Wednesday 23 February 2005 7:15:57 pm
http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000385.php This essay with nice diagrams explains recent web applications developed at google, and describes that it constitutes a new approach with promising applications across the web. Please check it out and see if any aspects would be useful to incorporate into eZpublish's development framework. "Ajax isn't a technology. It's really several technologies, each flourishing in its own right, coming together in powerful new ways. Ajax incorporates:
* standards-based presentation using XHTML and CSS;
* dynamic display and interaction using the Document Object Model;
* data interchange and manipulation using XML and XSLT;
* asynchronous data retrieval using XMLHttpRequest; * and JavaScript binding everything together. Take a look at Google Suggest. Watch the way the suggested terms update as you type, almost instantly. Now look at Google Maps. Zoom in. Use your cursor to grab the map and scroll around a bit. Again, everything happens almost instantly, with no waiting for pages to reload. An Ajax application eliminates the start-stop-start-stop nature of interaction on the Web by introducing an intermediary (an Ajax engine) between the user and the server. It seems like adding a layer to the application would make it less responsive, but the opposite is true. Instead of loading a webpage, at the start of the session, the browser loads an Ajax engine--written in JavaScript and usually tucked away in a hidden frame. This engine is responsible for both rendering the interface the user sees and communicating with the server on the user's behalf. The Ajax engine allows the user's interaction with the application to happen asynchronously, independent of communication with the server. So the user is never staring at a blank browser window and an hourglass icon, waiting around for the server to do something... Google is making a huge investment in developing the Ajax approach. All of the major products Google has introduced over the last year--Orkut, Gmail, the latest beta version of Google Groups, Google Suggest, and Google Maps-- are Ajax applications. (For more on the technical nuts and bolts of these Ajax implementations, check out these excellent analyses of Gmail, Google Suggest, and Google Maps."
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