I just listed a bunch of Ajax frameworks, libraries, and toolkits ... I just realized I need to go back a step... what is the difference among them? These are the differences how I see them; it's not an official definition, but just explaining the differences in simple words.

Library: consists only of a series of functions.
example: Dojo, prototype, script.aculo.us

Framework: library plus methodology, event or process management, and other utilities that facilitates writing a program.
example: Fusebox, Model Glue, Mach II

Toolkit: framework plus an IDE. It's a complete solution for your needs.
example: Microsoft Atlas, Ticbo GI, Zimbra AT.


So anyways, Adobe is developing their version of an Ajax Library called Spry. Ray Camden seems to like it. I haven't tried it yet, but I will sometime this upcoming week. Not sure why Adobe is even interested in getting in this game, unless they have some big plans of taking this library and allowing for creating Ajax pages with server side calls through ColdFusion ... I'll post more on this soon.

Harshad Harshad Oak posted an entry with seven Ajax toolkits / frameworks to watch out for ... Google Web Toolkit, Dojo, Yahoo! User Interface Library, Direct Web Remoting, Spry framework for Ajax, Mochikit, and Script.aculo.us.

Some of them I agree, some not ... and it's missing a few too.

GWT may succeed just because it's Google; it's nice and intuitive for Java Developers, but somewhat limited. We should expect major improvements in this framework over the next few months.

Dojo is the best JavaScript library out there... really nicely thought, OOP, with many Widgets and Ajax support. It is also being used by the Open Ajax Effort, which is developing an IDE built over Eclipse...
The Y! UIL has great patterns and their userbase is growing. I haven't followed it closely, but I wouldn't bet money on this one.

DRW is being developed by Joe Walker. He's a very bright guy, but being alone in this game doesn't help... DRW 2.0 is coming soon and has built in capabilities for reverse Ajax / comet and JSF interfaces... Up till now DWR was the most widely used library in the Java world, but GWT has a greater chance to succeed.

Spry is an attempt from Adobe to get in the game. IMO, unless Adobe builds this in ColdFusion somehow, they have no business here. It's a nice framework, somewhat limited at the moment, not advertised, but no where nearly as mature as many other frameworks...

Mochikit is too small ... it  will not grow as fast as needed and disappear over time.

Script.aculo.us is a nice low level animation library. It doesn't do Ajax and shouldnt be on this list. While it's a great library, used by RoR and will be around forever, it doesn't belong in this list.

In addition to all these products, we're missing some big players! Microsoft for instance. Atlas will be by far the most widely used Ajax framework ... I am not a Microsoft fan myself, but Altas was very well thought and it's a great product. Also, Laszlo, Tibco, Zimbra AT, Backbase, are larger than many libraries mentioned in this list... All of them are mature products, some are commercial, but you deserve to be on this list.

The Open Ajax Effort is moving forward, adding ajax support for Eclipse using the Ajax Toolkit Framework (ATF). They are aiming to build in support for the Zimbra AT and Dojo. An Ajax IDE will be a great resource and will help weeding out many small Ajax libraries.

IBM's contribution to the launch of the new Open Ajax Initiative aims to increase accessibility to the powerful Web programming technique through the Eclipse Foundation. To help prepare developers for the new tool set, this article introduces two existing runtime tools -- Dojo and Zimbra -- which will be supported in Eclipse's Ajax Toolkit Framework (ATF).

As the adoption of Ajax helps the Web reach new levels of interactivity and responsiveness, the importance of enterprise-class development tools will continue to grow. The ATF, Dojo, and Zimbra are key components to this advancement. As Web audiences continue to demand better, faster, smoother Web applications, the burden is on tool kit developers and the browser manufacturers to maintain a cooperative environment that encourages advancements in UI and cross-platform compatibility. The Open Ajax Initiative is a framework in and of itself, built for just such a purpose.

As the Open Ajax Initiative makes strides and the ATF comes to life, this series will continue, providing technical detail and tutorials for building Ajax applications in Eclipse.

Just a quick reminder for the South Florida people: I'll be speaking tomorrow at the CFUG, topic, more on Ajax. You'll have a chance to get the best from the last few conferences I've been, especially, the Ajax Experience, which was fantastic! Hope to see you all there.

If you didn't assist to my last session please get the slides here, and if you wish to be prepared and ask nice questions, you may find enclosed the slides I'll use tomorrow.

It's been a while since my last ajaxCFC update, but my last release had a small bug when running in Blue Dragon. It seems like the getMetaData function doesn't behave exactly the same, so thanks to Vience's help I fixed it to work with BD too.

I also have a port for the Mach II framework coming really soon thanks to Dan Wilson. Don't you love open source projects?

It's been almost two weeks since I left ... and there've been great. I spent the first few days at the Ajax Experience... what a show! let me tell you: the best organized show I've talked or assisted. Props to Jay Zimmerman, he did an outstanding job. I spent most of the time there perhaps networking, rather than at the sessions, which I will still be able to catch later in an on-demand webcast. I met great people btw... it had a great attendance.

Changing topics, during my absence, my CFUnited Class sold out... that's right ... if you didn't register yet, I'm sorry... it's too late... Hopefully CFUnited will allow me to post some of the material here, if not, I may disguise some of it ;)

Other news, blogCFC 5.0 is officially out and I'm planning to upgrade soon, maybe this weekend.

CFUnited is blogging too; nothing much going on yet, but stay tooned for important information.

I'm speaking next week at the South Florida CFUG. Topic, more Ajax ... I'll start where I left off in my last session in February.

I'll have a CFLive session in a couple of weeks... briefly showing what I have planned for CFUnited... I hope to see you all there.

That's it for now, more tomorrow.

Cheers.

I'll be out for a few days for the Ajax Experience. The conference looks great and I'm really looking forward to meet some West Coast Ajax Gurus, which I haven't had a chance yet. I'm staying an extra couple of days, so if you're in the Bay area, drop me an email or stop by the conference.

I'll post my slides and a small review after the conference is over; probably this weekend.

I will be giving a short presentation on my CFUnited Pre-Conference AJAX class, which is almost sold out btw: only 7 seats left.

When:

Thursday, June 8, 2006, 12:30 PM

This is United Coldfusion Meetup Day

20060608T163000Z

Where:

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Description:

(New Date) Rob Gonda will discuss AJAX for ColdFusion developers.

Rob Gonda is the CTO for iChameleon Group and Editor-in-Chief of AJAX Developer's Journal. He is an Advanced Certified Coldfusion Developer, frequent contributor to the CFDJ, holds a BS in computer science and engineering, and has an MBA with a specialization in entrepreneurship from the Wayne Huizenga School of Business. You can reach him at rob[at]robgonda[dot]com and Rob’s blog is at http://www.robgonda.com

This event is among the 2006 line up of previews for CFUNITED called CFLive!. This talk will be about 1/2 hour including time for Q&A.

These talks are intended to help you plan your conference schedule in advance without "giving away the store" so to speak.

The FREE EVENT will be held on:
**** Thursday June 8th at 12:30 PM US/Eastern. ****

Please refer to: http://www.timezoneconverte... for timezone assistance.

The URL for the Breeze meeting is listed in the MORE INFORMATION section of the RSVP page. Just click the button to login as GUEST with no password and enter your name when prompted in order to join the meeting from your browser.

If you've never used Breeze Meeting, get a quick overview:
http://www.adobe.com/produc...

More information:

http://stevenerat.breezecentra l.com/cflive2006/

A Microsoft development team has announced the beta of its Windows Live Shopping site, "built on 100% AJAX technology".

The site was built using the newest M$ Ajax Framework, called Atlas. The framework looks promising, with nice event handlers, activity indicators, uri state changes to allow bookmarking and back/forward buttons, BUT, it only works with IE thus far.... I remember that Microsoft announced that Atlas will work with all browsers, it just had to be hosted in a Windows .net environment ... I guess they're just not ready yet.

So, for those who didn't know yet, I'm going to CFUnited! yeah! but not only that, I'm teaching a pre-conference class: CU214 - Ajax intensive for ColdFusion Developers. I was supposed to do a Breeze presentation tomorrow, and for those who RSVP'ed, I'm sorry... I postponed it to 6/8 ... I don't have the time right now.

The class has only 10 seats left, so if you are thinking of attending, hurry up ... it will sell out soon.

Hope to see you all there, I know you'll enjoy the session as much as I will.