AJAX Magazine

CopperLicht, fast WebGL JavaScript 3D Engine

2010-02-06T06:40:47Z

WebGL is getting hot after being supported by modern browsers Firefox, Chrome and Safari. Now you can even create amazing apps with CopperLicht, a fast JavaScript 3D engine for creating games and 3d applications in the webbrowser. It uses the WebGL canvas supported by modern browsers and is able to render hardware accelerated 3d graphics without any plugins.

Key features :

3D World editor: CopperLicht comes with a full 3D world editor named CopperCube.
Many supported 3D file formats: .3ds, .obj, .x, .lwo, .b3d, .csm, .dae, .dmf, .oct, .irrmesh, .ms3d, .my3D, .mesh, .lmts, .bsp, .md2, .stl. and more, see below.
Incredibly fast: CopperLicht is highly optimized and able to render and animate even huge 3d scenes.
Simple API: CopperLicht is a SceneGraph based 3D engine, and a lot of examples and tutorials are available to show you how it works.
Binary compilation: Unlike other WebGL 3D Engines, CopperLicht compiles your 3D meshes into a small, binary file which downloads quickly, reducing bandwith usage for your users. Simply import your 3D files into the CopperCube editor and publish it as CopperLicht scene.
Totally free: CopperLicht is free to use. Just download and go!

ItsNat Natural Ajax v0.7 Released

2010-02-06T06:08:55Z

ItsNat is a server centric Java AJAX web framework with the same style of programming as the client, because ItsNat approach is "The Browser Is The Server" (TBITS). ItsNat simulates a Universal W3C Java Browser in the server, client events are sent to the server via AJAX and converted to W3C Java DOM Events, changes in DOM server are automatically sent to the client as JavaScript updating the client DOM. In ItsNat templates are defined using pure X/HTML or SVG files with no logic. View logic is coded in pure Java using Java W3C DOM APIs promoting reuse and the goodness of Object Oriented Programming.

This release, 0.7, is highly focused on SVG, these days web technologies like HTML 5 and SVG are trying to achieve the same Flash capabilities tanks to browser makers and projects like SVGWeb sponsored by Google.

ItsNat v0.7 adds first class support of SVG in native browsers and Internet Explorer using a broad range of plugins: Adobe SVG Viewer (v3 and v6), Renesis 1.1, Savarese Ssrc, SVGWeb and Batik as applet. Savarese Ssrc also provides XUL to MSIE.

Websync, .NET and IIS Comet Server

2010-01-23T08:06:23Z

If you are looking to turn your IIS, ASP.NET server into a highly scalable HTTP Comet/Reverse Ajax server, your solution could be called Websync, by Frozen Mountain Software. Websync is cool, because unlike every other comet server currently available, it doesn't require a separate server, instead it runs directly with IIS. It takes about 2 lines in your web.config to get it going, and we've tested 30,000 users simultaneously on a single $400 Acer desktop with 3gig of RAM.

More features include :
- an embedded JavaScript client (only 9 KB!) and .NET client.
- server-side publishers for .NET and PHP
- uses open protocols and proven technology (HTML5, Ajax, JSONP, Bayeux).
- allows secure, controlled access and virtually unlimited scalability.
- offers complete end-to-end application integration.

Websync is a commercial product, pricing start from $749. More information and download at http://frozenmountain.com.

Visual WebGui platform further enhances its SDK with the integration of jQuery in its new 6.4 version

2010-01-23T07:26:05Z

The new version offers upgraded performance, scalability and complete developer and designer freedom to design and customize Web 2.0 like user interfaces

Gizmox, the developer of Visual WebGui web/cloud applications platform announced today the release of its Visual WebGui 6.4 beta 1 version. The new version offers enhanced performance as well as enhanced customization, extension and user interface designing capabilities. The expanded capabilities include the integration of the jQuery library for faster behavior customization and user interface extension. This enables developers to create Web 2.0 user interfaces (UI) in a more expedited and easier manner. In addition, the integration allows jQuery developers to offer a path empowering the jQuery based UI, while maintaining the Visual WebGui server power and security which are vital for data secured - sensitive applications.

With the original VB6 like drag and drop development practices that earned Visual WebGui its popularity as an open source enterprise .Net Ajax platform, the new version lends its simple VB6 like web development empowerment to jQuery developers. In addition, Visual WebGui developers will be able to develop applications using full object oriented environment by utilizing the power of the server and at the same time to write extensions using one of the most popular client side frameworks.

dhtmlxScheduler 2.1 Released

2009-12-08T07:10:55Z

DHTMLX team has announced the availability of version 2.1 of dhtmlxScheduler, a lightweight and highly customizable Ajax calendar component for creating rich scheduling UI. The update includes numerous enhancements and bug fixes, and introduces the following new features:

- Agenda View, which allows users to see the list of oncoming events starting from the current date (if needed, this starting date may be easily changed).

- In addition to Day/Week/Month Views, version 2.1 provides the ability to display events in the Year View.

- The update includes multiple extensions for the most common use-cases such as: read-only form, loading from multiple sources, key navigation, html templates, etc.

- Online Skin Builder for dhtmlxScheduler now provides developers with the ability to choose the coloring scheme for the calendar, or change the colors of each part of the skin.

- Localization capabilities of dhtmlxScheduler have been extended. The list of supported languages includes Chinese, Japanese, French, Finnish, German, Hebrew, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, and more.

Version 2.1 also provides much more samples, which demonstrate the capabilities of the calendar and simplify the use of the component. For more info and download please visit this page.

AMPLE SDK, Open Source JavaScript GUI Framework

2009-12-08T05:28:03Z

Ample SDK is a standard-based cross-browser JavaScript GUI Framework for building Rich Internet Applications. It employs XML technologies (such as XUL, SVG or HTML5) for UI layout, CSS for UI style and JavaScript for application logic. It equalizes browsers and brings technologies support to those missing any.

Today's web browsers are playing a role more and more crucial in web application development since they're becoming the web platforms that we build on, but for web application developers problems to solve remain the same : use of open technologies and standards while assuring compatibility between different browsers and devices. AMPLE SDK provides a client-side application layer to build standards-based GUI using open technologies and guarantee a compatibility with most web browsers. No need to learn anything new !

The SDK simplifies coding client-side applications by providing common playground across all web-browsers. It doesn't modify/enforce any new programming practices or API - only standard technologies used. It enables XUL (Mozilla-based GUI technology) cross-browser, as well as it adds SVG 1.1 to the Internet Explorer. And many more.

The project is available under MIT and GPL license, more information and download available at http://www.amplesdk.com/

Gizmox Reveals Cloud Apps Platform at Microsoft PDC

2009-11-17T08:11:00Z

Today Gizmox, the developer of Visual WebGui Web & Cloud Platform, will reveal its innovative cloud application platform which will allow developers and enterprises to deploy their applications to Windows Azure with the click of a button with no re-writes or new programming skills needed. The company will also expose with Microsoft Azure team a case study showcasing a successful migration and deployment of an energy management system to Windows Azure cloud using Visual WebGui.

Below the press release :

Visual WebGui to Reveal the First Cloud Application Platform to Migrate Legacy to the Cloud at a "button-push"

Developers can now deploy their applications to Windows Azure with the click of a button with no re-writes or new programming skills needed

Los Angeles, CA. - November 17, 2009 - Gizmox, the developer of Visual WebGui Web & Cloud Platform, today announced that it will reveal its application platform atop Windows Azure and its development framework, Visual WebGui web/cloud platforms offers the only push-button .NET desktop legacy application migration path to Windows Azure. With Visual WebGui enterprises will be able to migrate to Windows Azure, by reusing their existing Windows software code on Windows Azure without re-write or re-engineering. The process is as simple as copying and pasting the Windows code into VWG, selecting Windows Azure run in Visual WebGui SDK, and run.

"With our unique unrivalled legacy applications migration to Windows Azure, and the ability to run them as responsive as and as rich as desktop's, with proven unhackable security, we have crossed a new threshold," said Navot Peled, CEO of Gizmox, "While everyone is talking about the cloud, we're working with Microsoft to bring our solution to enterprises that are looking at migration to the Windows Azure cloud here and now. We also enable the fast development, desktop's performance, and richness and security benefits to newly built cloud applications"

SRP-Hermetic, New Ajax Security Library

2009-11-17T07:05:52Z

SRP-Hermetic, a JavaScript library which aims at providing a highly secure Ajax channel implementation (MIT license). Authentication is based on the SRP protocol, and messages can be signed using HMAC or fully encrypted using AES. An interesting implementation providing secure user authentication, communication integrity and communication privacy to AJAX applications, with main focus on efficiency, scalability and customisable secure channel as an alternative to HTTPS.

Your feedback is very welcome to review current implementation and develop it further. More information could be found on this blog post.

PMRPC, HTML5-based Inter-window Cross-Domain RPC Librar

2009-10-13T06:52:46Z

Pmrpc is a HTML5 inter-window cross-domain JSON-RPC based remote procedure call JavaScript library. The library provides a simple API for exposing and calling procedures from windows or iFrames on different domains, without being subject to the same-origin policy. Pmrpc also provides several advanced features: callbacks similar to AJAX calls, ACL-based access control, asynchronous procedure support and fault-tolerance via retries.

The implementation of the library is based on the HTML5 postMessage API, the JSON-RPC protocol and the JSON data format. Pmrpc uses the postMessage API as an underlying communication mechanism and extends it to a RPC model using the JSON-RPC, a transport-independent protocol that uses JSON for formatting messages.

The library is compatible with Firefox 3, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 8, released under Apache v2.0 license.

Webopoly, New Ajax-based Property Trading Game

2009-09-29T09:24:47Z

Webopoly is a new Ajax-based monopoly-like game written in PHP where players can trade properties like web companies, or products. It supports multi-player games, in-game chat and a variety of other features, all without the use of any Flash or Java. The games uses many JavaScript libraries such taconite, soundmanager2, and greybox. Geeky and very addictive game ! Players can create their own private or public games and invite friends or colleagues to join.

Have fun http://www.webopoly.org/ !

Open Source RIA Framework Qooxdoo 0.8.3 Released

2009-09-12T01:39:39Z

The Open Source RIA Framework qooxdoo is now available in a new release 0.8.3. This release include many enhancements, 300 bug fixes, and lots of new features including :

New Form Handling
Unified Selection API
Advanced Data Binding
New Flow Layout
New Flash Widget
New Themed Iframe
Global Error Handling

"qooxdoo 0.8.3 is one of the best tested and most extensive releases to date." According to QooxDoo announcement there are about 1.700 Commits since last release, more than 1.100 Unit tests (incl. more than 3.200 assertions), about 30 Browsers/OS combinations continuously unit-/GUI-tested, and about 160 GUI-tests of applications, fully automated. Migration and more details about this release are available here.

More information and download at http://qooxdoo.org/.

DHTMLX v2.5 Released

2009-09-07T23:06:22Z

DHTMLX 2.5 have just been released, one of the most interesting JavaScript libraries to build amazingly rich UI for web applications for both GPL open source and commercial apps. "We were working hard, carefully preparing this update, to make it more comfortable and easy for you to build rich web interfaces with our dhtmlx components" announced Ivan Petrenko.

Version 2.5 introduces lots of significant improvements, including:

Object API

In addition to the existing functional API, all the components now have an object API that provides a familiar way of initialization for those who are used to work with object oriented model. Instead of writing large number of commands, you can now define an object within a single command with all the properties set inside of it. This new object based approach allows you to initialize the components in more simple and clear manner. The old commands based model is still available as well.

StreamHub, Realtime Comet Server

2009-09-03T14:29:44Z

HTTP Push Server for Streaming Real-Time Data is interesting solution for real world Ajax applications. One of these solutions is StreamHub, a highly-scalable HTTP Comet server allowing you to stream live data to a web browser without requiring any plugins or security-policy changes. It uses a technique known as Comet or HTTP Streaming to keep a persistent connection open to the browser.

HTML, Ajax, .NET and Java clients can all receive data from StreamHub. Data can be streamed into StreamHub using the Java or .NET SDKs. Early access is available to interested parties for Silverlight, Flex, iPhone and Mobile APIs. StreamHub's highly-scalable architecture is suitable for streaming live stock quotes, real-time chat, live news delivery, online-gaming and a whole host of Rich Internet Applications.

StreamHub is available in community edition (Free), Web and Enterprise edition for commercial use. The enterprise provides additional features such Clustering, Secure HTTPS Support, .NET Adapter SDK for Streaming, Java Thick Client SDK, .NET Thick Client SDK. The clustering option is obviously not available for the web edition.

Download StreamHub community edition. Some tutorials are available to get started with StreamHub and Comet or to create a Comet Chat applications.

CKEditor 3.0 Released

2009-09-01T10:58:07Z

FCKEditor knew lots of changes recently and version 3.0 came with a new brand name, the editor is now called CKEditor where the CK meant for Content and Knowledge (the web 2.0 fragrances) instead of taking its creator initials Frederico Caldeira Knabben. Lots of new features in addition to bugfixes, amazing performance, and accessibility compliance with W3C WCAG and the US Section 508 accessibility standard marked this new release. CKEditor got a brand new UI, now you can easily change color of the editor interface to match your website's design in addition to skins, editor's options are fully customizable. CKEditor interface is available in more than 50 languages.

CKEditor is released under GPL, LGPL and MPL open source licenses. Commercial license (CDL) is also available for companies interested to integrate the editor in their software or solutions. The editor is compatible with most internet browsers and operating systems including Internet Explorer 6+, Firefox 2+, Safari 3+, Google Chrome and Opera 9.5+. Languages integration is also available for JavaScript, AFP, ASP, ASP.NET, Coldfusion, Java, PHP, Python, Adobe Air ... etc.

More information and download at http://ckeditor.com

OpenAjax Alliance Delivers Software for More Secure Enterprise Mashups

2009-09-01T10:15:49Z

SAN JOSE, Calif. - 31 Aug 2009: The OpenAjax Alliance announced today the approval and availability of OpenAjax Hub 2.0 as an industry standard for more secure Web 2.0 mashup applications. Advances in security in Hub 2.0 can help protect enterprise mashups from malicious intent, giving IT staff greater confidence in adding these features to their Web sites.

OpenAjax Hub 2.0 was developed over the past two years at OpenAjax Alliance, an organization dedicated to the adoption of open and interoperable Ajax technologies. Ajax is Web development technology based on HTML and JavaScript that runs mashups, widgets and gadgets. Mashups allow business users to drag and drop "mashed up" components to create customized Web applications in minutes.

The major addition to Hub 2.0 is a JavaScript Library for Secure Enterprise Mashups created to better protect widgets and mashups from hackers and malicious intent. It addresses concerns among IT managers that may have inhibited adoption of mashup software within companies.

"OpenAjax Hub 2.0 is a major step forward for the OpenAjax Alliance towards its mission of promoting Ajax interoperability," says David Boloker, OpenAjax Alliance Steering Committee chairman and chief technology officer for Emerging Internet Technology, IBM. "In order to realize the potential for mashups across the industry, there needs to be standards. Hub 2.0 defines a key industry standard for how widgets can be isolated into secure containers and then how widgets can talk to each other through a mediated messaging bus."