COWS Ajax - Ajax Evolved

nuttzy writes, "COWS Ajax takes over where Ajax leaves off. The web has gone through a great period of experimentation and there is now a dizzying array of frameworks, add-ons, howtos, and books. The common drawback these Ajax aids all fail to overcome is that, even with aids, apps take a long time to create and debug. Many times someone has already created a great tool and you'd really just rather use theirs instead of reinventing it (especially if it's a Google, Yahoo, or other trusted player). Wouldn't it be great to drop in a single line of code to gain a huge amount of functionality that frees you for something else? You can't do that with Ajax, but you can with COWS (Changeable Origin Web Services) Ajax. Now highly interactive third party services like SpellingCow are possible."

Comments

link to article

[nuttzy]

Opps! I guess I need a Mulligan... I meant to link to an introductory article [sourceforge] I had written. BTW, this comment was spell checked as I type with the SpellingCow favelet! -Nuttzy

one word: Echo2

[master_p]

the echo2 library is an Ajax library which makes web application development as easy as desktop application development; it is an all-Java framework with no need to write even one line of XML/HTML/JSP/other. You can find it here:

http://www.nextapp.com/platform/echo2/echo/

Old trick, new buzzword

[kap1]

Ouch. Adding a script tag dynamically is old hat in Ajax. See the DOM Based On-Demand Javascript pattern.

In fact, there are a number of project under way that use dynamic script injection to emulate cross-domain XHR. See http://ajaxian.com/archives/jsonp-json-with-paddin g

But worse yet, the argument that developing web applications with Ajax is hard is a straw man. Imagine you had to design a desktop GUI by twiddling with the screen bits directly or, worse yet, implementing application logic in the graphics controller. Blech!

That's the situation with Ajax and webapps right now: writing code in the wrong places and at the wrong level of abstraction.

If you want to simplify how you write webapps using Ajax, try a server side framework like Echo2 or ZK. These allow you to write webapps much like a desktop GUI while working in only one language context -- Java on the Server side.

Re:ok guys, you heard the man

[Anonymous Coward]

he clearly meant javascript that is hosted by a 3rd party, not all 3rd party libraries.

AJAX for lazy

[nascarguy27]

If you really want too know what it is all about check http://cows-ajax.sourceforge.net/. From that domain, "Instead of each site owner making their own tools, now a single author can make and distribute a cool tool or service that is easily installed on countless sites with the simple addition of one or two lines of code." It's really for lazy webmasters who want ajax gadgets and gizmos with as little actual ajax as possible. This is done by linking to an external site. You still have to learn the COWS API, but come on. If I wanted to do something with my site, I'd learn how and do it myself. That way I would not be requiring an outside server. I'm sure that's why XmlHttpRequest has the same origin limitation on it. It would force you to create your own applications with your own data. It would force a webmaster to learn.