FMPug does Ajax!

[andygaunt]

We are very pleased to announce the first page of 'refleshless browsing' is now available at FMPug.com

FMPug Ajax News Page

In association with Lance Hallberg who after taking code inspiration from us wrote an Ajax wrapper that allows us to query FileMaker data and return that data to a page without refreshing the whole thing.

This is a huge leap forward in the speed with which pages can be delivered. No longer do we have to wait for all the navigation and images to "reload" because we want to see new data or process a request.

We invite you to check out the FMPug News page to see this in action.

More pages will be following soon. We already have in place for FMPug site administrators the ability to generate new pieces of news and have them instantly appear in the list of news on the page.

[andygaunt]

The second Ajax enabled page on FMPug is the friends of the pug.

http://www.fmpug.com/pugfriends.php

Now you can choose what you wish to display and the page will instantly update (with NO refresh of the surrounding content)

[lance123]

Hi Andy,

I clicked the link for the Ajax information and it did not really seem to go to more info? I see the power of the technique or technology! Very impressive! It has been a major bottleneck with using the internet/browser as a serious business tool.

How do you use this technology with filemaker? Does it require php also? Is there a further Ajax program required to write code?

Sorry for the basic questions but it is the first I have heard of Ajax but I am extremely keen to learn and apply.

Regards and thanks for making me aware of this in your thread,

Lance

Edited March 12, 2006 by Guest

[andygaunt]

Lance,

This post was to show you Ajax running on a FileMaker Pro powered site using PHP.

Our news page and Pug friends pages both use this new technology now.

The idea is to update just a portion of the page, without a full refresh.

AJAX is at its core an XMLHttpRequest that allows you to use javascript and XML to query a data source and return fresh content without having to reload the full page.

Our examples allow you to change the amount of news displayed and then paginate through the news with only the news data being updated. The navigation and rest of the site stays 'calm!'

Our PugFriends allows you to change what you are looking at and again, only the data is updated.

We are looking at using Ajax for form processing, as well as using it for conditional value lists. It really ROCKS for that as you can make a selection and that can query the databsae and then build a second,third or more subsequent lists based on the previous data.

Hope this helped answer some of those questions.

Oh, and you may just not have known you were seeing Ajax on other sites. Google maps for example. The ability to scroll the map live is done with Ajax.

[andygaunt]

OK,

This is too much fun.

Check out the Pug Friends page now.

http://www.fmpug.com/pugfriends.php

So, we can update the contents of the search by changing the type of link to display without refreshing the entire site.

This was pretty cool on its own.

But now, if you choose FileMaker Develoepr, you will be presented with an additional selection box which is built out of the FX.PHP query. this new option allows you to conditionally filter the results of the developers by country.

SWEET! :yay:

[LaRetta]

The FMPug site is smokin' Andy!

The speed is simply incredible. I have never seen such blazing results from ANY website ... not to mention one so packed full of information. It is an inspiration to us all. Thank you!

L

[andygaunt]

Thanks LaRetta,

Comments like that are sure to make a guy blush.

OR, if he were a developer, he would add select by State if Country = USA on the friends of the Pug.

Yes folks, now we have a three tier conditional value list that is being built on the fly based on selections you make as a visitor.

SMOKIN!

[LaRetta]

Well, I tried it for myself. It was so lightening fast that I didn't even see it happen; absolutely NO hesitation. I see what you mean about not redrawing the whole screen. Words don't explain the difference ... one must see it in action. Once you know what CAN be possible, looking at every other website (except FM Forums of course), would be a yawner ...

As you may know, we'll be publishing very soon. Guess where I'll turn to learn it? Sooooooo Andy? Are you going to offer training? Now wouldn't THAT be a kick!!

ps. Everyone ... I'm an FMPug member (as everyone should be). But NOBODY tells me what to say. I responded simply because I seek the very best - and this is a prime example of the best! I'm so excited about publishing now that I could spit!

LaRetta

[lance123]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the response. I can see how effective Ajax is as a technology! Where do I learn some more about it? Is there plans to do an update on how the technology is applied? Any tips appreciated.

Once again thanks for making us all aware of such a quantum leap. I can see that this really has the ability to make so many more projects viable.

Regards,

Lance

[andygaunt]

Hi Lance,

We will be putting the Ajax wrapper out for public unwrapping soon. We just want to make sure that everything is working properly across platforms and browsers. After that it is a matter of learning Javascript and understanding the DOM to manipulate your data.

Just remember, the submit of a link or a form pushes an XMLHttpRequest to a page that processes your request, builds the contents and that HTML or XML data is then returned to a specific location on the current page. If you pass XML data back, you will then have to rely on functionso n the calling page to process it.

[Gambler]

Andy

You do realize that AJAX is still unsecure technology and like ACTIVE X is subject to many bad things.

And as such it is NOT recommended for secure web sites.

Gambler (FMPUG member too)

[Martin Brändle]

The big problem with Ajax security and FileMaker XML is that you have to open Guest access for the fmxml extended privilege set (or provide the user ID/password combination for XML access client side).

You can the easily read out the database structure and all records of a table with some simple XML queries.

- First you do a query for the available databases with -dbnames

- Then for a database, you do a query of the layout names and script names and the field information with -layoutnames and -scriptnames

- then, for a layout, you can retrieve the record info as you like. Bye, bye to your data.

Edited April 2, 2006 by Guest

[lance123]

Hmm thanks very much for the comments Martin and Gambler!

This sort of thing needs to be considered. This narrows its application some what.

Is there no way around this short fall of security? I am no expert in this area. Is there no way to enable a certificate or other mechanism so that at least you were sure it was a known user you did not epect to be a security risk? or conversly a way to detect action that was regarded as illegal? As I say only thoughts not technical solutions.

Regards,

Lance

Edited April 2, 2006 by Guest

[Martin Brändle]

Use XSLT server side.

[lance123]

Yes, I see, that makes sense! Can this maintain the integrity of the http request component and not cause a whole page refresh? It sounds like this is a very good frame work. Do you use this model Martin?

I have learned the hard way to do research first and avoid running into the limitations of a process you think will add functionality to what you are currently doing only to find it fall short.

One of my goals is to get closer to what I would call a 'web based distributed business application' that is used within a browser. But of course without the need for major development time.

Thanks very much once again for your input!

[andygaunt]

Martin,

This is interesting indeed.

We are using AJAX to pull data from our db and display it to the pages.

The Ajax object is set to call a specific PHP page. The only time I reference a username/password is in my standard FX.PHP query.

I do NOT have the guest account active on my database.

Does this still make your comments true?

[Martin Brändle]

Andy,

of course then not, because you hide the ID/PW server side in the PHP. It's the same as with my suggestion to use XSLT.

The only thing one has still to be aware of is URL spoofing and code injection.

[Zero Tolerence]

For those FM users who use Lasso, Lasso 8.5 will be releasing LJAX, to make Lasso + AJAX easier, (Its possible now, but a bit of a headache.)

For those who want to learn AJAX, you need to have a fairly good understanding of Javascript and CSS. This makes things go so much faster.