javascript downloads page.

After a month, I’ve managed to add quite a few new features to KCA. The plugin now uses tw-sack for it’s Ajax operations. This is in line with Wordpress core includes.

My version checking hack has been improved through the use of the Snoopy class mixed with some Ajax. The new technique means you no longer need to manually check for updates. The use of Ajax means faster load times for the plugin. Now, whenever a new version of KCA comes out, you will be notified - albeit in a subtle way if you have the message panel closed.

The message panel has also been improved with the fade-anything-technique. Now all plugin messages are queued and displayed with a time-stamp. Messages have been given different levels of importance. The message panel icon will be highlighted a certain colour if the panel is closed and there is a vital notice in the message queue.

KCA now has a default.ini file that includes default addon settings that can be imported/restored to the database. Much easier to maintain than if it were hard-coded. In the future you will be able to read/write custom .ini files.

As for the addons, I’ve added more descriptive…descriptions to each addon, to make understanding how they work easier. There have been other improvements to addons as well, such as better word wrapping code in DOM-Tooltips.

The Textarea Resizer has had new features added. Apart from a click and drag handle for resizing, you can now double-left-click to maximise the textarea, or single-right-click to best-fit textarea to screen. There are also new control buttons located on the top right of the textarea that lets you minimise, restore, best-fit and maximise the textarea. (See the comment textarea for a live demo)

There have been many more enhancements to the front-end as well as the back-end of KCA. I am gradually trying to make KCA behave more like a desktop application through the way the interface is designed. Issues I consider important include how “responsive” the interface is, load time and user-friendliness. I hope with each successive version, I am slowly progressing towards these goals. Eventually, I plan for KCA to generate much of it’s code on-the-fly, with much of the processing done by the client through remote procedure calls. I’m happy with the results so far.

Get a copy from the plugins page while it’s still fresh!

After the recent release of WP 2.0, I thought I’d better make sure KCA was up to scratch.

Apart from some bug fixes, there is now a built-in version checker for the plugin. This feature will notify you of any updates to the plugin. Nifty huh?

With the advent of WP 2.0, I decided to make this version of KCA an even 2.0.0 also.

As usual, go to the plugins page to get your copy!

It’s almost that time of the year again and you might have noticed snow falling down the page.

In Melbourne we are more likely to see flies buzzing around the place, but the Christmas spirit demanded snow!

So, here’s the code for falling snow that you can import into KCA:

(Source: Snow Effect)

Description = Snowing - With Graphics + ----------------------- Eval = is_single() || is_home() Needle = Userlevel = Active = false Content = Reference = Location = Head = Body = <script type="text/javascript"> + /*<![CDATA[*/ + + //Configure below to change <acronym title="Uniform Resource Locator">URL</acronym> path to the snow image + var snowsrc="%%bloginfo('url')%%/wp-content/plugins/kca/addons/images/snow1.gif" + // Configure below to change number of snow to render + var no = 20; + // Configure whether snow should disappear after x seconds (0=never): + var hidesnowtime = 0; + // Configure how much snow should drop down before fading ("windowheight" or "pageheight") + var snowdistance = "pageheight"; + + ///////////Stop Config////////////////////////////////// + + var ie4up = (document.all) ? 1 : 0; + var ns6up = (document.getElementById&&!document.all) ? 1 : 0; + + function iecompattest(){ + return (document.compatMode && document.compatMode!="BackCompat")? document.documentElement : document.body + } + + var dx, xp, yp; // coordinate and position variables + var am, stx, sty; // amplitude and step variables + var i, doc_width = 800, doc_height = 600; + + if (ns6up) { + doc_width = self.innerWidth; + doc_height = self.innerHeight; + } else if (ie4up) { + doc_width = iecompattest().clientWidth; + doc_height = iecompattest().clientHeight; + } + + dx = new Array(); + xp = new Array(); + yp = new Array(); + am = new Array(); + stx = new Array(); + sty = new Array(); + snowsrc=(snowsrc.indexOf("dynamicdrive.com")!=-1)? "snow.gif" : snowsrc + for (i = 0; i < no; ++ i) { + dx[i] = 0; // set coordinate variables + xp[i] = Math.random()*(doc_width-50); // set position variables + yp[i] = Math.random()*doc_height; + am[i] = Math.random()*20; // set amplitude variables + stx[i] = 0.02 + Math.random()/10; // set step variables + sty[i] = 0.7 + Math.random(); // set step variables + if (ie4up||ns6up) { + if (i == 0) { + document.write("<div id=\"dot"+ i +"\" style=\"POSITION: absolute; Z-INDEX: "+ i +"; VISIBILITY: visible; TOP: 15px; LEFT: 15px;\"><a href=\"http://dynamicdrive.com\"><img src='"+snowsrc+"' border=\"0\"><\/a><\/div>"); + } else { + document.write("<div id=\"dot"+ i +"\" style=\"POSITION: absolute; Z-INDEX: "+ i +"; VISIBILITY: visible; TOP: 15px; LEFT: 15px;\"><img src='"+snowsrc+"' border=\"0\"><\/div>"); + } + } + } + + function snowIE_NS6() { // <acronym title="Internet Explorer">IE</acronym> and NS6 main animation function + doc_width = ns6up?window.innerWidth-10 : iecompattest().clientWidth-10; + doc_height=(window.innerHeight && snowdistance=="windowheight")? window.innerHeight : (ie4up && snowdistance=="windowheight")? iecompattest().clientHeight : (ie4up && !window.opera && snowdistance=="pageheight")? iecompattest().scrollHeight : iecompattest().offsetHeight; + for (i = 0; i < no; ++ i) { // iterate for every dot + yp[i] += sty[i]; + if (yp[i] > doc_height-50) { + xp[i] = Math.random()*(doc_width-am[i]-30); + yp[i] = 0; + stx[i] = 0.02 + Math.random()/10; + sty[i] = 0.7 + Math.random(); + } + dx[i] += stx[i]; + document.getElementById("dot"+i).style.top=yp[i]+"px"; + document.getElementById("dot"+i).style.left=xp[i] + am[i]*Math.sin(dx[i])+"px"; + } + snowtimer=setTimeout("snowIE_NS6()", 10); + } + + function hidesnow(){ + if (window.snowtimer) clearTimeout(snowtimer) + for (i=0; i<no; i++) document.getElementById("dot"+i).style.visibility="hidden" + } + + + if (ie4up||ns6up){ + snowIE_NS6(); + if (hidesnowtime>0) + setTimeout("hidesnow()", hidesnowtime*1000) + } + + //]]> + </script>

Here are some images to use:
(Place in “/wp-content/plugins/kca/addons/images”)

Here is another version of the snow effect:

(Source: Snow Effect without images)

Description = Snow - No Images + ---------------- Eval = is_home() || is_single() Needle = Userlevel = Active = true Content = Reference = Location = Head = Body = <script type="text/javascript" src="%%bloginfo('url')%%/wp-content/plugins/kca/addons/snow.js" /></script>

Download the snow.js file and place in addons directory.

Enjoy!

If you are using my KCA plugin you would have noticed that it comes with a couple of addons ie. TextArea Resizer and DOM Tooltips.

The good thing about KCA is you can add any JavaScript code as addons to your pages. For example, if you don’t like DOM Tooltips as your tooltip addon, you could always deactivate it and add your own tooltip code, or use one already written by someone else.

Some nice JavaScript tooltip code that I’ve found on the net include:

• ArekorePopup (The site is in Japanese) - Download
• Nice Titles

Because these JavaScript snippets of code are written in an unobtrusive manner (like DOM Tooltips), they can easily be integrated into KCA.

So, if you were to choose ArekorePopup as your tooltip script of choice, all you need to do is put ArekorePopup in the KCA addons directory, then go to Scratch-Pad in KCA and paste the following code:

Description = ArekorePopup + ------------ + Eval = Needle = Userlevel = Active = true Content = Reference = Location = Head = <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="%%bloginfo('url')%%/wp-content/plugins/kca/addons/ArekorePopup/ArekorePopup.css" /> + <script type="text/javascript" src="%%bloginfo('url')%%/wp-content/plugins/kca/addons/ArekorePopup/ArekorePopup.js" /></script> Body =

Click import and ArekorePopup should now operate on your site. (Remember to deactivate DOM Tooltips, in case they clash)

Note: You are not limited to these script addons. There is a huge variety of DHTML scripts, JavaScript, VBScript, CSS etc., that you can add to your pages via KCA.

I’ve been quite busy lately, so haven’t had the chance to work on KCA much.

What I am releasing today includes improvements I’ve made prior to life becoming a tad hectic.

There are a few more improvements that I am considering, but that can wait till the next release.

This version brings with it some nifty AJAX functionality (includes a progress indicator among other things).

So go get it now!

Download: KCA (version 1.9.6)

It seems in my haste to release KCA and KIN last night, I’ve zipped them up in the wrong directories. This has caused installation problems and plugin errors.

In the case of KCA, the directory the installation should come under is kca, not kca-1.9.5.

Likewise for KIN, the installation directory should be kin, not kin-0.2.0.

Renaming the directories should fix the problems, but if you are unsure, just remove the them, download the fixed archives, re-install and all should be fine.

Updated:
KCA (version 1.9.5)
KIN (version 0.2.0)

It’s time for another upgrade on KCA. Improved navigation and accessibility. The code has also been cleaned up some what.

Download: KCA (version 1.9.5)

Today I’m also releasing a new plugin: Khanh’s Instant Notepad (KIN). Lois came up with the idea. Thanks for helping me test it mate!

Download: KIN (version 0.2.0)

Enjoy!

KCA 1.9.1 is out!

This has version sees many changes to the admin interface, as well as some improvements to the backend.

Now it’s easier than ever to add content to your pages whether it be static or dynamic.