Ajax Graphics Enhancement Tools
When most people think of Ajax, they think of the ability to have changes occur on webpages without having to reload them. They also think about of the high levels of interactivity that they can achieve. Most importantly, many developers are waiting for the way where they will be able to use web applications that are just as robust as their desktop counterparts.
However, many people fail to take into consideration the graphical issues of this collection of technologies. This phenomenon is a result of Web 2.0. A great emphasis was placed on the experience of the user. An important aspect of this is the creation of new ways to present information to viewers.
These objects are often referred to as being widgets, and they will use Ajax for the purpose of communicating with servers. There are a number of widgets that can be used to enhance the usability of the site. Many of these innovative techniques place a great deal of importance on user interaction. Graphics play an important part of this.
Some of the widgets that will play an important role in this process are SWF/Charts, carousels, in-place editing, and the SWF/Gauge. In addition to this, DHTML is important as well. All of these widgets will play an important role in enhancing the grapical experience that users will experience on the web.
SWF/Charts are controls based on Adobe/Flash that can read the XML information that is one the server. They can do this for the purpose of generating a gauge for display that can be customized. The interface is very impressive to view, and it will come in the form of a chart that is dependent on the data.
The good thing about this widget is that it is easy to create, and users can add dynamic graphs to their websites. The next important widget that you will want to become familiar with is the carousel. This widget will come in the form of a rolling image. The user can use the viewer to move through a list of items, and each item will be showcased as a small graphic.
What happens once the user clicks on the item is dependent on the webmaster. Some good examples of websites which use carousels are iTunes and Flikr. The carousel can be made available for free, and it is has a structure which is based on the JavaScript Framework. The SWF/Gauge is another graphic widget that is connected to Ajax.
Based on the name, it is easy to see that this widget shares a relationship with the SWF/Chart. The SWF/Gauge will use XML on the server to design a gauge display that can be customized. The gauge can be designed to look like the one that are found in aircraft, or it can be anything you want. In place editing is another widget that you will want to learn about.
Despite the fact that in-place editing is not technically a widget, it is an interactive method that you can use to get information from your users. The in-place editing system is directly connected to the Scriptaculous framework. This framework will sit near the library that is related to it. The last widget that will play an important role in the Ajax graphical process is DHTML windows.
The term DHTML stands for Dynamic Hyper Text Markup Language, and it creates a structure by which a floating window can be added to the content on the page. The user will have the ability to move the window around, and they can resize it or get rid of it. The content that is displayed in the window can be defined through JavaScript, and it can be read from Ajax through the server.
The DHTML window is very useful in situations where you want to use alarts, or when you want to use small forms that don’t need to use the entire page. As you can see, widgets will play an important role in showcasing the graphical power of Ajax. The old saying that "a picture is worth a thousand words" is definitely true, even on the web. They will also give webmasters a great return on their hard work. Without many of these functions, users would have to build their own graphs.
