Ajax

[maestro]

Here's a great example of what I would like to see Product Cart - Early Impact, Inc. Drill Down Search Widget

there is a very similar thing i have ported from osC to CRE here called DynaMenu, it has many configuration options and can even be DHTML, std categories, tree menu, and has 10 different sets of icons, it even does horizontal dropdown DHTML with very little coding... possibly even an RCI header/body onload method...

oh and did i mention it has 6.2 & 6.3 Versions! i will be posting it on my site hopefully before the end of this weekend

Also i forgot to mention it "should" be pretty easy to drop into EOS without much modification also

[zip1]

Denver: There is already a drill down menu thing in the admin, but not the catalog side. It was originally for for the gift voucher contribution.  It's been added in the order edit syste when adding a product, and customer look up. But by the time EOS gets to production most likely is will be changed to other scritp

Ivar: yes that would be one place to use it. I am not exactly a java script wizard so I am going slow on implemention of such widgets and helpers.

Tom

[Ivar]

Okay.. take forexample the Product Editor.. would be nice not having to scroll all the way down and hitting update when you want to activate the "Product Pricing" => "Use groups pricing", or even when changing the number of price breaks..

//Ivar

[inetbiz]

Here's a great example of what I would like to see Product Cart - Early Impact, Inc. Drill Down Search Widget

[David M. Graham]

In most cases these are not AJAX per se, due to the lack of XML involved.

While XML will be used by the cart, this will be more in the nature of data import/export than direct communications with the client.  This will continue to be standard (X)HTML markup based. 

I believe that the Admin is the location in which AJAX can most be justified - given that while the PROGRAMMER can't predict or control the web client machine load issues the STORE OWNER can.  This offers a small chance that the issue can be managed if the community doesn't go hog wild over AJAX.  If we do, kiss performance good bye.   

The odds of a web server being operated by someone who can manage load appropriately can reasonably be expected to be higher than the odds that a web client operator can do so.

Store owners being a smaller group, and making a living by their net usage might reasonably be expected (as a group) to develop somewhat higher computer manage skills than their customers. 

Javascript has already been applied to quantity price break entry and several other places in the admin.  It has probably been applied a few places in the catalog side where it should not have been applied as the sole solution.  This is because Javascript, by itself can be fairly insecure....

David



David

[zip1]

Although not really known yet there is a ajax Engine in the cart.  I just recently added it when Lightbox popup was added. It not in the admin yet but it will be. We also have not deevloped much as far as the additional scripts go yet.

On the admin side I have tried to use some ajax for some image functionality. the Ajax engine i used is no longer being developed. so it kind of worthless to try and continue to use it.

Also rather then have several ajax engines in the cart at this time
 Prototype :  http://www.prototypejs.org/ ,  main javascript/ ajax engine
 scriptaculous: http://script.aculo.us ,visual and html effects,
 light box: http://lokeshdhakar.com/projects/lightbox2/ ,  some special popup image effects

 these are the three main java script /ajax compents we will be working with. I choose these because they are very popular, somewhat well documented, and many people use them. The also have an active development community.

Tom

[Ivar]

Hello
Well i agree to some point. Many websites misuse Ajax, and making the pages slow rather than benefit in the technology.
Another thing is, at least for the frontend, I think Ajax is a template issue more than an added feature.. so maybe this is not anything to bother with at this stage.

However.. i think some backend functions could benefit from this..
Take the order editor for example. Adding multiple price groups, updating product quantity, updating statuses/comments etc.
I'm sure there are many other function in the backend that could benefit from this also

What do you think folks ?

//Ivar

[David M. Graham]

My own thought is very little if any should be used, and it should not be a high priority.

Ajax can be pretty helpful in some places.  If used too extensively or implemented poorly it is very easy to throw too much load onto the client, and shut down progress through the site.

SugarCRM is one great example of this.  I've had it slow several machines to a crawl, or even a dead stop.

Granted I  MAY run my machine under greater load than most, still the question remains - how can the developer anticipate the client machines state and compensate for it? 



David

[Ivar]

Hello

Although this may not be seen as a core feature, is there any plans to use Ajax in the templates?
Thinking in both frontend and admin.

//Ivar