AJAX - yawn.
January 18th, 2006
SearchDomino ran an article today which highlights potential security and scalability problems with Ajax. It had to come. This is just part of the normal technology hype-cycle. A new technology is released, takes a while to get popular, then it becomes the best thing since sliced bread. Then all the horror stories start to emerge. This is the point we are at now. Soon Ajax will settle down to being a useful way of solving some problems but it will not reveal the meaning the life, the universe and everything.
Why the yawn ? Two reasons. Firstly the technology-hype cycle becomes monotonous after you have seen it repeat so many times. Secondly I was personally achieving the similar results as Ajax pre-2000 using a pinpoint Java Applet. JavaScript would call a public method of the applet, the applet would retrieve the data from the server via a Domino url and then insert the data into the page/form using the JavaScript api. Simple ! Ok maybe not as elegant as the Ajax solution but still pretty good.