Archive

Archive for the ‘ajax’ Category

OOW Presentations

September 22nd, 2009
No comments

Oracle Open World (OOW) is just a few weeks away.  It’s going to be a busy week for a lot of people!  Rolta TUSC will have a LOT of presentations that week.  We have 2 booths at the conference.  Numerous demo stations will be at the booth.  It’s going to be a fun week!  I have 3 presentations.  1 on Monday, 1 Wednesday and the final one Thursday morning.  I’ll be arriving on Sunday and heading home on Thursday.  I always love a week in San Fran!  Here are my presentations - please come see me!

Title: Wimpy Web Services Versus Powerful, Flexible Web Services
Track: Oracle Develop: Service-Oriented Architecture
Date: 12-OCT-09
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Venue: Hilton Hotel
Room: Yosemite C

In this presentation, Brad will discuss the importance of strong Web Services, the difference between wimpy services and powerful flexible Web services. Many companies today are attaching SOA MBOs to their technical teams. These performance metrics often measure based on quantity rather than quality. What is quality? Reuse? Performance? Flexibility? Brad will discuss this topic in detail.

Title: Building a Mashup with Application Express
Track: Database
Date: 14-OCT-09
Time: 17:00 - 18:00
Venue: Moscone South
Room: Room 252

In this presentation, Brad will talk about how to develop a mashup using Oracle Application Express. Traditionally people think of ApEx as being an “Oracle database” tool only - not a mashup tool. However, Brad will show how you can consuming Web Services to access data from any source - Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server, Access, Excel, Cloud Databases (like Zoho), etc. In Brad’s presentation titled “Scalable Oracle ApEx” he explains how to create an n-tier architecture for ApEx. This architecture provides unparalleled scalability to your organization. This presentation explains the implementation side (i.e. the specifics) of this solution.

Title: Scalable Oracle Application Express: Case Study of a True N-Tier Architecture
Track: Database
Date: 15-OCT-09
Time: 09:00 - 10:00
Venue: Moscone South
Room: Room 306

Do you like the power and flexibility of Oracle Application Express (ApEx)? But…are you frustrated by the fact that it chews up database cycles generating dynamic HTML pages? Do your architects and DBAs go mad thinking about this? I know I sure have!  This presentation will demonstrate a solution to this architectural dilemma! A reference architecture is provided along with a case study that this presentation is based around. You’ll see exactly how to scale ApEx (inexpensively) within your environment.

Bradley D. Brown ajax, bpel, mashups, oracle, oracle application express, rest, soa, web 2.0, web services

Looking into the Future with iPerspective - Everything will be Integrated

April 2nd, 2009
4 comments

As I look into the future of SOA and WOA, numerous applications are still waiting for you to build them. If you’re looking for an opportunity to innovate and build a SaaS or Cloud offering for the world, I’d recommend you think about a SOA / WOA application that communicates with everything else in the world. Today this is SO easy to do too!

When I started studying the static pages of the Web in 1994, I immediately saw an opportunity to build pages dynamically. Originally this was called CGI programming. I immediately started developing dynamic Web applications and talked about how this was going to change the world. That people were actually going to build “Transactive Content” applications and that people would make millions doing so. Amazon is a great case-in-point.

After developing my first Web applications, I needed data from other Web applications, so I turned to scraping HTML data, turning it into XML and getting my needed data from other sites. At that point, I knew that system-to-system integration and sharing of data was going to become important to our future…which clearly it was.

I began talking about dynamic XML, which quickly evolved into Web Services as we know them today. SOAP (i.e. SOA) is sometimes a little heavier than “need be” so RESTful services (i.e. WOA) is ideal for AJAX-based client applications and the like.

When I started talking about Web Services (in about 2003), I discussed a number of applications that could be built that could revolutionize the world as we know it. Companies like Facebook have capitalized on the concepts I’ve been discussing for years now.

As I mentioned, building applications that talk to other applications is so simple today. Products like Rolta TUSC’s iPerspective make it easy to expose your existing data and business logic as SOAP Web Services or RESTful Web Services. Imagine the power of building an application and instantly being able to expose your entire application through an open standard API (i.e. Web Services).

The beauty of application-to-application integration is that if you build an application and connect it to the world, people can use your unique IP however they wish to use it. If you create a flexible or dynamic open API, your customers will be able to get the data they want, when they want it, how they want it. It also allows you to focus on your core skills and allow others to focus on their core skills.

So, stop, take some time to think about the application you’ve been dreaming of…it’s possible today! The application that I talked about some years ago Orbitz has capitalized on - booking flights, hotel, cars, all on one system. I took it a few steps further in my presentations in 2003, but for intensive purposes - they have an application that does a lot. But not this far. Imagine if you built this 2003…why not build it today? I’ll use it!

Imagine this…

Let’s say you want to build an integrated travel and scheduling application. As I mentioned, there are plenty of travel companies out there already. There are also plenty of scheduling applications as well.

Here’s a use case. Let’s say that I’d like to make a business trip to TUSC’s Chicago office. I would need to book a flight, rent a car, book hotel(s), and then I’d like to make appointments with “key” customers.

As you know, you can arrange the flight, car and hotel through one service (e.g. Orbitz)…so where’s the value? Well…what about the “rules” of your travel? How about “scheduling” your days of the trip?

Imagine an application where using your online assistant, you could begin by defining the initial rules for your travel preferences. Your “assistant” is external to your company of course. Let’s say that I would like to make the trip in the next month and I would like to spend the least number of days possible (2 minimum to 4 maximum) and visit the most customers possible. The application allows me to predefine numerous rules in my profile - just like you would communicate to your assistant.

Rules such as detailed hotel, airline and car rental preferences, how long a customer visit takes on average (e.g. 2-3 hours), meeting invitation / letter to customers and prospects, spend the least amount of time in a city possible, arrange appointments around dates that offer the least amount of money on flights, hotel and car rental possible, start as early as 6am and end as late as midnight and so on. Again - this is what my assistant already knows about me - so why not automate these rules?

Now - what about those key customers? As you know, your hosted / SaaS CRM application already contains this information. You might also need data from your ERP application to determine “key” customers. But in an open API world, it’s very easy for us to integrate all of these applications. In my rules, I might define that “key” customers should be ranked by revenue or longevity or whatever criteria I wish to use for this trip.

Using my integrated application, calendar invitations (this is an open standard today) are automatically sent to customers and prospects. Customers then accept (or reject) the invitations - which are not for a specific date - just “will they meet with me for 2-3 hours?”

After this initial invitation is sent, 8 people accept my offer. We know the address of each of our customers, so schedules are calculated based on drive time, 2-3 hour meeting time, availability of people, etc. It turns out that in the next 4 weeks, only 2 of the weeks will work based on everyone’s schedules – the block of time required (3 days – M-W, T-R, W-F)
Flight, hotel and car rates for the available blocks of dates are gathered based on preferences and wala, a trip date is selected! All automatically!!!

Everyone’s calendars are updated (my calendar, my wife’s calendar, my assistant, the 8 appointments and the people they want at the meeting). The reservations are booked - including the hotel (2 different hotels), car, and airline.

As the trip date approaches, schedules are automatically adjusted and confirmations are sent at key points in the process (based on people’s profiles).

My iPhone contains all of his travel information of course. When I arrive in Chicago and pick up my Hertz Gold service, my car’s NeverLost is loaded with each address for the day. Traffic information is also communicated to select the fastest route to my destinations. As I drive to my first customer visit, On the way, I’m read (i.e. text to speech) updates about the customer – recent transactions with customer, problems, emails, etc.

My hotel for the evening required no cancellation fee and a last minute rate became available. The hotel changed on the fly. My iPhone calendar is updated and car directions are updated. My spouse and assistant were notified of change too.

As can be expected, one customer cancelled, so a new prospect was invited and accepted – everything was updated once again. When any meetings are finished early the car noticed, customers were contacted to move appointments up when possible.

At the end of my trip, I ended up finishing the 3 day trip 4 hours early, so my flight was automatically changed to standby for the earlier flight. I got home 4 hours earlier than I originally planned, which my wife knew about because she was kept up-to-date by my “assistant.”

Is this dreaming? In 2003 people thought I was dreaming when I explained that all of this is possible with Web Services. Today it’s absolutely considerably easier than it was then.

My point? Dream - think of an application and build it! Don’t re-invent the wheel. There’s no need to do so now that SOA and WOA can help you integrate what already exists. Build an integration platform…why not?

Bradley D. Brown ajax, collaboration, rest, soa

Web 2.0 (and AJAX) Toolkits with Oracle Apex

December 20th, 2007
3 comments

Would you like to take your Web applications to a whole new level, but don’t want to spend countless hours writing AJAX and Web 2.0 code? Fortunately Google and Yahoo have greatly simplified this for all of us. Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to demonstrate how you can integrate both of these toolkits into Oracle’s Application Express (Apex). Google and Yahoo went down 2 completely different paths as I’ll talk about soon enough. I can’t find anything about the integration between these libraries and Apex, so I’ll take that challenge on next.

Bradley D. Brown ajax, oracle application express, web 2.0

Presentation List

October 18th, 2007
2 comments

I often get asked to present at different conferences, I thought it would make sense to publish my current presentation abstracts here. If you’re interested in having me speak at a user’s group, please call me (303)985-2213 or email me. Thanks for your consideration! See the link for prior presentations I’ve given.

Web 2.0

You’ve heard the term Web 2.0 and might be wondering exactly what it means to you and your business. You might be wondering what Web 2.0 includes. On the other hand, you might be right in the middle of it all, but noticing that more and more Oracle products seem to offer Web 2.0 entry points. Or maybe you’re not using Oracle technology for anything but your backend database. You might be wondering which other products should be under consideration? Which should be avoided? What’s a good entry point solution?

Internal and External Application Integration

Oracle Fusion Web Services ventured down the path of a full bore implementation of internal and external application integration in what I perceived as the most efficient and cost effective manner, you’ll get the benefit of my hindsight introspections today. Specifically, I implemented a light weight Service Oriented Architecture (i.e. Web Services) wherever it made sense. This presentation will discuss the good, bad and ugly about this approach that was taken. Knowing what I know today, I would in fact take this approach again. In fact, I highly recommend my self-named light-weight SOA.

Using Web Services, your customers (whether internal or external) are able to seamlessly access your core technology as if that technology is running in its own environment. This presentation will include a demonstration of the above mentioned application in action. If you have customers or vendors who have provided you with Web Services that you need to integrate into your existing applications, you’ll want to attend this presentation.

Advanced Oracle Application Express Tips and Techniques

Oracle Application Express (Apex) is a powerful and comprehensive tool. Numerous advanced tips and techniques will be covered in this presentation. These topics include: pop-up windows, complex searches, document management, indexing and searching, “tool tip” or hints, email links, page 0, help text, background jobs, “add to my calendar” feature, saving contacts (VCF), sending mass emails, and more.

Mapping Your Data with Google Maps

Do you have data in your Oracle database that you would like to visual map in Google Maps for your end users? This presentation will discuss and demonstrate how you can take a series of latitudes and longitudes and turn them into a visual map containing your data. Numerous implementations will be discussed including 1. using AJAX to pull records from the database based on the current Google map coordinates, 2. driving the map display based on properties on a map, 3. outlining census tracts on a Google Map.

Cleaning up with AJAX in Apex

Years ago I used to discuss performing asyncronous activities with the hidden JavaScript page. With the improvements to JavaScript and our use of XML, Asyncronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) provides functionality we’ve been using for years, but it’s much easier to implement now. This presentation will cover AJAX in a variety of forms. Oracle Application Express (Apex) provides a little known secret called the “On Demand” feature…which allows for AJAX calls back to the database. Google and other companies provide AJAX functionality that you can use for application integration. In this presentation you’ll learn how to write your own AJAX server side code and how to make use of existing server side AJAX code.

Step-by-step Web Service Creation and Integrating or Using an Existing Web Service Tutorial

The Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) provides the foundation for any company’s business-to-business process delivery. Using Web Services, your customers (whether internal or external) are able to seemly access your core technology as if that technology is running in their own IT environment. This presentation will include a demonstration of the SOA application in action. This presentation will cover step-by-step Web Service creation and deployment. If you have customers or vendors who have provided you with Web Services that you need to intergrate into your existing applications, you’ll be happy that this presentation will also cover how to integrate and use an existing Web Service in a step-by-step manner. In this presentation, you’ll learn how Web Services can change how you deliver applications to your customers (and other internal groups).

Building a low cost non-Oracle grid for scale in your Oracle environment

Have you considered using Oracle Express (the free Oracle DB version) to reduce costs? Does the 4GB database size limit cause issues for you? Are you considering greating a low cost non-Oracle grid? Perhaps using MySQL or PostGRES? Do you already have your “master” database in Oracle? In this presentation, you’ll learn how IntelliReal stores their “master” database in an Oracle Standard Edition One database instance and uses a MySQL grid to provide a low-cost scalable solution to meet their needs. The Oracle database is about 4TB. The grid effectively stores a materialized view of the key data from the Oracle database, which is roughly 400Gb of data, into a series of physically partitioned MySQL databases. The data is US residential property data. Data is partioned by US counties - about 1000 databases (or schemas in MySQL). The grid started as a 5 wide grid and 2 deep (for load balancing), but is currently 1 wide and 10 deep. This architecture will be discussed in detail.

Case Study - How IntelliReal is using Web Services and SOA to seamlessly integrate companies

IntelliReal (http://www.intellireal.com/) is a real property market intelligence company. IntelliReal utilizes advanced technology and data aggregation to provide significantly enhanced data mining, accuracy, speed and reduced cost delivering valuation solutions. The Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) provides the foundation for IntelliReal’s business-to-business delivery. IntelliReal’s customers are able to seemly access the IntelliReal core technology as if that technology is running in their own IT environment. This presentation will include a demonstration of the SOA application in action. IntelliReal uses Oracle Application Express (APEX) as the “sales” tool, but typically delivers their solution from business-to-business using the SOA solutions. This presentation will cover the SOA and how it can change how you work to deliver applications to your customers (and other internal groups).

Case Study - How IntelliReal used Oracle Application Express to Rapidly Build their Production Environment

IntelliReal (http://www.intellireal.com/) is a real property market intelligence company. IntelliReal utilizes advanced technology and data aggregation to provide significantly enhanced data mining, accuracy, speed and reduced cost delivering valuation solutions. IntelliReal’s user interface was developed using Oracle Application Express (APEX). With most any technical presentation that you’ve attended, you’re likely always thinking about how to relate your environment to what the speaker is discussing and building a real world application using the tool. This presentation covers a specific business problem that was solved u
sing APEX: delivering a rich user interface for “show.” IntelliReal’s primary customer base are businesses. Most of the customers actually access the IntelliReal systems using SOA. The APEX application uses the SOA components too. This presentation will discuss the functional requirements, how the application continues to be extended, the net results and cost savings. This presentation will include an online demo and discussion of the components.

Application Express 101 - Introduction, Installation and Configuration (1/2 day)

In this session, you’ll learn to use Apex from concept to delivery to support. We’ll start with the basics of Apex– we’ll talk about installation and configuration options. We’ll use an existing database (i.e. an Excel spreadsheet) and build a real world application from the ground up. The exercises will cover a specific business problem that was solved using HTML-DB: getting people to RSVP to monthly events without having to call them. Sounds simple enough, but you’ll see how far this application was taken to solve this real world problem. This session will discuss and demonstrate the functional requirements, how the application was extended, the net results and cost savings.

Top DBA Scripts using Application Express

Developers and DBAs are always interested in scripts and tools that will help them be more efficient. This presentation will discuss how Apex can be used to manage and execute a library of DBA scripts. A number of helpful scripts will be discussed. The Apex application demonstrated will be available for you to download and install in your environment.

Advanced Oracle Application Express Tips and Techniques

Oracle Application Express (Apex) is a powerful and comprehensive tool. Numerous advanced tips and techniques will be covered in this presentation. These topics include: pop-up windows, complex searches, document management, indexing and searching, “tool tip” or hints, email links, page 0, help text, background jobs, “add to my calendar” feature, saving contacts (VCF), sending mass emails, and more.

Hands-on Application Express Full Day Session (8 hours and hands-on only)

In this full day hands on session, you’ll learn to use Apex from concept to delivery to support. We’ll start with an existing database (i.e. an Excel spreadsheet) and build a real world application from the ground up. The exercises will covers a specific business problem that was solved using HTML-DB: getting people to RSVP to monthly events without having to call them. Sounds simple enough, but you’ll see how far this application was taken to solve this real world problem. This session will discuss and demonstrate the functional requirements, how the application was extended, the net results and cost savings.

Apex is a declarative web-based application development & deployment environment. It’s a powerful and easy way to quickly develop a database-centric Web application. You can install Apex on your own machines or run in a hosted environment on Oracle’s site. All development (construction of pages) is done through the browser interface. You can use the SQL Workshop and the Data Workshop to run SQL and add data to your environment. This easy-to-use tool will impress you in no time at all!

This presentation gives the participants a good introduction and great hands on experience with the Apex development environment and a good idea of the power that it contains to create quick powerful Web application in a very short time.

Building a Real-World Application Express Application

With most any technical presentation that you’ve attended, you’re likely always thinking about how to relate your environment to what the speaker is discussing and building a real world application using the tool. This presentation covers a specific business problem that was solved using HTML-DB: getting people to RSVP to monthly events without having to call them. Sounds simple enough, but you’ll see how far this application was taken to solve this real world problem. This presentation will discuss the functional requirements, how the application was extended, the net results and cost savings. This presentation will include an online demo of the application and how to change it.

Changing the World with Oracle Web Services and the Service Oriented Architecture

Web Services are the next logical step in application development. They provide a major step forward in the Internet computing model. There are so many components and continual research going on in this area. This presentation will focus on the things you really need to know and care about with Web Services. This presentation will focus on a practical example of a Web service application of the future.

Building a Virtual Data Warehouse

Real-time data warehousing requires real-time access to operational systems and to a shared repository of dimension data. Users can then use the data warehouse environment for strategic reporting and trending, as well as tactical operational reporting. Some data warehouse implementations attempt to address the need for real-time reporting by introducing an “operational data store” into the architecture — an operational companion to the data warehouse. An operational data store commonly stores data in a format that is close to its format in the operational systems, minimizing the complexity of the transformations performed. The operational data store provides an integrated view of operational data. Operational data stores commonly don’t store much historical data, limiting their potential usefulness. This presentation demonstrates a virtual data warehouse, which will provide you with the best of both worlds.

Building Quick and Powerful Web Applications using Oracle Application Express

You may have heard about Project Marvel, HTML DB or Apex. This tool is a declarative web-based application development & deployment environment. It’s a powerful and easy way to quickly develop a database-centric HTML Web application. You can install Apex on your own machines or run in a hosted environment on Oracle’s site. All development (construction of pages) is done through the browser interface. You can use the SQL Workshop and the Data Workshop to run SQL and add data to your environment. This easy-to-use tool will impress you in no time at all!

The presentation starts with a definition of Apex; what is it, where did it come from and what are its major features. Next I will address the installation of Apex on a local machine or the ability to have applications hosted on Oracles site. I will move on to the uses for Apex; what type applications are best suited for Apex, examples of applications and their development time frames.

The first major section of the presentation will be a step by step walk through of creating a sample Apex application. During this section I will address in detail some of the features and capabilities of the development environment along with some of the gotchas that might come up. I will go into details on the components of a standard Apex “page”; the common things all pages possess, the way that components are shared between pages and the ability to apply application wide templates. I will demonstrate creating reports and graphs through the use of the built in wizards, standard to Apex. I will also talk about the built in security that Apex offers, both through login and through individual page and item security.

After demonstrating the construction of a simple application I will address more specific details such as the rendering process that happens as t
he page is created. This allows for the student to understand what happens under the hood and how it influences the pages as they are built. Next I will talk about how to manage and monitor the development environment. The entire Apex development environment is accessed via a web interface. Administration of this environment is also handled through this interface. An administrator can create workspaces, create users and assign privileges. Through this interface you can also view, create and modify almost any database object.

This presentation gives the participants a good introduction to the Apex development environment and a good idea of the power that it contains to create quick powerful Web application in a very short time.

Transforming Oracle Data Into ANY Format Using XML

You’ve surely heard a lot about XML. Get ready to understand its power with XSU, XSQL and XSLT. Learn how easy it is to extract data and manipulate it into a variety of output formulas. Attending this presentation will spark all kinds of ideas - from extracting XML from your database to receiving XML files from another server or another company. Join us for this session - and feel the power. Oracle 10g AS provides a powerful utility to help you generate XML straight from data in your Oracle database –- the XSQL processor. XML style sheets (a.k.a. XSLT with a file extension of XSL) allow you to manipulate XML into various usable forms. This presentation demonstrates just how easy it is to extract data and manipulate it into a variety of output formats.

Java-based Oracle Web Development (4-8 hours)

This presentation will cover a number of topics including a number of components that you should “study” to round out your development knowledge. JDeveloper 10g (and the ADF) is an amazing development environment. Each new version gets closer to rivaling Oracle Forms. Now with the Oracle Application Developer Framework (ADF), which includes TopLink and Struts, you can quickly and easily develop a GUI/HTML-based Web application using this point-and-click, drag-and-drop development tool. After JDeveloper’s ADF is covered, we’ll talk about Java Server Pages, Java Stored Procedures, and Java Database Connectivity. This presentation will wrap up discussing a number of other tools that you might want to consider for your development efforts.

Life Optimization

Every day that passes is one less that you have in your life. Do you want to get the most out of every day? Have you figured out the secret to life? Do you want to be an overnight success? Are you a success now? Maybe you want to have the most toys with you die? The 8 traits of the world’s most successful people will be covered. How many of these traits do you share with them? Brad will share techniques that have helped him through his career and personal life. The goal of this presentation is to provide you with take away value – a few golden nuggets that you can use in your life every day. I want to make a difference for you. Life’s too short not to enjoy every day. Great satisfaction comes from achieving on and off the job. This presentation will also include an exercise to get you started.

IT Optimization

This presentation will address IT Optimization and how it effects your organization. How can you provide real data that is relevant to business needs? Technologies like Oracle RAC, Grid computing, Linux all will play into your future. Rapid application development is also a key to your future success. Gartner Inc.’s list of top 10 resolutions for CIOs in 2005 includes at number six, “Get hands-on experience on new key technologies. ” This presentation will talk about tools such as JDeveloper and Apex which bring rapid application development to a whole new level.

Resolving Conflict with the Arrow of Truth

Have you ever run into a conflict at work or at home, but you had difficulty resolving the problem? By using the methods described in this presentation (the arrow of truth), you will be able to work through issues that otherwise may appear irresolvable. This method works not just at work, but at home too.
Funny idea for a presentation - show a video on top of someone’s face. Kind of like a ventriliquist, but with a video projector. Got the idea from seeing Dave Maney stand in front of YPO group with projected video shining on his face - looked like lips on his forehead. Could line people up (1-n) with x’s. Could record it and play it back for everyone too.

Developing New and Using Existing Web Services

We’ll find some existing Web Services and make use of them in our application, then we’ll develop some Web Services for others to use. This full day session will cover Web Services end-to-end.

Web Services are the next logical step in application development. They provide a major step forward in the Internet computing model. There are so many components and continual research going on in this area. This presentation will focus on the things you really need to know and care about with Web Services. This presentation will focus on a practical example of a Web service application of the future.

Having ventured down the path of a full bore implementation of internal and external application integration in what I perceived as the most efficient and cost effective manner, you’ll get the benefit of my hindsight introspections today. Specifically, I implemented a light weight Service Oriented Architecture (i.e. Web Services) wherever it made sense. This presentation will discuss the good, bad and ugly about this approach that was taken. Knowing what I know today, I would in fact take this approach again. In fact, I highly recommend my self-named light-weight SOA.

Using Web Services, your customers (whether internal or external) are able to seamlessly access your core technology as if that technology is running in its own environment. This presentation will include a demonstration of the above mentioned application in action. If you have customers or vendors who have provided you with Web Services that you need to integrate into your existing applications, you’ll want to attend this presentation.

Bradley D. Brown ajax, authorship, bam, bpel, mashups, oracle application express, web 2.0, web services

Web 2.0 Components - AJAX

October 10th, 2007
2 comments

Today I’m going to continue my Web 2.0 article. In today’s Blog, I’m going to cover up through AJAX and tomorrow I’ll cover SLATES in detail.

Web 2.0 Components
It’s time to take a look at the components that make up Web 2.0. AJAX provides the visual side of Web 2.0. A number of other technologies make up the collaboration and robustness of Web 2.0. Oracle came up with the SLATES acronym to define the Web 2.0 components. In this section, we’ll discuss AJAX and SLATE:

  • AJAX - Asynchronous JavaScript and XML
  • SLATES
  • Search
  • Link
  • Authorship
  • Tagging
  • Extensions
  • Signaling

Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX)
The concepts of AJAX have been around since frames were introduced into the Web browser. At TUSC we first implemented “AJAX” into Web applications more than 10 years ago. In my first presentations on this subject, I called this concept “Field level validation.” AJAX is typically the primary component responsible for making a Web application look and act like a desktop application. AJAX allows your application to seamlessly call the server based on any event (i.e. keystrokes, time passing, mouse movement, etc.).

Remember that a traditional Web application requires that the entire page is sent to browser for every request. In other words, historically when you clicked on a button in a Web application, the browser would send a HTTP request to the Web Server, which in turn would return a Web page in its entirety. There was no such capability available that provided “partial page rendering.” However, using sneaky techniques, developers figured out ways to make “secret” (or hidden) requests of the server via hidden frames using JavaScript, which would force events to occur in the browser – i.e. render a component on a page. As was mentioned above, we often used this technique for things like field level validation for “heads down” data entry pages. This allowed a user to enter the product ID and upon exiting the field (i.e. which caused a JavaScript onBlur event), we would make a call to the server to look up the part number and return a description and a picture of the item. 10 years ago, this was considered innovative. Today – this is built into browser functionality – it’s AJAX.

I’d like you to think about Google Maps for a minute. If you’re not familiar with Google Maps, please take a minute to go to the Website (http://maps.google.com/) and type an address in. Then click on the buttons in the map, such as zoom in and out, view the satellite map, etc. The last step I’d like you to try is to drag and drop the map to view a new portion of the map. Now let’s think about what’s required as these buttons are pushed and mouse events occur. When the page first displays, the server sends the entire page to the browser. From then on, AJAX does most all of the work. When you enter an address, note that your entire page does not refresh, just the map refreshes. If you enter a business name or category (i.e. paint store) with the city, the map (not the page, just the map) refreshes along with the business flags on the map. The browser makes an AJAX call to the server with the address you enter and returns all of the information necessary (as XML) for the map to be updated along with flags associated with business, address, etc. that you provided. When you think about the map, it’s made up of series of images that are displayed contiguously. When you drag and drop the map, Google’s AJAX code keeps track of the images that have already been loaded and only requests (of the server) the images that it needs to complete your “new” map.

Now let’s take this to another level of map integration. Google supplies an AJAX library that you can use to visually display any data you wish to see using their maps. For example, check out the Terabitz Website (http://www.terabitz.com/), which is shown below. This site is called a “Mashup.” Enter an address and Terabitz uses a number of Web Services to pull together data and represent the data graphically using Google Maps. Note that when you drag and drop the map, not only does Google know to pull in the needed additional mapping images, but Terabitz pulls the additional items that belong on your map (such as a recent home sale). How is this possible? The Google AJAX library is able to tell you the latitude and longitude coordinates of map being displayed, which in turn can tell you which additional records (from your database) you should include for mapping. Or in Terabitz case, allows them to call additional Web services to combine information from a number of valuation engines.

Terabitz Application

Let’s talk about AJAX and how it does all of this cool stuff. First, let’s break down the name itself. AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. Asynchronous simple means that while the user is continuing to do their work in the browser (i.e. unbeknownst to the user), we’re going to have some code executing asynchronously (i.e. at the same time) in the background. JavaScript is the language that’s used on the browser. XML is how the data from the server is returned to (and then parsed) the JavaScript code. What you do with the data you receive back is up to you. It might display an alert message, fill in text or graphics, or call other JavaScript libraries. Using AJAX you could use Google’s library to place flags (representing properties or businesses) on the map that is current within the window.

Now that you have a better feeling for what you can do with AJAX along with some example applications to visit, you might be wondering, “how do I implement AJAX?” What add-ins are required on the browser? You might be thinking about Applets and Active-X controls that have prompted you for security questions and wondering if AJAX does this too. Fortunately AJAX is built into the browsers and has been for quite some time now. There is nothing to install on the browser – it’s already all there. Specifically, I’m referring to the XMLHttpRequest JavaScript statement. Therefore, all that’s required is that JavaScript is available on the browser. When it comes to “implementing AJAX,” you can write your own AJAX libraries, use vendor provided libraries (such as Google’s AJAX libraries for Google Maps), use retail libraries (such as Backbase), and use open source libraries (such as OpenAJAX Alliance http://www.openajax.org/ and the OpenAjax Hub http://www.openajax.org/OpenAjax%20Hub.html).

If you’re going to write your own AJAX library, you’ll want to search for information on the Web. There are many great articles and tutorials on this subject. I’d recommend taking a look at numerous AJAX-based applications so you get ideas on the functionality that you want to embed into your application.

Take a look at the sites mentioned above and applications like Google Suggest (http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en) where as you type a phrase, Google will offer suggestions (and how many matches there are for each possible phrase that matches):
Google Suggest.

If you’re interested in conferences on AJAX, check out AJAXWorld (http://www.ajaxworld.com/). If you’re interested in playing with some AJAX libraries and learning more about AJAX, I’d recommend checking out the Google libraries. Google’s libraries include the search API (
http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch/) and the Maps API (http://www.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/). Google also has an impressive Mashup editor that you can use (http://code.google.com/gme/) and so much more!

Oracle has also made it clear that they plan to fully support the AJAX and Web 2.0 movements. Oracle calls it Enterprise Web 2.0. In the article titled “Oracle Pushes Enterprise Ajax Frameworks” (http://www.computerwire.com/products/locator/?pid=AE6D8B24-EF32-4251-A5D3-28D8CCE6B5E1) it’s clear just how much Oracle wants to push AJAX and Web 2.0. On numerous fronts, Oracle has been a thought leader for new technologies. For example, before Java Server Faces (JSFs) were a standard, Oracle came up with their own version called User Interface Extensions (UIX). They helped the standards committees establish the standards in the JSF world. This was true for Web Services too. One thing that I greatly respect is that Oracle knows how to be a part of the standards committees and they know how to make sure the open standards are implemented in their development platforms before anyone else does. This is quite impressive.

Bradley D. Brown ajax, authorship, components, extensions, link, search, signaling, slates, tagging, web 2.0