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How-To On Ajax Code To Show Movies and Slide Shows

Posted by Zonk on from the showing-them-around dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Sites like Flikr and YouTube show just the tip of the full potential for media on the Web. An IBM DeveloperWorks article provides some easy implementations of video and image browsing that you can use in your own project. Learn how to combine media with technologies such as PHP and Ajax to create a compelling experience. All Sample code is made available, and if you're into Mashups the site's Mashup resource space should have everything you need to create a Mashup of your own."

12 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. Great, more Ajax by The_Mystic_For_Real · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I suppose the 12 year olds creating Geocities pages have grown up and want to incorporate all the extravagant flash into their more grown up web pages.
    We really need to get back to simple, clean cut pages that display the information and resources that your site is offering. The trend towards flashier
    page is rapidly decreasing the utility of the web while increasing overhead and security issues. Simple can be beautiful, and it is almost always useful.

    --

    _____

    Thank you.

    1. Re:Great, more Ajax by whiskey6 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      See, this is where I disagree with you. What we don't need more of are these clean, simple sites that you long for. Clean cut is great, but clean a shave is far better, as demonstrated on this flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/14815126@N03/show/ (NSFW) What's not to like?

    2. Re:Great, more Ajax by Bonewalker · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It is my understanding that Ajax is really about bringing new/fresh data based on things like user-input without having to reload the page, thus making the web experience much faster and more user-friendly. So, it would seem to me that it doesn't necessarily mean the page(s) or site(s) can't be simple and useful regardless of whether or not they incorporate Ajax. Am I wrong on this analysis?

    3. Re:Great, more Ajax by updog · · Score: 2
      Oh, so I suppose sites like Google Maps, Gmail, Flickr, etc etc are all about "extravagant flash" ?

      Like anything else Ajax can be abused, but no one can refute that it powers many very useful, successful, and popular sites.

    4. Re:Great, more Ajax by chris_7d0h · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Asynchronous Javascript and XML (or in practice XmlHttpRequests using any kind of text based wire format) are a nice addition and if used as pure decorators on top of sites driven by server side markup generation, then it is a good thing. The issue I and others have is that what "Ajax" seems to also imply when applied by sites in practice is a heavy reliance on a lot of client side DOM manipulations.

      A site designed around the notion that as long as "Firefox and IE" can morph the bootstrap HTML page through an infinite number of morphs to something completely different, then the site is good. Those kinds of sites are neigh impossible to use via Wget, perl, lynx or any client not having:

      1) A Javascript engine
      2) A DOM engine
      3) a special variant of A and B combined in such a way that they replicate the same quirks (attributes and behavior) inherent in IE and Mozilla.

      So to sum it up, I don't think anyone has anything negative to say about requesting data fragments as an alternative to doing full posts/gets to the server. It's when people are being forced to one of a select few specific applications in order to use the web that irritation starts surfacing.

      --
      In a society that believes in nothing, fear becomes the only agenda ~ Bill Durodié
    5. Re:Great, more Ajax by Talchas · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Besides the issues others have mentioned, many AJAXy sites play havoc with the back button, and very few support open in new tab or open in new window. The same issues can lead to problems with bookmarks.

      --
      As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century,free flow of information is the only safeguard against...
  2. Damn. by jd · · Score: 3, Funny

    If everyone gets a full house on their Buzzword Bingo cards from the summary alone, we're going to have to divide up the prize again. Now to cut the coffee cake into 100,000 equal slices. Don't cut your fingers on the crumbs...

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  3. Putting things in prospective by edxwelch · · Score: 2, Informative

    For those of you that think that Ajax is the new next generation platform, let's just things in prospective.
    Ajax is one single function: XMLHttpRequest, a extension to the browser DOM invented by MS. In other words its a propierty hack on the browser API, nothing more.

    1. Re:Putting things in prospective by merreborn · · Score: 4, Informative

      Ajax is one single function: XMLHttpRequest, a extension to the browser DOM invented by MS. In other words its a propierty hack on the browser API, nothing more.


      "proprietary hack"? Not for long:

      http://www.w3.org/TR/XMLHttpRequest/
  4. Re:Confusing parser error... by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But this is a how-to that tells you how to write AJAX code, such that said AJAX code will be able to show movies and slide shows...
    I speak for many when I say: I sincerely hope not.
    --
    May the Maths Be with you!
  5. Compelling, indeed by noidentity · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The first thing a site with unnecessary video or Flash compels me to do is leave.

  6. two words by Hooya · · Score: 2, Informative

    apples and oranges.

    it might surprise you that when you're using C# for creating these interactive web pages, that it's just acting as a javascript 'translator' in the sense that you do end up creating and sending javascript to the the client browser. before you dismiss javascript as bloated and insecure, and attribute all the supha cool interactivity to .NET, you may want to check the color of the cool aid.

    and never, ever, suggest JSP or C# as a replacement for javascript when talking about client (browser) programmability. might help in getting people to take you seriously.