Good Afternoon, If you haven't heard of XMLHTTPReqeust aka Remote Scripting aka AJAX it's basically a way for web pages to communicate with the server and return information through JavaScript without having to refresh the page.
You can read more about it here: http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000385.php and see it in action here: http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&complete=1 There are currently some useful applications for AJAX and, I'm sure, lots of superfluous ones too. I'm hopeful that the number of useful ones will grow as the technology becomes more wide-spread and easy to use, which brings me to the point of my post. I stumbled across a site called SAJAX (http://www.modernmethod.com/sajax/) today that has developed a *S*imple AJAX method that can be used with Perl, via their Sajax.pm file. After playing around with it for a while, I was able to strip down their code (actually getting rid of all their Perl code, and leaving only the JavaScript, which I edited and packaged up as a .js file) in-order to figure out exactly how AJAX works and more importantly, how to easily integrate it with a CGI::App based module.pm file. I converted their demo app -> http://www.modernmethod.com/sajax/sajax-0.8/php/example_multiply.php to one running on my code using C::A -> http://www.unobserved.org/misc/rs/ I invite anyone that's interested in learning more about using AJAX to take a look at my sample app. I've provided source files for download from the page which include: - index.html - remotescript.js ( the required javascript library that does all the XMLHTTPRequest magic ) - rscalc.cgi ( C::A instance script ) - RemoteScriptCalc.pm ( C::A Application Module ) The example uses 2 very simple run-modes, a multiply and a divide run-mode. The divide() run-mode takes advantage of how to handle error messages when communicating with the script remotely. As far as I can tell, I see no problem with including a couple of AJAX based run-modes into an existing C::A module (provided you setup the JavaScript on the calling page properly). Hopefully, some others will find this useful and hopefully be able to use it in their C::A apps. I know I intend to implement it soon for apps where I know the browser requirements are met. I didn't document the code very much, but I kept it nice, clean and organized to help readability. Good knowledge of javascript is needed to hack the remotescript.js file, but you don't need to be an expert in-order to use it. If you want to talk about the applications of using XMLHTTPRequest with C::A I'm sure we can keep this on the list, but if you're having trouble getting my sample code to install or work on your server contact me directly so we don't clutter up the list. I'll try and help out time permitting. BTW - I don't know what the exact browser requirements are however, I just know it works on my WinXP IE6 or Firefox. The SAJAX site might have more info on that. That URL again is: http://www.unobserved.org/misc/rs/ Steve Comrie LEAD SOFTWARE ARCHITECT | OCTANE T: 416.977.2525 F: 416.977.8481 355 ADELAIDE ST. W. SUITE 1B TORONTO, ONTARIO M5V 1S2 WWW.OCTANE.TO
