From jferrai at us.ibm.com Mon Jan 7 17:07:05 2008 From: jferrai at us.ibm.com (Jon Ferraiolo) Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2008 17:07:05 -0800 Subject: [OpenAjax] Hub 1.0 approved and other OpenAjax news Message-ID: Happy New Year! This email provides a quick update on some recent activities at OpenAjax Alliance. --- OPENAJAX HUB 1.0 APPROVED --- I am proud to announce that the OpenAjax Hub 1.0 Specification [1] has been approved by the Interoperability Working Group, the members, and the OpenAjax Alliance Steering Committee. This represents the first approved Specification for OpenAjax Alliance per the terms of the OpenAjax Alliance Members Agreement. [2] and is therefore an important milestone for the alliance. We have been working on Hub 1.0 for about 18 months, developing the spec [1], developing an open source reference implementation [3] and an open source test suite [3], and have verified our work with two major interoperability events, [4] and [5]. In the second interoperability event, the Hub was used to exchange messages among 19 different Ajax toolkits, including most of the toolkits with the highest market share. OpenAjax Hub provides standard JavaScript that, when included with an Ajax-powered Web application, promotes the ability for multiple Ajax toolkits to work together on the same page. The central feature of the OpenAjax Hub is its publish/subscribe event manager (the ?pub/sub manager?), which enables loose assembly and integration of Ajax components. With the pub/sub manager, one Ajax component can publish (i.e., broadcast) an event to which other Ajax components can subscribe, thereby allowing these components to communicate with each other through the Hub, which acts as an intermediary message bus. The umbrella use case for the OpenAjax Hub is the set of scenarios in which an Ajax developer needs to deploy a single application that uses multiple Ajax libraries simultaneously. Here are some links: [1] Final approved specification: http://www.openajax.org/member/wiki/OpenAjax_Hub_Specification_v10 [2] Members Agreement: http://www.openajax.org/process/OpenAjax%20Members%20Agreement%20Final%2020060816.pdf [3] Open source reference implementation and test suite: http://sourceforge.net/projects/openajaxallianc [4] First InteropFest: http://www.openajax.org/member/wiki/InteropFest_2007_March [5] Second InteropFest: http://www.openajax.org/member/wiki/InteropFest_1.0 The next phase is OpenAjax Hub 1.1, which will add secure mashup support and client-server communications. We expect an initial draft specifications and open source to appear in the next few weeks. --- FIRST DRAFT SPEC FOR "OPENAJAX METADATA" --- At the very end of 2007, the IDE Working Group published a first draft specification for "OpenAjax Metadata" [6]. OpenAjax Metadata represents a set of industry-standard metadata defined by the OpenAjax Alliance that enhances interoperability across Ajax toolkits and Ajax products. With version 1.0, OpenAjax Alliance will define metadata for the following: * Ajax widgets - OpenAjax Metadata 1.0 defines metadata for two definitions of the term "widget": --- UI controls found in Ajax libraries --- Mashup components (aka "widgets" and "gadgets") * Ajax APIs - the runtime JavaScript APIs (e.g., classes and methods) that are available for an Ajax library. * Ajax libraries - a handful of metadata fields for Ajax runtime libraries, much of which aligns with entries in the OpenAjax Registry. Ajax toolkits would create this metadata. Ajax IDEs and mashup frameworks would load and use this metadata within the user interfaces. Note that so far we only have an early working draft and there will be many changes going forward. As it develops this specification, the IDE WG is coordinating with the Gadgets TF on mashup-related issues. Here is the link to the working draft: [6] Metadata draft spec: http://www.openajax.org/member/wiki/OpenAjax_Metadata_Specification --- OPENAJAX REGISTRY --- The Interoperability Working Group has made considerable progress on defining the format, process and rules for the OpenAjax Registry [7] and has started to evaluate registry entries for some of the more straightforward Ajax toolkits. The OpenAjax Registry (the "Registry") is a centralized, industry-wide Ajax toolkit and JavaScript global object registration authority managed by the Interoperability Working Group at OpenAjax Alliance. The Registry maintains industry-wide lists of Ajax runtime libraries, the JavaScript globals used by those libraries, and extensions that those libraries make to the JavaScript runtime environment. The Registry defines which JavaScript global objects are "approved" and which are "acknowledged", plus identifies global object usage that the alliance feels must be "rejected". The Registry helps prevent JavaScript object collisions, and thereby enhances interoperability within the industry. The next step is to review other Ajax toolkits and engage in dialog with the developers behind those toolkits. [7] OpenAjax Registry: http://www.openajax.org/member/wiki/OpenAjax_Registry --- RUNTIME ADVOCACY TASK FORCE --- At our Members Meeting in September 2007, we discussed the challenges for future Ajax growth and adoption, in particular, issues directly related to the various Ajax runtime environments. For example, browsers allow only two connections per domain, and browsers do not provide a good infrastructure for secure mashups (hence all the hack we are doing with SMash etc...). Similar topics have come up many times in different working groups and task forces. Therefore, we launched the Runtime Advocacy Task Force, which will collect the key issues together from not only the 100 or so OpenAjax Alliance members, but also key members from the community who are not members (at least yet!), and then communicate those results to the browser vendors as well as the outside community in large. This will help educate the community in large, help browser vendors better plan for their product roadmap, and help OpenAjax members better use Ajax. In the end, creating a better Ajax eco-system. Coach Wei of Nexaweb is chairing this activity. After initial discussion, we now have a general plan for how to proceed and are nearly done with administrative setup activities. We expect to start meetings and discussions in the second half of January. We encourage members (and non-members) to contribute to the discussion. If you want to participate, either subscribe yourself to runtime at openajax.org or send me an email. Thanks. Jon Ferraiolo -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://openajax.org/pipermail/public/attachments/20080107/23246522/attachment.html From ricjohnsoniii at gmail.com Thu Jan 31 17:33:42 2008 From: ricjohnsoniii at gmail.com (Ric Johnson) Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:33:42 -0500 Subject: [OpenAjax] Call for change for OpenAjax Message-ID: Dear sirs, I have posted the following article on my public blog: http://openajax.com/blog/ - please respond there. I can not fully express my frustration with the progress of the OpenAjax Alliance. I transfered the OpenDomain OpenAjax.Org to the Alliance back in 2006. I have asked Jon Ferraiolo to add link to OpenDomain.Org and I have received NO communication on the progress of this simple task. When we gave the domain ecmascript.org to Brendan Eich, he added a link within a day. The longest time anyone took was one month when we donated xmpp.org to Jabber eight years ago. Let me explain about OpenDomain: we are not for profit. We do not have advertisements. We are not interested in link spam. I like to think of it as Open Source for Domains: I work hard to buy domains from squatters so I can contribute to the Open Web. Check the archives: We have never sold a domain, published spam, played dumb SEO tricks, or anything. And yet even when I spent tens of thousands of dollars to acquire domains for Open groups, I do not get even a thank-you. After a scouring the OpenAjax wiki, I finally found that the new web site proposal may have a link to OpenDomain. For that, I am grateful . However, that still does not explain why it has taken so long and especially why no one has ever communicated with me. However, the link to OpenDomain is a small thing (except to me, of course.) Want to know what the REAL problem is? No one CARES. For a concrete example, Go to the best job search site on the web and look for OpenAjax: http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=openajax - not ONE job labeled 'OpenAjax'. Does ANYONE on the Alliance marketing committee understand branding? A cute little logo and some fake press releases just are not cutting it. When I went to the Ajax Experience, most developers I talked to did not even KNOW what 'OpenAjax' was. I am NOT saying that Jon has done a bad job. I can see that he has worked hard to facilitate agreements between significant delegates with opposing needs. I also appreciate the time from all members to further the art of Ajax. The problem is that it is not really open to developers and is too SLOW. Ajax is supposed to be the 'hot' technology and we are still trying to agree on the hub? Look at what happened with the W3C: vendors became frustrated with time to market and developed their own separate solutions and now all web developers suffer to target multiple implementations. I am calling for a CHANGE of the OpenAjax Alliance: You MUST improve your communications to non-members. You MUST follow through with your commitments. You MUST form a real organization with targeted goals. You MUST ask the member companies to donate the resources of some full time developers. I recently received a sizable offer to sell OpenAjax.Com, but I was afraid the buyer would use it to display p0rn. I am willing to donate for FREE the use of to create a portal for developers, to promote the use of OpenAjax. Is ANYONE interested? Thank you, Ric Johnson From Ric at OpenAjax.Com Thu Jan 31 16:36:34 2008 From: Ric at OpenAjax.Com (Ric Johnson) Date: Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:36:34 +0000 Subject: [OpenAjax] OpenSource Domain Message-ID: Dear sirs, I have posted the following article on my public blog: http://openajax.com/blog/ - please respond there. I can not fully express my frustration with the progress of the OpenAjax Alliance. I transfered the OpenDomain OpenAjax.Org to the Alliance back in 2006. I have asked Jon Ferraiolo to add link to OpenDomain.Org and I have received NO communication on the progress of this simple task. When we gave the domain ecmascript.org to Brendan Eich, he added a link within a day. The longest time anyone took was one month when we donated xmpp.org to Jabber eight years ago. Let me explain about OpenDomain: we are not for profit. We do not have advertisements. We are not interested in link spam. I like to think of it as Open Source for Domains: I work hard to buy domains from squatters so I can contribute to the Open Web. Check the archives: We have never sold a domain, published spam, played dumb SEO tricks, or anything. And yet even when I spent tens of thousands of dollars to acquire domains for Open groups, I do not get even a thank-you. After a scouring the OpenAjax wiki, I finally found that the new web site proposal may have a link to OpenDomain. For that, I am grateful . However, that still does not explain why it has taken so long and especially why no one has ever communicated with me. However, the link to OpenDomain is a small thing (except to me, of course.) Want to know what the REAL problem is? No one CARES. For a concrete example, Go to the best job search site on the web and look for OpenAjax: http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=openajax - not ONE job labeled ?OpenAjax?. Does ANYONE on the Alliance marketing committee understand branding? A cute little logo and some fake press releases just are not cutting it. When I went to the Ajax Experience, most developers I talked to did not even KNOW what ?OpenAjax? was. I am NOT saying that Jon has done a bad job. I can see that he has worked hard to facilitate agreements between significant delegates with opposing needs. I also appreciate the time from all members to further the art of Ajax. The problem is that it is not really open to developers and is too SLOW. Ajax is supposed to be the ?hot? technology and we are still trying to agree on the hub? Look at what happened with the W3C: vendors became frustrated with time to market and developed their own separate solutions and now all web developers suffer to target multiple implementations. I am calling for a CHANGE of the OpenAjax Alliance: You MUST improve your communications to non-members. You MUST follow through with your commitments. You MUST form a real organization with targeted goals. You MUST ask the member companies to donate the resources of some full time developers. I recently received a sizable offer to sell OpenAjax.Com, but I was afraid the buyer would use it to display p0rn. I am willing to donate for FREE the use of to create a portal for developers, to promote the use of OpenAjax. Is ANYONE interested? Thank you, Ric Johnson From jferrai at us.ibm.com Thu Jan 31 20:12:07 2008 From: jferrai at us.ibm.com (Jon Ferraiolo) Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:12:07 -0800 Subject: [OpenAjax] OpenSource Domain In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Hi Ric, Thanks for the feedback. I am very sorry that you are frustrated, especially given how you donated the domain "openajax.org" to OpenAjax Alliance last year. Our plan has been to include an attribution to OpenDomain once we completed the next update to the layout of our web site. Unfortunately, we have been working on many other things that we felt were important to the community, and spending time of the web site kept getting pushed backward. I apologize for the delays. As you say below, we have been working on the web site update (not just after your email was sent), and that update includes an attribution to OpenDomain. Just so everyone else knows what you and I already know, when we launched OpenAjax Alliance, "openajax.org" had been snatched up and was unavailable. We therefore began OpenAjax Alliance by using the domain "openajaxalliance.org". However, once OpenDomain generously donated openajax.org to us, we were able to switch to the friendlier and shorter domain name, which benefits us and the community. OpenDomain distributed a press release in which I was quoted where I expressed gratitude for your donation. In terms of what is happening with OpenAjax Alliance, I am actually happy and proud of the great progress we have made in a short amount of time. In the 19 months since our kick-off meeting in May 2006, we have accomplished quite a bit. We set up an organization and found a way to get 100+ members to agree to a royalty-free IPR policy. We have shipped our first standard (OpenAjax Hub 1.0), along with an open source reference implementation and test suite. We are now working on cutting edge secure mashup technologies with our coordinated efforts around OpenAjax Hub 1.1, OpenAjax Metadata, open source transcoders for popular gadget formats such as Google Gadgets, and an open source mashup framework that shows the community how to use all of these technologies together. We will be promoting these effort considerably in the coming months and expect adoption by some major industry software products. Our OpenAjax Metadata effort addresses two important workflows in the Ajax world. It defines industry standard XML metadata for mashup components (aka gadgets) and defines industry standard XML metadata for the widgets and JavaScript APIs within Ajax toolkits so that IDEs can deliver great user experiences to developers. Our IDE committee represents the combined efforts of representatives from two Eclipse projects (Aptana and ATF), a Netbeans project (jMaki), Adobe Dreamweaver, Microsoft Visual Studio, TIBCO, and Zend, which is a fantastic assembly of major players in the Ajax tooling world. Our Security Task Force has assembled industry experts on Ajax and mashup security issues and produced an excellent white paper that informs the community about key security issues and how to address them. Our Mobile Task Force has assembled leaders from the mobile industry and is about to launch major new work around a critical industry need for Ajax applications to access device-resident services such as messaging and location in a secure manner. This is just a partial list of our accomplishments and activities that are underway, and there are a handful of new activities that are in various stages of launch. It is clear that we have succeeded in making the *industry* know that OpenAjax Alliance is a great place for pursuing industry-wide Ajax interoperability initiatives. But you are right, and we have had similar discussions in the Marketing Working Group, that we could do better at getting the OpenAjax message out to the people who use Ajax products. Overall, I believe we have quite a success story given that we are a organization that collects no fees and where everything is done by volunteer contributions from the member organizations. Best regards, Jon Ferraiolo -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://openajax.org/pipermail/public/attachments/20080131/56c9c4c9/attachment.html From ricjohnsoniii at gmail.com Sun Feb 24 12:26:11 2008 From: ricjohnsoniii at gmail.com (Ric Johnson) Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:26:11 -0500 Subject: [OpenAjax] OpenSource Domain Message-ID: Thank you for updating the OpenAjax.Org website with attribution to Open domain. It is nice to see that our donation was appreciated. I also like the new layout, with the default landing page that provides more usability. However, I think one of the most important aspects of OpenAjax Alliance is now buried: it's members. May I suggest a link from the front page within context? Please make sure any old pages have a proper redirect for the spiders and bookmarks. You may not really worry about search engine optimization, but if someone is looking for OpenAjax, it behooves us they find the proper site. I am glad I did not give into temptation and sell OpenAjax.com, as it seems the interested parties bought OpenAjax.Net instead. This domain has had a top search ranking for more than a year, with nothing more than linkspam to earn some easy advertising money. One of the biggest issues we at OpenDomain have with search engines is the inability to request a review of a domain. I would like to make a personal request to the OpenAjax Alliance member companies that are empowered for search results to please blacklist OpenAjax.Net. There is nothing related to OpenAjax on this domain, and they have put up unfiltered adult material with no warnings or RSAC registration. Thank you, Ric Johnson President, OpenDomain.Org From jferrai at us.ibm.com Wed Feb 27 13:47:57 2008 From: jferrai at us.ibm.com (Jon Ferraiolo) Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2008 13:47:57 -0800 Subject: [OpenAjax] Recent news at OpenAjax Alliance Message-ID: News from OpenAjax Alliance (27 Feb 2008) Face-to-face meeting on March 21 in NYC The members of OpenAjax Alliance will hold a face-to-face meeting on Friday, March 21, 2008, at IBM's offices at 590 Madison in NYC. This is the Friday immediately after AJAXWorld Conference and Expo. At this point, we are planning to do deep discussion on a small number of key topics: * Runtime Task Force - A town hall-like discussion about the proposed process and existing list of features that the Ajax community is asking the browsers to support in future browsers. We will allow non-members to participate in this session. The goal is to take advantage of multiple people in the same room to compare notes and opinions. This discussion is likely to take 2-4 hours. * OpenAjax Hub 1.1 and OpenAjax Metadata - The alliance is working on coordinated efforts in the area of "secure mashups", where Hub 1.1 provides the runtime framework for mashup containers and OpenAjax Metadata provides gadget standards for mashup components. Note that OpenAjax Metadata serves a much broader purpose. Beyond defining gadget standards, it also defines metadata standards for Ajax libraries to allow integration of arbitrary Ajax libraries into arbitrary Ajax developer tools (IDEs). This discussion will review the technology within these two initiatives with the goals of informing the members and collecting feedback. This is likely to take roughly 2 hours. * OpenAjax Conformance - We have agreed on a general approach in previous discussion, but there are some details that need to be discussed and finalized. This is likely to take about 1 hour. * Main page: http://www.openajax.org/member/wiki/2008_March_Members_Meeting * Registration: http://www.openajax.org/member/wiki/2008_March_Members_Meeting_Registration * Agenda: http://www.openajax.org/member/wiki/2008_March_Members_Meeting_Agenda Web site update The OpenAjax Alliance site (http://www.openajax.org) has received a minor facelift. The menu has been moved from the left side to the top, with dropdown menus. By doing this, the web site now provides more visibility into our current activities and more convenience for navigating around our site. Also, the front page now highlights recent news. One of the side effects from the Web site update is that there is now a mobile version for our Web site. The back-end logic generates one template for desktop browsers (i.e., IE, Firefox and Safari other than the iPhone) and a different template for all other browsers, which are assumed to be mobile devices. The result is an experience that is faster and friendlier for mobile devices. Opera on all devices is supported via the mobile template, mainly because of my discovery midway through development that the toolbar widget that I was using did not work on Opera. One small feature in the Web site update is that we have a page that discusses the donation of our primary URL (i.e., openajax.org) that was made by OpenDomain. Status reports on various committees Here are some quick summaries about some of the initiatives happening at the alliance now: Interoperability Working Group: * The OpenAjax Registry is almost ready to send to the membership with a call-to-action for review and feedback. After some time for the member to review, then publicize to the community for review and feedback. Then heavy recruiting with the Ajax library developers. * The OpenAjax Hub 1.1 now has a first draft specification, an initial open source implementation, and various other related open source utilities produced by the Gadgets TF (see below). The Interoperability Working Group will now review this work, decide on necessary fixes, and then complete the spec, complete the open source, produce a test suite, conduct interoperability events, etc., as necessary to take this effort to the finish line. IDE Working Group The IDE Working Group and Gadgets Task Force are collaborating on a unified specification, which at this point has the name OpenAjax Metadata Specification. This specification defines standard metadata to allow for two primary integration scenarios. The first scenario is the IDE scenario, where the spec defines industry standard metadata for Ajax libraries that allows integration of arbitrary Ajax libraries into arbitrary Ajax (JavaScript) developer tools. Due to the realization that Ajax libraries often have their own formats for documenting their APIs and widgets, such as JSDoc, the spec emphasizes compatibility with JSDoc and supports a workflow where the native documentation (e.g., JSDoc) is transcoded into the OpenAjax Metadata format before loading into the IDE. The second scenario is the mashup scenario, where the widget metadata can be applied to the various gadgets that can be plugged into a mashup. There is significant technical overlap between the UI controls found in some Ajax libraries and the mashup gadgets, and in fact our current open source mini-mashup application shows examples of using UI controls from some leading Ajax toolkits as gadgets within a mashup. Gadgets Task Force Beyond its collaboration efforts with the IDE WG, the Gadgets Task Force is also developing open source in support of OpenAjax Hub 1.1 and OpenAjax Metadata. The Gadgets TF is developing some gadget transcoders for popular widget and gadget formats, such as Google Gadgets. The TF is also working on a mini-mashup application that uses Hub 1.1 to integrate gadgets from various sources, such as Google Gadgets, Apple Dashboard, and popular Ajax toolkits such as Dojo. YUI, and Ext. Runtime Task Force Most of the preparatory work has been completed in our attempts to bring the Ajax toolkit industry together to produce a unified and prioritized list of feature requests for future browsers. We have produced a second wiki (http://www.openajax.org/runtime/wiki) and populated that wiki with an initial set of feature requests. We begun interviewing some of the leaders within the Ajax community to get feedback and suggestions. As mentioned above, we will have a town hall about this initiative at our face-to-face on March 21. Mobile Task Force The Mobile Task Force is finishing up a white paper on Mobile Ajax. There has much discussion recently about moving forward on industry standards around Mobile Device APIs in the light of an adhoc meeting hosted by Vodafone in Barcelona at Mobile Web Congress recently. At today's Mobile TF phone call, we agreed to pursue an intense two-month exploratory phase, ending April 30, around Mobile Device APIs where we outline key use cases and key requirements, and attempt to characterize the security vulnerabilities and where in the architecture we need a security management facility to address those vulnerabilities. There is a strawman proposal for how to proceed after April 30 where OpenAjax Alliance pursues an open source initiative to develop a shim layer of JavaScript APIs to access mobile device services, and then various JavaScript adapter providers plug into the shim layer to map the OpenAjax APIs to native services. For example, one provider might map the shim layer to a JavaScript library that attaches to J2ME's device APIs, available via MSA. Another provider might map the shim layer to Windows Mobile, another to Google Gears mobile services, etc. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://openajax.org/pipermail/public/attachments/20080227/54cc71b9/attachment.html From jferrai at us.ibm.com Tue Mar 25 16:03:55 2008 From: jferrai at us.ibm.com (Jon Ferraiolo) Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:03:55 -0700 Subject: [OpenAjax] March 21, 2008 face-to-face meeting summary Message-ID: The following is an executive summary for what happened at our face-to-face meeting last Friday. (URL: http://www.openajax.org/blogs/?page_id=51) March 21, 2008 face-to-face meeting summary The following is an executive summary about what happened at the OpenAjax Alliance members meetings that took place in NYC on March 21, 2008. Here is a link to the complete minutes: * http://www.openajax.org/member/wiki/2008_March_Members_Meeting_Minutes Agenda Here is a link to the original agenda: * http://www.openajax.org/member/wiki/2008_March_Members_Meeting_Agenda For the most part, the meeting stuck to the agenda. Attendees Roughly 18 representatives from members attended in person, and another 10-15 or so contributed on the phone or via IRC. Doug Crockford was an invited guest during the discussions of the Runtime Task Force and the IE8 review. About 5 people from the IE team joined for an hour-long discussion on some of IE8?s new features. Welcome and introduction Attendees introduced themselves. Jon Ferraiolo presented a slide deck ( http://www.openajax.org/member/wiki/Image:OpenAjax-F2F-20080321-Intro.pdf) that gave an overview of current activities at the alliance. The deck includes a summary of current Mobile Ajax activities because no mobile activities were not on the face-to-face agenda. Runtime Advocacy Task Force Coach Wei led discussion of the Runtime Advocacy Task Force: * http://www.openajax.org/runtime/wiki which is developing a unified list of feature requests from the Ajax community to the browser companies. At the time of the meeting, there were 29 items in the feature list. We discussed how we might adjust the process, reviewed all 29 items in the list, and agreed on a plan and schedule for the coming months. Here is a summary of key resolutions: Immediate industry announcements: We decided to send an announcement to Ajaxian immediately to call for the community to help with the feature list. We will also work with toolkit vendors and other members of the community to blog about this effort. Finish version 1 within a few months: We concluded that there is high value in timely completion of our first set of feature requests because browser vendors will be planning their next major release in the coming months. Two review passes: We decided to allow the contributors to have two passes at reviewing and improving the feature list. In the first stage, perhaps in April, we would call on the industry to vote for their top (5 or 10) features. (Also, as always, we would encourage the industry to contribute to improving the feature pages on the wiki by adding insights and comments.) In the second stage, perhaps in June (after a cleanup and organization period in May), we would call on the industry to provide priority rankings for all of the features in the list. IE8 Review As the members of the alliance walked through the Runtime Task Force feature list, a good number of feature requests have been addressed within the recent beta announcement for IE8. The alliance discussed these IE enhancements in the early parts of the face-to-face meeting, and then during the lunch hour, about 5 people from the IE team joined the phone call for a high bandwidth dialog about the features in IE8 that apply to the Ajax community. Among the highlights: General: The Ajax community (as represented by the attendees of this meeting) are happy with many of the features coming in IE8, such as Acid2 conformance, CSS 2.1 support, XHR improvements, DOM Core improvements, Selectors API support, page navigation improvements, performance improvements, and bug fixes. XDR: The attendees discussed Microsoft?s XDR proposal as an alternative to W3C Access Control, and the consensus (not unanimity) was that XDR was better because of security considerations and because of its simplicity. The attendees called on the other browser vendors to implement XDR support. postMessage: The attendees were highly positive about MS implementing the postMessage feature from HTML5. It helps address a key scalability issue with OpenAjax Hub 1.1 by allowing direct message passing rather than the slower fragment identifier method within the SMash provider. meta tag for versioning: The attendees felt that IE8?s meta tag approach to doing version-specific logic was a reasonable approach. OpenAjax Hub 1.1 and OpenAjax Metadata Most of the time spent on these two topics was in the form of status report slide decks: http://www.openajax.org/member/wiki/Image:2008_March_OpenAjax_Hub_1.1_and_Metadata_Overview.pdf http://www.openajax.org/member/wiki/Image:2008_March_Ide_wg_update.pdf http://www.openajax.org/member/wiki/Image:2008_March_OpenAjax_Hub_1.1_and_SMash.pdf http://www.openajax.org/member/wiki/Image:StewNickolas-AjaxWorld-Gadgets.pdf A key concept from Kevin Hakman?s talk on OpenAjax Metadata was the notion of ?intermediaries?. With these initiatives, OpenAjax Alliance isn?t trying to force the industry into instant adoption of our formats, but instead is working on intermediate formats to which existing formats can be transcoded. His term for ?EDI for IDEs?. We did discuss a couple of things: We need to talk about renaming Hub 1.1 to Hub 2.0 given how much is new with the new release We discussed having an interoperability event this summer that proves interoperability across multiple product categories, including Ajax toolkits (both JavaScript APIs and widgets), IDEs, mashup tools, and gadget systems (e.g., Google Gadgets and Apple Dashboard). The focus would be on transcoders, where you qualify as passing the interoperability test if you can either produce or consume those parts of the OpenAjax formats that are relevant to your type of product. OpenAjax Registry and OpenAjax Conformance Regarding OpenAjax Conformance, we agreed that: For some specifications, there would be the possibility of achieving either Full Conformance or Limited Conformance. Full Conformance indicates complete support for all applicable conformance requirements. Limited Conformance indicates support for a set of minimal conformance requirements. There will be different conformance requirements for different categories of products. If you have an Ajax library, you might state that the library supports OpenAjax Full Conformance v1 (libraries). The general mental model for Full Conformance is that Full Conformant products can interoperate safely and integrate in a straightforward manner in the same Web page with minimal effort. Limited Conformant product might require more study and effort. The OpenAjax conformance logo would only be available for Full Conformance. We will define new versions of OpenAjax Conformance (e.g., version 1, 2, 3, etc.) as we release new specifications. For example, version 2 might include Hub 1.1 and Registry, and then version 3 might add OpenAjax Metadata. As a result, products claim either Full Conformance or Limited Conformance against a particular version of OpenAjax Conformance. For the Registry, we decided to look at changing our syntax for identifying elements, attributes, and class names to use CSS selector syntax. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://openajax.org/pipermail/public/attachments/20080325/a5156165/attachment.html