Ajax For Dummies®

Chapter 7. Server-Side Ajax Frameworks

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Writing JavaScript with PHP and Sajax or Xajax

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Accessing Java with Direct Web Remoting (DWR)

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Building Web applications with Echo2

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Finding out about even more frameworks

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“Hm,” says the CEO, “all those JavaScript-oriented Ajax frameworks are very nice — ”

“Great,” you say. “So we’re in business?”

“Well, I have a question,” says the CEO. “As I was saying, those JavaScript–oriented Ajax frameworks are very nice, but you still have to develop the server-side code too.”

“Sure,” you say, “unless you just want to fetch data from a simple data file.”

“Aren’t there any Ajax packages that let you develop just the server-side code and automatically create the JavaScript for you?”

“Glad you asked,” you say. “In fact, that’s what this whole chapter is all about.”

Writing JavaScript by Using Ajax Frameworks

Working with Ajax often means using JavaScript in the browser and a language like PHP or JavaServer Pages on the server. In earlier chapters, I show you Ajax packages that let you develop the browser-side part of the application. But some Ajax packages are designed to be used on the server — and they can write JavaScript for you. That’s what you see in this chapter.

Although some server-side frameworks are based on exotic server-side languages, most of the ones you see use the popular PHP (see Chapter 10 for more on PHP) ...