Jaxer: JavaScript on the Server Side
So last night I got to play with Jaxer from Aptana for the first time. Here’s my initial thoughts…
Apache Module:
So right now it only works for Windows and Mac. I tried for about 90 minutes to compile and/or get it all working on my Ubuntu box without any success. I did however get everything ready to go for when they do release the Ubuntu and RHE versions soon.
Back to Front and Back Again:
As it stands there is no, and no plans to implement a, stateful DOM. How would you do it? Serialize the whole DOM and then send it to the backend? I suppose you could do that, but it’s probably left to those who absolutely need something like that, though you’d probably be hard pressed to really need this.
The DOM does exists on the server the first time the page is loaded since the DOM is created before it’s sent to the post-processor. In all reality it should be left to the client to modify the DOM, and the server-side to provide the data. Afterall, that’s what every other server-side language does, right?
I think the biggest hurdle here is detaching your mindset that since you’re using JavaScript you should be able to access everything you can from the client-side. This is further complicated by the fact that you include both server-side and client-side code in the same file. It might make more sense to separate the too, particularly in the examples, just to help those realize what’s really going on.
More Soon:
Hopefully this coming week/end I can get my hands dirty with some of the major server-side features. As it were I had to head to bed and was simply happy having a working example of how it works.
A JavaScript MVC
Imagine you’re out in the African Safari doing research for a philanthropic cause of sorts when suddenly you hear a rumble. You’re near some railroad tracks so you imagine it could be a train headed your way. It’s not a train, it’s too small, but it is something big. It’s moving fast and let’s out a deep bellowing sound as it roars by.
You’ve just borne witness to Rhino on Rails. Steve Yegge at Google has ported the Rails framework to JavaScript using Rhino on the JVM. Dion Almaer, of Ajaxian.com, recently interviewed Steve at Google about the project.
Personally I’ve never touched anything that ran on the JVM, not because I dislike it, I’ve simply have not had a need to go there.
It’s great to see JavaScript taking center stage, not as the quarky scripting language you use for your image rollover, but as a way to build a new kind of platform where you don’t need to know two languages to build a site.