Ajazz 0.1.0 review

Ajazz implements asynchronously fetched client-side data objects for web applications using JavaScript, XMLHttpRequest objects (so-ca

License: BSD License File size: 80K Developer: Sean Levy

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Ajazz implements asynchronously fetched client-side data objects for web applications using JavaScript, XMLHttpRequest objects (so-called "Ajax" techniques), XML, and a program on the server called a listener, which acts as a sort of data dropoff and delivery service.

There is an implementation of a listener in Perl, with a reusable library of OO Perl code for implementing application-specific listeners in the works. Implementing listeners in other programming languages should be easy, and all such efforts are welcomed by the author.

Ajazz is designed to be used with DHTML techniques to build responsive, scalable web applications that allow users to sift through large amounts of data without having to transmit it all from the server to the client at one time. Instead, Ajazz objects in the client stand as proxies for (generally much larger) data objects on the server, and communicate with the server-side listener to have the data sent in batches, on an as-needed basis, or in whatever way makes sense for the application at hand.

Ajazz JavaScript library provides data types and utilites for programmers. It is software for programmers, not end-users. That much said, it does come with a lot of examples, including a chat-on-a-web-page implementation that can easily be adapted by non-programmers for a variety of uses.

Possible applications include:

Data visualization and analysis apps that offload processing onto the browser
UI Speedups for e.g. large menu trees
Browser-based distributed computation ( w/privs)

What's New in This Release:
Many data types are still missing, but the infrastructure works and Trees work.