Re: AJAX... -- WEB400

I think the content of what should be returned depends on the scenario.
Brad, in your case you probably have full control over the entire
application so you can make the decision to use HTML (which I agree is best
in your situation).  But if one doesn't have control over every aspect and a
server side service is providing data for many different pages, I can see
XML being of great use to make the data coming back down to the client
blatantly described with xml markup.  Then the browser/client can parse that
xml and do with it what it needs to do (i.e. update a <div>, update a named
table, etc).  If the data is not described via xml in that latter example
then you start relying on positional locations for data (i.e. third column
in is the item price) which can be dangerous if someone decides to change
that column to be number four.

Those are my thoughts.  I think each has its place.

Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com
 

-----Original Message-----
From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Brad Stone
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 5:42 PM
To: Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: [WEB400] AJAX...

So, do you return XML and then convert that to HTML?  

Seems like extra work to me.  :)

Have you found any ways to debug AJAX such as view the source returned on
the page, etc?  IT stinks that you can't even save the page with the dynamic
information inserted and see the *ML that was sent back from the app.
That's the main thing that's holding me back on implementing it more.

I had a huge shopping application for a customer set up with AJAX but
decided to go back to standard scripts because I was finding debugging a
pain.  Not that I insert any bugs into code mind you.  :)

Brad


On Thu, 21 Sep 2006 17:18:15 -0400
 "Bob Cozzi" <cozzi@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Brad,
Yes, Ajax, i.e., the XMLHttpRequest object supports receiving "data".
The "default" or "normal" or "usual" or "original" intent was to 
return XML to the browser, but it allows you to return anything, 
including HTML, raw data, Javascript or XML.
I tend to use XML in my AJAX apps, but that' doesn't mean everyone 
does or should.
Sorry for being a be too specific, I tend to do that lately. <tic>

-Bob Cozzi
www.iSeriesTV.com
Ask your Manager to watch iSeriesTV.com


-----Original Message-----
From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Brad Stone
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 2:43 PM
To: Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: [WEB400] AJAX...

On Thu, 21 Sep 2006 11:14:16 -0500
 Robert Cozzi <cozzi@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In a CGI library the AJAX pieces really need to be sent as XML. So 
you need to build the XML using whatever you want.


Bob,

I've only used AJAX in a few projects now, but I've always returned 
HTML and I am curious as to this statement that it should be XML.

In fact, I found AJAX was what I've wanted for years.
 It's
fairly easy to convert your dymamic SSI to AJAX and make the pages 
more seamless (as SSI was the closest to AJAX that I could get before, 
and I use it for almost everything).

AJAX really is just returning data to the page, so making XML then 
converting that to HTML really seems like an extra unneeded step in 
most web applications, but I am interested in hearing the whos, whats 
and whys behind this statement.
 :)

But, I'm shying away from AJAX the more I use it.  It seems to make 
debugging and error tracking, not to mention flow a little more 
difficult.  But it's still pretty cool.
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Bradley V. Stone
BVS.Tools
www.bvstools.com
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