Feature

AJAX World RIA Expo: How to Choose an RIA Solution

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 06:00:00 EST

There are currently more than 200 RIA solutions available, and this number grows daily. Each RIA solution has its strengths and weaknesses, and the levels of security, accessibility, and integration vary. Choosing a suitable RIA solution for creating or enhancing Web applications becomes more difficult for both software architects and software project managers.

Tooling Up for Web 2.0

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 06:00:00 EST

Most of the discussion surrounding Web 2.0 applications revolves around the way it revolutionized end users' interaction with applications and with other users. An area that is sometimes left out of the discussion is the impact Web 2.0 had on the developers who are actually building these applications. Creating Web 2.0 applications involves a variety of technologies and standards from UI technologies such as AJAX and DHTML to back-end technologies such as SOA and other mash-up technologies.

RIA and Cloud Computing Apps

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:45:00 EST

We are using software applications more than ever before. As the demand for new capabilities and functions grows, companies strive to provide an adequate response to business needs. The rate of application evolution places an ever-larger burden on the shoulders of software producers, vendors, and even consumers. In addition, much of the costly software used by organizations was not designed to respond to a rapidly changing marketplace or highly dispersed workforce, requiring its substitution or modernization.

AJAX 2009: More Choices, Tough Decisions

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 11:00:00 EST

The story of software development in the last few years has been driven by the need to provide a good user experience without installation issues and update woes. For some people that has meant building "smart client" applications, as promoted by Microsoft. For others, that has meant building rich Internet applications (RIAs) using technologies such as AJAX, Microsoft Silverlight, and Adobe Flash and Flex.

AJAXWorld: Top 10 Lessons Learned Using AJAX

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 06:45:00 EDT

The Web 2.0 phenomenon of the last couple years – which has been picking up steam recently – is largely dependent on AJAX. This concept is beneficial to both the developer and user, as it makes programming Web applications more fun while enhancing the user experience. As a developer I see the tremendous value AJAX brings to the table.

Building Enterprise RIAs? Look Beyond AJAX

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:00:00 EDT

With the growing popularity of consumer Web sites such as Google Maps, YouTube, and Flickr, the consumer sector is aggressively endorsing Web 2.0 technologies. Increasingly, enterprises are recognizing the business value of the Web platform over the high cost of ownership and limited reach of existing client/server applications. The fastest way for enterprises to start reaping the benefits of Web 2.0 is via rich Internet applications (RIA) rather than wikis, blogs, tags, mashups, or social networks.

JavaScript Powers Up the Server Side

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:43:00 EDT

Aptana Jaxer is a new open source application server built especially for AJAX application development in JavaScript. To say that "Jaxer lets you do JavaScript on the server-side" would be accurate, but an understatement. The core concept of Jaxer is that it provides a parity of environments at the client and the server to simplify the creation of rich AJAX pages, apps, and gadgets – and by so doing, gives the Web developer a unified runtime at both the client and server tiers.

AJAXWorld RIA Conference - Speaker Mike Girouard's JavaScript Design Patterns, #2

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:45:00 EDT

Load time configuration is the process where a JavaScript application configures itself as it is being loaded. This pattern is most commonly found in libraries in which they configure themselves at load time to be optimized for a particular browser. Load time configuration is also known as load time branching.

Engelbart's Usability Dilemma: Efficiency vs Ease-of-Use

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:15:00 EDT

The mouse was the original idea of Doug Engelbart who was the head of the Augmentation Research Center (ARC) at Stanford Research Institute. Engelbart's philosophy is best embodied, in my opinion, in the design of another device that he invented, the five-finger keyboard - with keys like a piano, used by one hand. The problem was, Engelbart's five-finger keyboard and mouse combination was very difficult to learn.

Betting on Java for AJAX

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:15:00 EST

Each day as an AJAX developer seems to bring another helpful revelation: a new tool, a new gadget, a new way to reinvent the browser. But even when I'm confronted with a breakthrough as big as Firebug - the brilliant debugging tool for Firefox - in the back of my mind I'm reminded that the AJAX state-of-the-art is trailing behind the debugging tools that we've had in Java for years. With age comes maturity, and with Java's maturity has come a wealth of development environments, field-tested frameworks, and a rich set of strongly typed APIs.

When Does AJAX Make Business Sense?

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 10:00:00 EDT

Hard-nosed executives recognize that there are costs associated with any benefit. To convince today's upper-level decision makers to approve strategic investments, they need to hear more than phrases like 'essential to the business,' 'the results are too unpredictable,' and 'yields intangible benefits.' In the world of Web development, the move from HTML to AJAX-powered HTML can often be achieved at a relatively low cost, but there are both direct and indirect costs associated with AJAX that must be taken into account. A close analysis of these factors will enable business managers to make more well informed decisions when considering AJAX adoption in a particular application and across their organization.

Mobile AJAX FAQ - What Is Mobile AJAX?

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 08:45:00 EDT

Mobile AJAX is the extension of AJAX principles to the mobile environment, which includes other constrained devices such as gaming consoles or set-top boxes featuring Web browsers. While technologically the same thing, Mobile AJAX is looked at as a special case of AJAX, as it deals with problems specific to the mobile space including the areas of constrained devices and constrained Web browsers in general.