ColdFusion -Talk: Digest every hour

Hello, I'll second Barney's post with a big +1. For simple data passing, you don't even need to use XML, let alone SOAP based web services - you can get simple text strings and inject them directly in your layout. Google XHConn for a nice little(43 lines) .js file that wraps the XMLHttpRequest object (or MS equivalent) and will have you getting/posting from your page in minutes. I guess you'd want to look into a more complete framework (like CFAjax) for real work, but this will get you up and tinkering in minutes (no need to create server mappings, etc) After all the brouhaha over AJAX in the last few months, the biggest surprise for me was how simple it was. /t ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

Interesting... I've done a good deal of asynch work with JS... none of it with "AJAX" and hadn't really seen a need for it in all honesty... the only thing that I'd heard about AJAX that even made me remotely consider the possibility that at some point in the remote distant future it might be semi-useful in some obscure way for some one-off task was the use of XML. :P Seriously tho... if you're using AJAX but not using XML, what's to differentiate that from simply using JS? (Asside from the buzz-word appeal.) ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- s. isaac dealey     954.522.6080 new epoch : isn't it time for a change? add features without fixtures with the onTap open source framework http://www.fusiontap.com http://coldfusion.sys-con.com/author/4806Dealey.htm

Nothing.  Hence you'll be hard pressed to see me ever use the term "ajax", instead preferring "JS Remoting".  ; ) I believe (not being a buzzword maven) that "ajax" is not just the async XML passing, but also the UI design technique as a whole, so it'd include the DHTML and dynamic document rewriting stuff as well as the actual remoting calls. cheers, barneyb ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- -- Barney Boisvert bboisvert@gmail.com 360.319.6145 http://www.barneyb.com/ Got Gmail? I have 50 invites.

>Seriously tho... if you're using AJAX but not using XML, what's to >differentiate that from simply using JS? (Asside from the buzz-word >appeal.) I was actually rather (pleasantly) surprised that i didn't have to encode my response in an xml syntax in order to use it, but only because my needs were *extremely* trivial and using the very minimum legal xml would have doubled the size of my data packet. If i needed to return structured data (say i wanted to populate a drop down or somesuch) then i'd certainly turn to XML rather than start messing about with some form of delimited lists or other "roll your own" methods. Using SOAP based web services via js has two main issues: encoding a valid SOAP request and parsing out the SOAP response. For the first, as Barney pointed out, you rarely need to - every classic web app out there is a testament to what you can do with post/get. As for client side xml handling, you could do quite a bit with WDDX (which probably works in more browsers than XMLHttpRequest, but that's kinda beside the point). It's a "bang for your buck" kind of argument (and i'll freely admit that my attitudes to cross browser scripting were formed back in '98 ;)

> Seriously tho... if you're using AJAX but not using XML, what's > to differentiate that from simply using JS? (Asside from the > buzz-word appeal.) Well, "AJAX" is nothing more than a buzzword. People have been writing DHTML interfaces for years that do essentially the same thing. However, using the XMLHttpRequest object is a little bit different from using more traditional mechanisms for fetching data from the server such as loading documents into hidden frames, since you can do everything from within a single document. Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software http://www.figleaf.com/ Fig Leaf Software provides the highest caliber vendor-authorized instruction at our training centers in Washington DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Baltimore, Northern Virginia, or on-site at your location. Visit http://training.figleaf.com/ for more information!

> Well, "AJAX" is nothing more than a buzzword. People have > been writing DHTML interfaces for years that do essentially > the same thing. <cfsetting mode="pedantic" /> "DHTML" is a buzzword and is nothing more than JS, CSS and DOM wrapped up together. -- Damien McKenna - Web Developer - Damien.McKenna@thelimucompany.com The Limu Company - http://www.thelimucompany.com/ - 407-804-1014 #include <stdjoke.h>

Sorry, what is the meaning of buzzword ? Gabriel Bulfon Email:gabriel@bulfon.com.ar ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

Gabriel. It simply means that its a overused word to describe something. If we were talking cars, one of the buzzwords for cars today is "Hybrid". If we were talking web communications technologies, a buzzword would be "Webservices, and XML" make sense? tony ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

Yes, thanks Gabriel Bulfon Email:gabriel@bulfon.com.ar ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

A word that's repeated because other people are repeating it (like "AJAX") instead of a word that is repeated because it represents something which has intrinsic value (like "XML"). In some cases a "buzzword" may be representative of something which has intrinsic value (like "XML") if the word is repeated by someone who doesn't understand anything about it and they are repeating it because the word is being repeated by other people. ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- s. isaac dealey   954.522.6080 new epoch : isn't it time for a change? add features without fixtures with the onTap open source framework http://www.fusiontap.com http://coldfusion.sys-con.com/author/4806Dealey.htm

This is such a great definition that I put it up on Fusion Authority. Isaac, you are immortalized! You are article 4500! http://www.fusionauthority.com/Community/Article.cfm/ArticleID:4500 Judith >A word that's repeated because other people are repeating it (like >"AJAX") instead of a word that is repeated because it represents >something which has intrinsic value (like "XML"). In some cases a >"buzzword" may be representative of something which has intrinsic >value (like "XML") if the word is repeated by someone who doesn't >understand anything about it and they are repeating it because the >word is being repeated by other people.