A few months back we put up a AJAX Primer. For those interested in the technology we’ve provided information (and many links!) to resources and frameworks that can take some of the frustration out of coding an AJAX application.

Yahoo! Developer Network

The Yahoo! Developer Network is fast becoming a very useful resource for web application developers. They’ve put up a second round of design patterns (and expanded on some of the previous entries) which provides a list of common design problems or desires then outlines the solution, rationale for arriving at it, and accessibility tips to keep in mind. While this may sound slightly paternalistic their views are well thought out and often built upon current practices and are made from a user-centric perspective. That being said in the comments to a blog post they admit that for now the “code libray and the pattern library” are “a little out of step.” Source code is all hosted on sourceforge, which is a very nice touch – one definately gets the impression that this is an earnest effort to share knowledge (and while they do plug their Yahoo! web apps you don’t need to interact with them).

The developer network also includes JavaScript and PHP Developer Centers.

Google Web Toolkit

Launched relatively recently the Google Web Toolkit which boasts that “you write your front end in the Java programming language, and the GWT compiler converts your Java classes to browser-compliant JavaScript and HTML.” While it lacks some of the ‘cool’ functionality of the YUI Library it has some robust code examples and very practical widget library (though do note their usage of widgets is naturally not the same as Yahoo!’s).

At this point it seems the Google Toolkit will appeal more to traditional programmers while those focusing on web development may feel more at home with the YUI Library.

Prototype

Prototype is a popular open-source JavaScript library that can be easily integrated into Ruby on Rails or run separately. Details on the framework can be found in this Particle Tree article. While it is widely used, it suffers from a decided lack of official documentation. Luckily a handful valiant coders have stepped up to fill that void:

Other Popular Frameworks

  1. script.aculo.us is built upon the prototype framework. The demos page and wiki documentation are good places to get a feel for this framework
  2. dōjō has a good reputation, though pages on their site are a tad hard to bookmark.