Andre’s Blog

October 17th, 2006

The team here at Nitobi has been working super hard over the last couple of weeks to get out some point releases of Grid and Combo. Thanks for all your hard work everyone!

Updates to Nitobi Ajax Grid:

Nitobi Grid V3.23 (October 13, 2006)

• Coldfusion MX Edition released.
• WAR file in J2EE version http://www.nitobi.com/news/?a=41fixed.
• Added Value attribute to the columndefinition.
• Added onCellUpdateEvent to Column.
• Added ImageUrl to Image Editor
• Improved overall rendering speed.
• Reduced the total JavaScript file size.
• CssStyle and Value attributes support binding expressions.
• attachEvents and detachEvents methods made public.
• Fixed slow editing in Internet Explorer.
• getHandler can now be set on the lookup editor.
• Mousewheel support added for scrolling.
• Asynchronous property changed to “async” for HttpRequest class.
• Improved instantiation speed.
• The block selection now collapses when clicked on.
• Block selection speed improved.
• Selection release fixed in Firefox.
• Repaired some problems in Classic ASP samples

Updates in Ajax ComboBox 3.5:

Nitobi ComboBox V3.5 (October 13, 2006)

• Coldfusion MX edition added
• ASP.NET 2.0 Support added
  • VB.NET 2.0 Support
  • C# 2.0 Support
• Visual Studio 2005 Support added
• New samples for all platforms.
• Listbox can appear above or below the textbox depending on screen position.
• Support for % width textbox and listboxes
• Various rendering glitches in Firefox and Internet Explorer resolved
• Support for menu objects in the dropdown (see new sample)
• Added support for horizontal scrolling when many columns are present.
• When no dataisland is supplied in the page, and an initial search value is defined, the combo only does one AJAX call to the server.
• Width of textbox, combo, and list can be specified as %.
• List columns can be specified as % and the wildcard asterisk (*) can be used (derived from HTML table syntax and behaviour).
• If there is no space to the left or bottom of the combo, the list will move to one or both of the top, or the left to ensure the list stays in view.
• HTTP Request method can no be specified as either POST or GET.
• Better fuzzy matching introduced. The server can send back any data that may not necessarily match on the client. This allows for more custom, fuzzy matching using the backend.
• Better control of horizontal scrollbar. Content in the list can scroll or clip
• Paging functionality added to the Smartsearch and Freeform modes in a similar fashion to how it currently works in the Classic mode.
• Better support for ASHX. Ability to serve data from ASHX pages for improved performance.
• Documentation is now online.
• Absolute control of the list x andy coordinates.
• Bug Fixes:

• When TypeAhead matches a search item and the user loses focus by clicking the mouse elsewhere, the item is considered selected. If TypeAhead makes no match, then no row is selected, and the custom text can be retrieved.
• Fixed memory leaks relating to searching and paging.
• If initial search finds no match, the initial search text is left in the textbox.
• Fixed 404 errors resulting from javascript:void images.
• TextBox can be disabled in Firefox.
• Horizontal scrollbar fixed in Firefox. The scrollbar is on the inside of the container now (ensures that the width of the list is always maintained).
• Compatibility with other components fixed.
• Numerous other minor bugfixes.

Technorati Tags: ajax, nitobi, grid, datagrid, combobox, autocomplete, autosuggest, release

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October 16th, 2006

Now ColdFusion developers can get access to the same enterprise Ajax components that we’ve been providing to Java, PHP and ASP developers:)  Alexei’s been the driving force in getting our ColdFusion offering to market.  More here:

What we’ve done (to be specific) is provide a direct conversion of the server-side Nitobi XML API in the form of a basic CFTEMPLATE include. This provides a global set of functions for reading and writing to our XML schema. Since this is new territory for us, we wanted to try a very basic implementation of this API to guage response and collect feedback before producing a Coldfusion module or CFC. We’ll be releasing a CFC (Coldfusion Component) some time in late November or December pending feedback from customers.

If you’re looking for where to download our Coldfusion components go to

• Free trial downloads

Although it was technically possible for CF developers to use our Ajax Grid and ComboBox before, it was a lot harder. Now they can have the rich user interface up and running in their existing app much quick by building from a sample.

We have all the same demos as for other platforms that ship with with the free download.  We also have online demos you can kick the tires of immediately. 

• Ajax Grid Demos and Samples
  
• Ajax ComboBox Demos and Samples

The next thing we want to do in our never ending quest to make usable Ajax web apps easier to develop is provide a Dreamweaver plugin for Coldfusion and other developers.

Technorati Tags: ajax, nitobi, grid, combobox, autocomplete, cf, cfc, components, coldfusion

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October 3rd, 2006

Dave and I just got to our _lovely_ hotel room in Silicon Valley/Santa Clara for the AjaxWorld Conference & Expo. We’re pretty exhausted, but managed to get some Pizza which ate while watching oh so uplifting news:S

Anyway, Dave’s talking about “Ajax Debugging and Quality Assurance” at 11:30, once you’ve moved passed the Ajax 101 which you should’ve by now you’ll need to know about the tools and techniques that he’ll be discussing. Some of the tools of particular interest include: FireBug, JSUnit, Selenium and CruiseControl.

I’m leading a BOF about Usability at some point…but I’m not entirely sure when. I’ll post again as soon as I know.

Birds of a Feather Sessions:And then, for good measure, AJAXWorld 2006 also offers a welter of BOFs led by some of the industry’s biggest names:
Usability BOF – Andre Charland
JSON BOF – Douglas Crockford
Dojo BOF – Dylan Scheimann
Open AJAX BOF – Jon Ferraiolo
jMaki BOF – Greg Murray
Ruby on Rails BOF- Thomas Fucchs
Rico BOF – Bill Scott

AJAX World Conference & Expo Speakers and Agenda Announced @ AJAXWORLD MAGAZINE

Dave and I will try to get a podcast in while we’re down here, so stay tuned. I’m down in Santa Clara after this for the Open Ajax Alliance meetings until Saturday morning. If you’re around drop me an email or give me a ring.

technorati tags:ajaxworld, ajaxworld2006, ajaxworld06, davejohnson, andrecharland, usability, debugging, ajax, qa, performance, jsunit, selenium, firebug, bof, presentation, santaclara, siliconvalley, nitobi

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September 27th, 2006

So first off we launched our site (www.openajax.org) last week! Which we’re all very excited about:) Right now we have over 50 member companies, and this is growing substantially. Jon Ferraiolo told us today that he’s received more than 50 emails in the last business days since the new site went live. A good sign. With the new site we also received a donation, the domain OpenAjax.org which is much cleaner and easier to remember than www.openajaxalliance.org, yah! It was pretty loose to joing at first, all you had to do was email and Jon, have a chat and he’d determine if it made sense. Now you have sign an agreement that mostly has to do with IPR issues and the steeting committee has to approve you, so we’re getting serious.

Microsoft still hasn’t joined, maybe they never will:( One can imagine they have some reservations abuut jumping with IBM and a bunch of open source projects with out considering it carefully. Mind you Atlas has a kind of interesting license, from an MS perspective anyway. Still I think it’s important for them and the rest of the group that they get on board, come we’re all grown ups!

We’ve also published an Ajax white paper which is a great semi technical resource to get up to speed on what Ajax is, what it can do for you and how to go about doing it. Check it out here or download the PDF here.

The white paper is nice but it’s mostly a marketing piece and something for the media and analysts to grab onto. The actual work product is the OpenAjax Hub which is an open source project, that will facilitate different Ajax frameworks, JavaScript libraries and components to work together in the same app or on the same page. Of the 50 some companies involved in the effort there’s only a handful of people writing code, but I’m sure this will change with the first check-ins to SourceForge. The goal is to have something usable by early 2007!

So what is Nitobi’s involvement? Well, I’m on the marketing committee with Alexei, Dave’s working with Declarative Markup and James is working on interoperability stuff. Unfortunately none of us have all the time we’d like to have to devote to this valuable industry effort…but that’s what the way things roll sometimes. So what do we do? Well for staters we have conference calls every 2 weeks, where we discuss what we do and what we have to. They’re pretty typical committee conference calls, you never get as much done as you want to or think you could but things are moving along. The tech committees actually write code and discuss interop and architecture issues, the maketing folks have come up with website, white paper and press releases. So not bad. But we are not a standards body so don’t expect any;-)

We’re having our second face-to-face meeting next week at the Sun offices in Santa Clara, right after AjaxWorld. This will be my first and I’m looking forward to meeting everyone in person.

Just wanted to give a special mention to Jon from IBM, as I think he’s done a tremendous job getting things done and managing the whole committee process. Neither of which are small feats!

technorati tags:openajax, openajaxalliance, ajax, nitobi

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September 22nd, 2006

• Paul Kedrosky’s Infectious Greed: Web 2.0 Venture Investing in 2006 Explodes

  Investing in web2.0 way up! Interesting times we’re in again. How long will it last and how much are folks going to pull out of this investment? I don’t know…

  (tags: web2.0 vc investment internet business)

• Exercise can make you a better entrepreneur: ” | Lance Tracey

  I couldn’t agree more! Good call Lance.

  (tags: entrepreneur fitness)

• Sept 22 is Car Free Day

  do it!

  (tags: carfree environment car)

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September 21st, 2006

Alright it only took a couple all nighters, a few pizzas, some sushi, a bunch of beer, focus, a blog fight with some analysts, lots of espresso, muffins and a weekend marathon but the long awaited Grid 3.2 is ready to roll:

Nitobi Grid V3.2 (September 20, 2006)

• Separated data sources from rendering, creating 6 distinct modes of operation:

• LiveScrolling Ajax
• LiveScrolling Local
• Paging Ajax
• Paging Local
• ShowAll Ajax
• ShowAll Local

Added ShowAll mode – Perform a single get on the data and render it all at once. Useful if all the the data is needed at once for JavaScript operations.

Improved loadtime performance ~100%. Grids appear more quickly on the screen.

Added new editors: Image, checkbox, link, password

Improved CSS styles for less parent-style intrusion. * Nitobi namespace replaces deprecated Nitobi one. “Nitobi” becomes “NTB”.

Added static databinding features

• Client-side sorting
• In-document xml data islands

Extended the Nitobi Framework The Nitobi Framework is the underlying toolkit that supports our components. It will soon be available as a standalone component, but can be accessed now when using the Grid. Some of the components which have been added to the API documentation are:

• Event Manager – Standardizes cross-browser DOM events. Provides a simple JavaScript publish/subscribe event pattern that can be used for general event notifications.
• Data Table – A complete client-side dataset object alowing easy synchronizing between client-side and remote datasets.
• Callback – Developers can now use the native Grid cross-browser transport method to perform their own Ajax callbacks. Its no longer necessary to use a 3rd party Ajax frameworks to do Ajax transport when using Grid.
• Cross-browser XML/XSLT Libraries – Perform XSL transforms on xml documents with full cross-browser support using the Grid’s native xml library.
• Documentation – Added the framework to the public documentation so the component methods can be used by developers in their own applications external to Grid.
• Cross-browser DOM Toolkit – Access the native Grid DOM library. Supports things like outerHTML, dimensional positioning.

Nitobi Knowledgebase – Whats New in Grid V3

Alexei really busted his ass to build 9 new Ajax samples with code and explanations to help develoers get started:

• Basic Grid Demo
• Live Scrolling Mode
• Paging Mode
• ShowAll Mode
• Remote Data
• Static Data
• Master – Detail
• Editors
• Copy and Paste

Ok enough with the blogging, go download it! Please send me any feedback you have!

Thanks again for your patience, understanding and support! I’ll put a screencast highlighting the new features up soon…

technorati tags:ajax, ajaxgrid, nitobi, nitobigrid, nitobitgrid3.2, aspgrid, phpgrid, jspgrid, javascriptgrid, javascript

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September 16th, 2006

I gave Dave and Alexei a ride home shortly before midnight. We’ve been working very hard to get Grid 3.2 out this week. We’re looking promising for Thursday, but after a few late nights even an all nighter by Whitehawk himself we’re getting very close. In fact it’s just couple tweaks, some docs and website updates tomorrow and the launch email will be off. Seems no matter what you do launches are always a heroic effort in the end, but we’re getting better that’s for sure! Stay tuned…

And to the Nitobi crew, keep up the good work!

technorati tags:nitobi, ajaxgrid, nitobigrid, launch, version, pointrelease

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September 2nd, 2006

We’re making progess on our roadmap towards better support for Java and J2EE developers in our Ajax components. Last week Dave Johnson did a webinar about Nitobi’s JSF Ajax Grid for Java Studio Creator (JSC). Our intern Agus, the “Ajax Padawan”, was a huge help in making this happen and he put together this screencast that shows you how to implement a grid in a page, most of the configuration is done in the design view without much writing code! You can drag the grid onto the design canvas, bind it to a data source and drag columns into the grid. You can also adjust certain properties in the property editor. Now Sun just has to let us get our components into the JSC update center;-) We have a special Grid JSC / JSF Download here. We’re making plans to support JSP and Struts in the near future as well. Of greater interest overall here is the ability to design and develop Java Ajax apps in a visual environment. Tooling for Java and Ajax is definitely getting better, but still has a ways to go. However, tools like JSC and frameworks like JSF are really going to help developer create great user interfaces faster, with less low-level coding and messing around. I’m really optimistic about this development and it’s continued growth once JSC is baked right into NetBeans.

Screenshot of the Nitobi Grid rendered in the JSC design view.

As always feedback is greatly appreciated! Just email me.

technorati tags:ajax, grid, datagrid, jsc, javastudiocreator, jsf, ajaxtools, ide, screencast, javaserverfaces

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September 2nd, 2006

After several months of hard work we’re almost done our rebranding process. This week we officially launched the new www.nitobi.com website! Keep in mind a website is never finished, and this is just the first iteration. We’ve update the design to be cleaner and simpler. One of our design goals was to to maintain a healthy amount of whitespace. We also wanted to make it easier for visitors to easily learn about our products and the functionality that they’re looking for. That’s we have big links to the feature highlights, demos and video tours front and center. After demos and product info, downloads and pricing were the next most visited sections of our old website so we brought those up to be in the main bar separating the header (and logo) from the rest of the content. We’ve ported over our old knowledge base to the new template as well. The forums are currently still at http://forums.ebusiness-apps.com running on PHPBB but we’re porting those over to Drupal, which we’re excited about because we want move over more of the dynamic functionality of our site into Drupal as it makes sense and as time permits. But we’re treading carefully into this new web framework, so we’re just going to do the forums and feed aggregation to start with. Our site content doesn’t change that rapidly so we don’t ‘need’ a full blown CMS for the content pages. You can access any of the dynamic content via RSS feeds as well (news, blogs, knowledge base and forums) which is handy for our customers so they don’t have to come back to the site or wait for email to keep up to date on what’s going on with the components they’re using. We’ve been working hard on putting together more rich media such as video tours and feature highlights in the form of small Flash movies that we put together using Camtasia, we’re going to be expanding and creating more and more of this content through the fall. Likely the new videos will be more technical and implementation specific, more like “how to” videos for developers.
That’s it for my website update. Please send me any feedback or ideas you may have! Thanks:)

technorati tags:website, nitobi, design, redesign, launch, www.nitobi.com, marketing, drupal, rss

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August 29th, 2006

I thinkby most accounts BarCamp Vancouver was great success! About 120 attendees, dozens of great sessions, a pre-bbq, great location, great coffee, decent wifi, a photo walk, dj and turn tables, break-even, great organizers and 2 kegs of free beer.

Big thanks to all the organizers, Bill and WorkSpace!

I managed to catch a bunch of different sessions, Jason Billingsley of ElasticPath had an interesting talk on SEO and the longtail. I took some kind of random notes here:

• Many want to be number for one”digital camera”
• but there’s a lot of money to be made for “sony 5mp digital slr”
• it’s very hard to become number for digital camera
• if you put together a 4 keyphrase you’re further along the buying process
• dig throough your logs to come up with the long tail list
• keyword generation tool Jason will post this on his blog
• they compete against IBM, MS, Oracle, but they are very slow to move on keywords so they got lucky
• EP has baked alot of this baked into their platform
• CSS vs Tables…CSS is better because:

• spiders get to content quicker
• your keywords are higher in the page
• this creates better content to code ratio

More in Jason’s blog post.

Dave and I talked about Ajax, I showed a bunch of cool demos including dave’s infamous Google maps/Ajax Grid/Excel Mashup. And then dave went off discussing some Advanced topics in JavaScript such as aspect oriented programming and inheritance. If you want Dave’s slide deck (you’re either David Gratton or Brian Leroux) email me;-)

technorati tags:barcamp, barcampvan, barcampvancouver, workspace, ajax, seo, longtail, jasonbillingsley, elasticpath, marketing, workspace, barcampearth

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