Ajax technology - what is all the fuss about?

TimeFiler uses the latest web technologies to ensure it runs quickly and efficiently on the
web.

Ajax is a set of development techniques standardised over the past eight years which brings sophisticated interfaces to web applications.

What exactly is Ajax?

Technically, it stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML.

Traditionally every time you did something in a web application, a call would be made back to the web server, and it would respond with a full update of the page. If there was a lot happening on the page then this refresh could take some time leading to quite sluggish usability.

And traditional web applications always had difficulty with large amounts of data. For example a large list of possible job codes to choose from was difficult to manage because if you embedded the list into the page, the page refresh was slow whenever one was needed. But if fewer choices were being sent down locally, then there are more page refreshes to worry about.

Enter Ajax, which has altered the way people think about web applications.

In terms of TimeFiler, once you are past the login screen, then for the remainder of the session, you are 100% in the one page with absolutely no page refreshing being used. So even though you might be flicking through various dashboard tabs, editing records in grids and cards, entering, submitting and approving numerous timesheets, you are doing this without any of the traditional page refreshes and wait.

This makes the web application feel responsive just as a usual Windows desktop application
might feel responsive, but retaining that web
look and feel which allows users to pick it up
and run with it without feeling intimidated by
the look and feel of an equivalent Windows desktop application.

TimeFiler's implementation of Ajax

There are actually many shades of Ajax implementation. For example in the early days, TimeFiler was using mainly old style web technology except for a few key areas such as a fast job code search, where it was using Ajax methods. Unfortunately, this is still where most business web applications are to this day, if at all.

But TimeFiler has moved on with its version 2 product. Once you are past the login screen, all further interaction is 100% Ajax, and processed locally on your web browser rather than having to make continual calls back to the server. Essentially the web browser ‘front end’ is allowed to take more ownership of managing basic user interface display and interaction without having to continually run back to the server to ask basic questions. All this with absolutely no executable downloads, or ActiveX controls. Just standard web files as you would expect.

This means the interaction between your web browser and the server is mostly the transmission of simple messages about data to be displayed, and data changes and action information coming back from the browser. This makes TimeFiler very dynamic and responsive. Functionality such as immediate warnings and alerts in the timesheet, as well as immediate payment calculations are only occurring because of this Ajax functionality.

How long will Ajax be around, and what is next?

We think Ajax will continue to grow and evolve. Part of the difficulty of using web browser technologies has been the sheer incompatibility between different browsers, including different versions of the same browser!

It can’t be underestimated the impact some of these incompatibilities have had on developers. We’ve battled through it, but it has been an exhausting undertaking. It is part of the reason why fully Ajax based applications are not mainstream just yet. But the results are worth it. However there does seem to be an effort made by the makers of web browsers (particularly Microsoft) to clean things up and improve cross compatibility so that software development companies don’t have so much difficulty.

At the same time as web browsers are trying to embrace Ajax concepts more consistently, there are other technologies out there which are trying to provide the same or better visual and dynamic benefits in different ways. One technology you may have heard of is Silverlight 2.0. And there are other technologies like it fighting it out as the ‘next big thing’. Silverlight looks interesting, but we know after going through the process already with 100% Ajax, what basic elements and components we need to see before taking it too seriously.

We are of the view that there is easily five to ten years of life left in Ajax technologies but that there will be a ‘next big thing’ that will replace Ajax eventually. It’s too early to say whether that is Silverlight, or another similar framework at this point in time.

Often these technologies have a habit of not getting enough traction, and then slowly disappearing off the landscape after so much initial buzz.

Whatever new technology gains traction over the next five years, we believe the architecture of TimeFiler is flexible enough to rapidly embrace it without a full and costly rewrite. This is of great benefit to the customer because it means we won’t need to stop innovating with features clients care about, at the same time as embracing other technologies.

As shown with Ajax, TimeFiler will always be at the technological leading edge provided that technology can prove itself.

 

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