Keeping aside the pros and cons of creating animations with JavaScript, there are a number of powerful JavaScript libraries available online that can render flawless presentation. Some of those are complex and require tweaking, some over-simplified and some of JavaScript animation libraries are suitable for short animations only. Timeline.js, however, gives a a nice framework for creating long sequences as well as short animation with powerful control on each frame of the animation.

Timeline.js provides complete frame by frame view of animation and also enables you to edit each frame individually.

Hope you did not miss our recent post on use of maps in website designs as major trends in 2011 where we discussed how maps are being used creatively for many different purposes. Whether you are designing for a location based service or playing with maps in your website, there are a number of useful mapping tools available online for free (some of those have already been shared here). Today, we are sharing another useful mapping tool for designers.

TileMill is a tool for designers to design and integrate maps with custom data quickly and easily on the web. It is built on the powerful open-source map rendering library Mapnik.

TileMill can also export directly to the SQLite-based MBTiles file format for offline maps. It also gives you full control on style and layout (colors, layers, fonts etc.) to customize maps as per your requirements.

Major Features

• Access datasources on the local filesystem or through Amazon S3
• Manage map layers with file-based datasources (shapefiles, rasters)
• Preview map tiles instantly while editing stylesheets
• Inspect datasource field values and data types
• Export maps to PNG, PDF and MBTiles formats

TileMill is actually intended for cartographer but you can master it with a little effort to design simple maps for your personal usage.

Sammy.js is a tiny JavaScript framework built on top of jQuery for rapid application development. It provides a comprehensive yet manageable set of plugins and functionalities that you can embed in your code to ease the development process.

Sammy is based on a set of integrated plugins and adapters that you can pick and choose to use in your own code as per the desired functionality. Since basic structure of your JavaScript application comes from Sammy, all you have to do is to use the simple API and start building your application. If you already have some structure to start with, just use Sammy as a set of building block to add in your application.

The API is fairly simple and clean. By driving application development around a small and specific API, Sammy helps to keep your code organized while still allowing a lot of breathing room to define your own style and structure.

First thing first – if you have not played with HTML 5 Canvas yet, do it now. The canvas element in HTML 5 allows you to render dynamic content (2D shapes, graphs, animations, games etc.) in almost all browsers with the least bit of code. If you want to dig deeper, you can use Javascript to get access to full drawing functions.

To get started, check out  oCanvas, which is a JavaScript library for rendering canvas drawings easily and seamlessly in all modern browsers. oCanvas allows you to work with objects instead of manipulating at pixel level to draw objects.

With oCanvas, you can create objects, change properties of these objects and add events to them — and everything just works because oCanvas handles the background stuff for you. oCanvas supports charts, animations, 2D objects, and shapes in a drag-and-drop environment.

Pow is a zero-configuration Rack server for Mac OS X. It makes developing Rails and Rack applications as frictionless as possible.

Pow is a clean, self-contained server that runs as your user without root privileges. No mucking around with /etc/hosts, no compiling Apache modules, no editing configuration files or installing preference panes. A single command installs and upgrades Pow automatically and your system files are left pristine and untouched.

Running multiple apps with multiple versions of Ruby is trivial. Pow runs as your user on an unprivileged port, and includes both an HTTP and a DNS server.

Minimalism is buzzword of the day. Most website and application being developed today have their prime focus on delivering core functionalities with simple and minimal design. Just take a look at modern web applications, websites and portals and see how a number of mostly used elements are condensed in a singular, fluid and handy layout. Take example of twitter login panel. It is simple, fast and handy.

Providing core features and mostly used components as handy tools instantly improves usability of your websites/ web applications. Fortunately, you do not need to write complex code for this purpose. Use FormBox!

FormBox allows you to provide forms (login, sign up, contact form etc.) in a drop-down menu.It is powered by jQuery and CSS3 to provide integrated forms in drop down menu. You can customize the look and feel of drop down menu to match your theme. FormBox supports graphical tool tips too.

In technical terms, FormBox works much the way like a tabbed menu does, allowing you to switch between multiple panels of HTML content (forms) which only appear when the user has indicated an interest or need to use them.

At under 2.5KB uncompressed (including support for graphical tool-tips), FormBox is a very lightweight solution.

Pietimer is a creative way to perform time-bound actions on websites and web applications. In fact, it is an alternate to traditional countdown timers that are usually used in web pages. Pietimer displays a reducing pie disk and triggers a callback function as the pie disappears completely.

The pie is used as a canvas element on a web page and inherits height and width from its parent element. However, color code can be defined same as the canvas colors are defined.

Ender? If you are a bookworm or a gaming addict, you got it right. Ender – the famous character of Orson Scott Card’s novel Ender’s Game who breezed through all the odds and wars against buggers. Okay… so what is the connection of Ender with JavaScript?

Ender, the JavaScript library, is a comprehensive library based on loosely coupled modules that you need to build powerful and scalable base for mobile, desktop devices or enterprise level applications.

It is an open platform that allows you to pick and choose the modules that you want and build your own applications. Since all modules are coupled loosely, you can easily modify, separate or integrate any of these modules in your application whenever you need.

Ender can be used to build anything from small prototypes to large-scale rich applications.

Cyberduck is an open source FTP client for Mac and Windows platforms. In fact, it is more than just an FTP client. Cyberduck is a complete solution for transferring, editing, distributing and bookmarking files across multiple platforms. With native support of FTP over SSL/TLS, SFTP, WebDav etc., this nifty utility allows you to manage and distribute your files on  Amazon S3, Windows Azure, Google Storage, Rackspace Cloud Files, Google Docs and of course on your own FTP location.

The interface is easy to use (simple drag-and-drop operations) and can be accessed on Windows as well as Mac operating systems. The application supports various authentication methods for secure transfers and encryption modes for password protection.

The built-in editing options allow you to edit files in any external application to make changes on-the-fly.

phpBMS is web-based,  open source Business Management Software (BMS) for billing, scheduling, and client management. A good alternative to most commercial software business management, phpBMS provides all the features of account receivable and  fulfillment, sale/purchase reports, and order tracking for startups and small businesses.

It can also be used to manage invoices and track prospects or existing clients. phpBMS supports PDF billing documents, interface for data entry and facility to upload files related to clients or orders.

Major features include:

• Creating and printing sales orders
• Tracking clients and prospects
• Fulfilling accounts receivable needs
• Printing detailed sales and purchasing reports