Summary of 3 days Ajaxworld conference from my point of view. Provided for everybody who was not there and wants to get some ideas on the content.

1. Report from AjaxWorld West 2008 Conference
codecentric GmbH
Fabian Lange
© 2008 codecentric GmbH

2. Overview
3 days, 15 exhibitors, 100 sessions in 6 parallel tracks
Enterprise RIA, Frameworks & Toolkits, Web 2.0 & Mashups
Hot Topics, iPhone, Future of the Web
,
Took place in The Fairmont hotel San Jose, California
My focus was on Enterprise RIA, Future of Web and Frameworks
These slides contain condensed & subjective information about
2 Products:
Keynote KITE, Appcelerator
3 Key Topics:
Applications in the Browser, HTML 5, The Cloud
Asorted nice-to-know stuff from the sessions
know
My prediction on the evolution of web 2.0
Main message:
Ajax brings value for everyone and will be important for applications
running on a SOA Stack
2 © 2008 codecentric GmbH

3. Keynote KITE – Testing Web Performance Worldwide
KITE, short for Keynote Internet Testing Environment
Web performance tool working similar as JMeter
Can run recorded scripts from 240 locations worldwide and give a
detailed report
More detailed reports than YSlow, and testing how real users would
experience the application. No data center local testing.
Could complete codecentric performance management offering for
internet sites
5 global sites testing is free
3 © 2008 codecentric GmbH

4. Appcelerator – Agile UI Development
For customers the application is the UI
Specifications never help defining the UI
Agile methods help getting faster feedback
Still slow because one has to always
create the heavy serverside
Appcelerator can create Rich UIs without server code
Appcelerator UIs are not “throw away” prototypes, but evolve into the
real user interfaces
The next version supports prototypes that can be commented by
customers directly in the application
It is lightweight and free
Ideally suited for agile development
4 © 2008 codecentric GmbH

5. Future Apps are Running in the Browser
SOUI – Service Oriented User Interfaces
SOFEA – Service Oriented Front End Architecture
Server will act only as data provider, not executing application logic
Applications are connected via the network, but also work offline
Browser can open WebSockets to directly access anything, bypassing
proxy server applications.
Content Delivery Networks will be the main source for content
AppServers just orchestrate:
Deliver URLs for obtaining images, runtime engines and frameworks.
Provide information where to obtain data from
Act as helpers for some calculation noone wants to do.
Keeps track of business processes, not application state
Saves a lot costs on server infrastructure
5 © 2008 codecentric GmbH

6. HTML5 – Future Standard Existing Today
Evolved from massive need for standards
Once a section of standard is agreed upon, solutions supporting it
appear
Videotag – Adobe Flash
Eventsource, WebSockets – Kaazing
Canvas – All major JS Frameworks
HTML5 has really nifty stuff that is either implemented by browsers
already or easily implementable by JavaScript . Applications can use it
already.
Ajax has always been driving Web Standards to the limit, so working in
a not yet standardized environment is well known.
6 © 2008 codecentric GmbH

7. All Move into the Cloud
“The Cloud” is shaped as term for the internet acting as service and
storage for everyone
Data comes from the cloud
SOA Stacks and Databases can be accessed from everywhere
Applications come from the cloud
Mash-ups and Standards allow aggregation of distributed applications
ups
Development happens from the cloud
Collaboration tools allow virtual teams
Servers are in the cloud
Amazon takes the leading role
“The Cloud” will be the next hype for sure
7 © 2008 codecentric GmbH

8. Asorted
Microsoft concentrated on streaming technologies recently. One result
is Sliverlight DeepZoom. Try it http://memorabilia.hardrock.com/
Silverlight is heavily fighting for market share, currently only 20% of all
browser have installed it. Silverlight allows development in any .net
language
Dojo.Data and Google Gears support Web Apps offline, enabling
thinking in a new way of web application architecture
Oracle thinks REA creates value for companies because:
Employees get empowered with the tools to innovate, rather being
restricted by processes
Oracle wants to sell the whole Oracle stack for that but that’s not accepted because it is not open
Simple Text Oriented Message Protocol allows Ajax applications to
communicate with Java MDBs. Very nice! See http://kaazing.com
Web Sockets are a cool and powerful thing. Kaazing recently released
Kaazing Web Gateway to support all the new protocols.
8 © 2008 codecentric GmbH

9. Asorted cont.
Accessing resources via REST/JSON becomes more popular. Also true
for Databases. See http://nextDB.net for challenges to overcome.
Open Ajax alliance provides OpenAJAXHub 1.1 to solve security issues
within mashup applications, allowing safe third party mashups.
Adobe heads towards open standards, while tools remain commercial
Adobe focuses on the Open Screen Project: start designing for smaller
Screens and only later for desktops. Over 50% of internet devices are
mobiles. Pretty ambitious project.
JSF 2.0 coming soon, but not bringing anything new. Standardizing old
JSF Ajax workarounds. JSF might not be the ideal web 2.0 platform.
.
Portal 2.0 Spec also struggles with legacy. No real hope for near
future.
Icefaces and Richfaces seem to be the only survivors with Ajax and
JSF.
9 © 2008 codecentric GmbH

10. Asorted Cont.
ADF Faces has automatic adaptive components for different devices.
Doesn’t free one from thinking about that screens are not unlimited.
Unfortunately ADF is not free for non Oracle AS
GWT 1.5 supports Java 5 – Making development really effective
GWT as really powerful and proven concepts, but don’t use JSNI – its
ugly.
JavaScript language redefinition will remove bad parts, leaving “the
good parts”
Enterprises might jump onto the toolboxes rather on the technologies.
They want Data+Process
Data+Process=UI – Isomorphic or Curl provide such tools
10 © 2008 codecentric GmbH

11. The Future ?
Toolkit oversaturation -> Time for Consolidation
>
My prediction:
jQuery will take the slot for basic JS framework. It is fast and well designed
YUI will be the widget framework, because its not too complex for mid size apps
GWT will be the toolkit of choice for Java Rich Web Apps*
Flash/Flex/Air will be the runtime for media and CPU heavy applications
JavaFx is very late on that train and might not make relevant market share
Users will accept browser plugins (flash, sliverlight etc) more easily
No compelling reason for big companies to move into web2.0 yet
How users will use applications will be more in focus rather than how we can
easily make a UI for our business logic.
* It makes me sad, but I think Eclipse RAP wont make it for many usecases
11 © 2008 codecentric GmbH

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© 2008 codecentric GmbH