AJAX on Rails This presentation was moved from the 3rd floor of the Convention Center to a larger room on the main (4th floor.) Because of this I missed the first part of the session. It was fairly technical in nature, with code snippets on the screen, but these were interspersed with the actual application, so it was easier to understand.

AJAX, or Asynchronous JavaScript is what is driving the application-like development in web sites and other browser-delivered content. Google maps made this famous. Ruby on Rails is an object-oriented programming language that allows for agile (or pick your term) development. This presentation was about integrating AJAX into Rails development, and how it evolved during the process. The key for the success of this approach is that new browsers (IE 6 and 7, Safari, FireFox 2) are designed for greater javascript activity. However, browsers still get overloaded, so any AJAX development needs to balance server and client-side processing to keep the interaction fluid to the user, while not loading the browser to the point of failure.

AJAX is the current future for increased interactivity on web sites. Rails is a development tool that makes it easier to implement this interactivity. It’s time to get more involved in this technology.

Labels: ajax, development, javascript, rails, sxsw

  ¶ 10:00 PM