NYCPHP Meetup

[Mark Armendariz]

I've used it pretty heavily in my last 2 projects.  One was an internal
application for a major music company.  Had about 200+ fields (could grow to
a couple thousand) on one page.  With all the interior page functionality
needed, it was near impossible to make it a multi-page application while
maintaining usability and efficiency.  Learned quite a bit about JS
optimization and client / server communication on that project.  Only other
headaches were file upload, which I had to use an iframe for.  Though flash
8's upload capabilities are interesting (if only I could find an hour to
look into it)

My most recent project's cms is all JS/Ajax, though it's back-loading.  So
all the pages are available and all the links on the page (listing, forms,
etc) are normal.  Then I add the javascript at the end to overwrite the
links' onclicks and forms' onsubmits and add all the ajaxiferated
functionality.  The primary headache for that is generating both 'static'
(well, dynamic, but server-side) and scripted forms for each section, but
otherwise smooth-sailing (works in all major browsers / platforms) and
wonderful backward compatibility (static pages with no js).

I'm a big fan of google's method for such a thing in gmail and reader.  They
frontload all the data on the listing and then show it on the subpages
without hitting the server.  Great for a multi-page application, and I'm
hoping to implement it into my own projects soon.

I'd been reluctant, but it does do wonders for functionality as well as
takes a good deal away from server load if done right.  Also allows a large
form to load a bit 'faster' if you, for instance, load your dropdowns after
page load.  Also great for making your own caching, if you have say 20 of
the same dropdowns on the same page.  Load the data for one and fill the
rest with the same data. 

My only gripe now is dealing with adding html to a loaded page.  InnerHTML
is fastest but 'ugliest', but at least it lets the browser to the dirty
work, dom gets code-heavy and rather clunky.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: talk-bounces at lists.nyphp.org 
> [mailto:talk-bounces at lists.nyphp.org] On Behalf Of Kenneth Downs
> Sent: Thursday, November 09, 2006 7:29 AM
> To: NYPHP Talk
> Subject: [nycphp-talk] So who's using Ajax anway?
> 
> Just curious as to who has gotten into Ajax.  Would you say 
> you are in light? Deep?  Use it for nothing? Everything?
> 
> I'll toss in my answer to get us started.  Andromeda was 
> written first as a non-Ajax framework, so we had to add it in 
> later.  We've got a small library that works very well on the 
> browser, and are currently developing the server-side library 
> of common routines.  We've used it for our report writer, and 
> think it is very cool.
> 
> Generally we've moved over to doing all custom screens in 
> AJAX, while the "for-free" screens that Andromeda generates 
> are still old-school.
> 
> I've noticed a curious fact about using Ajax, it tends to 
> enforce a very clean structure for your HTML, and also for 
> the corresponding server-side routines.  It is one of those 
> immediate gratification things where the increased attention 
> to structure pays off as an immediate and visible improvement 
> in the UI.
> 
> -- 
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