Kevin Hakman

Uh oh! Here comes yet another technology buzzword. This time it’s “AJAX”. In addition to being a household cleaner, a character from Greek mythology, and the name of a European soccer club, AJAX is Asynchronous communication, JavaScript, and XML. These technologies, which are already present in your browser, make it possible to retrieve information without refreshing a Web page. Citing Google’s use of AJAX, the Wall Street Journal noted recently that AJAX represents “a big step toward the Holy Grail of having the kinds of speed and responsiveness in Web-based programs that’s usually associated only with desktop software.”[1] And increasingly, developers, entrepreneurs, and industry analysts are grasping the opportunities that AJAX presents. So what’s all the excitement? The need and desire to provide richer functional... (more)

Corporate Mashups: Composite Applications Simplified Through AJAX and SOA

This content is reprinted from Real-World AJAX: Secrets of the Masters published by SYS-CON Books. To order the entire book now along with companion DVDs for the special pre-order price, click here for more information. Aimed at everyone from enterprise developers to self-taught scripters, Real-World AJAX: Secrets of the Masters is the perfect book for anyone who wants to start developing AJAX applications. Corporate Mashups: Composite Applications Simplified Through AJAX and SOA In this chapter we'll look at rapidly implementing an AJAX Rich Internet Application that leverages v... (more)

The Big Shift with AJAX and Web Service Bus Architectures

There have been numerous articles over the last year on how the complementary nature of AJAX and service-orientation together are rapidly transforming the way in which we design, architect, deploy, and manage applications. The ramifications of this change impact nearly every aspect of business application development, from design conception, architectural planning, and implementation to unit testing and monitoring. New methodologies, tools, and infrastructure are now emerging as the industry evolves from the three-tier system concepts that have dominated the last decade on the We... (more)

JavaScript Powers Up the Server Side

Aptana Jaxer is a new open source application server built especially for AJAX application development in JavaScript. To say that "Jaxer lets you do JavaScript on the server-side" would be accurate, but an understatement. The core concept of Jaxer is that it provides a parity of environments at the client and the server to simplify the creation of rich AJAX pages, apps, and gadgets - and by so doing, gives the Web developer a unified runtime at both the client and server tiers. How does Jaxer achieve this parity of environments? The main engine in Jaxer is the Mozilla engine - t... (more)

A Simple Streaming AJAX App with OpenAjax Hub, TIBCO GI, and DWR 2.0

Follow along and implement the real-time streaming AJAX system in Figure 1 using two different AJAX toolkits and the OpenAjax Hub. Requirements The requirements for this solution are straightforward. For this application we need a ready-made data grid control that will display changes in prices to stocks when those changes occur. A nice-to-have would be visual indicators in the GUI that show when a cell value in the grid is increasing or decreasing...and, of course, we want to deploy this to just a standard Web browser, so we also must do this without any reliance on plug-ins, app... (more)