09-05-2006, 09:34 AM
Quote:
COWS Ajax - Ajax evolved
COWS Ajax takes over where Ajax leaves off. The web has gone through a great period of experimentation and now there is a dizzying array of frameworks, add-ons, how-tos, and books. The common element these Ajax aides all fail to overcome is that, even with aides, apps take a long time to create and debug. Many times someone has already created a great tool and youd really just rather use theirs instead of reinventing the wheel (especially if its a Google, Yahoo, or other trusted player). Wouldnt it be great to drop in a single-line of code to gain a huge amount of functionality that frees you for something else? You cant do that with Ajax, but you can with COWS (Changeable Origin Web Services) Ajax. Now highly interacticve third party services like SpellingCow are possible.
The classic Ajax example is to auto-complete the users city/state after they enter their zip. Peachy... but how many developers have access to an up-to-date zip code databases? Wouldnt it be better for the US Post Office to create a tool that you could simply access from your web app/page? You should be able to drop in a single-line of code that handles zip lookups and frees you up to work on the meat of your app/site. This isnt possible with Ajax, and thats where COWS Ajax takes over...
more info: http://cows-ajax.sourceforge.net/ajax-evolved.php
how it works: http://cows-ajax.sourceforge.net/tech.php
free download: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles..._id=166412