YUI 2.3.0: Six New Components and a Prettier Face

Blog
About

Site Search:

YUI 2.3.0: Six New Components and a Prettier Face

July 31, 2007 at 3:45 pm by Eric Miraglia | In Development | 58 Comments

We’re pleased to announce today the release of YUI version 2.3.0. This release features six new additions to the library as well as a new skinning architecture and a new visual treatment for most of our UI controls. All of this, plus 250 enhancements and bug fixes, is available for download immediately.

Here’s what’s new to YUI in version 2.3.0:

Rich Text Editor (beta): YUI developer Dav Glass brings you the new YUI RTE, featuring rich-text editing with robust A-Grade browser support. Cross-browser support has always been a major challenge for RTEs, and we think you’ll be impressed with how well this editor works across the various environments. You can instantiate it with just a few lines of code for simple implementations, and when you need to go beyond the ordinary it’s easy to extend the RTE’s Toolbar with your own custom buttons.
Base CSS: Nate Koechley continues to extend and refine the YUI CSS foundation, which now includes four members — Reset CSS neutralizes browser CSS treatments; the new Base CSS applies some consistent and common style treatments that many developers use as a foundation; Fonts CSS provides a foundation for typography; and Grids CSS delivers CSS-driven wireframes for thousands of potential page designs.
YUILoader Utility (beta): YUI’s most prolific author Adam Moore has contributed the new YUILoader Utility, a mechanism for loading YUI components (and/or your own custom components) on the page via client-side script. YUILoader knows all about YUI’s dependency tree and introduces into the page only those files that are needed to support your desired components. It can load files from Yahoo! servers or from your own hosted location.
ImageLoader Utility (experimental): Yahoo! Travel engineer Matt Mlinac authored the new YUI ImageLoader Utility, which allows you to defer the loading of some images to speed initial rendering time on your pages. If you suspect that you’re serving a lot of images that are never actually seen by your users, you’ll want to check out Matt’s work on this clever utility.
Color Picker Control (beta): Adam Moore built the new YUI Color Picker Control on top of his own Slider Control. The Color Picker provides a powerful UI widget for color selection, featuring HSV, RGB, and Hex input/output and a web-safe color-selection swatch.
YUI Test Utility (beta): Nicholas C. Zakas, who works on My Yahoo! when he’s not writing books or blogging on YUIBlog, authored our new YUI Test Utility. YUI Test introduces a flexible unit-testing framework for the YUI ecosystem and serves as the foundation for our own unit-test battery.

YUI Shows Some Skin

YUI components have always been receptive to implementation-specific styling, but with 2.3.0 we’ve moved to a more formal skinning approach that helps to separate core CSS definitions from purely presentational ones. YUI’s support for skinning makes it easier for you to implement your own design on top of, say, the TabView Control — and it makes it easier to share that skin with others in the community.

In concert with that effort, Yahoo! designer Sam Lind pitched in over the past several months to help us create an attractive, consistent visual treatment for the many UI controls in YUI that ship with a default look-and-feel. This baseline skin is much more stylish than what we’ve shipped in the past; many thanks to Sam for his hard work. In his honor, we’re calling this debut visual treatment the "Sam Skin". Hopefully this will be just the first of many YUI skins that evolve within the developer community as time goes on.

More To Come

The YUI Team will have more to say over the coming weeks about what’s new in 2.3.0, including in-depth looks at the Rich Text Editor, the skinning approach, other new components, and Jenny Han’s significantly upgraded DataTable Control. In the meantime, George Puckett from the YUI team has posted a detailed release manifest to our forums and there are release notes accompanying every component (available on the website and as part of the download).

We’ve been working hard on YUI since the last release and we’re excited to share this work with everyone today. Please check out the new version and let us know what you think.

Share and extend: Bookmark with Yahoo! My Web | Bookmark with del.icio.us | digg it! | reddit!

58 Comments »

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Thanks, and great job! Especially for the base CSS…

Comment by thank you — July 31, 2007 #
The Rich Text Editor looks very promising. The image placement tool is most impressive!

Comment by Mike — July 31, 2007 #
[...] YUI 2.3.0: Six New Components and a Prettier Face This release adds Rich Text Editor, Base CSS, YUILoader Utility, ImageLoader Utility, Color Picker Control, and a YUI Test Utility plus a new skinning architecture, a new visual treatment for most of our UI controls, and 250 enhancements and bug fixes. (tags: YUI) Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]

Pingback by All in a days work… — July 31, 2007 #
[...] the YUI team released version 2.3.0 of the library and it contains a Rich Text Editor. So I decided to build a plugin for WordPress [...]

Pingback by Davs Rants and Random Thoughts » YUI Rich Text Editor WordPress Plugin — July 31, 2007 #
Great jpb! Now when can we get a tree+table component, please?!

Comment by TT — July 31, 2007 #
RTE is really cool!

Comment by denis — July 31, 2007 #
[...] ist YUI 2.3.0 erschienen, natürlich wieder mit einer Menge an Erweiterungen und Neuerungen. Yahoo geht ganz deutlich [...]

Pingback by Wieder neue YUI-Version » Code Candies — July 31, 2007 #
Thanks for this new release, looking forward to using some of the new components and working with the skinning feature which sounds great.

Comment by Carlton Dickson — July 31, 2007 #
Hi Yahoo,
ever since you aquired Flickr things became much better with Yahoo. I can see that you begin making efforts to be less evil than Google. YUI is another good example and I really wish you guys keep going that direction. All the best and thanks for the great, great YUI!
Bernd.

Comment by Bernd — August 1, 2007 #
[...] More informations on the YUI blog [...]

Pingback by Make me pulse » Blog Archive » YUI 2.3.0, new components — August 1, 2007 #
wow! these features are amazing

you guys are DEFINITELY on the right track

Kudos to the team — keep up the great work!

This is by far the BEST framework out there!

Comment by MarxistMango — August 1, 2007 #
[...] Шест нови компонента идват с новата версия на YUI – 2.3.0. [...]

Pingback by YUI 2.3.0 | RIABG.org — August 1, 2007 #
[...] marks the release of version 2.3.0, which adds six new [...]

Pingback by Clint Ecker’s Blog-o-tron » Blog Archive » YUI 2.3.0 out: Six new components and better skinning approach — August 1, 2007 #
Great Job!

Comment by Victor Morales — August 1, 2007 #
Thanks for all the hard work YUI team. I can’t wait to play with all the new stuff.

Comment by Tim Correia — August 1, 2007 #
[...] YUI 2.3.0: Six New Components and a Prettier Face » Yahoo! User Interface Blog [...]

Pingback by A Modern Fable (AJM) » Blog Archive » YUI 2.3.0 Out on the Streets - Now with Rich Text Editor — August 1, 2007 #
Very nice. I’ve developed an loader utility to JS and CSS using YUI 2.2.0 and we’re using it on http://www.planos.cl . Soon a new version will be released.

Comment by Alexandre (amf) — August 1, 2007 #
@TT — No rest for the weary, huh? We’ll continue working on DataTable — that isn’t the next feature in the queue, but we agree it should get done.

@Alexandre: Thanks for sharing! Be sure to share on YDN-JavaScript, too (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ydn-javascript/links/YUI_Implementations_001149002597/) and on http://gallery.yahoo.com/yui.

-Eric

Comment by Eric Miraglia — August 1, 2007 #
[...] YUI 2.3 has been released with six new components, as well as a skinning architecture and a new look for the components. [...]

Pingback by Ajaxian » YUI 2.3 Released: Rich Text Editor, Components, and Themes — August 1, 2007 #
I want to have YUI’s baby.

Comment by Tom Esposito — August 1, 2007 #
[...] YUI 2.3.0: Six New Components and a Prettier Face » Yahoo! User Interface Blog We’re pleased to announce today the release of YUI version 2.3.0. This release features six new additions to the library as well as a new skinning architecture. (tags: javascript yui css yahoo ajax webdev webdesign programming editor) [...]

Pingback by links for 2007-08-01 | The Marketing Technology Blog — August 1, 2007 #
Hey guys,
congratulations on this release. The new components look fun. It’s great that you release beta components and allow developers to give early feedback rather than fine tuning them internally which can sometimes be exhausting.

I had a peak at the source on the RTE and no doubt, it’s a beast. Dealing with cross-browser issues for an RTE is always a real challenge.

@Bernd: Google is not evil ;)

Comment by Dustin Diaz — August 1, 2007 #
I hate to say this because I think the YUI project is great, but the text editor is a usability disaster, especially the image insertion and ‘moving balloon’ dialog. The way a button seems to get focus when you click it you lose the insertion point, the slight but noticeable delay for enabling and disabling buttons, the toolbar captions and more.

I advice you to actually use some text editors to better understand the idioms, and to read up on interaction design 101 (try About Face 3rd edition).

Comment by Mike — August 1, 2007 #
[...] Yahoo User Interface libraries are now at version 2.3.0 with six new [...]

Pingback by My Portal Project » Blog Archive » YUI New version with even more new features! — August 1, 2007 #
I really like the things that you guys (and girls?) are doing, but I agree with Mike. There are still a lot of usability problems with the RTE.

I also hope that the resulting code will be XHTML valid. I see that the alignment of an image is not valid at the moment.

Thx for the great JS stuff.

Comment by Dextro — August 1, 2007 #
@Mike

I believe you’re the same commenter from the Ajaxian post. Just a quick note here to let you know that I responded in detail to your questions and comments over on that blog.

Thanks,
Nate

Comment by Nate Koechley — August 1, 2007 #
[...] YUI 2.3.0: Six New Components and a Prettier Face (tags: yui webdev javascript libraries) [...]

Pingback by Chad’s dailies » Blog Archive » links for 2007-08-01 — August 1, 2007 #
This is big stuff! Most interesting to me personally are the ImageLoader and skinning features. Currently I’m thinking of using JQuery, but with this new release…is there a compelling reason to choose YUI instead?

Comment by Eric Florenzano — August 1, 2007 #
[...] YUI 2.3.0: Six New Components and a Prettier Face » Yahoo! User Interface Blog includes a new rich text editor. (tags: yahoo yui ajax) [...]

Pingback by <CONTENT /> v.4 » links for 2007-08-02 — August 1, 2007 #
[...] hat die Version 2.3 ihres umfangreichen Javascript-CSS-Frameworks “Yahoo! User Interface Library” [...]

Pingback by F-LOG-GE » Blog Archive » YUI geht in eine neue Runde — August 1, 2007 #
Hi,

Nice stuff. Already using the new YUI version in my project.

Comment by Egze — August 1, 2007 #
Really thanks alot for releasing this great ver of YUI toolkit, I was impatiently waiting for this release. It gives too much relax because it comes with few new components however truly speaking I’m still waiting for Jenny Han’s upgraded DataTable Control with server side pagination etc… features.

Thanks to all YUI team with heart for their efforts.

Comment by Jimmy — August 1, 2007 #
[...] Via yuiblog.com [...]

Pingback by Yahoo! veröffentlicht neue YUI-Version - Netzlogbuch — August 2, 2007 #
I’m probably very stupid, but is there a list somewhere that lists all possible values/labels I can use to switch on and off the currently supported features?

I can only find those used in the example ( http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/editor/#toolbar ).

It looks very cool to me, although I’d rather seen some way to use/insert classes instead of all that generated inline styles.

Thanks.

Comment by dieter — August 2, 2007 #
The main reasons to use YUI:

1. Robustness. I’ve done a lot of research on different javascript libraries and none of them compare on documentation and not many offer anything that isn’t already offered in the YUI libraries (as far as I’m concerned).

2. Its future. I’ve got it from a friend that its going to be used in zk, the #1 ajax framework on sourceforge. Its growing in adoption.

3. Where it comes from. The guys at Yahoo! made it. These guys have been a big part of the web since its inception. Plus, have you seen mail beta?

Comment by Tony — August 2, 2007 #
THANK YOU for the rich text editor–keep up the great work.

Comment by Jason — August 2, 2007 #
The new features look great!

RTE:

Maybe I have overlooked it, but is there any way to switch between an HTML source view and WYSIWYG view? It would also be nice to be able to set styles, create tables, and resize the editor at runtime. Another suggestion I have may be better suited as a plugin to RTE; A plugin for integrating Yahoo! maps would be really cool. Here’s a link to where I’ve integrated Yahoo! maps in another WYSIWYG editor: http://www.sigmanu-etazeta.com/?page=yahooMapsPlugin
Maybe other options could be available such as width, height, zoom, etc. Anyways, great job!

Comment by Michael — August 2, 2007 #
[...] YUI 2.3.0: Six New Components and a Prettier Face » Yahoo! User Interface Blog (tags: yui webdev webdesign css) [...]

Pingback by links for 2007-08-03 « Mike Does Tech — August 2, 2007 #
Awesome work guys. I’ve tried quite a few js frameworks but now I only use YUI. It’s the best. Solid features with the by far the best documentation + constant development + amazing cross-browser support. What more could you ask for?

Comment by Steve Boyd — August 2, 2007 #
[...] has released version 2.3.0 with 6 new features, new skinning, and new visual treatments. It also has 250 enhancements and bug [...]

Pingback by Gusniawan’s Blog » Blog Archive » YUI 2.3.0 Launched — August 2, 2007 #
[...] 2.3 Released: Rich Text Editor, Components, and Themes YUI 2.3 has been released with six new components, as well as a skinning architecture and a new look for the [...]

Pingback by YUI 2.3 Released: Rich Text Editor, Components, and Themes « outaTiME — August 3, 2007 #
[...] YUI 2.3.0: Six New Components and a Prettier Face » Yahoo! User Interface Blog – We’re pleased to announce the release of YUI version 2.3.0. This release features six new additions to the library as well as a new skinning architecture and a new visual treatment for most of our UI controls – plus 250 enhancements and bug fixes [...]

Pingback by Vinny Carpenter’s blog » Daily del.icio.us for Jul 30, 2007 through Aug 03, 2007 — August 3, 2007 #
Sorry all for the late response :)

@denis — Thanks

@dieter — You can see the default toolbar config here. Search the page for ‘toolbar’ (including the quotes). I should create an example listing all of the configs in a better place. I would like to add support for class name generation instead of CSS, but currently it is not on the roadmap. Please feel free to put in a feature request here.

@Jason — Thanks

@Michael — The first release doesn’t have a code viewer built into it, but using this example, you should be able to add one very easily. Since we are stiving for a full A-Grade support, adding a table editor will be very tricky; table editing is not supported very well in Opera and Safari. For the other items, please feel free to put in a feature request here.

Comment by Dav Glass — August 3, 2007 #
[...] YUI 2.3.0: Six New Components and a Prettier Face » Yahoo! User Interface Blog (tags: yui javascript css ajax yahoo) [...]

Pingback by links for 2007-08-05 « toonz — August 5, 2007 #
Great!

Comment by Simon Brüchner — August 6, 2007 #
[...] la nueva libreria que ya va por la versión 2.3.0, tiene puntos muy resaltables como comentan en su web, y entre ellas esta un editor de texto enriquecido, probarlo [...]

Pingback by Nueva release de la libreria de Yahoo! User Interface YUI 2.3.0 « Edusanver’s Weblog — August 7, 2007 #
[...] released a major update of their Javascript Library. They included six new components: Rich Text Editor, Base CSS, [...]

Pingback by New version of Yahoo User Interface Library (YUI 2.3.0) including six new components — August 7, 2007 #
Great stuff. I love YUI. Keep up the good work guys!

Comment by YUI fan — August 8, 2007 #
[...] in the YUI Library have been released as open source under a BSD license and are free for all uses. YUI version 2.3.0 has just released on July 31, 2007 with six new additions to the library as well as a new skinning [...]

Pingback by FileIdeas.com» Blog Archive » The Yahoo! User Interface Library — August 9, 2007 #
[...] stata rilasciata la versione 2.3 di YUI, i componenti AJAX di [...]

Pingback by ReFactor.it » YUI 2.3 — August 9, 2007 #
This … You … it’s, I mean … YOU’RE DOING THIS WITH A WEB BROWSER! ???? !!!! …. !!!!

Hmmm … You all in the YUI team as well as all of Yahoo management and corporate are a half quart short of a full gallon, nutballs, and you scare me. But, since you are hellbent on continuing this madness, I will thank you.

BTW, I think you or we insulted IE7 yesterday using your latest version of YUI. The IE runtime was giving us a “unknown runtime exception” after we added one too many widgets to the pile. Zoiks, run away!

Cheers,
Davester

Comment by Davester — August 10, 2007 #
@Davester,

Umm, thanks.

Which quart? And we’re not trying to scare anybody. We’re friendly, I promise :)

If you’re seeing issues with YUI on IE7, please consider filing a bug so we can address it.

Thanks,
Nate

Comment by Nate Koechley — August 10, 2007 #
Hey Nate,

Sorry, let me clarify my quart short comment. It’s just that, when I think of your product, I wonder how many of your people are now ready for the sanitarium. :) Do you ever hear any unexplained fits of laughter rising out of the cube farm? That is the madness setting in. :D

And there is no bug that we’ve found in YUI. IE just failed to handle/ignore the fubar’ed markup we were trying as graciously as Firefox did. I had a good feeling it was us, the problem was just very hellish to debug and we couldn’t tell for sure.

Congrats on building such an impressive product, cheers,
Davester

Comment by Davester — August 10, 2007 #
[...] YUI 2.3 came out almost 2 weeks ago and I forgot to mention it. Several old feature have been improved and revisited, and 6 new feature have been added. I am most impressed by the color picker (great extension for WYSIWYG editors and theme editors), deferred image loader (allows for low res images, followed by high res for faster page loading), and the improve CSS package (more layouts, better normalization and fonts). Anyway, it is better than before and there are a lot more packages to include if you like. [...]

Pingback by YUI 2.3 Released | Matt Snider JavaScript Resource — August 12, 2007 #
[...] User Interface (YUI) Library. Veja também YUI 2.3.0: Six New Components and a Prettier Face, por Eric Miraglia, [...]

Pingback by Blog do Márcio d’Ávila » Ajax em Java - coletânea de referências — August 16, 2007 #
[...] YUI 2.3.0: Six New Components and a Prettier Face Yahoo!’s recent update to the YUI library contains some pretty massive improvements: a beta rich text editor component, a beta color selection widget, dynamic dependency loading, a beta unit testing framework, and a formal skinning system! (tags: javascript software) [...]

Pingback by SitePoint Blogs » News Wire: A Blueprint for CSS Design — August 17, 2007 #
Are there any plans to develop the functionality for a user to embed a flash widgets via the RTE? For instance, a button/icon that pops up a modal or dialog box of some sort that allows the user to paste the embed code and on submit it would display the actual flash embed or a sample picture of the embed?

I would die for something like that =)

Comment by adi — October 2, 2007 #
[...] in the YUI Library have been released as open source under a BSD license and are free for all uses. YUI version 2.3.0 has just released on July 31, 2007 with six new additions to the library as well as a new skinning [...]

Pingback by The Yahoo! User Interface Library | GreatSo.com — March 1, 2008 #

Yahoo! User Interface Blog