A fast-moving Comet is about to impact the Internet. When it hits, it will
wipe away the architecture flaws we have lived with for the past 15 years and
allow a new World Wide Web to evolve.
This new Web will include applications that are instantly on and always on,
applications that are truly multi-user, and applications that go far beyond
today’s “click and wait” Web solutions.
Brace for Comet Impact
Comet (or Reverse AJAX) introduces a significant departure from the stale
“click-and-wait” interaction we traditionally associate with Web
applications, and resurrects push-style communications – the 1990s
technology that was long before its time.
Comet introduces a more scalable, agile, and broadly supported approach to
mixing push capabilities with the traditional REST-based communications model
of the Web, one that also addresses the limitations that made the initia... (more)
AJAX has forever altered user expectations regarding the experience delivered
by the Web. In today's world, users sit at the edge of their seat waiting to
see what scrumptious eye candy AJAX will serve them next. Some of the more
notable visual effects and desktop-like interactions include Prototype-esque
fades, Dojo style fisheyes, the near ubiquitous drag-and-drop, and, of
course, who can live without the entertainment provided by the assortment of
animated loading icons that now distract us while AJAX does its asynchronous
"thing." Yes, it would appear that AJAX can do it all ... (more)
AJAX, with its asynchronous updates, enabled a richer user experience on the
Web. It accomplished this primarily by obscuring the latency issues that
brought a "clunk-ish" feel to traditional Web applications. More recently,
Comet reintroduced HTTP-based "push" communications to enable Web
applications with real-time events through a medium, namely JavaScript and a
variety of transports (e.g., long-polling, forever frames, XHR Streaming,
etc.), that is far more accessible than the "push" technologies of the late
'90s, and which further lessens latency concerns felt by end users, ... (more)
In my previous article, "Enterprise Mashup Services: Real-World SOA or Web
2.0 Novelties?" (JDJ Vol. 11, Issue 12), I discussed how a Java-to-AJAX
library such as Direct Web Remoting (DWR) can bridge the gap between mashup
services implemented with JavaScript and business services written in Java,
allowing developers to blend corporate services with external services such
as Google Maps. The problem with this approach is that it relies on AJAX as
an integration point, which entails a fragile development platform as well as
the need to maintain browser-specific code due to idiosyn... (more)
AJAX has forever altered user expectations regarding the experience delivered
by the Web. In today’s world, users sit at the edge of their seat waiting
to see what scrumptious eye candy AJAX will serve them next. Some of the more
notable visual effects and desktop-like interactions include Prototype-esque
fades, Dojo style fisheyes, the near ubiquitous drag-and-drop, and, of
course, who can live without the entertainment provided by the assortment of
animated loading icons that now distract us while AJAX does its asynchronous
“thing.” Yes, it would appear that AJAX can do it a... (more)
Ric Smith is director, business and product strategy at Kaazing. provides Kaazing Corporation with a wealth of experience in product management and consulting for enterprise products and services. Prior to joining Kaazing, Ric was a principal product manager for Oracle's Fusion Middleware at Oracle's Headquarters in Redwood Shores, CA. In his role as a Principal Product Manager he was responsible for the evangelism and product direction of Oracle's AJAX and Java EE Web Tier offerings. Before joining the Fusion Middleware team, Ric worked for Oracle's consulting business as a principal consultant where he led development of mission-critical applications for prominent organizations within the defense/intelligence industry. In addition, Ric won consecutive awards for technical achievement for each year of his tenure as a consultant. Ric is a frequent speaker at international events and has written articles featured in leading industry publications such as Java Developer's Journal and AJAXWorld Magazine. He is also a representative to the OpenAjax Alliance and an honors graduate of the University of Arizona.
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