Nexaweb Chief Proposes Open Source AJAX Initiative at Apache Incubator Wiki

JavaScriptSearch
Tuesday, May 9, 2006; 02:29 AM

The board chairman of RIA development firm Nexaweb Coach Wei proposed an open Apache project for declarative XML named XAP (eXtensible Ajax Platform).

From the project proposal: "XAP is to provide an XML-based declarative framework for building, deploying and maintaining rich, interactive, Ajax-powered web applications. A basic principal of XAP is to leverage existing Ajax projects such as Apache Kabuki and Dojo, as well as other community efforts such as Eclipse openAjax. It aims to be pluggable with various Ajax toolkits, reduce the need of scripting and solve the development challenge as well as application maintenance challenges associated with Ajax programming."

The project proposal acknowledges that various toolkits aim to make the creation of AJAX-powered Rich Internet Applications (RIA).  In the same time, there are development and maintenance challenges, mainly associated with writing, debugging and maintaining JavaScript code.

If the project is approved, XAP will aim to provide an extensible software framework for building and deploying Ajax-powered rich internet applications declaratively. The project is "pluggable" with client side AJAX toolkits such as Kabuki, works with openAjax as well as other Ajax initiatives. The mission of the project is to encourage innovation around declarative Ajax development, build a community, and provide an open source framework for building and deploying rich internet applications independent of browsers and servers.

The announcement was made on the Apache Incubator wiki website (http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/XapProposal).  The Apache Incubator Project is "dedicated to facilitating the smooth entry of valid new and donated code bases and community projects into the Apache Software Foundation."

More information about XAP is available at http://www.coachwei.com .


XAP in short

    Goals:
     -XML markup that provides a declarative format for Ajax-based rich user interface, separating presentation and behavior;
    -Declarative data binding that links user interface components with data sources, separating presentation and data;
    -Declarative modification syntax for updating the user interface;
    -A "bridge" mechanism that allows easy plug-in of existing UI Ajax toolkits.
    -A framework that ties everything together; enabling asynchronous update and event handling;
      
    Benefits:
    -XML syntax describes UI instead of JavaScript code;
    -XML syntax describes asynchronous update instead of JavaScript code;
    -Built in support for data binding;
    -Enables tools that can generate XML to create the UI rather than JavaScript;
    -Simplifies application development and maintenance;
    -Extendable with various JavaScript UI toolkits via the "bridge" mechanism;