Ajax Resources

Ajax Explained

XHR

General Articles

• Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications - Garrett Article
• Using the XHR Object - One of the original articles, recently updated 8/05
• IE7 Native Support - XHR goes native
• Very Dynamic Interfaces - xml.com on XHR

Tutorials

• Ajax How-To - Y! Developer Center
• Ajax Getting Started - Mozilla How To
• Mozilla XHR API - Mozilla
• Microsoft XHR Docs - Microsoft IE
• Dynamic HTML - XHR - apple.com
• XMLHttpRequest Tutorial - w3c School
• Introduction to Ajax - Part 1 - IBM Developer Works
• 30 second Ajax Tutorial

Ajax Presentations

• Ajax for Designers: Dave Heller
• Foundations of Ajax: Ryan Asleson

JSON Response Handling

• JSON
• JSON in JavaScript
• Y! JSON Services
• JSON: The Fat-Free Alternative to XML
• http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2005/12/21/json-dynamic-script-tag.html

XML Response Handling

• Parsing XML - javascript.FAQTs
• XML for <SCRIPT> - XML Parser for JS
• Beyond the DOM - IBM Developer Works
• Working with XML and JavaScript - Understanding XmlDocument^?
• MSDN Reference
• DOM Parsing IE & Mozilla - good comparison between Mozilla and IE on parsing XML in JS

Handling the HTTP Status

• Treating the HTTP Status Code Right (for XHR) - formassembly.com
• Browser Compatibility for HTTP Status Codes - formassembly.com

Ajax without XHR

Some of the earliest work was done by Brent Ashley. Check his techniques out at: http://www.ashleyit.com/rs/

Specific Techniques:

• Hidden iframes
  • JSRS - http://www.ashleyit.com/rs/jsrs/test.htm
  • http://developer.apple.com/internet/webcontent/iframe.html
• <script> hack (or On-demand JavaScript^?)
  • http://zingzoom.com/ajax/ajax_with_js.php
  • http://www.mindsack.com/uxe/dynodes/
  • http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2005/12/21/json-dynamic-script-tag.html
  • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wdf-dom/message/5202
• JavaScript^? to faceless Java applet
  • MSRS - http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/rmscpt/Html/rmscpt1.asp
• JavaScript^? to Flash
• CSS remoting
  • http://zingzoom.com/ajax/ajax_with_stylesheet.php
  • http://www.hedgerwow.com/360/dhtml/css_remote_loading/test.html
• <img> src technique
  • http://zingzoom.com/ajax/ajax_with_image.php
  • http://www.depressedpress.com/Content/Development/JavaScript/Articles/GIFAsPipe/Index.cfm
  • Similar to Web Beacons - http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/Web_beacon.html
• No Refresh Links (NO CONTENT - 202 Trick)
  • http://www.sitepoint.com/article/no-refresh-links/2
• Cookies
  • RSLite - http://www.ashleyit.com/rs/rslite
• With ColdFusion^?
  • http://coldfusion.sys-con.com/read/43998.htm

Performance

• comparing the Atlas and Prototype class idioms - Jon Meyer

Toolkits

• Comprehensive List of all Ajax Frameworks
• Using prototype.js

JavaScript Web Services

• Y! JavaScript Developer Center - JS at Yahoo!

Memory Management

• Drip - IE Memory Leak Detector - Hanwell
• http://novemberborn.net/javascript/event-cache

Back Button

• Fixing the Back Button - Very nice article on the fragment approach
• RSS Reader - Back button friendly RSS Reader
• and the Back Button - Backbase article
• Dojo Back Button Patterns
• Original Alex Russel Article on back button

Bookmarking in Ajax Apps

• http://maps.google.com/
  • When navigating to a new address, you can select the Link to this Page to bookmark the location
• Bookmarking Rico Live Grid - Richard's blog about support for creating bookmarks for state in a scrolled table
  • See it in action at http://openrico.org/rico/livegrid.page
    • Click on a column header to sort. Scroll down into the table. Then right-click on the link at the top of the table 'Listing movies xxx - yyy of zzz'. Save it as a bookmark. The bookmarks include sort information as well.

Deep Linking for Search Engine Optimization

• Ajaxian Deep Linking
• Designing RIAs for Search Engine Accessibility - Nice Backbase White Paper
• Macromedia Podcast Excerpt

Debugging

Debuggers

• Microsoft Script Editor - IE Debugger
• Instant Source - IE Plugin
  • License Key - twiki
• IE Developer Toolbar - IE Toolbar
• Fiddler - HTTP Packet Inspector for Windows
• Venkman - Mozilla Debugger
  • Official Site
  • Hacks R Us
  • Learning Venkman - Excellent Tutorial
  • Venkman for Firefox 1.5 - Quick Start Guide
• DOM Inspector - Firefox->Tools menu when developer tools are installed
• Console - Mozilla Debugger
• Web Developer Tools - Mozilla Dev Extension
• Safari JavaScript Console - Safari
• JSLint - It will hurt your feelings, but it will make your code better.

Some more debugging tools, less known about these...

• IE DocMan - IE
• IE Inspector - IE
• Mouseover Dom Inspector - bookmarklet
• IBM Page Detailer - HTTP Packet Inspector
• Firefox JavaScript Console as Sidebar

Security Related Issues

• Referrer Spoofing, etc.
  • http://www.cgisecurity.com/lib/XmlHTTPRequest.shtml
• Single Domain Restriction (Same Origin Policy)
  • http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2005/11/09/fixing-ajax-xmlhttprequest-considered-harmful.html?page=1
  • http://getahead.ltd.uk/ajax/cross-domain-xhr
  • Ways around it
    • Application Proxies
    • Apache proxy (creating a ProxyPass^? or RewriteRule^?)
    • Script tag hack
  • JSONRequest - Douglas Crockford
  • http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2005/12/21/json-dynamic-script-tag.html

Accessibility & DHTML/Ajax

• Not available... internal Yahoo! link

Internationalization & DHTML/Ajax

Degradability

• Simple Markup
• Dynamic Markup

Object-Oriented Topics

OO in JS

• Private Members in JavaScript - crockford.com
• Classical Inheritance in JavaScript - crockford.com
• Javified JavaScript - Jamie Sculley
• Private Static Members in JavaScript - Richard Cornford

Closures

• Using Closures To Support Object-Oriented AJAX - feedbag blog
• Closures Defined - jibbering.com

Alternates to Ajax

• Loading content from remote CSS - from Hedger Wang
  • (from Hedger) _Unfortunately, the contents or rules inside CSS aren't accessible by Javascript if the CSS file is hosted in a different domain, also, don't make your CSS file too big
  • http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-ktYYK_s5fqJ2Hu1ryv2QSL0-?p=48.
• Lightweight Remote Scripting via <img>
  • http://www.hedgerwow.com/360/ajax/img/demo.html
  • http://www.hedgerwow.com/360/dhtml/ajax_cookie/demo.php

Error Handling

• Errors and Ajax - Persisting client side errors to server-side log files
• http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=425820&seqNum=6&rl=1
• Roll your own status codes

DOM

• The Document Object Model in Mozilla - mozilla.org

Usability Guidelines

• Usability Guidelines - Thomas Baekdal

Other Miscellaneous Topics

GET vs. POST, idempotent URLs, Google Accelerator

• GET vs. POST - AD1455
• GET, POST and Google Accelerator - 37 Signals blog
• XHR GET Size Limit - AD1455
• How to Post
  • Use XHR Object to POST

Flash vs. Ajax

• http://getahead.ltd.uk/ajax/ajax-flash-compared

Design & Ajax Examples

• Bill's Blog
• Luke's Blog
• Kevin & Tom's Site
• Ajaxian
• Ajax Patterns