Presentations about ajax

Podcasts, slides, videos and more

Tania Lang — Using AJAX to enhance UX

Tania Lang PortraitAJAX is chang­ing the way that users inter­act with web­sites — it has the poten­tial to pro­vide richer and more inter­ac­tive online user expe­ri­ences but also intro­duces its own set of usabil­ity and acces­si­bil­ity prob­lems. This ses­sion will present views from lead­ing usabil­ity experts from around the world from an expe­ri­enced prac­ti­tioner work­shop con­ducted at the Usability Professionals Conference in USA.

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Douglas Crockford — Ajax security

Web Directions South 2008, Sydney Convention Centre, September 26 2.40pm.

Douglas Crockford PortraitSecurity design is an impor­tant, but often neglected, com­po­nent of sys­tem design. In this ses­sion, Douglas Crockford, cre­ator of Javascript Object Notation, will out­line the secu­rity issues that must be con­sid­ered in the archi­tec­ture of Ajax applications.

The design of the browser did not antic­i­pate the needs of mul­ti­party appli­ca­tions. The browser’s secu­rity model frus­trates use­ful activ­i­ties and allows some very dan­ger­ous activ­i­ties. This talk will look at the small set of options before us that will deter­mine the future of the Web.

During this ses­sion, atten­dees will:

  • Learn why effec­tive secu­rity is an inher­ent fea­ture of good design;
  • Experience a real-​​time demo of a Ajax client/​server sys­tem based on sound secu­rity principles
  • See how to apply secure design to rich web applications.

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Panel — Javascript libraries — putting the cross in cross-​​browser compatible

Web Directions South 2008, Sydney Convention Centre, September 25 1.40pm.

No longer are search engines the main con­tenders when you’re shop­ping for JavaScript solu­tions. For sophis­ti­cated, cross-​​browser effects which degrade grace­fully and don’t impede acces­si­bil­ity, libraries are the new heavy weights. But which library do you want in your corner?

The crop of pol­ished, open­source libraries bring a vast array of visual effects and func­tion­al­ity to lever­age in your projects and we’ll intro­duce you to the power houses. We’ll run jQuery, the YUI, and Prototype up against pure Javascript in a tag team event that will chal­lenge even the hardi­est code warriors.

In this spe­cial 2 hour ses­sion local and inter­na­tional devel­op­ers will run libraries through their paces giv­ing you real world insights in to how a library can help you knock­out the tough­est script­ing challenge.

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Andrew Kesper — ABC’s election site: making the most of dry data

A pre­sen­ta­tion given at at Web Directions User Experience, Melbourne Town Hall, May 16 2008, and Web Directions Government, Old Parliament House, Canberra, May 19 2008.

Andrew Kesper PortraitWhile elec­tions can be excit­ing times, the under­ly­ing data — swings, booth counts, and the like is prob­a­bly only riv­et­ing to psepho­log­i­cal trag­ics. Yet the ABC’s elec­tion web site man­aged to take this raw data and make it attrac­tive, com­pelling and interactive.

In this ses­sion, the ABC’s Andrew Kesper takes us through the elec­tion site, look­ing at the design deci­sions, and uses of tech­nol­ogy like Ajax, Flash, and inter­ac­tive maps — tools which have wide applic­a­bil­ity for gov­ern­ment sites look­ing to present data in more user-​​friendly and attrac­tive ways.

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Douglas Crockford — Ajax security

A pre­sen­ta­tion given at Web Directions North, Vancouver Canada, January 31 2008.

Security design is an impor­tant, but often neglected, com­po­nent of sys­tem design. In this ses­sion, Douglas Crockford, cre­ator of Javascript Object Notation, will out­line the secu­rity issues that must be con­sid­ered in the archi­tec­ture of Ajax applications.

The design of the browser did not antic­i­pate the needs of mul­ti­party appli­ca­tions. The browser’s secu­rity model frus­trates use­ful activ­i­ties and allows some very dan­ger­ous activ­i­ties. This talk will look at the small set of options before us that will deter­mine the future of the Web.

See the slides and hear the podcast »

Jonathan Snook – Working with Ajax Frameworks

A pre­sen­ta­tion given at Web Directions North, Vancouver Canada, January 30 2008.

Jonathon Snook Portrait It seems like there’s a new Ajax library or JavaScript frame­work com­ing out every week, and there prob­a­bly is! Which is the best one to pick? Will you be up the creek with­out a pad­dle if you choose the wrong one?

Working with Ajax Frameworks” will delve into some com­mon Ajax design pat­terns and how var­i­ous frame­works can be used to meet those needs. We’ll also take a look at how we can keep our own code flex­i­ble as we bridge the gap between it and the var­i­ous frameworks.

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Kaitlin Sherwood & Steffen Meschkat — The Business and Technology of Mashups

A pre­sen­ta­tion given at at Web Directions North, Vancouver, February 8, 2007.

Mashups are the hottest web devel­op­ment topic today. Hear about the front-​​end, back-​​end, and busi­ness issues of mashups with these two experts who know more about them than just about anyone.

Kaitlin Sherwood: Overview of Maps Mashup Technologies

In the past two years, there has been an explo­sion of tools for con­vey­ing geo­graphic infor­ma­tion to the masses. In this talk, Kaitlin Duck Sherwood will intro­duce major con­cepts and issues, and dis­cuss the pros and cons of each of the major mashup frame­works. Attendees will gain an appre­ci­a­tion for their map­ping options, and infor­ma­tion to help them bet­ter choose between them based on their par­tic­u­lar needs.

Steffen Meschkat

A cen­tral topic of “Web 2.0” is browser-​​side web appli­ca­tion pro­gram­ming inter­faces (APIs) and the spe­cific type of web appli­ca­tion they give rise to: mashups.

Using the Google Maps API as an exam­ple, I put this devel­op­ment into a per­spec­tive that allows one to appre­ci­ate how this, on the one hand, is a nat­ural and coher­ent evo­lu­tion of the Web that, on the other hand, sig­nif­i­cantly alters the ways of orga­niz­ing the world’s infor­ma­tion that the Web makes pos­si­ble. I also dis­cuss the spe­cific tech­nolo­gies that web APIs for mashups are based upon, and their some­times chal­leng­ing idiosyncrasies.

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George Oates and Paul Hammond — Web Apps: Developer to Designer

A pre­sen­ta­tion given at at Web Directions North, Vancouver, February 8, 2007.

Web apps are an inti­mate mar­riage of back-​​end sys­tems and client-​​side inter­ac­tion, but it takes two very dif­fer­ent skill sets to build robust scal­able appli­ca­tion plat­forms and cre­ate smooth user inter­faces that work in mul­ti­ple browsers.

In this ses­sion, George Oates and Paul Hammond con­sider the devel­op­ment process from the per­spec­tive of both back– and front-​​end devel­op­ers, and the coop­er­a­tion required between them. They’ll dis­cuss how sim­ple archi­tec­ture choices, devel­op­ment pat­terns and  —  above all  —  good com­mu­ni­ca­tion are key to mak­ing the rela­tion­ship work.

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Aaron Gustafson & Andy Clarke — Transcendent Design with Javascript and CSS

A pre­sen­ta­tion given at at Web Directions North, Vancouver, February 7, 2007.

Traditionally, CSS has been the domain of design­ers while JavaScript was for pro­gram­mers, but these tech­nolo­gies can and should work together to improve your vis­i­tors’ expe­ri­ences. After all, you can do amaz­ing things with CSS, but when you start to use CSS in con­cert with DOM Scripting, there’s almost no limit to what you can achieve.

MOD-​​ern web designer Andy Clarke and DOM/​Ajax devel­oper Aaron Gustafson will take your CSS skills and super­charge them with JavaScript magic, explor­ing how you can make CSS and JavaScript work together to make beau­ti­ful (and func­tional) results.

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Jeremy Keith & Derek Featherstone — Web Apps — Ajax Kung Fu Meets Accessibility Feng Shui

A pre­sen­ta­tion given at at Web Directions North, Vancouver, February 7, 2007.

Where can you find Ajax enlight­en­ment? At the mys­ti­cal point where a kick-​​ass appli­ca­tion con­nects per­fectly with the Flow of the best user expe­ri­ences. Let Masters Jeremy and Derek guide you there.

You seek to infuse your work, whether an app or a web site fea­ture, with the power of Ajax. But, tak­ing the wrong path at the begin­ning of your project will lead to frus­tra­tion for vis­i­tors, rather than a grace­ful, intu­itive expe­ri­ence. True Masters start with the right ques­tions: When is Ajax an enhance­ment? When is it a hin­drance? How can its energy be chan­neled ele­gantly? This insight­ful ses­sion will be grounded in real-​​life exam­ples and demon­stra­tions, reveal­ing the impact of the choices we make. Above all, you’ll learn the strate­gi­cal think­ing and higher per­spec­tive that will ensure a bril­liantly user-​​centered web site.

Where can you find Ajax enlight­en­ment? At the mys­ti­cal point where a kick-​​ass appli­ca­tion con­nects per­fectly with the Flow of the best user expe­ri­ences. Let Masters Jeremy and Derek guide you there.

You seek to infuse your work, whether an app or a web site fea­ture, with the power of Ajax. But, tak­ing the wrong path at the begin­ning of your project will lead to frus­tra­tion for vis­i­tors, rather than a grace­ful, intu­itive expe­ri­ence. True Masters start with the right ques­tions: When is Ajax an enhance­ment? When is it a hin­drance? How can its energy be chan­neled ele­gantly? This insight­ful ses­sion will be grounded in real-​​life exam­ples and demon­stra­tions, reveal­ing the impact of the choices we make. Above all, you’ll learn the strate­gi­cal think­ing and higher per­spec­tive that will ensure a bril­liantly user-​​centered web site.

See the slides and hear the podcast »

Andrew Downie and Grant Focas — Javascript and other coding for good or evil

A pre­sen­ta­tion given at Web Directions South, Sydney Australia, September 28 2007.

Andrew Downie PortraitGrant Focas PortraitWhen Version 2 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines is finally released, the sta­tus of Javascript will be quite dif­fer­ent to that assigned to it in Version 1.0 back in 1999. Back then, Javascript was to “degrade grace­fully”. Currently AJAX offers increased usabil­ity for visual users, but may detract from acces­si­bil­ity. In future, use of JavaScript will be encour­aged but, of course, must enhance rather than detract from acces­si­bil­ity. During this pre­sen­ta­tion, Andrew and Grant will demon­strate how Javascript, when imple­mented well, offers enhanced acces­si­bil­ity. By way of bal­ance, they will also present exam­ples of script­ing that causes prob­lems. Importantly, they will pro­vide cor­rec­tions to the errant coding.

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Aaron Gustafson — Learning to love forms

A pre­sen­ta­tion given at Web Directions South, Sydney Australia, September 28 2007.

Aaron Gustafson PortraitForms. We all have to make ‘em, but few of us love ‘em. Aaron Gustafson believes that this is because we don’t under­stand them. In this ses­sion, we will explore forms from top to bot­tom, exam­in­ing how they work and how their com­po­nents can be incor­po­rated with other ele­ments to max­i­mize acces­si­bil­ity, improve seman­tics, and allow for more flex­i­ble styling. You’ll get to see the com­plete pic­ture with forms, includ­ing error, warn­ing and for­mat­ting mes­sages, styling and its impli­ca­tions, as well as best prac­tices for manip­u­la­tion with Javascript and Ajax.

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Jonathan Boutelle — Ajax or Flash: what’s right for you?

A pre­sen­ta­tion given at Web Directions South, Sydney Australia, September 27 2007.

Jonathan Boutelle PortraitThe web is finally mov­ing beyond sim­ple html. How can you make rich web-​​based user expe­ri­ences that don’t sur­prise or aggra­vate your users? When should you use AJAX, when should you use Flash, and when should you mix the two? What are the oppor­tu­ni­ties and pit­falls when cre­at­ing richer web inter­faces? In this talk, Jonathan will argue that Flash and AJAX are com­ple­men­tary tools in the web devel­op­ers’ tool­box, and that build­ing effec­tive web expe­ri­ences often requires a blend­ing of the two technologies.

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Jeremy Keith — Hijax

A pre­sen­ta­tion given at Web Directions South, Sydney Australia, September 29 2006.

Jeremy Keith Portrait

Hijax is all about apply­ing pro­gres­sive enhance­ment to Ajax. In the Hijax model, JavaScript isn’t used for advanced inten­sive pro­cess­ing. Instead, the XMLHttpRequest object acts like a dumb waiter, pass­ing infor­ma­tion back­wards and for­wards between the client and the server. By hijack­ing the reg­u­lar func­tion­al­ity and replac­ing it with an enhanced Ajax ver­sion, you can be assured that your web­site will work with or with­out Ajax. See the slides and hear the podcast »

Jeremy Keith — Explaining Ajax

A pre­sen­ta­tion given at Web Directions South, Sydney Australia, September 28 2006.

Jeremy Keith Portrait

Apart from being the buzz­word de jour, what is this Ajax stuff that every­one is talk­ing about? Take a look at some imple­men­ta­tions out there and start think­ing about how Ajax can add value to your site. See the slides and hear the podcast »