Development Blog

We’re not wasting any time… following release of xajax 0.5 RC1… we’ve begun the planning for xajax 0.6. Of course, our main focus is to ensure that the xajax 0.5 stable release contains the cleanest, leanest and easiest ajax implementation possible. However, we are also laying the ground-work for the next period of innovation.

What can you do?

Get involved in the discussion(s) in the forum. Post your ideas, questions and concerns.

Get involved in spreading the word. Whether you blog, post or author articles, we’re asking for your help to spread the word about xajax; help to document the advanced features that make xajax unique with tutorials; or develop plugins to extend the capabilities available to new users.

Put your talent and experience to use. If you have experience with javascript and / or PHP and want to contribute your time and effort, contact us.

So, what are we planning?

For starters, we are going to take full advantage of PHP5 (even supporting STRICT mode). A good number of deprecated (unnecessary) functions will be eliminated providing better performance and a cleaner namespace. Existing code will be reviewed for ways to use new PHP functions (like json_encode and xmlreader) for better response times.

Stay tuned for more details!

The current revision of xajax 0.5 beta 4b has been out for some time now… and we have very few bugs reported. The development team is working on a couple updates and then we will release a xajax 0.5 release candidate.

Soon we hope to have the following items implemented and tested:

1) Ability to set common, post and get request header values, both globally and locally (at the time of the request)

2) Pass values and function parameters in a type consistent manner; both to and from the server. This will allow pesky values like NULL to be transferred properly (currently NULL causes problems or is converted to Zero, etc…)

3) A new comet plugin for streaming response commands from the server (a version of this *may* be included with the xajax full release, but it’s updates will be maintained separately)

4) Additional languages for status and debug messages

Please, remember to stop by the forum for details and discussion!

The last week and a half have brought some good changes to xajax! A security risk was identified in the forum and has since been overcome, prepare to download the latest (coming soon). In addition, some performance tweaks and a new ‘compile’ option has been added. Soon, you will be able to use a single xajax include file for the entire core (while still using your own plugins) to gain optimal performance.

Don’t forget to visit the forums for questions, comments and support.

I’ve been working on a bit of a restructuring of the HTML controls for xajax. I hope to be ready to push out another release within a couple weeks so that everyone can get comfortable with the new structure (NOTE: much better organized AND much more complete).

If you just can’t wait, get the latest from SVN and take a look. Currently, HTML 4.01 Transitional is very well supported. Soon, I plan on testing HTML 4.01 STRICT and XHTML 1.x

Minor issues have been discovered (and corrected in SVN revisions 414 and 415) with the format and content of the DOCTYPE (html control clsDocType in doctype.inc.php). If you are using the new HTML controls library released with xajax 0.5 beta 3 and wish to validate your pages, it is advised that you obtain an update from SVN; however, these changes will be made available for public download soon.

The development team has been working hard lately, preparing for the xajax 0.5 beta 3 release. This release represents weeks of updated documentation and months of development. You will see many bugs fixed and some exciting new features.

Look for wiki page updates and forum announcements that will detail the new features and design concepts that make beta 3 the best version to use in your projects.

Soon, we should have a full release version, so please, get it while it is hot and let us know how it is working for you!