Framework Features

To meet the targets mentioned before, the web framework builds on the following concepts.

Total AJAX

Unification and simplification of the client-server communication

• Every request is an AJAX request
• Response payload is Javascript-code
• The Javascript functions are bundled in the client-side Javascript components
• Server-side complementary components (proxy components) are used to generate Javascript code for calling the corresponding Javascript components

Providing a context

Maintaining (quasi) stateful form instances, modelled with plain old objects

• HTML form component serves as a context holder
• Every "page" is represented by a derivation of the Form-component (form object)
• Page context or state is implemented with instance variables of the form object
• User actions cause an AJAX submit of the whole form, including state descriptor and form fields
• Event handlers are implemented as methods of the form component
• Event handlers can modify the form state (instance variables), change UI by calling proxy components and do any other actions
• Form object maintains its state between the actions on the form, until disposed

Standard view rendering

• Using respective HTML templating technologies to generate views
• Proxy components can be bound into templates via server-side tags or similar

Modelling flow control with objects

Form objects are just plain objects

• Navigation to another page as instantiation of a new form component
• Using parameterized constructors
• Keeping parent form as an instance variable for later use