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This little Ajax app from Snap has been, quite literally, popping up all over the web lately. And now you can enjoy it here on the beTech site. Just roll over some external links and marvel at how the Snap Preview Anywhere tool provides a handy little screenshot of the page linked. It’s useful, it’s easy to implement, and it’s cool! Of course, we just had to give it 3 snaps, in a circle.
When the Eclipse platform emerged a couple of years ago, it looked very promising–especially for Java developers. However, it had a strange interface, a project workflow mentality, and it didn’t seem to handle the typical web stuff very well. The Aptana integrated development environment (IDE) changes all that. It may even have the right stuff to knock Dreamweaver off its lofty perch.
J Wood tipped me off to its excellent JavaScript editing abilities and, indeed, this is where Aptana shines. This is easily the best JavaScript editor I have ever used. Thoughtful features such as Code Assist (pop-ups to help complete your code), built-in JavaScript and DOM documentation, real-time online help, outline views, macro scripting, and built-in support for the major JavaScript libraries (e.g., Dojo, Mochikit, Prototype) make JavaScript coding an absolute joy. This alone should earn Aptana a place in every developer’s toolset, but there’s more.
Aptana is a great all-around web editor that handles HTML and CSS with equal poise. There’s Code Assist for HTML and CSS–which proves particularly useful when coding CSS. Type a pound sign (to start an id selector) and all the relevant id selectors pop up. Ka-chow! Since Eclipse beats as its heart, Aptana can take advantage of the myriad plugins already out there such as the Subclipse plugin for tight Subversion version control integration (I can’t recall hearing that Dreamweaver handles version control as well–and certainly not without cost). This implementation of Eclipse also thoughtfully offers a file view of your local hard drive (obviously understanding that we all don’t necessarily want to start a project to edit code). Aptana runs on the Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms and is noticably faster than Dreamweaver on the Mac.
To be sure, there are some bugs and rough edges in this beta version application. But the pluses certainly outweigh the negatives. Future versions of Aptana are scheduled to receive FTP support, debugging capabilities, PHP and ASP.NET support, HTML validation, and refactoring tools. If you’re a web developer looking for a cross-platform editor to make JavaScript and Ajax sing, Aptana deserves a download and a look-see. Did we mention it’s free?
Create an Ajax desktop just like those found on the Netvibes, Protopage, or PageFlakes sites with a little guidance from MuseStorm’s AJAX Desktop Tutorial. The nine-step tutorial takes you from detecting browsers (IE and Firefox now, Safari later) to creating widgets for RSS and search functions. All that’s required to get started is a little HTML, CSS, and JavaScript experience.
Relay is a slick file manager that works more like the ones found on your desktop (Mac or Windows) than in your browser. Thanks to Ajax and a little help from PHP, MySQL, and Perl, Relay is able to offer:
If you need to manage files within your web application, take this sweet little application for a test drive (online demo available). It seems to cover all the bases and, best of all, it’s free!
The previously reported Java DB and Apache Derby database management systems aren’t the only client-side data storage tools in town. Brad Neuberg put together an Ajax tool last October to save persistent data in a hidden Flash applet. His tool, AJAX MAssive Storage System (AMASS), worked even if the user left the web site or closed the browser. Information was later recalled on demand by the web application that saved it. It was pretty cool in its own right. But Brad had to take it a step further.
The lastest from Brad is dojo.storage which allows more storage options and the convenience of the Dojo library. Why would you want such a thing? Let’s hear it from Brad:
What could you build if you had these tools? How about a truly collaborative, web-based word processor with client-side storage for your private documents, as well as offline access? Maybe an Ajax RSS aggregator with client-side caching of the feeds you read and offline access? An offline, web-based book reader using data from the Internet Archive’s Open Library would be cool.
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is a pretty sweet little piece of work and deserves consideration in your next Ajax project. I came across it awhile back when I needed to pull data from another domain into the client’s browser via JavaScript. If you know a thing or two about JavaScript’s same origin policy or cross-site scripting (XSS), you’ll understand it just isn’t possible with the standard Ajax communications setup (JavaScript and XML). JSON encapsulates data (in this case, from another domain) in JavaScript’s object format so that it can be compiled directly in JavaScript with a parser (or even the eval() function if you’re not worried about security). It’s so cool that Yahoo jumped on the JSON train and offers up most of its web services this way.
As cool as that is, it’s also easy to fall in love with JSON’s simple syntax and speedy parsing. But don’t just take my word for it, check out Dustin Diaz’s article JSON for the Masses and Jeff Crossett’s JSON for Dummies series for more info.
Java junkies that felt excluded from the Web 2.0 house party can lace up their shoes—it’s time to dance. Recent developments are opening up new possibilities for Java developers in the realm of Web 2.0.
Sun’s Java DB is an all Java relational database management system based on Apache Derby. All that’s required to run this little 2MB gem is Java Virtual Machine, which means it can reside in the client’s browser. Even when offline! Java DB is starting to develop a following as developers realize it can maintain Ajax’s database dependent functionality even when the connection to the server is lost (see JavaDB: An idea whose time has finally come?
). It may even give new life to the applet.
Speaking of Ajax, Google just announced the Google Web Toolkit (GWT)—a Java development framework for developing Ajax applications. GWT allows Java programmers to do their thing and let the GWT compiler create browser-compliant HTML and JavaScript. It offers all the cool stuff including reusable UI components, real debugging, and automatic browser compatibility. Hmmm, wonder how this compares to Sun’s JavaServer Faces Technology.
And the last little nugget of Java news is that Sun is promising an open source Java soon. According to CEO Jonathan Schwartz, it’s not a matter of when but how. Interesting days indeed.
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