February 18, 2006
I haven't received official confirmation, but it looks like my two proposals for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Information Technology Conference have been accepted this year. This is an annual conference for IT staff from our colleges and universities statewide. I was sorely tempted to do a third and am still kicking myself for not proposing a web security talk, but I didn't want to stretch myself too thin.
The first is an introduction to Ajax, which I'll be doing with Dave Kruse, webmaster at South Central College. Dave is damn sharp and a real pleasure to work with, so I'm looking forward to collaborating with him on this talk. The second is an introduction to this new wave of web frameworks, using Ruby on Rails as the starting point.
Oh heck, it's probably easiest if I just share the proposals.
Ajax is changing how we create and experience web applications. No longer are we constrained by the slow and restrictive practice of loading an entire page in response to a user action. With Ajax, we use JavaScript to make HTTP requests and modify sections of a page on the fly -- without reloading the page. Once the load-click-reload cycle is broken, we can write more responsive, engaging web applications to meet and exceed users' growing expectations.
This session explores the technology and the impact of Ajax. We provide an overview of the technology behind Ajax and how to use it. The basic code and techniques are straightforward, but there are enough gotchas and quirks that it's worth using one of the many libraries available. We will introduce popular toolkits and describe/demonstrate their interaction with server-side platforms.
In recent months a creative and vigorously active community has built up around Ajax; we have learned much about how to use it effectively and where the pitfalls lie. After our introduction to the technology, we will turn to common patterns and best practices for using Ajax to enhance web applications, as well as antipatterns that impede usability and accessibility.
We have found that developers are sometimes aware of Ajax and even familiar with coding techniques, but often do not know how or whether to use it in their applications. For this reason, throughout the session we will again draw on real-world apps, including our own, to illustrate and support the concepts.
Since its appearance just over a year ago, Ruby on Rails has drawn tremendous attention. Over-hyped as a Java killer, unfairly dismissed as a toy, the web application framework embodies time-saving, productivity-enhancing ideas about web development that can mean a five- to tenfold increase in developer speed. Similar frameworks for other languages and platforms have emerged in the past year, as well: Django and TurboGears in Python, PHP's Symfony and the Zend Framework, Catalyst in Perl... All promote a notion of radical simplicity and solid application design, dramatically reducing the amount of work necessary to get an app up, running, and maintainable.
I believe that this is the future of web application development.
This session explores what we can learn from this new breed of web application frameworks. I will start with a demonstration of Ruby on Rails, building in minutes what might normally take hours with traditional development methods. Using that application as an example, I'll then touch on what makes Rails special, including:
Having introduced Rails, I will then describe several similar frameworks that have emerged and express the same ideas about web development. I will tease out common threads and put forward lessons that we can learn from this new class of frameworks, including:
Even if we never use Ruby on Rails or any of the other frameworks, we can learn from what they're doing and why they're being adopted with such fervor, to make our lives easier and our web applications better.
