Yahoo User Interface 2.6.0

Yahoo User Interface or YUI has been in the news lately for their latest release now on version 2.6.0. It is a considerable upgrade for YUI as they have improved some of their functions and added new interface for their Ajax and RIA framework.

Different functions are also out of beta. To be specific, YUI had 450 improvements implemented in different functions. These improvements are shown in more than 290 samples in the official YUI website.

Among those 450 improvements, here are some notable ones in YUI that have made the framework a little bit more attractive to different developers:

Carousel and Paginator Features

YUI have released codes that will enable developers to build streaming pictures called carousel. This highly interactive interface from YUI was provided by Gopal Venkatesan.

This is basically a widget that could be loaded in different websites or a function to be integrated in the application.

The paginator feature is now available in YUI. This used to be part of DataTable in 2.5.0 but powerful improvements have been made in the paginator.

Now an independent function, it aims to be better and stronger with their updates. Users will no longer have to fully reload in browsing different pages.

YUI Uploader

The latest version of Flash (v. 10), has been a little bit controversial for developers as this alternative for Ajax has become difficult to code now that uploading with flash (swfuploader) has been removed. YUI hopes to become a very powerful tool as it is able to adapt to Flash 10.

Unfortunately, the drawback of this update is that the latest uploader version is not backwards compatible. You should rework your YUI uploader if you wanted to work with update.

DataTable

This function in YUI may have received the most significant updates in the latest version. Aside from removing the paginator function in DataTable, the latest version of YUI now has ScrollingDataTable and CellEditor. These functions will be very helpful in controlling data.

The DataTable is still compatible to its previous versions but the paginator may need to be reworked especially that it does not connect with DataTable anymore.

Doing the functions again is also recommended for those who have created custom controls base on DataTable as functions have been removed and replaced.

Pattern Library

Because of the release of Carousel and Paginator functions, developers now has accessed to an increased library of functions that are also based on Carousel and Paginator. The best part of the increase of functions is the additional options for developers in building a highly effective application.

Functions now out of Beta

The following are the functions that are now out of beta:

• Profiler
• RTE (Rich Text Editor)
• Cookie
• DataSource
• Layout Manager
• Resize

The updates of these functions are not only certifying the stability of the functions but bugs in these functions were fixed.

The latest version is poised to be another useful framework for Ajax based application. Although it has some issues in backward incompatibility, it is still a powerful framework that should be considered by most developers.