AJAX – Poster Boy of Web 2.0
I was just reading quite an interesting article over on ZDNet talking about how the author “hated” (and he did say hated) almost all browser based applications because the browser is not a good application container. He sees AJAX as something to overcome the inherent limitations of the browser, and he hasn’t seen anything done in AJAX that a good Java Applet couldn’t replicate.
I think this rather missing the point. I personally haven’t come across a Java Applet that added to a web application. They don’t integrate well with the surrounding web page, are slow to load, and require Java to be installed on the user’s system. While Java itself is platform independant, it really requires the Sun Java VM to work. Interfaces that make use of AJAX require a modern browser with JavaScript support. It’s these browsers that have the larger installation base. The HTML/JavaScript incompatibilities between different vendors browsers are largely a thing of the past as long as you can follow the standards and test your code properly. Thus you can use AJAX to provide your users with a well featured, rich experience right? Not necessarily.
It’s wrong to assume that everything about AJAX is sweetness and light - some interfaces, like Google’s acclaimed Maps and lesser-known Suggest are excellent implementations. Zend’s MyZend pages are the opposite. Yes, I can click on things and I don’t have to wait to reload the page, but why make me click hundreds of time to get to the piece of information I could get to quicker before you went and Pimped My Page…
Unless using AJAX can satisfy a particular need of the interface (as exemplifed by Maps) then it’s use should be kept to areas where including it will add to the experience of those who are able to use it without detracting from the overall purpose of the system (see Suggest).
My main point here is that the most important thing when it comes to good web application design is to make sure that it just works in most circumstances and upgrades to take advantage of any additional features found on the user’s system, rather than designing for the bells and whistles and degrading when they aren’t available. This is the worst point of Java applets. They don’t degrade, they just don’t work if you don’t have Java. So while, yes, Java probably could do many AJAX based interfaces better, I would never recommend pinning your hopes on finding something installed on a user’s system beyond the browser.
100%. Spot. On.