So what IS AJAX?

[dmeikle]

well, I do my local development on an XP and it works fine. even some of it on a win 2k OS (since it seems a lot more stable...). with the win2k machine, as long as the dot net framework is installed (it's running 2.0) it's fine...although it's slow as molasses.

All of the live hosting is on win2k3

[vinitsankhe]

Have u ever tried Remote Scripting (another name for AJAX) on classic ASP 6 model?

I somehow feel that its fast there.....

[dmeikle]

I have not - I haven't had to work with classic ASP in about 3 or 4 years, although before that, I was writing lots of major applications using ASP with VXML (voice XML) and WML/WAP. But after understanding how requests are handled by a server, I figure it should be very easy to implement.

[TheCPUWizard]

Remopte Scripting is not exactly AJAX. The Microsoft product based on AJAX is called ATLAS, and is still in a pre-release state (although there is a go-live license that allows it to be used in production).

Mixing client and server execution has been around for some time, and in that respect, ATLAS/AJAX is nothing new.

What is new, is that both the Microsoft and Third Party Vendor's offerings shield the developer from the intricies of having the various parts communicate (almost) seamlessly.

With previous techniques, if you wanted to update just part of a page [and not a frame], you had to "hand roll" both the client side script, and some server process to provide the updates. With Atlas/AJAX, you no simply drag an UIPDATE panel onto your ASP.Net page, and viola.

[dmeikle]

I've got the ajax with dot net down to a science now... I don't really like the atlas project stuff - most of what I write for dot net is all utilizing our prewritten toolbox controls, so I had to use my prewritten javascript functions page and write a custom handler that works quite well for just about all my needs. Using our prewritten tools, I can implement ajax faster than I can configure the atlas controls.

I think there's a benefit to using the MS controls if you feel more comfortable working at a higher overall level of programming, but if you're comfortable working at a lower level of design, and want to get more into proper design patterns, it's better to use your own.

[TheCPUWizard]

dmeikle,

I am sure you can use your own library faster than you can use a standard library. I will not even question which library has more features, is more robust, is better maintained, etc.

What I will point out, is that, if you hire a new developer, or sell your solution into a development environment, you are very unlikely to find one who has experience with your library (unless the person has also won the lottery a dozen or more times).

Standards exist to leverage experience and knowledge.

If your application was based on ATLAS/AJAX (or any other recognized platform), then you have a reasonable chance to find a developer with the revelant experience.

No matter how much we like to think of ourselves as inventors and innovators, for the majority of professional software development efforts, it is really a business proposition.

What development environment will provide the best return on investment. For the vast majority of cases. the answer is an existing supported technology or process.

[codeexpert123]

Ajax is a way of developing Web applications that combines:

XHTML and CSS standards based presentation
Interaction with the page through the DOM
Data interchange with XML and XSLT
Asynchronous data retrieval with XMLHttpRequest
JavaScript to tie it all together

[PeejAvery]

codeexpert123, please remember to keep on relevant posts. This post is already a year old! Thanks.

[andreasblixt]

AJAX isn't something that is easy to define today. Looking at what it stands for - Asynchronous JavaScript and XML - the term stands for nothing more than a technique that involves making asynchronous (non-blocking) requests using JavaScript that retrieve XML data. Nothing else.

However, today, the term is becoming more and more vague in meaning as it's used in promotion of products. Thanks to its vague definition, many people see it as a good and complex thing that makes a product awesome.

I won't try to convince you that it should only be used to define something that uses JavaScript to retrieve XML data, so I'll concede that, today, it means most of the points you (codeexpert123) wrote in your post. Mentioning XHTML and CSS together with it is pushing it though, but that association probably comes from Microsoft's contribution to AJAX-enabling a website. Some of their "AJAX" controls don't even have the slightest to do with AJAX (most of the control extenders don't.)

[andreasblixt]

codeexpert123, please remember to keep on relevant posts. This post is already a year old! Thanks.

Oh, I didn't notice it was that old when I replied... Oh well...