Below are a few PHP components worth mentioning that can be utilized in any application:

• pChart

  pChart is a PHP class oriented framework designed to create aliased charts.
  Demo | Download

• FPDF

  FPDF is a PHP class which allows to generate PDF files with pure PHP, that is to say without using the PDFlib library
  Download 

• Securimage

  A highly customizable PHP CAPTCHA class for generating CAPTCHA images to prevent programs from filling out your forms.
  Demo | Download

• calendar-class-php

  calendar.class.php is an easy to use php class for generating a calendar display. The class outputs semantic and valid XHTML that is ready to style with your custom CSS.
  Demo | Download

• Breadcrumbs

  Highly Configurable breadcrumbs script that takes your directory structure and does whatever you want with it.
  Demo | Download

• Smart Image Resizer

  Allows you to resize and crop any image on your website without touching the actual image or writing any code.
  Demo | Download

The debate has been ongoing as to whether it is good practice to keep using the target attribute to open a link in a new window.  There are numerous reasons for and against usage which I honestly think depends on the situation. However, should one wish to use a strict doctype and still  have the ability to open a link in a new window without validation errors there are workarounds.

On a past project I was faced with a similar dilemma. The project utilized html strict doctype pages and there were sections of the project that required the links to be opened in a new window.  So in order to best accomplish this the decision was made to  utilize a solution incorporating jQuery.

Apart from your incorporation of the jQuery framework, all you would need to use is placed this code snippet just after the body of your page:

$(document).ready(function(){
	$('a[href^="http://"]').attr("target", "_blank");
	$('a[href^="https://"]').attr("target", "_blank");
});

Essentially, any link that starts with http or https will be opened in a new window.

This code snippet can be extended even further to incorporate classes or divs.

$(document).ready(function(){
	$('a[href^="http://"]').attr("target", "_blank").addClass('external');
	$('a[href^="https://"]').attr("target", "_blank").addClass('external');
});

As you can see I used chaining to add a class called external which I can use to maybe incorporate a link icon or even manipulate the color of that link.

Dear Google Apps admin,​

In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology. This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5. As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 ​as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.

We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010. After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.

Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.

Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser. We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.

In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience. We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.

Thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,

The Google Apps team

Each of us has some sort of love/hate relationship with Internet Explorer; particularly version 6. All the additional hours of extra coding and hacking just to make our sites work seamlessly in this dreaded browser.

Google has decided to take a stand.  Maybe it is the right time for us all to collectively stop coding for IE6 as well? What are your thoughts?