The Feature Pack for Web 2.0 is an optionally installable product
extension for IBM WebSphere Application Server Version 7.x that offers
targeted, incremental new features that can make your Web applications running
on WebSphere Application Server easier to use.
This feature pack extends Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) by connecting
external Web services, internal SOA services, and Java Platform, Enterprise
Edition (JEE) objects into highly-interactive Web application interfaces.
To reduce information technology (IT) costs and speed time to market, the
Feature Pack for Web 2.0 provides a supported, best-in-class Ajax development
toolkit for WebSphere Application Server.
Ajax is an open technique for creating rich user experiences in Web-based
applications that does not require additional browser plug-ins. Ajax interfaces
result in increased customer satisfaction and line of business productivity
by streamlining end-user interaction with Web-based applications.
Feature Pack for Web 2.0 highlights:
With Ajax, the interaction model for Web applications has become more robust,
like desktop applications, with continuous interaction and improved usability.
Some of the benefits of adding Ajax capabilities to your applications include:
- A more interactive, differentiated experience which can lead to longer
sessions and increased customer loyalty .
- Responsive, local actions which can result in fewer abandoned transactions,
higher completion rates, and higher end-user productivity .
Unlike other rich Web user interface approaches, Ajax applications leverage
standard browser features and do not require browser plug-ins.
The following new technologies in Ajax client run time exist:
- Dojo is an open source DHTML toolkit written in the JavaScript language
that enables you to easily build dynamic capabilities into Web pages.
- IBM extensions to the Dojo Toolkit enable you to tag and feed using Atom.
- SOAP extension is a Dojo Toolkit extension that makes it easy for an application
to connect to an existing SOAP-based service.
The following new technologies in Java libraries exist:
- Ajax proxy provided with this feature pack is a reverse proxy installed
near one or more servers.
- Web-remoting is a pattern that provides for JavaScript or a client-side
to directly invoke server-side logic.
- JSON4J library is an implementation of a set of JavaScript Object Notation
(JSON) handling classes for use with Java environments.
- The Web messaging service is a publish or subscribe implementation connecting
the browser to the WebSphere Application Server service integration bus (SIB)
for server-side event push to the browser.
The two Ajax samples packaged for ease-of-use in Eclipse 3.2.2 development
environment demonstrate the enhancements that Ajax adds to user experience.
Supported platforms:
- AIX
- HP-UX
- Linux
- Linux on pSeries
- Solaris
- Windows
Prerequisite Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) include one
of the following products: