Ajax

[mrbelfry]

hey webmasteroonies

Is anyone using ajax at the moment? What are your thoughts on it? Which frameworks/libraries are you using (if any)?

If, like me a couple of weeks ago, you don't know what ajax is then it is a way of updating a part of your webpage without reloading the whole page. i.e. when I press submit on this forum post the whole page will reload. Using ajax my post could just appear magically without a reload of a page. It isn't a new technology but rather a technique using javascript and (mainly) xml to get information from a server and pump it into a web page.

Thanks

mrbelfry

[JackWolfgang]

Is anyone using ajax at the moment? What are your thoughts on it? Which frameworks/libraries are you using (if any)?

If, like me a couple of weeks ago, you don't know what ajax is then it is a way of updating a part of your webpage without reloading the whole page. i.e. when I press submit on this forum post the whole page will reload. Using ajax my post could just appear magically without a reload of a page. It isn't a new technology but rather a technique using javascript and (mainly) xml to get information from a server and pump it into a web page.

Only through the Google Maps API.

[Faithhb_lutheran]

I have never come across a site where I would need ajax and I can't see myself using it anytime in the foreseeable future. That said it wold be interesting to see a church use it.
One question; What benefits are you going to be able to get from it?

[flutem3]

Hi, Mr. Belfry and all,

I had never heard of Ajax. I still don't understand it, but I went to a website called Ajaxian. I found an article by a man named Alex Bosworth. This is part of what he said about it:

Browser Quirks and Limitations

MLHttpRequest can?t access remote server
Multiple Ajax Requests are not fired in order
Asynchronous XMLHttpRequests responses will arrive in no particular order
XMLHttpRequest does not requires the use of XML
Ajax uses UTF-8
Ajax requests are url encoded
XMLHttpRequest cannot transmit files
Firefox: Synchronous XMLHTTPRequests lock up Firefox
IE: XMLHTTPRequest Objects are not reused in IE
IE doesn?t use cached images when Javascript inserts HTML with images
IE: Closures with circular references in IE cause memory leaks
IE: Avoiding aggressive caching in IE
IE corrupts gzipped javascript files
IE doesn?t cache gzipped Javascript filesI know that all of you, or some of you, understand all of that which I vaguely do, but I thought it was interesting and might make a difference as to whether you decided to use it or not.

As for me, I am quirky enough already...my computer undoubtedly goes into "quirk" mode so I figure that is enough. :D

Carol

[Faithhb_lutheran]

Carol hit the nail on the head ajax is a web 2.0 technology that is just coming into use and it will take time for the browsers to adapt to it. It's main usage as far as I know is on the large community sites such as myspace.com where people can update there pages and no one has to refresh there page to view the new data, so if any church wanted to really develop an online community this might be an option but for a main site I have yet to see any benefits that would outweigh the negatives. belfry what were you planning on using it for?

[mickmel]

I'm using it a little bit in a new sports-related site I'm building. (it's far from done - www.sportsblink.com) It has some Digg-like features and the votes are all Ajaxed so you can vote on a story without leaving the page.

I'd love to use bits of Ajax on our church site, but I haven't found a good reason to yet...

[mrbelfry]

mrbelfry what were you planning on using it for?

I'm developing a church events diary website thingy and am going to use it for updating the calendar when I add an event. I like what it can add to a user interface. However if truth be told I'm using ajax because it is pretty trendy at the moment and every app that uses ajax tends to attract a bit of buzz.

mrbelfry

[flutem3]

I'm developing a church events diary website thingy and am going to use it for updating the calendar when I add an event. I like what it can add to a user interface. However if truth be told I'm using ajax because it is pretty trendy at the moment and every app that uses ajax tends to attract a bit of buzz.

mrbelfry

Hooray for an honest reply. I couldn't understand what it is supposed to do, Mr. Belfry. I am not normally "trendy," but it wouldn't hurt to be just once. :D But what would I use it for. I still don't understand what "it" is. I just know its name.

Carol

[Faithhb_lutheran]

Carol,

Here is the wikipedia definition of what ajax is (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_%28programming%29).
I hope this clears up some of the confusion. remember ajax isn't really a language sort of. Its like cajun is a mix of english, french and some spanish ajax is a mix of javascript, hmtl and xml

[David Gillaspey]

I still don't understand what "it" is. I just know its name.Hi Carol,

In general, data for an entire webpage has to be sent between server and browser to update the content of the page, even when very little actually changed on the page. The point of AJAX is to allow for updating just portions of a page.

I was reading about AJAX today in an article about the lawsuit filed against Target because its online store is not accessible. (There's a thread elsewhere on this forum about this; see http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/forums/showthread.php?t=366.) Seems that advocates for accessibility are concerned that AJAX will make things worse.

Sincerely,

David Gillaspey
President
Great Church Websites

[flutem3]

Thanks to one and all for telling me about Ajax. I don't think I can use it on the Homestead software, but then I never know what kind of update Homestead is going to provide. For the time being, I will read what you all discover to do with it...if anything at all.

Have a good weekend.

Carol

PS I think it is too bad that more people like me don't post and ask questions, etc. of those of you who have so much more knowledge and experience. I think they would learn a lot. I know I have, and I thank you one and all. I read all of the posts. I have changed a number of things on our website because of what I have read here. The latest change was to set up a "contact us" page so that people who do not have OE can get in touch with us and protect email addresses as well. And I am going to suggest the same to the group on UMConnect. The topic has not come up since I have been going there (2 years) so I am going to bring it up. I know that most of the websites I have seen which have been designed by the people on UMConnect do not use "contact us." Your influence is spreading. :D

Has anyone heard from Curtis?

[Faithhb_lutheran]

Has anyone heard from Curtis?

I think he is moving