AJAX Widget Framework

[Laszlo Nagy]

I'm looking for an open source, AJAX based widget/windowing framework.
Here is what I need:

- end user opens up a browser, points it to a URL, logs in
- on the server site, sits my application, creating a new session for
each user that is logged in
- on the server site, I create windows(frames), put widgets on them,
write event handlers etc. Just like with wx or pygtk.
- However, windows are created in the user's browser, and events are
triggered by Javascript, and sent back to server through AJAX.
- the server side would be - of course - written in Python.

I was looking these projects:

http://www.uize.com/
http://pyjs.org/

There are many frameworks listed here which I did not check:
http://internetmindmap.com/javascript_frameworks. I have no idea which
has Python support, and probably there are only a few that worth looking
at. I wonder if you could tell me which are the pros and contras for
these frameworks. If there is a comparison available on the NET,
pointing me to the right URL would help a lot.

The bottom line...

My main goal is to develop enterprise class OLTP database applications.
I'll need grid widget to display data in tabular format, and I'll use
events heavily for data manipulation, live search, tooltips etc. I'm
familiar with wxWidgets, pygtk and other toolkits, but not with AJAX. I
have never used a system like that.

Thank you,

Laszlo

 

[Aaron Watters]

I'm looking for an open source, AJAX based widget/windowing framework.
Here is what I need:

- end user opens up a browser, points it to a URL, logs in
- on the server site, sits my application, creating a new session for
each user that is logged in
- on the server site, I create windows(frames), put widgets on them,
write event handlers etc. Just like with wx or pygtk.
- However, windows are created in the user's browser, and events are
triggered by Javascript, and sent back to server through AJAX.
- the server side would be - of course - written in Python....

WHIFF provides support for these type of AJAX
capabilities. Please have a look at the AJAX calculator
tutorial at

http://aaron.oirt.rutgers.edu/myapp/docs/W1100_1400.calc

for an example with discussion of
some of the built in support for AJAX.
You could probably use this as a starting point for building
your "grid" widget.

I've used WHIFF with jquery and mootools javascript libraries
with much success.

Please let me know what you think.

-- Aaron Watters

===

Ban DHMO!
http://www.dhmo.org/

 

[Mathias Waack]

I'm looking for an open source, AJAX based widget/windowing framework.
Here is what I need:

- end user opens up a browser, points it to a URL, logs in
- on the server site, sits my application, creating a new session for
each user that is logged in
- on the server site, I create windows(frames), put widgets on them,
write event handlers etc. Just like with wx or pygtk.
- However, windows are created in the user's browser, and events are
triggered by Javascript, and sent back to server through AJAX.
- the server side would be - of course - written in Python.

I was looking these projects:

http://www.uize.com/
http://pyjs.org/

There are many frameworks listed here which I did not check:
http://internetmindmap.com/javascript_frameworks. I have no idea which
has Python support, and probably there are only a few that worth looking
at. I wonder if you could tell me which are the pros and contras for
these frameworks. If there is a comparison available on the NET,
pointing me to the right URL would help a lot.

The bottom line...

My main goal is to develop enterprise class OLTP database applications.
I'll need grid widget to display data in tabular format, and I'll use
events heavily for data manipulation, live search, tooltips etc. I'm
familiar with wxWidgets, pygtk and other toolkits, but not with AJAX. I
have never used a system like that.

Of course I don't know which is the right way for you. I'm very happy with
pyjamas. It allows you the create client applications in the same manner as
standalone toolkits like wxWidgets. The message passing between client and
server is simple done by exchanging json strings (its ajax based of course,
but this stuff works silently in the background). On the server side there
are many python toolkits, I prefer cherrypy, others are django and web.py.

Hope this helps you.

Mathias

 

[lkcl]

I'm looking for an open source, AJAX based widget/windowing framework.
Here is what I need:

- end user opens up a browser, points it to a URL, logs in
- on the server site, sits my application, creating a new session for
each user that is logged in
- on the server site, I create windows(frames), put widgets on them,
write event handlers etc. Just like with wx or pygtk.
- However, windows are created in the user's browser, and events are
triggered by Javascript, and sent back to server through AJAX.
- the server side would be - of course - written in Python.

I was looking these projects:

http://www.uize.com/http://pyjs.org/

There are many frameworks listed here which I did not check:http://internetmindmap.com/javascript_frameworks. I have no idea which
has Python support, and probably there are only a few that worth looking
at. I wonder if you could tell me which are the pros and contras for
these frameworks. If there is a comparison available on the NET,
pointing me to the right URL would help a lot.

The bottom line...

My main goal is to develop enterprise class OLTP database applications.
I'll need grid widget to display data in tabular format, and I'll use
events heavily for data manipulation, live search, tooltips etc. I'm
familiar with wxWidgets, pygtk and other toolkits, but not with AJAX. I
have never used a system like that.

pyjamas is, despite having a browser-based option, about as far
away from "web" development as you can possibly get, with only
the lack of access to "standard" python libraries and having to
work with python reimplementations of math.py, re.py, time.py
etc. being the stark reminder that you're reaallly not in kansas.

the only thing that you have to get used to is that communication
with the external world is done through HTTPRequest.py and,
typically, its derivative, JSONService.py - even in the desktop
version of pyjamas.

but, if you're used to event-driven desktop environments such
as wxWidgets and pygtk then the asynchronous nature of JSONService
won't be a problem for you.

i recommend that if you intend to develop an enterprise-style
CRUD (create-retrieve-update-delete) application, that you take
a look at the PureMVC-based examples:

http://pyjs.org/examples/ search for "employeeadmin" and "timesheet".

kees bos joined the project a few months ago, and his very first
task that he set himself was to improve the pyjs compiler to the
point where http://puremvc.org's python library could be used
*unmodified* in pyjamas applications. he then set about porting
(and bug-fixing!) the two wxWidgets python-puremvc examples to
use pyjamas widgets.

these two examples should give you a big head-start on what you
want to achieve.


if you are stuck on "pure javascript" frameworks, however, and
you need "widgets", then there is one that i can tentatively
recommend (with some trepidation, due to its enooormous size):
extjs [no don't even _think_ of trying to combine it with pyjamas]
and the other one is qooxdoo which is veery easy and intuitive,
and well-designed.

i don't honestly know if qooxdoo has a grid widget, but extjs
most certainly does (and then some). the only issue with extjs
is the sheer number of options and the whopping great size.

whichever option you pick, you're basically in for quite a bit
of learning, to get "started". if you pick pyjamas and you
post on the pyjamas-dev list _please_ do remember to follow
the rules about providing full context and a worked example
if it's a programming issue, to help save people time, ok?

l.