In my most recent web application project, my clients asked for the ability to change the color of certain HTML elements without having to actually write or change any HTML code. So I used ColdFusion and the jQuery JavaScript library to create a color grid similar to the one that pops up in Adobe Dreamweaver when you type a color-related HTML or CSS attribute, allowing them to choose a color simply by clicking on it.
After I finished the grid, it occurred to me how I could use a similar tool for my coding work: CFEclipse doesn't have a selectable color grid (most likely a limitation of Eclipse itself), and it's a pain to open up Dreamweaver or Fireworks just to get a color. So I decided to try and make my color grid into an AIR application.
The result is colorPicker, a widget-like AIR application that lets you either select a color from a grid of "web-safe" colors or design a color using sliders to change the red, green, and blue values of the color. Once you have the color you want, you can click on the corresponding "Save to Clipboard" button to copy the hex color code to the clipboard and then paste it into your HTML code in your IDE of choice. It also saves all of the colors you've copied to the clipboard during your session so you can repeat a color.
It actually uses very little of the AIR API: just the clipboard copy function and the description file needed to run it. Everything else is done with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
You can view screenshots of colorPicker and download it from RIAforge.org at:
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