AJAX and WebObjects

AJAX (in case you’ve been living under a rock) is Asynchronous Javascript And XML (but in reality it is really a grab bag of technologies) and is one of the key elements of the whole Web 2.0 thing.

AJAX is usually used to improve the user experience for web applications. Using XHTTPRequest, client-side Javascript can communicate with the server minimizing the number of page refreshes necessary to perform a given task. This is usually coupled with Javascript/DOM scripting that provides richer and/or more intuitive UI elements.

Ruby on Rails leads the AJAX charge with outstanding support out of the box. And given the incredible hype surrounding Ruby on Rails, you could be forgiven for thinking that if you wanted to use AJAX, you’d pretty much have to use R-on-R.

Thankfully for old WebObjects developers like myself, that is not the case.

Using the Metaparadigm JSON-RPC bridge Jean-François Veillette built a framework that provides AJAX support for WebObjects applications and released it into the wild. Anjo Krank wonderized that and included it in ProjectWONDER and Mike Schrag has done some great work extending it by adding additional components.

I built a small application using the Ajax.Framework from ProjectWONDER and demoed it at the last tacow meeting. You can get it here.

One thought on “AJAX and WebObjects

  1. Hi !
    it’s quite difficult to find complete infomations. i can be creative but as a beginner in webobjects programming and ajax it’s not easy. i’m looking for information about the Ajax framework of the WOnder project and it looks like you know it well so maybe you can help me for this documentation gap.
    I’d like to use drag and drop in my webobjects application so i have downloaded the WOnder frameworks. I have added the Ajax.framework and ERJars.framework to Library/Frameworks. I have added these frameworks in my webobjects project (XCode). I have made “import er.ajax.*;” in Application.java, Session.java and DirectActions.java. I have no error when I build. But it seems I can’t use DraggableCompenent and others in WebObjects Builder…
    Do you know how to make the wonder frameworks work ? Am I doing something wrong ? If you have any idea, please e-mail me.

Comments are closed.