Cleaning With AJAX
Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dave and my current role at GoDaddy is Dedicated and Virtual Dedicated Development Manager. I have worked for GoDaddy for several years; spent my beginning years in Email-land, where I participated in the development of GoDaddy's Web-Based Email program. So, I have a little experience building Web applications. What does that mean to you? I'd like to share something about AJAX, and hopefully, you'll put a new tool in your tool-belt today. So, if you're interested in getting a little technical with me, let's go for a ride...
You've probably heard the word AJAX by now, but you may not know what it is. Let's start with a Wikipedia definition of AJAX (reference URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AJAX):
"Ajax, shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a Web development technique for creating interactive web applications. The intent is to make web pages feel more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes, so that the entire web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user makes a change. This is meant to increase the web page's interactivity, speed, and usability.
The Ajax technique uses a combination of:
- XHML (or HTML), CSS, for marking up and styling information.
- The DOM accessed with a client-side scripting language, especially ECMAScript implementations such as JavaScript and JScript, to dynamically display and interact with the information presented.
- The XMLHttpRequest object to exchange data asynchronously with the web server. In some Ajax frameworks and in certain situations, an IFrame object is used instead of the XMLHttpRequest object to exchange data with the web server.
- XML is sometimes used as the format for transferring data between the server and client, although any format will work, including preformatted HTML, plain text, JSON and even EBML.
Like DHTML, LAMP, or SPA, Ajax is not a technology in itself, but a term that refers to the use of a group of technologies together."
In my words, and in one short sentence, AJAX is the use of Javascript to send or fetch data from your server.
GoDaddy's Web-Based Email uses AJAX for a number of its features. For example, in Web-Based Email, you can right-click on folders and get a context menu that includes "Options...". When you click Options, you get what we call a "pop-in" dialog. The "pop-in" presents a highlighted box with the following options: Thread Messages, Long Listing, Show To Column, Unread At Top, and Flagged At Top. Select the option you want, click OK, and then a message box appears in the lower right hand corner saying, "Folder options have been updated". We use AJAX to send the folder options back to the server. The "pop-in", by itself, is not AJAX, but by using the XMLHttpRequest object to send the data to the server dynamically, is AJAX.
There are many more examples - the possibilities of AJAX are endless! I'd like to discuss them with you. If you have an AJAX story to tell, please send a comment.
Ready to give AJAX a whirl on your Web site? If you use PHP, I have a couple of suggestions for you: xajax and pajax. Before committing to one or the other, you should try both.
Ready to give AJAX a whirl on your Web site? If you use PHP, I have a couple of suggestions for you: xajax and pajax. Before committing to one or the other, you should try both.
XAJAX - http://www.xajaxproject.org/
PAJAX - http://www.auberger.com/pajax/
Xajax is a little easier to get started with, but PAJAX has a very handy synchronous mode.
Recommendation: Read all of the documentation on XAJAX and PAJAX, experiment with the tutorials, and you'll be ready to apply AJAX to your site in no time!
Best of Luck,
Dave
I'm not quite sure why one would need XAJAX or PAJAX. After reading some a simple tutorial one can understand enough AJAX to make a successful call/return to a server.
I took an AJAX class this past semester at Oklahoma Wesleyan University (okwu.edu) - and for my final I did a site usability form that incorporated AJAX - check it: www.ryanmerket.com/ajax/final
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XAJAX and PAJAX abstract the complexities and help you get off the ground, providing you with a framework for AJAX. I agree with you, though, if you want to use AJAX, you should also learn how to use the XMLHttpRequest object in it's bare form. I think you're a perfect candidate for trying XAJAX and PAJAX, you'll understand what they're doing in the background for you.
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Ajax is really a good stuff for building a fancy website. Do you think any meanfulful project for desktop application to be migrated to web-based by using this Ajax tech? I think the desktop application should contain many of user interaction which may take up a lot of overhead on response to user while using the last generation web development menthod.
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Web-Based Email is a good example of a meaningful project that ports what is traditionally a desktop application, turning it into a web-application!
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Yes, you're right. G-mail is a quite successful e-mail system using Ajax. It totally changed my habit from using outlook something to a web-based email portal. It is really great job created by google team. Other from email system, any desktop application is valuable to be put on the web? Is it a good idea for a ftp programme to be developed with Ajax?
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G-mail is considered by some to be the flagship of AJAX. I've never seen a site make more use of AJAX. It ranks high on my scale, but I am biased towards Web-Based Email, for its vast number of advanced features, and another more obvious reason.
Applications that have been ported to web-applications, that may benefit from the AJAX technology: Online Group Calendar, Online File Folder.
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Dave,
What about ATLAS? I'd like to try and implement some AJAX modules on ASP.NET 2 web site. Is it supported on GoDaddy accounts?
Regards.
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ASP.NET 1 and 2 are available on our shared Windows hosting plans. ATLAS (http://atlas.asp.net/) sounds cool, I haven't used it, being primarily a Linux guy. ATLAS is not deployed on our Windows hosting servers, but I'll put in a plug for getting it supported! Of course, if you were running a Dedicated server....
Dave
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Hye Dave:
I too am interested in Atlas. There are some really cool things that you can do within the Atlas framework as well as cool controls that are available. I would really appreciate if I could take advantage of this technology through GoDaddy. Other hosting companies are just starting to offer it.
Thanks!
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Hi Dave and you other subscribers out there. Boy, have you kids got me out-classed! I'm just a 55-yr-old Philosopher major (BA 1973) who worked her way through college tutoring Natural Deductive Logic. In "fighting" with my website and all its (my) problems, I find I am learning javascript and a ref as I go.
Is there more help available for little old cranky ladies like me? I've been pretty "vocal" today (see my other posts), but that is largely due to frustration. I will have to acquire AJAX too, I suppose. So far I have Nvu, Build-a-biz's site builder, Serif's WebPlus and their animation app, Adobe reader, Photoshop, and who knows what all else. I play with them trying to build SOMETHING that resembles a real webpage. I have some pretty fancy templates I've downloaded, but the usual response I get is "can't open..." or "can't edit...unknown application" I even have one really fancy template that was build with Nvu, and my Nvu program won't open it. Nvu WILL open my website's Homepage.index page, but won't edit it. The best luck I've had so far is with Microsoft Works' word processor, but the others can't use it.
Can't something be done to help folks like me, who I bet make up a significant percentage of your customer base, to have an easier time and more user-friendly, explanitory instructions?
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I have a BS degree in Computer Science, I have spent the last 9 years of my professional life and last 12 years hobbying in Web Applications. I take my work home, it's day and night, I'm always right in the middle of it. It must be challenging from your background, so I give you props for picking it up! You're light years ahead of my parents! Keep it fun, you have to learn one thing at a time. Pick something you like and play it until you get it, then move onto the next thing. Search the web for Tutorials on the topics that interest you. In Math, you cannot learn Calculus, if you never studied Algebra. Same thing with web-application development: you cannot pick up AJAX if you have never studied Javascript! You can try, but you're not going to understand what's going on. Start at the bottom and work your way up. Follow the tutorials, practice them. Start with the easy stuff and move your way up.
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Can I second the request for full Atlas support? Anyone developing AJAX applications with ASP.NET 2.0 is undoubtedly going to be using it in the future if not today.
I'm hoping to deploy my first Atlas application on GoDaddy in a week or so, and I hope nothing is missing (I'm hoping the needed assemblies are locally deployed, though I don't know much about it yet).
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I am also interested in doing AJAX dev. with Atlas. Is there any word when support for this will be on the shared windows hosting with .NET 2.0?
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It is being considered. Good possibility.
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Dave, I would also be interested in Atlas. Please let them know there is plenty of interest in it.
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Something I discovered is that most of the Atlas functionality (besides maybe the .asbx extension mapping) relies on the Atlas assemblies and script files.
This means that it doesn't matter if GoDaddy "supports" Atlas because there's nothing they need to install, really, just include the Atlas assembly in your bin directory and you're good to go!
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Colin - this is true. We will also be adding the .asbx extension soon.
Brian
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Thought this might be useful addon to this article. More information about ajax at http://www.ajaxtoday.com
-Rafiq,
http://www.ajaxtoday.com
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It has been a month since Microsoft changed the code name Atlas to AJAX and announced three distinct pieces that extend dot-net 2.0 for AJAX. One piece is the ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions which run server side. All three pieces will actually be supported products from Microsoft. Are these supported yet by GoDaddy in my Premium Hosting accounts. I am getting started by attending the Microsoft web seminars and am just about ready to start using AJAX. I believe these extensions have to be running with dot-net 2.0 since they extend its functionality. I presume that means I cannot upload them myself on a hosted plan.
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This doesn't require anything extra on our server. You get server extensions by including the ATLAS (now AJAX) library with your asp.net project. You just need to set the account to ASP.NET 2.0, then upload your site like usual. We added a .asbx extension to map to .net runtime, other than that, no changes were needed on our side.
Dave.
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Now that Microsoft has gone RTM with AJAX Extensions 1.0, when can we expect these bits to be installed on servers so we can build against them and use proper Microsoft AJAX code? Previously this had been an issue because the assemblies had to be loaded into the GAC, or the web application had to be run in Full Trust mode (for reflection, etc. to work). I'm really looking forward to being able to use the AJAX toolset, so I'm hoping this app will be installed soon!
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Jason - we've got this in our queue to address soon -- so keep an eye out for this one.
Brian
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Please update us with regards to ASP.NET AJAX EXTENSIONS v1.0. I'd like to move my other website that is ajax enabled to godaddy.com but unfortunately this framework is not yet supported!
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All Go Daddy Windows Hosting accounts that have ASP.NET 2.0 enabled now support the latest Web-enhancing library, ASP.NET AJAX, from Microsoft.
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Dave,
Thanks I did not know about xajax.
Bob
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Hello.
After experimenting with AJAX and .Net, my first concern was whether GoDaddy had any support for it. I was delightfully surprised when I came across Dave's blog entry. I also found out that AJAX is supported by GoDaddy's ASP.Net 2.0 thanks to Godaddy's Help Center.
Yes, AJAX is the way to go. Thank you GoDaddy!
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Okay, so I've fiddled around for a few hours now and I've got a working hello world test up and running. one thing i had to do was register my assembly for the
then I also had to create a bin directory inside of my new custom directory that was set as root (i called it ajax) then I had to upload my VsWebSite.Interop.dll and AjaxControlToolkit.dll directly from my machine to the bin folder.
Now... I tried to add an accordion as a basic test and I'm getting errors on page and the accordion isn't working... the error said 'sys' Undefined, but I can't figure out where that is. I'm so close! lol
if you want to look at the page i'm trying to use its at http://choiceac.com/ajax/Default2.aspx
CJ
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Congrats!
Dave.
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Dave,
I saw that your site was working, great. How did you resolve this with the 'sys' error?
Thanks,
Todd
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