In this post I will list some well known and widely used jQuery plugins and extensions. Actually I want to maintain this list with “required” stuff to build sites using jQuery framework. I can’t and don’t want to hold here full list of plugins (actually it is already available on jQuery plugins page)  - instead I want to list “common” plugins that I and other developers / designers use on most of web sites. Please let me know if you use some cool plugin that you use all the time and I forget to list here.

• jQuery UI – “provides abstractions for low-level interaction and animation, advanced effects and high-level, themeable widgets”
• Form Plugin – “allows you to easily and unobtrusively upgrade HTML forms to use AJAX”
• Metadata Plugin – “extracting metadata from classes, random attributes, child elements and HTML5 data-* attributes”
• Validation Plugin
• Dimensions Plugin – “Extends jQuery to provide dimension-centric methods for getting widths, heights, offsets and more”
• Bgiframe Plugin - “Fixes z-index issues in IE6″
• Watermark Plugin – watermark capability to HTML input and textarea elements
• jReject Plugin – “jReject provides a simple, robjust, light-weight way to display rejections based on a the browser, specific browser version, specific platforms, or rendering engine”

to be continue…

Some additional useful plugins:

• http://plugins.jquery.com/project/lavalamp2 – LavaLamp allows you to add a nice background hover effect to HTML link lists using the Easing library.

Some more links on jQuery:

• http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/2009/09/95-exceptionally-useful-jquery-plugins-tutorials-and-cheat-sheets.html
• http://jqueryfordesigners.com/
• http://visionwidget.com/inspiration/web/398-latest-jquery-plugins.html
• http://www.tutorial9.net/resources/22-beautiful-jquery-plugins-for-web-designers/

Let’s start with installation and configuration of the IntelliJ IDEA IDE for RoR / GoG / Django and Google App Engine development.

At the time I write this article, version 8 is available and version 9 (Maia) only at pre-release stages… So we start development in version 8 (but with really huge interest we will wait for version 9!). Also please note that community version of IDE is lack some important functions, so we going to use commercial version (30 day trial will be enough to start)

So go to http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/, download and start installation of Windows version of IntelliJ IDEA. During installation you need to select the plugins to enable. Made following selection (I am going to use Git and Subversion version controls systems in Evejob project)

On next screen, when IDEA will ask you about Web/JavaEE plugins I recommend to leave all options selected (unless you know that you not going to use some of Java technologies in near future) dues to the fact that when we move to Grails development, some of this plug ins will be in used.

On “Select Application Server Plugins” I also recommend to leave all options, as probably we will want to test hosting of application on as much Web Servers as possible (unless you know specific server requirements) – it is exactly way I am going to develop Evejob!

Same way, I recommend to leave all HTML / JavaScript development Plugins and Other Plugins selected (unless you know for sure which one you going to use and which one not… seems effort to enable them later can be more then performance issues in case if you just leave everything enabled, at least on latest hardware).

In case if you have only one developer machine, on next screen with “IDEA Server Account details” you can just select “Do not login”, press “Skip”

and move forward to the end of installation.

Finish!

But wait – it’s not all – we need also to install plugins for RoR, Django and even Google AppEngine (Grails support build in to IntelliJ IDEA 8)…

Let’s start:
- go to File / Settings
- in Settings window found at left list box “Plugins” item and select it.

- open tab Available

- wait few seconds, until get a list of all available plugins in JetBrains database.

- in search box, start typing “Python”.

- select “Python” plugin in filtered list

- right click and press “Download and Install” link

Plugin will be downloaded and installed for you (usually takes few minutes)!

Now it is time to install same way “Ruby” and “Google App Engine” plugins…

After you install all 3 plugins, press “Apply” button and answer “Yes” to the question about restart IDEA to activate changes in plugins.

That’s it with IntelliJ IDEA installation!

Let’s configure IDEA plugins so we can actually start coding on Django

1) Press “Create New Project” and select “Create project from scratch” option.

2) Select “Python Module” in project type.

3) Simple select project files location to “C:\evejob\EvejobDJ” but pressing “…” button and you will get all other fields filled for you by IDEA

4) Press next and select Python Interpreter:

5) Now you need to select Python SDK path (C:\Python)

6) Ones you press Ok on “Select Path” window you will get following:

Press Ok and Finish and you will open Django project in IDEA

Now it make sense to repeat same steps for EvejobDJG project so we can manage it by IDEA