November User Group:: AJAX update

Without a doubt, the concepts behind AJAX are providing the catalyst to move the web from its old clunky "send it all back the server for an update" into the thick client "desktop" feel the average computer user has come to expect. 

Earlier this year we heard from the AJAX community to get a primer and snapshot of where the technology sat (click here for a meeting summary).  This time around we're going to  listen to two more players in the AJAX space:

November User Group:: AJAX update

Without a doubt, the concepts behind AJAX are providing the catalyst to move the web from its old clunky "send it all back the server for an update" into the thick client "desktop" feel the average computer user has come to expect.

Earlier this year we heard from the AJAX community to get a primer and snapshot of where the technology sat (click here for a meeting summary). This time around we're going to listen to two more players in the AJAX space:

• Max Carlson - Co-Founder OpenLaszlo.org
  
  The Road to AJAX - In the past, OpenLaszlo been regarded as a Flash-only tool. In fact, OpenLaszlo is a powerful language for rich, custom declarative user interface programming that's been under development for over 5years. It's a powerful framework, and it has an exciting future as a single (OpenSource) language that can target Flash, DHTML and soon,other runtimes.
  
  In this talk Max will talk about the process of making OpenLaszlo a runtime-independent platform, including the first year of AJAX. He will ive an overview of the current multi-runtime architecture, includingtechniques for using and extending it. See an overview of the language, and talk about the future of OpenLaszlo as an AJAX platform.
  
  
• Alex Russell - President of the Dojo Foundation.
  
  Dojo - Dojo is the Open Source Javascript toolkit that makes professional web development better, easier, and faster.  This talk will cover some of Dojo's core APIs, including those for Ajax, Drag and Drop, Animations, and AOP-style event handling. Alex might also discuss some of the stock widgets, various ways to take advantage of them, and how you can use Dojo's package system to help make your own code faster and more portable.
  
  

This should be a great opportunity to hear more about the technology and cut through all the hype to determine if AJAX is moving to prime time, or is it just another page in the browser wars (e.g. redundant code that conducts extensive checking of agent type in the HTTP header).

Please Join BostonPHP on Wednesday evening, 6:30PM on October 25th - NOTE, THIS IS NOT OUR NORMAL THURSDAY MEETING TIME.  More information here.

Tell us what you think the PHP average and rockstar consulting rates are.  Take the rate-card survey (right column).

October User Group:: Selecting A PHP Framework

How many of us have searched Source Forge for a project that appears to fit our needs only to find there's no community or documentation behind it; or the code is really poorly written; or the project is about to fork...Sometimes selecting an open source project is like renting B-grade movies at the video store; it's not so much the cost that concerns you, but rather the time wasted if you select a dog.

Please join BostonPHP on October 5th at 6:30PM  (more)  when Seth Aaronson will moderate a panel discussion on how to select a robust PHP framework culminating in a "PHP framework bake-off".

BostonPHP members will showcase their respective frameworks:

• Justin Hannus - founder of Opifex;
• Nate Abele - core developer of Cake, and
• Chuck Hagenbuch - founder of HORDE

Each framework will develop a CRUD (create, read, update, delete) catalog application (e.g. products and categories) that generates multiple formats (xhtml + some xml, etc).

This presentation will become the foundation of future bake-off/presentations (e.g. Zend, Drupal, Symfony) and the basis of an upcoming article in php|architect.

Upcoming events 

November User Group:: AJAX update

Without a doubt, the concepts behind AJAX are providing the catalyst to move the web from its old clunky "send it all back the server for an update" into the thick client "desktop" feel the average computer user has come to expect. 

Earlier this year we heard from the AJAX community to get a primer and snapshot of where the technology sat (click here for a meeting summary).  This time around we're going to  listen to two more players in the AJAX space:

• Dojo - Dojo is the Open Source Javascript toolkit that makes professional web development better, easier, and faster.
  
• JackBe - JackBe is the first to integrate the flexibility and reusability of SOA with the desktop-like interactivity of Ajax to deliver complete Rich Enterprise Applications (REA).
  

This should be a great opportunity to hear more about the technology and cut through all the hype to determine if AJAX is moving to prime time, or is it just another page in the browser wars (e.g. redundant code that relies upon the agent type in  the HTTP header).

more

December User Group:: PHP Frameworks part deux

more 

January User Group:: ODF what's in it for you?

more 

February User Group:: Venture Capital 101

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