Return to Archive Runtime - The Software Outsourcing Newsletter for Executives and Investors from Accelerance and Steve Mezak In this issue: AJAX has rapidly gained popularity in just the last few months as a way to enhance the usability of your web applications. You can use outsourcing to quickly take advantage of this new and useful combination of technologies. Quickly Create Your AJAX Web Application with Outsourcing Imagine your software as a dynamic web application that dazzles your users with an attractive display of data and a powerful but familiar user interface. That is the promise of AJAX - a new user interface approach that combines several standards and requires nothing else on the user's computer except a browser. AJAX has rapidly gained popularity in just the last few months as a way to enhance the usability of your web applications. You can use an experienced outsourcing team to quickly take advantage of this new and useful combination of technologies. The concept of a Rich Internet Application (RIA) appeared a few years ago. It is a browser-based application that behaves more like those on your desktop. Today, AJAX has taken the lead in creating these RIAs. AJAX has rapidly grown in popularity because it delivers a compelling user experience but is based on the combination of existing web standards: HTML, JavaScript, CSS, XML and SOAP. AJAX also uses the same security model of SSL and authentication by username and password or public keys. It is also used by Google Maps: http://maps.google.com and Email: http://mail.google.com. AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript And XML, an acronym coined by Jesse James Garret of Adaptive Path in his seminal article, "Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications" http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000385.php AJAX enables very interactive applications. Drag-and-drop capabilities are enhanced by AJAX. There are two parts to implementing drag-and-drop: the visual part using HTML and the semantics of what happens in application. AJAX updates just the areas of the page where the drag-and-drop occurs. You can also update portions of the screen from the server by either keeping a connection to the server open, or by having the browser poll the server for updates. The result is a display that shows the user the latest information quickly, without the disruption of a redraw of the entire screen. AJAX is enabling a new kind of web application called a "mash- up" that integrates web content from unrelated web sites using web services. See http://www.housingmaps.com/ as an example. It sounds great but it does take a bit of programming skill. There are several software toolkits, both commercial and open source that are available to make it easier to use AJAX: Tibco General Interface - http://www.tibco.com/software/business_optimization/generalinterface.jsp DOJO Toolkit - http://www.dojotoolkit.org/ Zimba Toolkit - http://www.zimbra.com/ DWR open source library - http://www.getahead.ltd.uk/dwr/ Microsoft Atlas Project - http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2005/06/28/416185.aspx You can also check out these sites for more details and resources about AJAX: AJAX Resources - http://ajaxmatters.com/ Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AJAX Another way to add AJAX to your software is to take advantage of low-cost offshore outsourcing with a team that is expert in new web application technologies. All outsourcing vendors do is to create software for clients, often using the newest technology. You can gain the technical expertise you need quickly by outsourcing. For example, an Accelerance client used a team in India to create a web application using AJAX. It rapidly updates one side of the web page with descriptions of computer printer models as the user enters and modifies printer criteria on the other side. Another client had another team use AJAX to create a sophisticated and interactive data entry application to accurately collect information about audio CDs and video DVDs. *** The Runtime bottom-line: AJAX is increasing in popularity as a way to enhance web applications. But you don't need a PhD in web programming or have to hire a full time AJAX expert to use these new user interface techniques. Use an experienced and low- cost outsourced team of programmers that stay current on all the latest programming developments like AJAX. Vision Resources Are you wondering how you will select an expert offshore team to develop your software? Use the Accelerance Vision Resources(sm) outsourced vendor selection service and cut the time of your vendor selection process by as much as 90%. Vision Resources leverages members of the Accelerance's 20 teams in 14 countries around the world. Click here to learn more about Vision Resources Accelerance, Inc. delivers impartial & expert strategies and services for risk-free outsourcing of your software development. Visit our web site at www.Accelerance.com Until next time, Steve Mezak Accelerance, Inc. Risk-Free Outsourcing www.Accelerance.com 213 Garcia Avenue Half Moon Bay, CA 94019 1-650-712-8990 Contact me by email (c) 2005 Accelerance, Inc. All rights reserved. You are free to use material from the "Runtime" eZine in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link. Please also notify me where the material will appear. The attribution should read: "By Steve Mezak, CEO of Accelerance, Inc. Please visit the Accelerance web site at http://www.Accelerance.com for more information and resources on outsourcing and creating great software products."