I guess everyone has heard about AJAX. Well I read an article on Digg about FJAX, which basically is the same thing, but attempts to cut some corners on the code by using Flash’s proven XML handling.
The logic behind it was that AJAX code can easily get bulky if you want to make sure it runs smoothly across different browsers. FJAX “solves” that dilemma [in a sense] by using limiting the JS to only to call on a Flash object and write it’s output on the document (while AJAX relies heavily on the JavaScript to do everything. The whole middle process of pulling, parsing, etc. is done via Flash – with few lines of code that is native ActionScript.
It really makes a lot of sense because at this point in time, Flash has become so commonplace that it can be considered as “standard issue” as JS to some extent. With sites like YouTube, etc. relying heavily on Flash, you can’t really win the argument “not everyone uses Flash” as an excuse to not use it as an alternative engine. And the fact that Flash has always been known for it’s excellent XML handling that the whole prospect of using the strengths of JS and Flash become very appealing.
Anyways, as they said, it’s simple to set up and use… so what’s the best test of that? Why not use it myself and see if a person who always wanted to try AJAX could do an AJAX implementation immediately after reading the article.
Guess what… the music page has now been AJAX-ified (well technically it’s FJAX-ified, but who gives a shit right?)
Now the AJAX/FJAX (I’ll just call it AJAX from now on since it’s essentially the same thing) in the page is very simple – I just replaced the old <iframe> approach with it which finally eliminates the scrollbars.
So far it does the job, and I can forsee how I can use this for other stuff – should I NEED to use it. For informational sites, linking and addresses (URLs) are very important… and when you do your site in AJAX just for the heck of it, you essentially kill any way a user could go to a specific section/page. So the proper use of it is very modular. Like sprinkles on a donut.
I’m interested however how this FJAX thing would handle forms though… because the SDK never had an example with that scenario…