NYCPHP Meetup

[inforequest]

I don't really have any objection to your suggestion, exept for the 
"example". It seems to me (and yes, I have been wrong once before), that 
trendy things like AJAX tend to get used when a wee bit more thought 
might have revealed better, more efficient solutons. case in point:

yes, a tedious set of lookups like your example of

Select Your Country>> Select Your State>>
Select Your City>> Select Your Zip>> Select Your Nearest Location

would require a large database of support and therefore does seem to obviate the need for a huge data preload by running dynamic lookups via AJAX. 

However, why do we even need that tedious set of lookups? Your a-priori knowledge isn't being utilized. If the user knows ZIP, why ask for CITY STATE COUNTRY? If it's a shipping app, the prior stage might have cued the user to be prepared to enter a shipping destination. What % of visitors ship to a zip code outside of their IP-geo location? It might be way-small. When you think about it, how much info is already encoded in the ZIP code anyway? Certainly region is represented in the first two numerals of ZIP... a state or two of preload maybe?

I agree there is a place for AJAX, but I don't agree that the majority 
of coders out there are thinking about the application of their code 
nearly as much as they are thinking about their own tech careers when 
they choose things like AJAX.

-=john andrews
http://www.seo-fun.com



Peter Sawczynec ps-at-pswebcode.com |nyphp dev/internal group use| wrote:

>/*
>START:Another AJAX Moment
>
>Of course, for most JS/DHTML menu systems one would populate JS arrays with
>PHP and then drive the menus from the local array(s). 
>
>On the other had if you are creating a volatile and extensive menu/dropdown
>system such as of the style: Select Your Country>> Select Your State>>
>Select Your City>> Select Your Zip>> Select Your Nearest Location -- then
>using AJAX is a perfectly viable solution. Yes, AJAX will show some latency,
>but it is much briefer than a whole page reload.
>
>For further reference, the team at MSFT is building an AJAX SDK shipping
>with Vista. 
>
>Even further aside, it is only a vague impression of mine, but it appeared
>to me that XML usage only really finally took off and started coming up into
>common programming decision making after MSFT started integrating XML into
>their product. 
>
>So... using AJAX techniques in a project is not about a belief system, but
>its about moving to provide immediacy to the end-user. 
>
>Ultimately, the objective is that consumers spend less time at the computer
>interfacing and more time benefiting from the result(s). 
>
>Warmest regards,
>
>Peter Sawczynec,
>Technology Director
>PSWebcode
>_Design & Interface
>_Ecommerce
>_Database Management
>ps at pswebcode.com
>718.796.1951
>www.pswebcode.com
>
>END:Another AJAX Moment 
>*/ 
>
>
>
>
>  
>