Introduction to Ajax
This session covers the origins and technology underpinnings of Ajax. It demonstrates how Ajax works, provides an overview of common Ajax toolkits, and covers details on how to handle common classes of problems in the Ajax world.
Ajax has taken the world by storm, packaging existing technologies in a wrapper so nice that entire conferences are now devoted to it. This session serves as an introduction to Ajax for those who haven't ventured into the world of richer web applications. It shows how the underlying technologies behind Ajax work, discusses strengths and weaknesses of Ajax, provides an overview of the burgeoning Ajax toolkit space, and shows some common Ajax issues and workarounds. Attendees will leave this talk ready to leap into building richer web clients than ever before.
Session Topics:
- Foundations of Ajax
- Building rich web clients
- What Ajax can do
- What Ajax cannot do
- Ajax toolkits
- Ajax techniques
- Dealing with browser differences
- Handling the “Back” button
- Degrading gracefully
- Managing XML
- Deployment
About Neal Ford
Neal is Director, Software Architect, and Meme Wrangler at ThoughtWorks, a global IT consultancy with an exclusive focus on end-to-end software development and delivery.
Before joining ThoughtWorks, Neal was the Chief Technology Officer at The DSW Group, Ltd., a nationally recognized training and development firm. Neal has a degree in Computer Science from Georgia State University specializing in languages and compilers and a minor in mathematics specializing in statistical analysis.
He is also the designer and developer of applications, instructional materials, magazine articles, video presentations, and author of 6 books, including the most recent The Productive Programmer. His language proficiencies include Java, C#/.NET, Ruby, Groovy, functional languages, Scheme, Object Pascal, C++, and C. His primary consulting focus is the design and construction of large-scale enterprise applications. Neal has taught on-site classes nationally and internationally to all phases of the military and to many Fortune 500 companies. He is also an internationally acclaimed speaker, having spoken at over 100 developer conferences worldwide, delivering more than 600 talks. If you have an insatiable curiosity about Neal, visit his web site at http://www.nealford.com. He welcomes feedback and can be reached at nford@thoughtworks.com.