Speaking as someone who has been a huge Ajax proponent, as evidenced by
my article on it, my Struts HTML taglib extension, my AjaxTags component
in Java Web Parts and my reviewing of a new Ajax book to be released
shortly, I ironically have to say that Ajax isn't something that is
going to make anything else go away. It's just another tool in the
toolbox, and not even a new one!
It's not going to kill Flash because, when used properly, Flash is
fantastic and different from anything else out there. Just as a silly
example: how am I going to a StrongBad eMail in Ajax? A lot of people
hate Flash, but I think that comes from people misusing it...
interestingly, I've always felt that Macromedia's very own web site is
one of the best examples of how NOT to use Flash :)
Ajax isn't going to stop JSF, nor should it. As Kito pointed out, Ajax
and JSF are not mutually exclusive at all. And remember, there is more
to JSF than just an event model that you could duplicate with Ajax.
Remember too that many people still have an aversion to doing
client-side scripting. I personally believe this point of view isn't
very productive... the "old" web is dead, RIAs are where it's at, and
you can't do an RIA without client-side scripting (at least, I can't see
how you could). Be that as it may, those that still cling to that old
mentality won't be touching Ajax.
No, Ajax isn't a paradigm shift, it's just the first real strong push to
get people thinking in the RIA way. Ironically, Ajax might actually
help things like JSF gain more acceptance faster because it does force
you to think differently than before.
What's more ironic, and I know I'm not the only one, but I was doing
"Ajax-like" things almost 6 years ago, and I recall playing with
XMLHttpRequest when it first came out, however many years ago that was
now. I just didn't think any of that was anything special enough to
come up with a new term for :) To me, it's always been extremely
obvious that redrawing an entire page is not optimal. Then again, from
the start I've been building what we now call RIAs (again, I wish I had
thought to apply some new term to it, I could have been famous!), so
from the beginning I skipped the whole "classic" web design mentality.
So no, I don't think Ajax is the great savior or anything, nor is it the
future of web development in and of itself. How I think it will be
remembered though is in showing that RIAs are viable and that the real
paradigm shift isn't Ajax itself, but is the underlying architectures it
fosters, the new way of thinking about web-based applications.
Frank
Kito D. Mann wrote:
At this point, with the clear promise of AJAX, I cannot see
any reason
to give up Struts and go to JSF. If I was starting a new web
application today, I would use Struts and AJAX.
Not that I going to jump JSF anytime soon, but:
http://www.icesoft.com/products/icefaces.html
Admittedly, I'm on the JSF bandwagon, but people often don't realize that
JSF and Ajax go hand-in-hand. It's just that you don't have to code it
yourself, which is, after-all, the whole point of JSF (components).
Most component vendors are adding Ajax support already. For example, see:
http://www.otrix.com/demos/webTree/dimensions/index.faces.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kito D. Mann ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Principal Consultant, Virtua, Inc. (http://www.virtua.com)
Author, JavaServer Faces in Action
http://www.JSFCentral.com - JavaServer Faces FAQ, news, and info
Are you using JSF in a project? Send your story to [EMAIL PROTECTED],
and you could get your story published and win a free copy of JavaServer
Faces in Action!
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Frank W. Zammetti
Founder and Chief Software Architect
Omnytex Technologies
http://www.omnytex.com
AIM: fzammetti
Yahoo: fzammetti
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