Ajaxonomy - The Study of Ajax and Other Interesting Web Technologies

Netbeans 6.5 Released

Brennan Spies — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:59:54 -0700

In the tradition of "Release early, release often", the Netbeans team has released version 6.5, continuing the rapid release cycle the project set with 5.5, 6.0, and 6.1. There many new features, most notably support for Groovy /Grails and PHP. Here's a short list of the other "new and notables":

A new "Compile and Deploy on Save" feature for Java applications.
Support for the Nimbus look and feel in the Swing GUI builder (Matisse)
Big improvements in the JavaScript support, particularly in the area of debugging.
Support for Ruby on Rails 2.1 (JRuby 1.1.4 is bundled)
Improved SQL support, including SQL history and editor auto-completion.

There is also an early access release of Python support in Netbeans that is available as a separate download.

Get Netbeans 6.5 here.

JSON - 3D

David Hurth — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:33:39 -0700

Recently I have been looking at 3D as it pertains to the web and controlled through JavaScript without the aid of plug-ins (this is a topic that interests me as in my early programming I created a lot of 3D applications). While Canvas is currently good for 2D rendering (on most browsers and IE with a little help from Google) we are still a ways off from cross browser Canvas 3D support. While I have found a few 3D engines written with Canvas, they all seem to bomb on IE (even with Google's IE Canvas script).

Even if a good 3D solution was available for the web we still have the issue of being able to load all the models for a scene. This got me thinking a bit about how the loading of scene information could be made to work on the Web.

The concept that I have come up with is fairly simply. You would load a map of the scene (this map may could be stored in JSON and could be made to work as a BSP [Binary Space Partitioning] tree) and on the map you would have various check points. Each checkpoint would load the needed models using JSON.

Below is an example of what the JSON for a cube may look like.

{"obj":[{"vrt":[[-5,-5,5],[5,-5,5],[-5,5,5],[5,5,5],[-5,-5,-5],[5,-5,-5],[-5,5,-5],[5,5,-5]],"fac":[[0,2,3,1],[3,1,0,1],[4,5,7,0],[7,6,4,0],[0,1,5,4],[5,4,0,4],[1,3,7,3],[7,5,1,3],[3,2,6,5],[6,7,3,5],[2,0,4,2],[4,6,2,2]],"nrm":[[0,0,-1],[0,0,-1],[0,-0,1],[-0,0,1],[0,-1,0],[0,-1,0],[1,0,-0],[1,-0,0],[0,1,0],[0,1,0],[-1,0,0],[-1,-0,-0]]}],"mat":[{"r":150,"g":225,"b":219},{"r":150,"g":162,"b":223}]

While this is just a concept and we are still waiting on the technology to make the possible. It is interesting to think of how we may be able to use JSON - 3D in the near future.

You can see a demo of Canvas 3D by nihilogic.dk using JSON for models here (this works on Firefox, but may not work on other browsers).

I Want My Type Information (Back)

Brennan Spies — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:45:31 -0700

As Neal Gafter explained a while ago, there is a backdoor in Java's generic type erasure:
getClass().getGenericSuperclass()
Google Guice makes use of this backdoor to enable the construction of a generic type literal (or Super Type Token): its TypeLiteral class. Now (the soon to be released) Guice 2.0 goes a step further: it can inject a TypeLiteral into your class, thereby reifying your generic types (well, sort of). All the details of the changes to com.google.inject.InjectorImpl are here.

As Neal Gafter also explained, java.lang.reflect.Type really should be retrofitted. Until then, Guice offers you a little help.

jMaps - jQuery Google Maps Plugin

David Hurth — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:33:12 -0700

jQuery has quickly become one of the most used JavaScript libraries around. Google Maps is possibly the most popular mapping website on the web. Wouldn't it be nice to connect the two easily using a small library? Well, jMaps is a library that does just that and version r64 has just been released.

Below is a rundown of the main features as posted on the jMaps Google Code page.

jMaps is a jQuery plugin that provides a really easy API to create and manage multiple google maps on any page.

Geocode and reverse any valid address in the world via Google's geocoding API

Search for directions to and from any location

Add and remove Markers

Add and remove polygons and polylines

Add and remove graphic layers on the map

Add and remove Google adsense layers

Add and remove Traffic layers

Get information back such as map center, map size, map type, etc

You can go to the Google Code page here.

50 Must-read Books on Web Development

David Hurth — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:23:15 -0700

Looking for a good book on web development? Well, over at Nettuts they have put together a good list of 50 good books. So, if you are looking for a good book on web development this list should have quite a few good suggestions.

Below is an excerpt from the list.

Frameworks

8. Agile Web Development with Rails

Ever since Rails took the development world by storm a few years back, there has been plenty written about the Ruby framework. But you can't find a much better resource than one written by Rails creator David Heinemeier Hansson.

9. Python Web Development with Django

Django is an excellent python framework, and one that is highly respected in the development community. Python Web Development with Django is 400 pages of excellent techniques and tutorials for learning django development.

10. Professional CodeIgniter

CodeIgnitor is a PHP-based framework that has shown excellent promise amongst other frameworks. Professional CodeIgnitor gives an overview of MVC programming, and outlines how to build excellent web applications with CodeIgnitor.

11. Beginning CakePHP: From Novice to Professional

Beginning CakePHP: From Novice to Professional is a handy paperback for beginners trying to learn the MVC-based framework, but also, as the name implies, is highly useful for an intermediate or advanced CakePHP programmer. The book claims it's geared for...

...an audience of developers already familiar with PHP but who may not be PHP experts. This book is tailored for those new to CakePHP and who want a thorough tutorial.

You can read the full post here.

The 'Empty Client' AJAX Approach

webgui — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:45:05 -0700

The new 'empty client' approach lead by Visual WebGui to AJAX is set to offer fundamental, infrastructure solutions to the three major setbacks of AJAX listed bellow. This approach shifts all processing, including UI logic to server, much like the old Main Frame paradigm did, and leaves the web client empty.

The first setback of traditional AJAX is the complexity in creating AJAX application for enterprise's scenarios which is time consuming and therefore brings doubtful ROI. The second setback is that there is a lack of AJAX technologies that can support high level data centric enterprise applications. The last but not least in importance, is security concerns as AJAX is known to raise real security concerns which enterprise applications with sensitive data cannot tolerate.

If the client is empty, everything is processed on the server. This concept enables highly productive, desktop development methodologies for web development as well as allowing complex applications running responsively on the network. Finally, since there is no data, no logic and no open services on the client, this approach presents a highly secured alternative to conventional client-side AJAX.

You can read more about the design time and runtime advantages of the 'empty client' AJAX on VisualWebGui.com

Merb 1.0 Released

Brennan Spies — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:34:03 -0700

After two years of development, the first serious contender to challenge Ruby on Rails in the area of Ruby web application frameworks has reached 1.0 status: Merb. Created by Ezra Zugmuntowicz, Merb is built to be lightweight, less monolithic than Rails--i.e., you have your own choice of ORM, JavaScript, and templating frameworks--as well as thread-safe (which Rails, prior to the upcoming version 2.2 at least, was not).

You can get the gem from RubyForge with (something like) the following :
$ sudo gem install merb --include-dependencies

(Alternative site: —source http://edge.merbivore.com)

You can then generate your first Merb project and run it with the following:
$ merb-gen app my_application $ cd my_application $ merb

Then, of course, you'll want to read the documentation.

JS Strict Data Types - Beta 1.1 Released

David Hurth — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:23:16 -0700

JS Strict Data Types Beta version 1.1 has just been released. The new release fixes various bugs that where found in the initial release. The biggest fix was one that caused the string and integer data types to not be kept correctly in certain situations.

Any code that you may have written using the library should work with no code changes. So, we recommend that anybody using the initial release start using this new release.

You can go to our Google Code page here.

You can download the new version here.

JavaScript Table Sorter

David Hurth — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:46:40 -0700

There may be times when you have a table that you want users to be able to sort. In some cases it will make sense to have the table sorted on the server side, however for smaller tables it may be useful to have a script sort it on the client. Well, over at the Leigeber Web Development Blog they have posted a nice small script that accomplishes just that.

below is an excerpt from the post.

This JavaScript table sorting script is easy to use, fast and lightweight at only 1.7KB. It includes alternate row formatting, header class toggling, auto data type recognition and selective column sorting. It will currently sort strings, numbers and currency. More features will follow.

You can read the full story here.

You can see a demo here.

You can download the source code here.

Creating a Virtual Keyboard

David Hurth — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:56:07 -0700

With devices like the iPhone and many of the new touch computer monitors we are using traditional keyboards less and less. Add this to the fact that when many people are on the go they use public computers with possible security threats like keyloggers. With these trends in computing you may look at putting a virtual keyboard in your web applications (where it makes sense). Well, over at Design Shack they have put together a nice example of this using jQuery (although you could take the same concept and use a different library).

Below is an excerpt from the post.

For those of us who travel often, we often end up accessing our emails and other confidential web accounts on public computers. In such circumstances, we are completely at the mercy of keyloggers and other malicious software that track our keystrokes and record our passwords.

Yet, very few websites provide their users with the option of using a virtual keyboard to key in (at the bare minimum) their passwords. Yes, a few banks do it, but considering how much personal information we store in various web applications these days, the safety of these accounts are of no less significance to us. This tutorial will explain how we can implement a simple virtual keyboard with some (well, okay, lots of!) help from jQuery.

You can read the full post here.