NYCPHP Meetup

[tedd]

At 9:31 AM -0400 9/5/07, Kenneth Downs wrote:
>tedd wrote:
>>At 8:20 AM -0400 9/5/07, bz-gmort at beezifies.com wrote:
>>>Hans Zaunere wrote:
>>>>Ajax solves this problem neatly by letting you move all state [1] into
>>>>>the browser.  This makes sense from an architectural viewpoint because
>>>>>we are putting this context information close to where it is needed,
>>>>>the UI.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>I'm not sure what you mean, though, by keeping state in the 
>>>>browser.  Here's
>>>>essentially what's work for me in the past:P
>>>>
>>>
>>>I read the above as, to take a simple example:
>>
>>I read your "simple example" and see that you can do it w/wo ajax 
>>-- but I don't see the advantage in using ajax other than 
>>presentation.
>>
>>Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't ajax (and ahah) only a 
>>means to communicate with the server without causing a refresh? 
>>Does ajax provide something beyond that?
>
>Yes, AJAX provides benefits beyond its simple ability to communicate 
>w/o a refresh.
>
>BZ's example is exactly what I've been coding the past week or so, 
>and it is far simpler keeping track of things in the browser than on 
>the server, particularly with tabbed browsing.
>
>Here is a smaller example.  User has a form up to do a database 
>insert -- such as create a new insurance company entry.  They have 
>some duplicate information and their save will fail, but they don't 
>know and they hit save.  What happens?
>
>-> In non-ajax world, you submit the form.  The data is validated 
>and a list of errors is generated.  You regenerate the HTML, 
>populate the form with the original values, place the error notices, 
>and send it back.
>-> In the ajax world you do an Ajax submit and get back a JSON 
>object that contains an array listing the errors.  The response 
>handler puts up a popup telling you there were errors, then it adds 
>the errors next to the inputs that have problems and changes their 
>css class to make them red (or whatever).
>    - no regenerating the form on the server
>    - no re-assigning values (they were never changed)
>    - no html processing AT ALL on server, just take the data and run 
>the INSERT
>
>Doing this requires that some state be stored in the browser as the 
>properties of a global object.  That was the thrust of my original 
>post, and bz fleshed out scenarios where it would be used.  Here 
>I've tried to give a very specific example of how it changes your 
>coding practices.
>

Yes, but I can do all of that via javascript without touching the 
server or using ajax.

Just keep the user entering data until the data is correct, then 
submit the form via ajax or as one normally would via a form submit.

So, I don't see the ajax advantage here.

Granted, I may be missing the point, are you saying that you can 
communicate data between two open windows on the client side?

Cheers,

tedd
-- 
-------
http://sperling.com  http://ancientstones.com  http://earthstones.com