• Google’s Content Distribution Network has libraries on their various servers across the world and if you use their CDN link, when a user’s browser resolves the URL, their browser will automatically download the file from the closest available server, which will be a much faster download than if you force a user to download the file from your host server in whichever country your website is hosted.
• Google’s Content Distribution Network will save you a great deal of bandwidth if you have large traffic on your website and a limited bandwidth with your host.
• There is a good chance that the Google hosted version of that library is already cached on the user’s browser cache, as lot of big websites and portals use Google’s CDN links including Google itself and Google’s servers instruct browsers to cache the file for one year if there are quite a few requests for the same hosted file.

How to use Google CDN

Google’s CDN provides most of the popular, open source JavaScript Libraries with two ways of using each of them via the direct path in the script tags and via The Google AJAX Libraries API.

To use the Google AJAX Libraries API we need to include the Google “jsapi” script:

<script src="http://www.google.com/jsapi"></script>

The Google AJAX Libraries API provides a simple and powerful google.load() method which accepts two arguments, the first argument to google.load is the name of a library. The second argument is the version of the library:

<script>
google.load("jquery", "1.3.2");
google.load("jqueryui", "1.7.1");
    google.setOnLoadCallback(function(){
        // use this instead of:
        /*
            $(document).ready(function(){  });
        */
    });
</script>

But to use this API, there is a different approach for the ready functions of all the libraries. For example, in the above code, we use google.setOnLoadCallback(function(){ }); instead of jQuery’s ready function. In-fact we use google.setOnLoadCallback(function(){ }); instead of all different library’s ready functions. This can be seen as a drawback or a good feature; I see it as a good feature as it gives me a single ready function for all libraries.

The second method to use Google’s CDN links is by the direct paths of the libraries in the script tags

Below is a list of all the JavaScript Libraries Google CDN provides with the direct paths and google.load implementation:

jQuery

name: jquery
versions: 1.2.3, 1.2.6, 1.3.0, 1.3.1, 1.3.2
load request: google.load("jquery", "1.3.2");
extras: uncompressed:true, e.g., google.load("jquery", "1.3.2", {uncompressed:true});
path: http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js
path(u): http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.js

jQuery UI

name: jqueryui
versions: 1.5.2, 1.5.3, 1.6, 1.7.0, 1.7.1
load request: google.load("jqueryui", "1.7.1");
extras: uncompressed:true, e.g., google.load("jqueryui", "1.7.1", {uncompressed:true});
path: http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.1/jquery-ui.min.js
path(u): http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.1/jquery-ui.js
note: This library depends on jquery. Before loading this module, you must load jquery. e.g.:
        google.load("jquery", "1.3.2");
        google.load("jqueryui", "1.7.1");

Prototype

name: prototype
versions: 1.6.0.2, 1.6.0.3
load request: google.load("prototype", "1.6.0.3");
path: http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/prototype/1.6.0.3/prototype.js

script.aculo.us

name: scriptaculous
versions: 1.8.1, 1.8.2
load request: google.load("scriptaculous", "1.8.2");
path: http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/scriptaculous/1.8.2/scriptaculous.js
note: This library depends on Prototype. Before loading this module, you must load Prototype. e.g.:
        google.load("prototype", "1.6");
        google.load("scriptaculous", "1.8.2");

SWFObject

name: swfobject
versions: 2.1
load request: google.load("swfobject", "2.1");
extras: uncompressed:true, e.g., google.load("swfobject", "2.1", {uncompressed:true});
path: http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/swfobject/2.1/swfobject.js
path(u): http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/swfobject/2.1/swfobject_src.js

Yahoo! User Interface Library (YUI)

name: yui
versions: 2.6.0, 2.7.0
load request: load request: google.load("yui", "2.7.0");
extras: uncompressed:true, e.g., google.load("yui", "2.7.0", {uncompressed:true});
path: http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/yui/2.7.0/build/yuiloader/yuiloader-min.js
path(u): http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/yui/2.7.0/build/yuiloader/yuiloader.js

# Added V1.7b
textlink_do_fade
textlink_do_puff
textlink_do_blindup
textlink_do_dropout

You can build any of the above calls with:

textlink_do_fade('Link Text','divYouWantToUpdate',{***},{****})

Visit the project for more info on how to use the latest methods and more. Winn Scriptatype project home page. at Ruby On Rails Railway.

1. Direct Link (http://your domain.tld/pathto/tracker…)

2. PHP Class link ($a->hit(‘info to send’,['userName' => 'Bob']);)

3. Ajax link, out of the three this is the preferred method of communication. I have build a new Javascript function on top of prototype to build the call and then use the Ajax.Request function. (Winnjs.Hit(‘send info’,['username:Bob']))

The first launch of this will be in just a few short days and then the full release will be in about a month. The first release of this will not have a backend tool for the admin area. Version 2 will have a full admin area where you can create the three above calls with options, with little programing experience.

This system will come light with only about 1.5 megs of files and only 3 tables to install to your mysql database. Version 2 will come with a full install script along with many more options for non developers to use.

I will keep you posted on new changes to this and when it will launch.