AJAX alliance recognizes mashups

InfoWorld - The OpenAjax Alliance, formed to boost interoperability in the Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) realm, has put forth an aggressive road map that recognizes the growing trend toward mashups.

Speaking at the AJAXWorld conference in Santa Clara, Calif., on Monday, Jon Ferraiolo, OpenAjax operations manager and an IBM Web architect, detailed the upcoming release of the OpenAjax Hub 1.0 and the follow-up 1.1 release. Ferraiolo also noted other projects, including the OpenAjax Registry and IDE accommodations for AJAX.

With the hub, the alliance aims to iron out interoperability issues between AJAX tool kits.

"Sometimes, they actually prevent each other from working. They step on each other," Ferraiolo said.

Developers can use the hub to integrate multiple tool kits within the same Web page while tool kit developers can use it to allow tool kits to talk to other tool kits. While the 1.0 hub is useful in mashup scenarios where all components come from a trusted source, Version 1.1 adds a security layer for untrusted components to protect from any component that might be malicious.

The 1.0 version of the hub, to include AJAX library registration and a publish-and-subscribe engine, is due by the end of this year. Version 1.1 is planned for approval next year, although a full implementation is slated to be ready by the end of 2007.

"One of the key features [in Version 1.1] is secure mashups," said Ferraiolo. "It's very much a security-focused enhancement providing a secure mashup framework," he said.

IBM Smash, short for Secure Mashups, is being included in Version 1.1. It provides for secure handling of third-party mashup components.

Also in the security arena, the alliance has formed an AJAX Security Task Force.

Version 1.1 is also slated to include publishing and subscribing across frames as well as publish-and-subscribe between clients and servers. Also featured is support for the Comet programming technique to push data from the server to client. Server push is desirable particularly in mashups and portals, according to the alliance.

The hub was called "absolutely essential" by attendee and author Dave Mosby. "It provides mechanisms for us to bridge between different components so that they can begin to talk to each other," Mosby said.

In other developments at the alliance, the planned OpenAjax Registry will provide an AJAX tool kit and JavaScript global object registration authority to prevent JavaScript object collision within complex AJAX applications. The registry is to be managed by the OpenAjax Interoperability Working Group. Population of the registry begins this fall.

OpenAjax is holding an event this week called OpenAjax InteropFest, in which companies like Microsoft Corp. are testing their AJAX tool kits for conformance with OpenAjax. The Microsoft AJAX Library has passed the conformance test, according to Microsoft.