How to Select the Right AJAX Product

By Jep Castelein, Technical Marketing Manager

For sound, please dial +1-605-772-3434, Access code 491-901-147 For questions, please use the Question & Answer box on the right-hand side

How to Select the Right AJAX Product

What well cover in this webinar: Do you need AJAX? How to make sense of 150+ AJAX frameworks Defining AJAX Selection Criteria Backbase AJAX Software

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How to Select the Right AJAX Product

Do You Need AJAX? Framework or Custom? Classifying AJAX Approaches Defining AJAX Selection Criteria Backbase AJAX

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Is it too Early to Use AJAX?

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Determine High-Impact Apps

Source: Forrester 2006

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Low Frequency, Low Complexity

Example: Corporate Websites

Source: Forrester 2006

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BEA

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Medium Frequency & Complexity

Example: Self-Service

Source: Forrester 2006

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Dell

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High Frequency & Low Complexity

Example: Portals

Source: Forrester 2006

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Protopage

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Low Frequency & High Complexity

Example: Mapping

Source: Forrester 2006

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Google Maps

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High Frequency & High Complexity

Example: Desktop-type Apps

Source: Forrester 2006

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Yahoo! Mail Beta

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Examples of Application Types

Self-service
Often externally focused (customers, partners) Either selling something, or providing service

Application Modernization
Often internal applications Often the type of application that used to be client-server, or first-generation HTML

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How to Select the Right AJAX Product

Do You Need AJAX? Framework or Custom? Classifying AJAX Approaches Defining AJAX Selection Criteria Backbase AJAX

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+31-20-750-7305 (EU)

Experts Opinion
Michael Mahemoff, AJAX Patterns:
There was kind of a running joke at The Ajax Experience about how each speaker at some point exhorted people to take advantage of frameworks/libraries. () the message to use frameworks and libraries will become more clear in the next 12 months. May 2006
http://ajaxian.com/archives/134-ajax-frameworks-and-counting

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Ajaxian User Research

Survey with 865 participants, who visited Ajaxian during 1 week in September 2006:
25% of you eschew frameworks and work with XMLHttpRequest directly That means that 75% uses some kind of framework or toolkit
http://ajaxian.com/archives/ajaxiancom-2006-survey-results

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Reasons to Use a Framework

Better browser compatibility Many utility functions (e.g. XHR abstraction) UI Widgets Pre-built Behaviors (e.g. drag & drop) Client-server integration Better tooling

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How to Select the Right AJAX Product

Do You Need AJAX? Framework or Custom? Classifying AJAX Approaches Defining AJAX Selection Criteria Backbase AJAX

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+31-20-750-7305 (EU)

How many AJAX packages are there?

Over 150 http://ajaxpatterns.org/Frameworks

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Gartner Defines Four Levels

Four Levels of AJAX

1. Snippets 2. Widgets 3. Client-side Engine 4. AJAX Framework

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BEA: 4 Axes of AJAX

Declarative Comprehensive framework Open Source

Server-centric

Client-centric

Commercial Procedural
Source: BEA, Gary Horen, Brian Harrison 1-866-800-8996 (US) +31-20-750-7305 (EU)

Individual components

BEA: Server- vs. Client-Centric

Server-centric Java / C# Java UI definition Java event handlers Google Web Toolkit (GWT) UI + Java/C# UI Tags Java event handlers Client centric Client-centric Framework Framework for page layout JavaScript event handlers Backbase Client Edition Dojo OpenRico JavaScript JavaScript event handling, plumbing, and UI layout DWR Prototype Sajax

Backbase JSF Edition MyFaces Tomahawk Atlas

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OpenAjax: Single vs. dual-DOM

Single-DOM (Client-side)
Source: http://www.openajax.org/whitepaper.html

Dual-DOM (Client-side)

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InfoWorld Criteria

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AJAX Architecture

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Lets look at a couple of examples

Snippets: Widgets: AJAX Engine: AJAX Framework: Netflix Google Suggest Yellow Pages RSS Reader

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Netflix: Snippets

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Netflix

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Google Suggest: Widgets

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Google Suggest Movie

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RSS Reader: AJAX Framework

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RSS Reader Demo

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How to Select the Right AJAX Product

Do You Need AJAX? Framework or Custom? Classifying AJAX Approaches Defining AJAX Selection Criteria Backbase AJAX

1-866-800-8996 (US)

+31-20-750-7305 (EU)

Selection Criteria
Features Security Performance & Testing Non-Product features

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Features: SPI & MPI

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Features: AJAX Engine

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Features: Support Web Features

Back-forward button Bookmarking / send-to-a-friend SEO Print

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Features: Support Web Features

Back-forward button Bookmarking / send-to-a-friend SEO Print

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Features: UI Components & Behaviors

Pre-build & Extensible UI Widgets Advanced Desktop Functions

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Features: Accessibility
Keyboard shortcuts Focus model Tab trough the UI Section 508 compliance Productivity

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Requirement : Accessibility
Keyboard shortcuts Focus model Tab trough the UI Section 508 compliance Productivity

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Features: Server Integration

Based on Existing Standards Client- and Server-side Event Handlers Client- and Server-side Data Binding Client-Server State Synchronization

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Server-Side Integration with JSF

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Features: Development Tools

IDE integration 360 Degree Debugging Tools

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Client-side Tooling Example

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Security
IT Observer Top-5 AJAX Security Tips: Good planning & use standard response format (e.g. XML) Follow best-practices, for example from OWASP Top-10 (http://www.owasp.org/index.php/Top_10) Add final server-side rechecking of Access Control and Input Validation Client-side obfuscation does not protect Tight coordination within Dev team
Source: IT Observer (http://www.it-observer.com/articles/1062/ajax_security/)

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Performance & Testing Tips

Consider application usage patterns Latency is more important than bandwidth, you notice this if:
You do many server calls You load too many image

Manipulate data in the background, and then refresh the DOM Use GZip compression Dont use too much custom JavaScript Try to automate testing
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Non-Product criteria
Documentation + Examples Developer Community

Licensing

Technical Support

Training Courses

Mentoring

Is a Company backing it? Solid Roadmap? Customer References?

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How to Select the Right AJAX Product

Do You Need AJAX? Framework or Custom? Classifying AJAX Approaches Defining AJAX Selection Criteria Backbase AJAX

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How is Backbase Classified?

Gartners Four Levels of AJAX 1. Snippets 2. Widgets 3. Client-side Engine 4. AJAX Framework
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Backbase on the BEA grid

Declarative Comprehensive framework Open Source

Server centric

Client centric

Commercial

Individual components Procedural

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BEA: Server- vs. Client-Centric

Server-centric Java / C# Java UI definition Java event handlers UI + Java/C# UI Tags Java event handlers

Client centric Client-centric Framework Framework for page layout JavaScript event handlers JavaScript JavaScript event handling, plumbing, and UI layout

Backbase

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OpenAjax: Backbase uses dual-DOM

Dual-DOM (Client-side)
Source: http://www.openajax.org/whitepaper.html

Dual-DOM (Server-side)

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InfoWorld Criteria

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Backbase Products
AJAX JSF Edition: Based on JSF, includes Eclipse plug-in AJAX Struts Edition: Based on Struts AJAX Client Edition: Client-only, server-agnostic More info + trial: www.backbase.com
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Backbase AJAX Architecture

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Backbase AJAX Customers

Financial Services
ISVs Other

Federal Reserve New York

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Backbase Professional Services

AJAX Scan: Kick-start your AJAX project, clarify requirements and determine the impact
AJAX Usability Scan, 3-6 days AJAX Technical Scan, 3-6 days

AJAX Other Services:

Training Mentoring Technical Support Consulting

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Backbase Benefits
Easy-to-use
Leverage JSF, JSP, Struts, and JEE skills, crossbrowser compatible, excellent documentation and support 50+ widgets, mature AJAX engine, developer tools, server-side products XML, XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, XSLT, XPath No plug-ins needed Leveraging existing IDEs and existing skill sets Assistance for every step of your development process
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Comprehensive

Open Standards

Full Support
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Q&A Session
Questions?
Please type them in the chat window

Americas 1-866-800-8996 @ sales-us@backbase.com EMEA & Asia +31 20 750 7305 @ sales-eu@backbase.com

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