Category Archives: AJAX Frameworks

7 frameworks for reach User Interface experience

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IT MILL

it-mill-toolkit

IT Mill Toolkit is an open-source framework, providing widgets and tools for the development of Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). Deliver web applications without worrying aboutincompatibilities of web browsers, DOM or JavaScript by using standard Java tools. 

LIVE PIPE UI

livepipe

LivePipe UI is a suite of high quality widgets and controls for web 2.0 applications built using the Prototype JavaScript Framework. Each control is well tested, highly extensible, fully documented and degrades gracefully for non JavaScript enabled browsers where possible.

iWebKIT

iwebkit-demo-try-out-iwebkit-and-create-the-ultimate-iphone-website_1233145151675

Iwebkit is the revolutionnairy kit used to create high quality iPhone and iPod touch websites in a few minutes. In the first 4 months of it’s existance the pack has greatly evolved from a basic idea to a project that has reached worldwide fame.

JITSU

jitsu

Jitsu contains an integrated set of tools to enable developers to build and deploy sophisticated user interfaces for web applications. These include an Xml markup language, page compiler, data binding engine, JavaScript runtime, control library, runtime inspector, animation engine, cross-platform library, Ajax, and back button support. Jitsu apps use DHTML and run in most modern web browsers.

MochaUI

mochaui

MochaUI is a web applications user interface library built on the Mootools JavaScript framework.

Echo Web Framework

echo

Echo is an open-source framework for developing rich web applications. From the developer’s perspective, Echo behaves as a user interface toolkit–like Swing or Eclipse SWT. AJAX technology is employed to deliver a user experience to web clients that approaches that of desktop-based applications. Echo applications can be created entirely in server-side Java code using a component-oriented and event-driven API (applies to Echo2 and Echo3) or as client-side applications written in JavaScript (applies to Echo3 only).

The Yahoo! User Interface Library (YUI)

yui-library-examples-autoc

The YUI Library is a set of utilities and controls, written in JavaScript, for building richly interactive web applications using techniques such as DOM scripting, DHTML and AJAX.

The Business of Ajax – Google’s Ajax Search API

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Google actually relies on our users to help with our marketing. We have a very high percentage of our users who often tell others about our search engine. — Sergey Brin

So spake one of the co-founders of Google. But what happens when your users start to tell others about your search engines in ways that you don’t like? When they present your search results in ways that hurt or confuse your brand? You would probably try to control how those users used those results. That seems to be what Google has done with the release of their new Google Ajax Search API.

Somewhat lost in the hype around the release of the Ajax API was the discontinuation of the Google SOAP Search API. It’s still available to existing subscribers, but no new ones are being signed up. To see why this discontinuation is an exercise in brand discipline, you just have to look at the terms of use for the Ajax API:

You agree that you will not, and you will not permit your users or other third parties to: (a) modify or replace the text, images, or other content of the Google Search Results, including by (i) changing the order in which the Google Search Results appear, (ii) intermixing Search Results from sources other than Google, or (iii) intermixing other content such that it appears to be part of the Google Search Results; or (b) modify, replace or otherwise disable the functioning of links to Google or third party websites provided in the Google Search Results.

The key terms here are that the order and appearance cannot be modified. And that is the essence of the Google brand: the order of the search terms. Fortunes are made and lost based on Google search position. Business plans are build around it. Millions of people around the world use the top ten results to find information, guide purchasing decisions, and so on. Mess with that order in some consistent way — in some, god forbid, way that people find valuable — and you’ve lost control of your brand, who you are, and likely your ability to advertise. Continue reading →

YUI Version 2.2.0 Released: Browser History Manager, DataTable, and Button Components, New Versioning, and More

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YUI 2.2.0 has been released one year after YUI was released into open source.

The major changes are:

  • Versioning: 0.12.2 to 2.2.0: The new version syncs up the internal and external release numbers
  • Browser History Manager: The YUI Browser History Manager supports all A-grade browsers in managing the back/forward button navigation and bookmarking
  • DataTable Control: The DataTable control allows you to present tabular data and allow your user to engage that presentation by modifying/enhancing the data, sorting and searching through it, and adjusting the presentation itself.
  • Button Control: Buttons are essential parts of most graphical interfaces, but the visual constraints of buttons in their various form-control implementations (submit buttons, radio buttons, check boxes, etc.) diminish their effectiveness in some applications. The Button Control provides a platform for implementing visually impactful buttons that range from standard click-to-navigate buttons to radio buttons and checkboxes to advanced split-buttons that can operate as both a button and a menu.
  • New YAHOO.* properties: such as YAHOO.lang, YAHOO.env, and a YAHOO_config global

Congrats on the new release. Continue reading →

SJAX: AJAX option for automated in-browser testing

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Vitaliy Shevchuk has proposed SJAX: AJAX option for automated in-browser testing which makes testing of Ajax apps simpler with Selenium that having to waitForAjax and friends.

The Problem

However, things are getting more complicated with AJAX. No page is loaded, but the content has changed. And it hasn’t changed instantly; AJAX is asynchronous by its definition. Setting a bug interval is a bad solution: it makes build cycle very slow without really solving the problem.

Some guys suggest using a “waitForCondition” command. In other word, every time AJAX is in action you need to manually add a waiting condition. This is much better then nothing; at least it is a real working solution. However, test creating is much longer and less fun.

Another option would be to extend Selenium to make it aware the underlying AJAX framework, so that the test case would pause until XMLHttpRequest is satisfied. Well, it requires extending Selenium, which is not very simple task neither. And there is a multitude of AJAX frameworks available, it would be impossible to adapt Selenium to every of them. And there are other in-browser testing solutions, not only selenium: both open source and commercial ones.

Solutions?

And the ideal scenario would be the following:

  • Test, application itself or the in-browser testing framework raises a flag to mark the current session as the one of automated testing.
  • AJAX framework detects the flag and passes to synchronous mode.
  • In this case, a method of user action simulation (click/type) of Selenium will not return until the AJAX data is successful fetched and processed. So Selenium will not be able to continue before the page content is updated, and it’s exactly what the user expects from his macros.

source: ajaxian.com

JsHttpRequest: Low level Ajax library

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Dmitriy Koterov has written JsHttpRequest a light wrapper on top of XHR and friends that features:

  • Cross-browser compatibility. Library works with IE5.0+, Mozilla 1.7+, FireFox 1.0+, Opera 7.3+, Safari (”+” means “in specified and newer versions”). By this token, code could work without ActiveX and XMLHttpRequest support (but if these capabilities are available, they are used automatically).
  • File uploads from user browser to the server without page reloading.
  • Full support of PHP debug features. If server-side script fails on an error (including fatal error, e.g., call of undefined function), client-side script can handle it correctly and show diagnostics. Besides response data, it is passed the output flow of server-side script which contains PHP error messages.
  • Multi-dimensional data structures exchange (JSON analog) in client request and server response. At that, are used the standard PHP instruments — multi-dimensional associative arrays (request data available at $_REQUEST, response data may be saved to $_RESULT), as well as JavaScript standard capabilities — nested objects and properties. No XML in the level of API: you work with “native” language variables.
  • PHP session support using usual way.
  • Optimal data loading method choosing (XMLHttpRequest, Microsoft.XMLHTTP,
  • Interface is compatible with XMLHttpRequest.

Downloads

Prototype 1.5, new Documentation

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Prototype

Prototype is a JavaScript Framework that aims to ease development of dynamic web applications.

Featuring a unique, easy-to-use toolkit for class-driven development and the nicest Ajax library around, Prototype is quickly becoming the codebase of choice for web application developers everywhere.

It is documentation Friday. The new site prototypejs.org has launched, and the call for documentation help rang through to some people.

This new documentation includes: