[Web4lib] AJAX on library websites?

[Mike Rylander]

On 12/17/05, Amy M Ostrom <amostrom at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Web4libbers:
>
> Sorry for multiple emails.  I am wondering if anyone else has been
> following AJAX (asynchronous javascript and xml) and is thinking about
> implementing it somehow into their library design?  The University of
> Wisconsin directory ( http://www.wisc.edu/directories/?name= ) is an
> example, and using it I thought this new combination of web tools could
> be a great benefit to libraries.  Any insight or examples would be
> wonderful!  Thank you.

Amy,

First, I think your name directory is a great use for AJAX.

I'm one of the OpenILS/Evergreen developers ( http://openils.org ). 
Our entire OPAC and staff client are built on a variant of AJAX which
uses JSON instead of XML to transfer the data.  We did this by
creating an Apache module that translates simple URL requests into
backend server requests.  However, we also have an XML version of this
gateway, and it could be used  for true AJAX support.

While I wouldn't suggest that anyone rewrite an existing OPAC this
way, or initial design makes it the best way for us.  One of the
features we've integrated into our OPAC that probably would be useful
as an addition to existing systems is our authority-based author and
series folders.  When a search is complete, the authors and series for
the current page of results are listed in a sidebar.  We then go back
to the database using AJAJ (asynchronous javascript and JSON, instead
of XML, in our case) to get the authorized forms of these entries.  We
use the same technique to generate see-froms and see-alsos for our
subject sidebar, though that is most likely covered by any existing
OPAC.

You can see a demonstration of this in action at
http://dev.gapines.org/ .  The feature works best if view in FireFox
due to bugs in IE's handling of concurrent XMLHTTPRequests. :)

>
> In peace,
>
> Amy M Ostrom
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>


--
Mike Rylander
mrylander at gmail.com
GPLS -- PINES Development
Database Developer
http://open-ils.org