Chapter 12. Ajax and JavaScript remoting
This chapter covers
When applications are ported to the web environment, something is often lost in translation: the user experience. Even nontechnical users understand the need to wait for a page to load after each action, evidence of the lack of continuity that plagues many web applications. Ajax provides a way to bring the rich, interactive application (RIA) user experience to the web.
In the previous chapter, you learned how the mission-critical and sometimes daunting task of securing your application is dramatically simplified thanks to Seam. By filling in a few blanks, you’re able to blanket your application with basic security and then fine-tune it with contextual security rules. In this chapter, you’ll witness another example of how Seam helps you transform your application with a handful of keystrokes by leveraging its multifaceted Ajax support. This news is especially promising, since moving to Ajax has proven to be a more costly investment than many product managers first anticipated. One reason is that cross-browser JavaScript is not for the faint of heart, and its problems can put the brakes on your development schedule. Another is that JavaScript code quickly becomes spaghetti, making it difficult to comprehend and even harder to test.