Ajax WTH!

For last couple of weeks i got quite a lot queries from team on Ajax. Its more of a standard response from me "use it, if it makes sense!".

IMHO one has to weigh the Ajax features against the coding complexity. Enter enterprise apps scenario, you got lot of additional things to consider, most importantly code maintainability and alternate technology options. Comparing enterprise apps against google map, google spreadsheet, flickr is like comparing apples and oranges. I'd seriously consider SmartClient if we really needed a windows feel in web.

Bottom line, page postback is not always evil !

Rounded corners

Have you experienced editing the round corner image 'coz client decided to change the color of the rounded corner area, i happen to go thro one recently, considering my limited image editing knowledge somehow managed it.

Today happen to see this curvyCorners, js framework that provides this using few lines of javascript. As usual googling further found Atlas, ahem ASP.net Ajax sample. To make consistent coding practice and simpler server -side programming model, I'd prefer the later.

If think that is interesting, following should raise eye-brows, till now I'm also one of those millions who thought invisible table AKA table border="0" is only way to organize webpage layout, sit back and take a tour of CSS based design and why invisi table is bad. No idea if this is going to hit mainstream or not, but worth a try.

Ajax Ondemand Tooltip

Client wanted to show a tooltip containing details for key column on mouseover. After talking to him 2 mins, it is clear that they really don't need this for every key showed in the screen, rather interested only a select few. Typical case for on-demand tooltip, i should be lucky today, i happen to cross the overlib tooltip js and ASP.net Ajax WS call to get the details and display a overlib tooltip on dblclick of text and it can be either closed manually or it'll autoclose in 5 secs.


Probably something likethis or intelliTxt might show up in the control toolkit. Here is the sample code.

Microsoft.Web.AJAX

In past i was intrigued by new mail notification feature in Outlook Web Access {tracking back OWA history} and kept wondering on technology behind that.
Enter Google Maps, everything changed after people coined term AJAX . Happen to learn concept of remote scripting in last project which used JSRS technique to get data for dropdowns and help text from server for controls. And i decided to look out for alternatives/options for this new wave (hype?) of web programming model. Ajax.NET Professional seems to be easier to use. But support to asp.net controls are limited, and when googling around that ended up in ASP.Net 2.0 Client Callback feature & Atlas April CTP, Expect Atlas to shadow the limited callback feature of asp.net 2.0

Here is a 18 mins video demo on Developing ASP.NET 2.0 Applications using "Atlas" by Scott G. Its kind-of Houdini show, when you see him write a Todolist web page and AJAX enabling the page, all under 18 mins and without writing a SINGLE line of javascript! I can understand why java community hates MS. Have time? See Atlas in action

From an architect point of view, Ajax usage may probably violate tiered approach and presentation tier code may end up spaghetti, isn't the idea of asp.net code behind model is to avoid this. Atlas overcomes this by providing a declarative programming model for Ajax and enabling use of asp.net server controls

I gotta give credits to MS for developing something like Atlas, even though its an alternative to Smart Client architecture that MS wants to use for rich web apps. But, I'd expect to use this in limited and for appropriate cases and i don't want follow Ajax bandwagon of creating single-page interface application in web, IMHO web apps are not supposed to work that way, rather leverage on Ajax features in cases where it demands like Google Suggest. To end with an interesting fact i happen to learn how Google prevents against excessive queries, mainLoop sets itself up to be called repeatedly using the javascript setTimeout function, instead of keydown events, handling fast typers on slow connections and also timeout interval between calls seems to be dynamic, adjusted according to how quickly the server responds.