Le Big Mac du AJAX | February 19th, 2006
I’m encouraged by the current conversations about different flavors and and richness of AJAX user interfaces. Thanks to Harry Fuecks for starting and Michael Mahemoff for following up.
Basically they’ve been put into two categories (one could break it down further but this is a great start) AJAX lite (also HTML++ or AJAX website) and AJAX Deluxe (Client/SOA or AJAX Application).
I think this is particularly important to look when you’re designing a UI and planning an AJAX project. How far will yo go, how far can you go and how far do you “need” to go?
When we build our AJAX UI components we try to push as far as we can. We know you don’t always need to, but in the case you want to build a web app as interactive and fast as the one on your desktop we’re trying to help!
I’ve put together a quick (~6min) AJAX Flash demo screencast (lower bandwidth version ~25mb) to illustrate what I’m talking about.
Take a look it’s my first screencast…so a little rough around the edges. It was fun to put together so expect to see a lot more these on my blog. Please send me your feedback and ideas so I can make them better!!
Technorati Tags: ajax, screencast, usability, eba grid
February 20th, 2006 at 9:26 pm
[…] Now Andre Charland of eBusiness Applications has chimed in with a 6-minute screencast […]
February 20th, 2006 at 9:53 pm
This seemed a little self-promotional. What point are you trying to make, exactly, besides “we build awesome AJAX components”?
February 20th, 2006 at 10:09 pm
hey kevin I was trying to illustrate deep functionality after thinking more about your point about the spectrum of html ++ to client/soa, or html ++ could be the website end of the spectrum and client/soa is for web applications. Then you can also have shallow vs deep. For example the grid in my example is deep, or Google maps is deep. Google could have used AJAX but kept a more similar UI to mapquest and just eliminated page refreshing, instead they implemented pre-fetching, keyboard navigation, mouse dragging, etc… Makes more sense for me to think of it on a type of X/Y axis…
I also posted a comment on Michael’s blog: http://www.softwareas.com/ajax-lite-versus-ajax-deluxe.
Warning – I sell grids and other AJAX components;) And yes I use my blog to promote eBusiness Applications and our products.
Does this seem out of line? It’s very hard explain some of the UI functionality in words, so I thought video would help.
February 20th, 2006 at 10:50 pm
I’m curious on your thoughts on the market impact and the accessibility of these techniques as you measure them against the fact that your solutions only work in Internet Explorer 6 and above on the PC. Are you working towards cross-browser compatible solutions with comparable amounts of functionality?
If you are or if you are interested in the possibility of doing so, drop me a line at the provided email addres. I have been working on such solutions (editable grids) in enterprise web apps for a few years now and I think we could learn a lot from comparing notes and possibility developing a relationship between our two businesses…
February 21st, 2006 at 12:33 am
Great presentation! I couldn’t believe I was looking at a web application.
You shouldn’t feel at all uneasy that this helps promote your business. Good for you!
I’m curious – what product did you use to create the screencast?
February 21st, 2006 at 4:00 am
I left a comment on Dave’s blog, as well. It was more in response to his comments, but it is still related to your screencast:
http://blogs.ebusiness-apps.com/dave/?p=100#comment-463
Don’t worry about anyone being critical. Most of it seems tame to me, but I think they were just pointing out that your screencast was more of a “demo” than a how-to.
Obviously, some were expecting more; I expected to see very practical building blocks that separate “lite” versus “rich” apps, but you displayed mostly the end product. Perhaps you should consider that for #2, and I hope you make one!
Very well done first screencast. Very cool component.
February 21st, 2006 at 3:24 pm
Andre B. – Definitely working on Mozilla/Gecko support expect a beta in march or april. Drop me an email and let’s chat, the more the merrier:)
Ajaxian Fan – Thanks! And I don’t feel bad in the least;-) I used Camtasia to make that recording. Nice little tool and easy to use.
Bradley – Thanks for the compliments. On demo #2 do you mean compare an AJAX-lite grid to a richer experience and look at the specific user interactions this would affect? Or do you mean how this grid is built?
Thanks for all the comments, I’m flattered! Keep the conversation alive…
February 22nd, 2006 at 3:27 pm
My current project wouldn’t really be feasible if it wasn’t for this type of tech (We bought a license to your grid 2 months ago actually). ASP.NET is certainly lacking in rich ajax functionality (atlas is a start but definitely behind the curve). Combining your grid with AJAX.Net Professional (100% free for commercial use – http://ajaxpro.schwarz-interactive.de) has allowed us to provide the “deep” richness you describe. The main thing left to be desired has already been mentioned (cross browser compatibility).
In a more general sense though, what really needs to occur is for more developers to become familiar with javascript. Components like this definitely take a lot of the work out of developing a rich UI, but I see a lot of developers who don’t bother to become even modestly proficient with client-side scripting. Also, the tightly-coupled nature of AJAX further streses the need for a good knowledge of design patterns and planning in order to be extensible.
Nice presentation, I look forward to v3 of your grid!
February 22nd, 2006 at 3:57 pm
Thanks Will!
We’re all looking forward to Grid V3!! Beta should be out in the next month or two.
We’re currently working on AJAX success stories with our customers and other projects we’ve been involved in. Would you been interested in collaborating? Maybe sharing some details,screenshots, code, stories or whatever you feel comfortable with? Some of this could definitely end up on our site, in articles we’re writing and maybe even a new AJAX book Dave, Alexei and I are working on.
Let me know and thanks for the comment!
February 24th, 2006 at 8:04 pm
Andre:
I’d be happy to share some information about the current project. If you could send me an email, I will reply with some info, screenshots, etc when I have a chance.
March 2nd, 2006 at 2:20 pm
Thanks Will!
August 25th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
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Great Point, Excellent Post, Great Blog, Cool Info…