AJAX web design anyone?

Matthew · Posted: Sun Mar 26, 06 1:20 am

AJAX = Asynchronous Javascript And XML

Along the lines of David's inquiry into online training resources, is anyone on here super up-to-date on the latest "ajax" or "web20" stuff (cheesy names, I agree)? I know a little javascript and the general concepts, but the wave is fairly new so I haven't seen a nice "one-stop-shopping" way to learn solid AJAX design that I can roll into a web application.

So far, everyone seems to have their own ideas about how to implement rounded corners with CSS, what javascript toolkits they prefer, and the proper way to implement asynchronous content updates into an online application.

I'd like to do this "the right way" (if there is one), stick to decent web development standards, and design in a way that will be reasonably extensible. Any recommendations? Is this wave of technology too new for things to have settled in?

Oh, and ActiveX is out of the question. Smile

-Matthew

Matthew · Posted: Sun Mar 26, 06 3:09 pm

DOH, I think I may have finally found a good starting resource here, but feel free to offer any additional resources if you have them!

-Matthew

Camden Spiller · Posted: Sun Mar 26, 06 7:07 pm

Ah cool! Riley and I have done a little work with AJAX but I didn't have a good reference like that Smile

Thanks

Camden Spiller · Posted: Sun Mar 26, 06 7:09 pm

ImARealGeek · Posted: Tue Mar 28, 06 10:58 pm

Yahoo has some interesting-looking code available on their site:

http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/

Among other things, there's a "connection manager". Their description:

ImARealGeek · Posted: Tue Mar 28, 06 11:06 pm

There's also an example of using this library (with PHP) here:

http://toys.lerdorf.com/

Matthew · Posted: Wed Mar 29, 06 3:23 pm

Thanks for those links! I will definitely check those out. It looks like they have some good libraries included.

-Matthew

ImARealGeek · Posted: Mon Apr 10, 06 6:36 pm

I think this may have been more along the lines of what you were looking for:

http://ajaxpatterns.org/

They also mention an upcoming book, "AJAX Design Patterns", which sounds like it should be interesting.

Matthew · Posted: Tue Apr 11, 06 10:44 am

Excellent! Thanks for that link; it looks great.

I see all the debates out there on the web about whether or not "AJAX" and "Web2.0" is actually worth anything or just hype. Still, I've started playing with script.aculo.us and Prototype since at least they have frameworks in place and do a lot of neat things. I assume you've seen those?

Daniel · Posted: Fri Jul 28, 06 12:27 pm

I couldn't help but think of this thread when I came across AJAX. I was looking into some other stuff, and how I could incorperate it into a forum for my site. Looks like someone beat me too it.

Klaus · Posted: Wed Sep 20, 06 7:21 pm

There's a package in the PEAR repository: HTML_AJAX. It should be a good module that you can plug in your class library and get going. Though it is beta, PEAR requires that the public API remains the same except in special circumstances. That means that as long as you are using version 1.x of a package, you will always be able to upgrade to the latest version without breaking your code. Also, beta versions are supposed to already have a stable API, though additional methods and properties may always be added to a release. (I'm on the QA team for PEAR and have had to jump through some hoops with my own packages, too...)