What is Digg?59 Comments
- krinthekuz, on 09/16/2008, -2/+23maybe i'm the only one here who actually knows some ajax, but a lot of this is crap. quite a few of those are simple implementations of using the Updater function in prototype.js (part of the scriptaculous package). at that rate, you might as well just frontpage the scriptaculous wiki.
- JonnyCasino, on 06/03/2008, -3/+14What a great set of articles. The most interesting of the bunch is the for me is the Ajax Desktop post. It goes through some nice ideas related to making an Ajax application. I've been a web developer for a few years now, and I've definitely found "a trick or two" I can use in the future.
- SPThom, on 06/03/2008, -1/+9"Rich" web apps are great, but I feel like AJAX--the term and the technology--get terribly overused these days. This article provides some good tips to help avoid some of the problems AJAX causes (bookmarkability, accessibility, degrading gracefully) but it also lists AT LEAST six techniques that can be accomplished without any AJAX required, most of them using simple Javascript DOM manipulation.
I would suggest keeping one of two philosophies in mind when building a website with AJAX. either...
1) Only use AJAX in places you absolutely need to. (Truly interactive apps.) Many features associated with AJAX-y richness are really just Javascript that can be submitted like a regular form, and in my experience, people actually like having a Submit button to press.
2) Design your AJAX functionality systemically. Rather than attach a Javascript event to every clickable element, write an onload event that automatically handles link and form conversion, so that all local links are blanket replaced. Everything should degrade gracefully this way, and it's easy to implement back button/bookmarkable functionality - Rowan187, on 06/03/2008, -1/+8I've been doing a lot with AJAX lately, the only problem is IE7 and its retarded methods of caching data, which makes it hard to keep dynamic content on the page. When will everyone switch over to Firefox/Opera/Safari already :(
- cohortq, on 06/03/2008, -0/+7Anyone know of some ASP.net ajax equivalents for the php examples?
- zantos420, on 06/03/2008, -0/+6***** IE
- cannonballtrane, on 06/03/2008, -3/+8People should stop thinking of AJAX as being a bunch of hacks on top of a regular website and start thinking of it as a rich app platform.
The most challenging aspect of AJAX is maintaining consistent state - when one part of your page updates (independently) you need to update other parts which depend on the updated part. Tracking these dependencies is easy in regular web applications, because the whole page is regenerated with each click. Ajax is a client AND server side technology, and these two aspect need to work together in an integrated way in order for the application to be viable.
Enjoy! - VinceNoir, on 06/03/2008, -1/+6I thought it was just me. The new comment system can take up to five minutes to load a page of comments these days.
- inactive, on 06/03/2008, -4/+9Nice list! The create your own information space with ajax ibm tutorial looks pretty cool.
- DomZy, on 06/03/2008, -1/+5Nice to see an AJAX article actually showing examples of AJAX and not just random javascript tips and tricks. dugg!
On a side note, am I the only one who can't move the windows around in the desktop example? - jggube, on 06/03/2008, -0/+4Yeah, you have to register for an account with IBM developerWorks, but it was really quick, and it's good to have an account with them anyways, they come out with some really helpful stuff.
- DeathMote, on 06/03/2008, -0/+3Have you played with the ajax.net toolkit?
http://www.asp.net/ajax/ - arkarthicked, on 06/03/2008, -1/+4Really useful AJAX widgets..thanks!
- alamandrax, on 06/03/2008, -0/+3No, but there is a Comet protocol.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_(programming) - scanman20, on 06/03/2008, -4/+7Digg's programmers need to read the article "Avoid unnecessary Ajax traffic with session state". Anyone ever look at the AJAX calls on the new comment system? Go to any article with a lot of comments and open firebug. Watch how dozens or hundreds of calls to load those little user icons kill load times.
- krinthekuz, on 09/16/2008, -0/+3the wiki functionality has been broken for a while, but the mirrors still work.
but they're still mostly just uses of the Updater function. i want to see some implementation of the slider or draggables functions that doesn't have some ridiculous requirement like putting code outside the body tag and is generally browser agnostic. pretty much the only things in ajax that work agnostically are the Request, Update, and various Effects/toggle functions. - shaggyb, on 06/03/2008, -1/+4I think i see what you mean but how else would you propose that they get images from a remote web server to the client? Fairy dust and pixie sticks?
Even if the images were hard coded in the page they would still need to be requested from the server. Watch the requests pile up on ANY site with images. - Duositex, on 06/03/2008, -0/+3I hope adding that onto the ends of sentences catches on. (Rimjob!)
- MtheoryX, on 06/03/2008, -1/+4AJAX is not a programming language.
- arjie, on 06/03/2008, -1/+4Oh no, no no. Bleaching detergent for a rimjob?! You suicidal bastard.
A rimshot on the other hand is a very different thing. - wildmXranat, on 06/04/2008, -0/+2welcome to the world of web programming. IE is the web's dark underbelly.
- SPThom, on 06/03/2008, -1/+3Shaggy is right. Those icons are going to pound the server regardless of AJAX. In fact, having the comments cascade, even just a little bit as they do, probably helps. Keeping comments collapsed by default should help a lot, too.
- everymahn, on 06/04/2008, -1/+3AJAX uses JavaScript and XML. Most of these (great) utilities are DHTML, not AJAX.
- Rowan187, on 06/03/2008, -2/+4No way, that things been outdated/unfunctional for months ;)
- 3tcp, on 06/03/2008, -3/+5I dugg it for naming programming languages after household cleaners. Is there a 'Comet' programming language yet?
- allholy1, on 06/03/2008, -1/+3Nice list, though the AJAX File upload isn't really ajax... javascript can't handle fileuploads at all(right now). The best upload utility i've seen is called swfupload.
http://swfupload.org/
From the site:
SWFUpload is a small JavaScript/Flash library to get the best of both worlds. It features the great upload capabilities of Flash and the accessibility and ease of HTML/CSS. See it in action.... (http://swfupload.org/documentation/demonstration)
* Upload multiple files at once by ctrl/shift-selecting in dialog
* Javascript callbacks on all events
* Get file information before upload starts
* Style upload elements with XHTML and css
* Display information while files are uploading using HTML
* No page reloads necessary
* Works on all platforms/browsers that has Flash support.
* Degrades gracefully to normal HTML upload form if Flash or javascript is unavailable
* Control filesize before upload starts
* Only display chosen filetypes in dialog
* Queue uploads, remove/add files before starting upload - acidandspatter, on 06/04/2008, -0/+2Well either use a library such as jQuery (which has a tiny footprint) to do the ajax requests or open one up of the libraries to see how they get around the cache problem and incoporate their method into your own code.
- Owwmykneecap, on 06/03/2008, -0/+2thats the best ajaxing technique.
ajax is a stainless steel cleaner. - sillymeganlee, on 06/03/2008, -1/+3Am I the only one who saw this article and thought "cleaning supplies?"
This is why I belong in the kitchen. =[ - louiebaur, on 06/03/2008, -4/+6Looks like there are a lot of useful tools on there
- VinceNoir, on 06/03/2008, -0/+1You got it brutha man. Digg up to you and kudos.
- findhostcoupons, on 03/22/2009, -0/+1Thanks guys! Very useful information for Ajax dummies like me!
- rowjimmy, on 06/03/2008, -1/+2am i the only one who thinks most of these techniques are years old? pretty much everything they have there has been integrated into any of the major js libraries, and nothing is inspirational at all. if you aren't using techniques like those on your sites, and your intent is to make fancy web 2.0 style sites, you really need to re-evaluate your career path
- MtheoryX, on 06/03/2008, -0/+1I thought the most challenging aspect of AJAX was accessibility. No?
- known, on 06/04/2008, -0/+1I was wondering if our new web service is synchronous or asynchronous.
- MtheoryX, on 06/04/2008, -1/+2Who's the douchebag that dugg me down and thinks AJAX is a programming language?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AJAX
Come on, show your ignorant self and man up to being an idiot at least. - zcollvee, on 07/14/2008, -0/+1very good
- Stirk, on 06/04/2008, -0/+1If the cause of slow-down for many people is those little icons, perhaps Digg should include an option not to load the icons?
- Ryosen, on 06/05/2008, -0/+1The Observer pattern will cover that nicely. Maintain a list of objects or callbacks that need to be notified or invoked when a page "refresh " is required. When an event occurs that requires the other elements to update, iterate through the list. Make sure to use a control mechanism or, at least, a flag to prevent a recursive lock or near-infinite loop, ensuring that your updates from the list don't trigger the other observers in the list.
- CircleFusion, on 06/03/2008, -1/+1Ya, I heard from a reputable source that grape jelly or pancake syrup is good for a rimjob. I dunno about abrasive detergent though.
- Owwmykneecap, on 06/03/2008, -2/+2Get two clothes and a bucket of warm water.
On a very slightly damp cloth pour on ajax.
Rub into cloth.
Rub cloth on the stainless steel, WITH THE GRAIN!
Get 2nd cloth, soak it then wring excess water.
Again clean along the grain.
Get a dry hard wearing tissue paper
With a lot of pressure cry along the grain.
There you go beautiful stainless steel. - zantos420, on 06/03/2008, -1/+1what??
- eighties, on 06/04/2008, -1/+1Self-deprecating high five. *whip-snap*
Sigh. I really miss Scrubs. - Zounas, on 06/03/2008, -1/+1Totally agree.
- inactive, on 06/03/2008, -8/+8Helpful and inspirational list.
- nashruddin, on 06/10/2008, -1/+1So this is how our blogs can get to Digg's front page. Find 10 great programs written by 10 or more great people and make a post about it. I should try this someday.
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