weave the world using Ajax
Ajax Articles
IBM and Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) [20 Oct 2005] new!
An interview with Vinod Seraphin, IBM Domino Web Access architect. Interviewed by Richard Schwartz, RHS Consulting founder
"Advisor: With all the early experience that IBM has picked up on with AJAX, is there anything you'd like to see added to browsers that would make development and user experience better in applications built this way?
Seraphin: Yes, here are two quick browser wish list items I have:
1. The ability for a Web Application to build up "context" and have it available for subsequent pages. As you build richer DHTML/AJAX applications, you often wind up with a lot of JavaScript routines you have to add to the DOM. At present, either these external script pages must be included in every page (DWA model), or the Web application has to adopt a frameset or root page with iframe architecture to allow loading the script only once. It would be nice to have a way to load such context in way that could then be easily reused on subsequent pages without the browser having to reparse all the JavaScript. In other words, a way to load in DOM extensions as the browser hits the first page of a Web application and to have all this be present and retained as the user traverses other pages or refreshes a page.
2. HTML extensions to support richer widgets. As part of DWA development, we created many UI widgets -- such as a date picker, tree widget (or outline). It would be nice to have built-in support for these. Application level markups such as XUL offer such a rich set of widgets, but some set that can be used cross-browser is needed." Read Full Interview »
by Philip McCarthy
If you're doing Java™ Web development using Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax), then delivering data from the server to the client is probably your top concern. In this second article in the Ajax for Java developers series, Philip McCarthy walks you through five approaches to Java object serialization and gives you all the information you need to choose the data format and technology best suited to your application.
This time, I'll continue discussing the development fundamentals of Ajax, but I'm focusing on what matters most for many Java Web developers: producing data for the client.
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BEA's Carges on portals, Ajax
by Michael Meehan
What Ajax does is help bring a lot of the ability for not only the instantaneous response, but you can also get things like interportlet communication happening where you start doing something in one portal and it affects another portlet on the same screen. That just helps give a better experience overall. You can use that when you're reaching out to your customers. Your customers will want to interact more with your portals. They'll feel it's a better experience, they can do things faster, more efficiently. It's one of those inexorable make it better, faster, simpler. Ajax is going to help do that. Anything to make the client experience richer. more »
OutPost: Post Back Over XmlHttp
by Troels Wittrup Jensen
Lets say you have a tree-structure displayed to the user (like in Windows Explorer) and you only want to retrieve and display the sub-folders when the user expands a folder in the tree.
With AJAX you would call a web service to retrieve an array containing the subfolder names, links and icons and create the tree nodes using DHTML. You would have to create the web service methods, write cross-browser javascript to make it work and have hidden fields in your ASP.NET WebForm containing the state of the control.
What OutPost does is to perform a real Post Back through a Web Service that also manages the view-state (and keeps it on the web server). The InnerHtml of the modified elements are sent back to the client and displayed in the browser. In that way the whole process is generalized and you don't need to create Web Service methods, DHTML javascripts or add hidden fields for your ASP.NET Controls.
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Enterprise AJAX
by Troels Wittrup Jensen
If you look at the AJAX that is being used in a consumer context, you'll see the following:
» trivial editing of the existing html being displayed to the user (the Ta-da list update trick)
» control of the users attention using simple animations (the "yellow fade technique"
» simple optimizations of page loading, like downloading sidebars AFTER the main page loads (the way technorati does)
» a lot of rocket science that only google is able to pull off. more »
ASP.NET Spiced: AJAX
by Karl Seguin
AJAX, short for Asynchronous JavaScript And XML, isn't a technology but rather a grouping of technologies. AJAX uses a communication technology (typically SOAP and XML) to send and receive an asynchronous request/response to the server, and then leverages presentation technologies (JavaScript, DOM, HTML, and CSS) to process the response. Applications using AJAX are legitimate today, because most browsers support the necessary technology. For a more detailed definition of AJAX, visit the AJAX Wikipedia entry.
What does AJAX really mean? It lets you execute a server-side method through a JavaScript call, without requiring a browser refresh. Think of it as a mini request/response that happens behind the scenes from the user. If you still aren't clear what AJAX is, take a look at two popular examples from Google: Google Suggests and Google Maps. If you are new to AJAX, the responsiveness of those two applications should make your skin tingle slightly.
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Ajax: How To Weave A Faster Web
by businessweek.com
Do a search on Google Maps for your house, and you'll see a nice enough map of your neighborhood. Now hold down the mouse button. You'll find you can move the map around as quickly as if it were sitting on a table. Zooming in and out, there's no delay waiting for the page to reload. And you can switch instantly to corresponding satellite photos and even a combined map-photo view. more »
Fighting AJAX's Enemy: Legacy HTML Forms
by felocity.org
Many designers have jumped on the AJAX/Javascript/Shiny bandwagon, developing interactive-this or on-the-fly-that, but nobody has stopped to address AJAX from a very common business standpoint. It’s not always feasible to convert everything at once, nor is it always possible to work in a world of non tabular layouts. more »
Does JSF + AJAX really make sense?
by Alexander Jerusalem
JSF and ASP.NET are based on the idea that the whole page (view state) is reconstituted as a server-side component tree on each request, before any event handling code is called (I'm skipping a few details here). Event handlers have access to all of the most current field values, which are already converted and validated. Also, event handlers can modify field values and the page structure itself, or they can redirect to another page. more »
Remote Scripting with AJAX, Part 1
by Cameron Adams
Essentially, remote scripting allows client-side JavaScript to request data from a server without having to refresh the web page. That's it. Everything else that goes into making a seamless web application draws upon the established methods of manipulating the Document Object Model.
However, remote scripting and seamless applications bring with them a host of problems from the desktop application design realm, making those same issues possible on the Web. It's your duty to ensure that your remote scripting interfaces address those issues, and give your users the best possible experience they can get.
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Remote Scripting with AJAX, Part 2
by Cameron Adams
The remote scripting model is quite different from the standard page-based interaction that permeates most of the Web, and with that difference comes new usability pitfalls that can too-easily be introduced into your projects. These pitfalls typically arise either from the dynamic manipulation of the interface while the user is accessing it, or from the need to access data that's external to the web page. more »