On May 12, 2010, at 6:03 AM, Richard Gaskin wrote:
RevServer, and even the existing Rev CGI engine, are great solutions
on the back end.
But what goes in the browser?
It's still HTML, and for interactivity it means learning JavaScript.
That said, JavaScript is fun language, and as the only language
natively handled in every browser it's well worth learning.
An essential element to using browsers successfully is very good power
scripting for accurate browser detection. The best resource online
that I have found is QuirksMode.org to modify the HTML for the best
result in the various browsers.
Also high on the list to study is the Adobe Flash detection scripts
that show the array of detection logic paths required for a developer
to deliver the best possible user experience in a browser. Of course,
you would not use Flash, but their detection algorithms are very
complete.
The Rev community incarnation would be a library of routines that
could be built by collaboration and updated as new versions of
browsers hit the market.
There are huge advantages to using your RevServer account to host the
functions you would require for your 'apps'. One advantage is that
variations in javascript between browser versions would have far less
effect. In this case you could use basic javascript code to trigger
functions (eg. formatText.irev, parseArray.irev, errorCheckForm.irev)
based on user interactions. Now you need not learn everything about
javascript and do the tricky stuff in irev/rev stacks/cgi
Some on the list may not realize that you can build a stack of many
cards, then launch it on the RevServer using Rev cgi/irev so that its
stack script is available momentarily. Just add the stack to the cgi
environment, build the scripts, launch it without using any User
Interface (UI) objects, then access the fields, navigate the cards
just as you would on your desktop. After the cgi call is completed,
the stack disappears from memory, but the idea is that its stack
script functions returned a result that is sent back to the users
browser to be displayed.
Theoretically, you could have one Rev stack for each web page you
would own or support. Or you could have a Rev stack containing all of
the browser detection scripts, and this stack would be called/used for
each ping from the web page. The result is highly accurate HTML for
each browser.
By sharing this development, those who know javascript could show how
to build simple 'hooks' so that most of the heavy lifting would be in
RevTalk
Of course, if you wanted to use zero javascript, your web solutions
would be less powerful and more difficult to create.
Hope this helps.
Jim Ault
Las Vegas
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