What about Ajax for phpbb4... AjaxBB?

PauGNU · Post by **PauGNU** » Mon May 05, 2008 7:26 am

Hi!

I was wondering... what do you think about phpbb4 on Ajax?, of course it should be AjaxBB or something like that. I think that this is the natural evolution of phpbb, it has no sense to reload every time the website when we are browsing forums, and it seems that Ajax is the best solution, isn't it?.

Just wondering...

jaunty_mellifluous · Post by **jaunty_mellifluous** » Mon May 05, 2008 12:05 pm

Should be great for use. Might have something like that in a year or so?

drathbun · Post by **drathbun** » Mon May 05, 2008 12:58 pm

Ajax is over-hyped in my opinion. It seems like like any new technology that comes out; people want to use it to solve everything, create world peace, and feed the hungry. Not that there's anything wrong with world peace, it's just that Ajax isn't the tool.

It has a place but using it as the core architecture for the entire board is probably not appropriate.

jaunty_mellifluous · Post by **jaunty_mellifluous** » Mon May 05, 2008 7:06 pm

Yep, but if it could be used to allow the forum to automatically update without having refresh the page would be cool.

But then again, that will more than likely turn Boards into Chat rooms. It could even get a bit annoying to watch forum updating/changing all the time on some very high traffic forums.

god0fgod · Post by **god0fgod** » Mon May 05, 2008 11:00 pm

Ajax would be good for things like quick replying, logging in etc. It would not be as good for browsing forums.

Phil · Post by **Phil** » Mon May 05, 2008 11:01 pm

This would also create a tremendous amount of server load which, on a large board, is not a good thing. If every user had one page or more constantly checking to see if there was new data I'm sure this site would be brought to its knees very quickly, as would many others.

As for logging in, I'd much rather do that via a standard method. More secure. Also, quick replying is unlikely as that's most likely not going to be a default feature ever as far as I know -- besides, isn't there a MOD for that?

god0fgod · Post by **god0fgod** » Mon May 05, 2008 11:04 pm

How is Ajax less secure?

Phil · Post by **Phil** » Tue May 06, 2008 12:13 am

Take a look at this, and that's just a simplified look.

GHS · Post by **GHS** » Tue May 06, 2008 4:48 pm

Imo, ajax isn't insecure, if it be well-programmed.

I think it'd be very cool if phpBB implements ajax soon, but not for every thing, only for quick editing and some other things that's really not necessary reload the page, with no-obstrutive javascript.

god0fgod · Post by **god0fgod** » Tue May 06, 2008 4:58 pm

I see no way Ajax can be harmful as long as you are careful. I'm planning of implementing more ajax onto my website later which will include login.

Double_J · Post by **Double_J** » Tue May 06, 2008 5:07 pm

If ajax is to be implemented it should only be done to enhance the ease of editing and adding stuff.

For example, if you post a topic, then have an AJAX box making a preview or something.
Or for moderators, when editing a post, they click edit and get inline edit features for the post.

It should not be implemented to drive the entire board. I mean what is the difference for example in pagination to load only the new topic list(which is almost all data) or just a new page.

SneakySimian · Post by **SneakySimian** » Tue May 06, 2008 5:36 pm

iWisdom wrote:This would also create a tremendous amount of server load which, on a large board, is not a good thing. If every user had one page or more constantly checking to see if there was new data I'm sure this site would be brought to its knees very quickly, as would many others.

As for logging in, I'd much rather do that via a standard method. More secure. Also, quick replying is unlikely as that's most likely not going to be a default feature ever as far as I know -- besides, isn't there a MOD for that?

AJAX can and does reduce server load.

SamG · Post by **SamG** » Tue May 06, 2008 5:48 pm

Sure. Since it's like a persistent connection, it can also increase server load by artificially increasing the number of active users/HTTP requests, and so in the case of a forum product, it arguably would.

Kellanved · Post by **Kellanved** » Sun May 11, 2008 4:02 pm

AJAX can and does reduce server load.

AJAX can enhance the user-friendliness and "fun" of an application. It can also do the exact opposite if not done well.
But the one thing it certainly does not do is reducing the server load. AJAX functions lead to more request to the server, each request takes roughly the same amount of work, regardless if it's a full-blown page view or "just" an update. The server script has to set up authentication and pretty much everything just as for the "normal" request. The difference is the format the response takes.

Anyhow, we are looking into possible AJAX functions for the next release.

SneakySimian · Post by **SneakySimian** » Sun May 11, 2008 7:20 pm

Kellanved wrote:
AJAX can and does reduce server load.
AJAX can enhance the user-friendliness and "fun" of an application. It can also do the exact opposite of not done well.
But the one thing it certainly does not do is reducing the server load. AJAX functions lead to more request to the server, each request takes roughly the same amount of work, regardless if it's a full-blown page view or "just" an update. The server script has to set up authentication and pretty much everything just as for the "normal" request. The difference is the format the response takes.

Anyhow, we are looking into possible AJAX functions for the next release.

It certainly can reduce server load.

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