Software Blog  RSS News Feed  What's This? Select a topic from the list below. Topics are ordered by date with the eight most recent at the top. Show All Articles July 19th 2010
iPhone App Development
We are moving on from AJAX applications to the development of iPhone apps (and apps for other smartphone platforms). There are many challenges in making this move, some of which are described here. July 18th 2009
Facebook Security Issues
Facebook has serious problems with its attitude to privacy, so much so that they appear to be in breach of Canadian privacy laws. Any action by the Canadian government will however be limited to just a small part of the wider problem. Facebook has to go much, much further. This article makes some suggestions on how I think they should clean up their act. July 5th 2009
Multi-Language Support
Translations of complete web pages have come a long way from the early days of Babelfish, although they still leave a lot to be desired. But what if you only need to translate individual phrases? Should you construct the phrase in English and then use Google Translate or do we need to do something more sophisticated? November 4th 2007
Working From Home
Working from home is becoming easier and easier as computers, the internet and mobile phones become more sophisticated. Why then don't more people (and more companies) embrace it? July 8th 2007
Using AJAX In Practice
AJAX is a powerful programming tool that is without doubt the future of the internet. However, until the search engine and browser developers catch up with the new reality, there are a few gotcha's you need to be aware of. April 22nd 2007
Web Design Trends
Web pages are moving away from fancy graphics to dynamic interactive sites with added value for users. To develop such pages, web developers need to be able to program in a variety of different languages. If you can't program, there soon won't be a place for you in the web development industry. March 19th 2007
More On Mobile Devices
Mobile devices become smaller and more multi-functional with fewer buttons and bigger, touch sensitive screens. Those of us with limited short range vision should be getting worried by these developments. Perhaps the science of haptics wil be our saviour. February 25th 2007
Censorship On The Internet
Some censorship of the internet is necessary. I fully support the removal of child pornography for example. But insiduous censorship by special interests is slowly creeping over the internet and eroding free speech. These special interests include web site owners who censor forum posts and business owners who deliberately remove competitors ads from public listings. |
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IT'S REAL EASY |
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I decided it was time to learn how to use AJAX. Lot’s of people have been raving about it and saying what amazing things it can do for web sites and I wanted to be able to do them too. The special thing that AJAX does is to allow direct communication between a displayed web page and the server the web page came from. Normally when you access a web site, the page of HTML is downloaded to your computer along with all the bits and pieces needed to make it work. When you click on something on that web page then typically another page is downloaded from the server and displayed in its place. This causes pauses and screen flickering as the new page is shown in place of the old one. Using AJAX, you can simply leave the static parts of the page in place and just update the things that need to change for the new situation.
AJAX stands for “Asynchronous JavaScript And XHTML”, which if anything is a more confusing description than the AJAX acronym itself. Anyway, AJAX is not a software package, it’s simply a description of a technique to use a browser feature that’s been around for quite a while but which has gone almost unnoticed until recently. And quite honestly, that’s all there is to it.
The feature in question is called the XMLHttpRequest object and it was originally written by Microsoft as part of Outlook Web Access 2000 and was released in Internet Explorer 5.0. Since then, the feature has been picked up by other browser writers and has pretty much become a de facto standard. Java Applets, ActiveX controls and Flash movies are other mechanisms whereby web pages can communicate with their servers. However, many web users deliberately disable these mechanisms because of their hunger for system resources and their potential security issues. AJAX is therefore an excellent alternative to provide some similar functionality.
To make AJAX work for you, you need to understand a few things, namely:
- The implications of asynchronous operation. That is that things are not necessarily processed and returned in the order you asked for them.
- How to circumvent browser caching when necessary. As this can prevent requests being executed at all!
- The methods and mechanics for actually using the XMLHttpRequest object.
- Understanding of JavaScript and a server programming language such as PHP or ASP.
And that’s it. You just learned AJAX.
I spent thirty minutes looking at a simple AJAX tutorial and then wasted an hour trying to figure out how to use SAJAX. SAJAX is billed as Simple AJAX but in reality is just a load of undocumented complications. I then threw SAJAX away and spent two hours writing my first AJAX application as an alternative to the same application using traditional screen refreshes. Both the original application and the AJAX version can be found under the Tools menu on this website. My AJAX application isn’t perfect and for several reasons I actually prefer the original implementation. But I can see how to improve this first effort and I do now understand the potential power of AJAX and I will be able to use it in the future where it is appropriate to do so.
So, don’t be afraid, dive in and learn. It’s real easy and after just a few hours, you too can add AJAX to your resume.
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| Comment by Alexsrttc on February 11th 2007 | | | Hello, my name is Alex, i'm a newbie here. I really do like your resource and really interested in things you discuss here, also would like to enter your community, hope it is possible:-) Cya around, best regards, Alex! | | | | |
| Comment by vipsticks on February 13th 2007 | | | Hey guys, there's another English person about, :)
I'm a new on www.activeminds.ca
looking forward to speaking to you guys soon | | | | |
| Comment by Kjell Bleivik on February 20th 2007 | | | Extended Java Script or AJAX, more generally known as web applications, will bring webapplications closer to desk top applications. Think of
- Increased efficiency.
- Reduced maintenance and upgrading cost. You only upload the new or refactored code to the web server.
- Reduced need for IT personell.
- If it is used on an intranet, all emplyees get access to the new software at the same time.
- The same argument applies to customer extranets.
Wheter the future technology will be iFrames, AJAX or another technology that is not important.
Webapplications is in the end the future of the web IMO.
How are webapplications linked to web services and SOAP like technologies? | | | | |
| Comment by David Sawers on February 21st 2007 | | | Kjell,
I agree with you that web applications is likely to be the future of the internet. Ajax is just one small part of making those applications work. SOAP and other technologies have a valuable role too.
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