jMaki is an Ajax framework

Ajax framework

In web application development, an Ajax framework is a framework which leverages Ajax, a collection of technologies for building dynamic web pages on the client side...

 that provides a lightweight model for creating JavaScript

JavaScript

JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....

 centric Ajax

Ajax (programming)

Ajax is a group of interrelated web development methods used on the client-side to create asynchronous web applications...

-enabled web applications using Java

Java (programming language)

Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...

, PHP

PHP

PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...

, Ruby

Ruby (programming language)

Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language that combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. Ruby originated in Japan during the mid-1990s and was first developed and designed by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto...

, and Phobos

Project Phobos

-See also:* Sun Web Developer Pack* Glassfish Application Server* Sun Java System Web Server-External links:* * *...

.

jMaki is a lightweight client/server framework for creating JavaScript centric Web 2.0 applications using CSS layouts, widgets widget model, client services such as publish/subscribe events to tie widgets together, JavaScript action handlers, and a generic proxy to interact with external RESTful web services. While jMaki abstracts much of the JavaScript and CSS by providing defaults for widgets, the JavaScript widgets and CSS are made easily accessible so they may be customized by a designer or page developer. jMaki focuses on the aspects of delivering JavaScript to the client allowing the JavaScript to communicate to various server-technologies including PHP, Java (JSP/JSF), and Phobos in a server-technology neutral way.

jMaki Layouts

jMaki Layouts provide a standards based starting point for creating your web applications using HTML and CSS. The CSS is in plain view so it can be easily customized for your needs.

jMaki Client Runtime

The jMaki Client Runtime is the JavaScript responsible for bootstrapping all widgets and passing parameters provided by a server-side runtime to the widgets. Parameters are unique to each widget, and the JavaScript runtime makes sure that each widget instance gets the correct parameters that were passed from the server-side runtime. In cases where parameters are not provided the runtime uses default parameters that may then be customized for each widget.

jMaki Client Services

Services such convenient APIs for performing XMLHttpRequest

XMLHttpRequest

XMLHttpRequest is an API available in web browser scripting languages such as JavaScript. It is used to send HTTP or HTTPS requests directly to a web server and load the server response data directly back into the script. The data might be received from the server as XML text or as plain text...

and publish subscribe on the client are provided to all widgets as a means of communication.

• jMaki glue is built on top of publish/subscribe events and the publish/subscribe mechanism. It allows you to define application behavior and time widgets together widgets using JavaScript actions when a specific event is published to a topic.
• jMaki Timers allow JavaScript action handlers to be called or events to be published at a set interval.
• The jMaki Injector is a client service that allows you to bring in an external page into any given div element. The Injector transfers scripts and CSS to the global page content and allows widgets to be loaded much like an iframe without the usability issues.

jMaki Widget Model

The jMaki widget model provides a component model for reusable JavaScript components. The structure is based on a HTML, JavaScript and CSS. You can use this structure to create your own widgets or wrap widgets from any given toolkit. jMaki provides default wrappers and a server tie-in for many commonly-used Dojo, Yahoo UI, Prototype, and some native widgets. jMaki also defines a widget.json format which is a common way of describing which so that they are accessible by tools.

jMaki Server Runtime

The jMaki Server Runtime is responsible for tying the jMaki JavaScript Client Runtime to a server-side runtime such as Java, PHP, or the JavaScript-based Phobos runtime. The server runtime tracks and renders all script and CSS references based on library type being used making sure that the duplicate script and CSS links are not duplicated. The server-runtime also makes sure API keys (such as Google and Yahoo Map keys) are applied when necessary based on a configurable set of keys. The server runtime renders the HTML templates making and serializes data in JavaScript such that each widget instance is provided the proper data.

XmlHttpProxy

The XmlHttpProxy module provides a means for widgets to access JSON or XML to access RESTful XML-based services outside of the web application domain. Such services include RSS feeds, Yahoo services such as geocoding, Flickr image searches, and many more to come. The XmlHttpProxy allows widgets to access services in a uniform way by providing XSL-to-JSON transformations that can be easily customized.

For more details about jMaki please see the developer documentation at https://ajax.dev.java.net/developer.html