Sessions

Comet and Highly Interactive Websites

As the web gets more social, things change faster. As we get more Ajax, people stay on pages longer. Clearly there is a growing need for a way to automatically update web pages as they are being viewed. This presentation digs into the techniques behind Comet, the Bayeux protocol, and several open source Ajax libraries.

This talk looks at why Comet is applicable to a growing set of websites, why it is hard to implement from scratch and the available solutions to make using it on any website easy.

The presentations will talk through several examples and use-cases.

Presented by Joe Walker on Day Two

Faster than Light JavaScript

What will JIT (just-in-time) compilation mean for JavaScript performance? See live demos and hear release plans for a Firefox-ready upgraded JavaScript engine, code-named 'TraceMonkey' based on the SpiderMonkey interpreter and the Tamarin-Tracing VM. Learn about the new JavaScript 2 (ECMAScript Edition 4) features being implemented in Mozilla's engines. See advanced canvas-based rendering demos that take advantage of the new speed and features.

Presented by Brendan Eich on Day One

OpenSocial and the Technologies that Power it

An exploration in to how OpenSocial and gadgets, and the technologies behind them, such as JSON and OAuth, can be exploited. Full outline coming soon.

Presented by Michael Mahemoff on Day One

Scripting Enabled

The relationship of JavaScript and accessibility has never been a good one. A lot of myths circulating around the use and capabilities of assistive technology branded JavaScript as a bad technology and Ajax as a total faux pas. This is changing as a lot of companies now open their systems to developers with APIs that are Ajax and JavaScript driven. This session will explain how some of these can be used to make data available to users with disabilities that were blocked out before. Accessibility is first and foremost about removing barriers for users, regardless of ability. Using JavaScript and Ajax to work around accessibility issues of rich media applications is one way of doing that. It is like creating mash-ups to test out some APIs - only that the benefit is much higher than just proving a point.

Presented by Christian Heilmann on Day One

Taming The Beast: Managing Complexity In Ajax Applications

Web applications are often complex beasts but when you introduce Ajax into the mix things can get really out of control. This session will help you unravel the wires of your application and reveal techniques and tools to keep your Ajax heavy applications simple, maintainable and robust. It will cover managing the state between client and server, ways of writing maintainable JavaScript, performance considerations, common client/server interaction patterns and taking advantage of server and client-side frameworks.

You will come away with a set of best practices for developing Ajax applications but also knowing when to break the rules.

Presented by Dan Webb on Day Two

Updating the Web with Gears

Gears started out with three components: A Database API to expose a full SQLite engine for storage, LocalServer to proxy content when offline, and a WorkerPool API for thread-like behaviour in JavaScript. All of these components enable more than offline, they are tools in your toolbox for more responsive user experiences on the Open Web.

Since then, we have released new versions that upgrade the components, and add news one such as a Desktop API. We have other great things in the works such as APIs for: Notifications, Audio, FileSystem, ResumableHTTP, and much more.

See how they all maps into HTML 5, and let's see where we can take the Web from here.

Presented by Dion Almaer on Day One

Wireframing Ajax Interactions

Modern, cutting-edge web sites and applications have exposed a demand for richer, more nuanced forms of interaction, posing new challenges for today's information architect. We will examine how wireframing - one of our most readily used tools - is evolving to meet these demands. The creation of modern web applications involves designing intricate patterns, such as state-change and ajax-like behaviour. These designs need to be documented and tested quickly and efficiently. Using real-world examples, we will show how wireframes in the form of non-functional HTML prototypes can be the ideal solution to both documentation and design. We'll demonstrate how frameworks such as JQuery can be your friends in prototype creation, and how best to put together your own library of design patterns. We'll explain how interactive prototypes are ideal for use in agile, iterative approaches to web development, as well as with more traditional workflows, and ultimately ensure prototypes give maximum return to both you and your client. Wireframing and prototyping have long been the lynchpin of user experience design. This talk will demonstrate why, with a little evolution, this is still the case.

Presented by Richard Rutter on Day One

Discussion Panel

@media Ajax speakers will discuss a series of questions relating to the current hot issues in the worlds of JavaScript and Ajax.

Panellists Dean Edwards plus others TBC on the day. Taking place on Day Two