All code for the Ajax Patterns demos is now available. This is the code used as examples for many of the patterns at AjaxPatterns.org, as well as the Pattern-Led Tutorial that forms Chapter 2 of the “Ajax Design Patterns” book to be published next month.

Download the code - ajaxdemos.zip.

Read the installation notes. Basically, you need PHP and Apache, and optionally MySQL is required for the wiki demos. The install should be pretty basic, as the notes indicate:

* Unzip the package to a temporary location and copy
  run/, tutorial/, and records/ to the apache document root.
  Assuming the doc root is /apache/document/root:

    cp run tutorial records /apache/document/root.

  (Alternatively, if you have sufficient access, set up a new
   virtual host in apache's httpd.conf and point it to the root
   of the unzipped directory, ajaxdemos/).

* Ensure the server can write to (the initially empty) records/
   directory. The easiest (though not the most secure) way is:

    chmod 777 apache/document/root/records

* Open up run/.htaccess and follow instructions there to set
   the library path.

* Finished!

You might wonder why the server-side uses PHP, when I’m more of a Java+Ruby kind of guy. Realistically, the choice was Java versus PHP due to popularity. PHP was chosen because the code needs to be easy to install, and LAMP is a lot more ubiquitous and easier to work with than integrating Java+Tomcat+MySQL together. I understand Java is at least shipping with Debian at some point, but right now, there’s few things easier than getting a LAMP setup running, especially with all the one-click installers around (http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html).

From a development perspective, I also found PHP more productive for the experimental style of development that went into the Ajax demos. The usual drivers for Java - maintainability, security, etc. - weren’t a factor. PHP also has the sort-of-merit of being the Switzerland of server-side languages. Use Perl, Java, C#, or Rails, and you’re going to be flamed loudly from some contingent. But use PHP and most non-PHP coders will say something about it would have been nice if you’d used Java/etc but I can see your point and shrug their shoulders a bit. As it happens, only a few patterns (need to) delve into server-side details, so the only real impact of using PHP is if people want to hack the code or look further into the details of implementing a pattern.