Software As She’s Developed

A little while back, I mentioned that some people in the patterns community have been noticing the Ajax Patterns. In particular, there have been a series of discussions about the patterns by the Software Architecture Group in the University of Illinois Computer Science Dept (home of Netscape forerunner Mosaic btw). The SAG is led by […]

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Ajax Basics 3 of 3 This is the final of three podcasts on the basic Ajax patterns. Podcast 1: Display Patterns and the DOM. Podcast 2: Web Remoting - XMLHttpRequest, IFrame Call, HTTP Streaming. Podcast 3: Dynamic Behaviour - User Actions (Events), Timing, Ajax App, Web Service, On-Demand Javascript, Richer Plugin Podcast 3: User Actions (Events), Timing, Ajax App, […]

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I had a funny story the other day: Someone referred me to Ajax Patterns. While researching a number of patterns, I contacted relevant developers for their take, as reflected in the pattern-specific acknowledgements. I have to say I’m very grateful for everyone’s help and most people have given me plenty of detail. While researching one pattern […]

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Harry Fuecks suggests there are two types of Ajax apps: HTML++ and Client/SOA. This is something I’ve noticed too, and it cuts right across the Ajax architecture, impacting on the user-interface, the physical architecture (browser-server separation) and the abilities of the developers involved. The “Ajax App” pattern addresses this as a decision. It’s the root pattern […]

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I’m pleased that AjaxPatterns.org seems to have entered the pattern community radar in the past couple of months (or maybe earlier, but that’s the impression I’m getting) … Workshop on Ajax Patterns Ralph Johnston (of GoF Design Patterns fame) runs a regular patterns reading group/workshop and they’ve been looking at the Ajax patterns. Fortunately, they release the […]

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Architecture, Patterns, Town Planning Any book on patterns must include the obligatory Christopher Alexander discussion. In my case, it’s brief, for the following reason: One side benefit of this project has been to see how “patterns” are being accepted by the development community. The attention on the Ajax Patterns has always been on the “Ajax” and not […]

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Here’s a heads-up on the tutorial to be included with “Ajax Design Patterns”. I’ll let you know when the tutorial text is available, but for now, the demos are running: Demos for the AjaxPatterns Tutorial The first half is a fairly standard intro to Ajax, using the Foundational Technologies patterns (Display Manipulation, Web Remoting, Dynamic Behaviour). The second […]

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Working (offline) on Richer Plugin, I’ve expanded the list of reasons you’d want to use a Richer Plugin, i.e. Flash, Java Applets, Standalone clients, Firefox extensions etc. Here’s the list of things Ajax can’t do on it’s own - what else is there? Browser morphing Adding buttons, toolbars, bookmarks, icons; changing browser behaviour. Local file access Reading and […]

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Abe Fettig’s done some important experimenting to arrive at a direct remoting technique, one which bypasses the need for a Cross-Domain Proxy and doesn’t rely on cross-domain On-Demand Javascript. Compared to the latter technique, Abe’s idea is more functional, because you get the power, expressivity, and bidirectional capability of XMLHttpRequest, as opposed to the On-Demand […]

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Today’s Ajax framework is JsRia. Yesterday’s was ZK, with the Backbase entries updated too. In the past week, there were Smartclient, Ajax JSP Taglib, Ajax JSF Framework, Cajax. Here’s the diff. The week prior to that saw introduction of XOAD, Rialto, and Lotus Notes info. Have the Ajax frameworks entered the enlightened age of singularity? (I’ve […]

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