Ajax frameworks and libraries

623

Behaviour

Ben Nolan (2005)

Open source

www.ripcord.co.nz/behaviour/

Behaviour works by using CSS selectors to add JavaScript code to DOM elements. You create a hash of CSS selectors and functions that take an element, and add JavaScript event handlers such as onclick. You then register these rules against a page and compare them against their matching DOM elements, and the JavaScript code is added. The code is designed in a way that you can treat these rule files just like stylesheets so that all the page using them needs is an include. Behaviour’s goal is to remove the heavy use of onclick attributes and script nodes from pages so they aren’t messing up content. It works well and can help make your JavaScript more reusable since it’s more centralized.

Bindows

Commercial

www.bindows.net

Bindows is a software development kit (SDK) that generates highly interactive Internet applications with richness that rivals modern desktop applications using the strong combination of DHTML, JavaScript, CSS, and XML. Bindows applications require no downloads and no installation on the user’s side; only a browser is required (no Java, Flash, or ActiveX is used). Bindows provides a range of widgets, as well as native XML, SOAP, and XML-RPC support. BlueShoes

Commercial with free version

www.blueshoes.org

Rich component suite, including a WYSIWYG text editor and spreadsheet widget. CakePHP

Open source

http://cakephp.org/

A comprehensive port of Ruby on Rails to PHP, including top-notch support for Ajax.

Licensed to jonathan zheng

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APPENDIX C

Ajax frameworks and libraries

CL-Ajax

Richard Newman (2005)

Open source

http://cliki.net/cl-ajax

CL-Ajax directs JavaScript calls directly into server-side Lisp functions. Generates JavaScript stub with arguments. Can call back to JavaScript functions or DOM

objects. May be integrated into SAJAX.

ComfortASP.NET

Pre-release commercial with free download

www.daniel-zeiss.de/ComfortASP/

ComfortASP.NET is an approach that lets developers rely on pure ASP.NET programming while offering Ajax-like features. ComfortASP.NET uses Ajax (DHTML, JavaScript, XMLHTTP) to implement these features, but the web developer only implements pure server-side ASP.NET.

Coolest DHTML Calendar

Open source with commercial support

www.dynarch.com/projects/calendar/

Configurable JavaScript calendar widget; can be wired up to form fields as a drop-down or pop-up, and styled using CSS.

CPAINT

(Cross-Platform Asynchronous Interface Toolkit)

Open source (GPL and LGPL)

http://cpaint.sourceforge.net

CPAINT is a true Ajax implementation and JSRS (JavaScript Remote Scripting) implementation that supports both PHP and ASP/VBScript. CPAINT provides you the code required to implement Ajax and JSRS on the back-end, while the returned data is manipulated, formatted, and displayed on the front-end in JavaScript. This allows you to build web applications that can provide near real-time feedback to the user.

Licensed to jonathan zheng

Ajax frameworks and libraries

625

Dojo

Alex Russell (2004)

Open source

http://dojotoolkit.org

Dojo provides several libraries for use with Ajax, including widgets, an event model, and messaging using XMLHttpRequest and other techniques. Aims to support JavaScript in a range of settings, including SVG and Netscape’s Javabased Rhino engine, as well as in the web browser. DWR (Direct Web Remoting)

Open source (Apache)

www.getahead.ltd.uk/dwr

Direct Web Remoting is a framework for calling Java methods directly from JavaScript code. Like SAJAX, it can pass calls from JavaScript into Java methods and back out to JavaScript callbacks. It can be used with any web framework—such as Struts