Practical DWR 2 Projects (eBook)

Frank W. Zammetti is a web architect specialist for a leading worldwide financial company by day, and a PocketPC and open-source developer by night. He is the founder and chief software architect of Omnytex Technologies, a PocketPC development house.He has over 12 years of "professional" experience in the information technology field, and over 12 more of "amateur" experience. He began his nearly life-long love of computers at age 7, when he became one of four students chosen to take part in his school district's pilot computer program. A year later, he was the only participant left! The first computer Frank owned was a Timex Sinclair 1000 in 1982, on which he wrote a program to look up movie times for all of Long Island (and without the 16k expansion module!). After that, he moved on to a Commodore 64 and spent about 4 years doing nothing but assembly programming (games mostly). He finally got his first IBM-compatible PC in 1987, and began learning the finer points of programming (as they existed at that time!).Frank has primarily developed web-based applications for about 8 years. Before that, he developed Windows-based client/server applications in a variety of languages. Frank holds numerous certifications including SCJP, MCSD, CNA, i-Net+, A+, CIW, MCP, and numerous BrainBench certifications. He is a contributor to a number of open source projects, including DataVision, Struts, PocketFrog, and Jakarta Commons. In addition, Frank has started two projects: Java Web Parts and The Struts Web Services Enablement Project. He also was one of the founding members of a project that created the first fully functioning Commodore 64 emulator for PocketPC devices (PocketHobbit).Frank has authored various articles on topics that range from integrating DataVision into web apps, to using Ajax in Struts-based applications. He is working on a new application framework specifically geared to creating next-generation web applications.

Contents at a Glance 5
Contents 6
Foreword 11
About the Author 13
About the Technical Reviewer 14
About the Illustrator 15
Acknowledgments 16
Introduction 17
An Overview of This Book 18
Obtaining This Book’s Source Code 18
Obtaining Updates for This Book 19
Contacting the Author 19
Setting the Table 20
An Introduction to Ajax, RPC, and Modern RIAs 21
A Brief History of Web Development: The “ Classic” Model 21
What’s So Wrong with the Classic Web? 29
Enter Ajax 32
Why Is Ajax a Paradigm Shift? On the Road to RIAs 36
The Flip Side of the Coin 41
Let’s Get to the Good Stuff: Our First Ajax Code, the Manual Way 43
Cutting IN the Middle Man: Ajax Libraries to Ease Our Pain 51
Alternatives to Ajax 54
Hmm, Are We Forgetting Something? What Could It Be? Oh Yeah, DWR! 57
Summary 58
Getting to Know DWR 60
First Things First: Why DWR at All? 60
DWR: RPC on Steroids for the Web 62
DWR Architectural Overview 64
Getting Ready for the Fun: Your DWR Development Environment 66
A Simple Webapp to Get Us Started 69
Adding DWR to the Mix 78
The DWR Test/ Debug Page 82
Configuring DWR Part 1: web. xml 84
Configuring DWR Part 2: dwr. xml 87
Interacting with DWR on the Client 98
Interacting with DWR on the Server 105
DWR Configuration and Other Concepts: The engine. js File 107
A Quick Look at util. js, the DWR Utility Package 109
Summary 111
Advanced DWR 112
Locking the Doors: Security in DWR 112
When Perfection Is Elusive: Error Handling in DWR Applications 118
Help from Elsewhere: Accessing Other URLs 124
Turning the Tables: Reverse Ajax 126
Don’t Go It Alone: Integration with Frameworks and Libraries 134
Something Old, Something New: Annotations 139
Summary 142
The Projects 143
InstaMail: An Ajax-Based Webmail Client 144
Application Requirements and Goals 144
Dissecting InstaMail 145
Suggested Exercises 202
Summary 203
Share Your Knowledge: DWiki, the DWR- Based Wiki 204
Application Requirements and Goals 204
Dissecting DWiki 212
Suggested Exercises 272
Summary 273
Remotely Managing Your Files: DWR File Manager 274
Application Requirements and Goals 274
Dissecting Fileman 285
Suggested Exercises 341
Summary 341
Enter the Enterprise: A DWR- Based Report Portal 343
Application Requirements and Goals 343
Dissecting RePortal 355
Suggested Exercises 430
Summary 431
DWR for Fun and Profit ( a DWR Game!) 433
Application Requirements and Goals 433
Dissecting InMemoria 437
Suggested Exercises 470
Summary 470
Timekeeper: DWR Even Makes Project Management Fun! 471
Application Requirements and Goals 471
Dissecting Timekeeper 477
Suggested Exercises 534
Summary 535
Index 536