start > 2006-01-15 > 1

Dojo: On the AJAX bandwagon

Created by hww3. Last updated by hww3, 19 years ago. Version #7.

I've been playing around with some of the rapidly appearing http://ajaxian.com/archives/nine-tips-for-rich-internet-applications toolkits, in order to see what all the fuss is about. I'm generally of the opinion that client side Javascript is considerably more frustrating and less efficient for a developer than even the most inefficient server side development environments (like Java Servlets, for instance). It's hard to completely ignore Javascript, because of the "rich client" functionality you can layer on top of your existing web application. Of course, this path is frought with pitfalls like cross browser compatibility and accessibility problems , but in general, I think there are some good tools to be found.

In particular, I think the http://blog.dojotoolkit.org/2005/12/19/dojo-021 has a lot of potential. It seems to be approaching client side Javascript from a more general angle (and possibly lower level) than other frameworks like prototype or Scriptaculous. While Dojo doesn't have all of the prebuilt fancy special effects some of the other toolkits have, it does benefit from having slightly better documentation, and some really cool extra features, like client side crypto functions. It does seem to be a good bit more complex than prototype, but I think that the folks at the Dojo Foundation are aiming for a broader target.

As a test of some of the features, I've added some AJAX functionality to FinScribe over the last day or two. You'll notice that the login feature, as well as the blog post and actions butttons are all dynamic and ajax enabled. I've also added an Dojo DatePicker to the blog post form. I'm still thinking about exactly whether and how to include this type of functionality into FinScribe, as well as the Fins framework itself. It may eventually go away if I feel that it's AJAX for the sake of AJAX. Time will tell, and your comments and suggestions are welcome!

Posted in pike and web apps | RSS Feed | BackLinks