Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) is a design approach for creating more interactive and responsive Web pages. Made popular by Google applications such as Google Mail and Maps, its adoption has quickly been made compulsory by the Web user community.

Ajax design and programming is incorporated into all of JViews' graphical displays: charts, schedule displays, diagrams and maps. Even specialized telecommunications equipment displays benefit from Ajax. Listed below are the specific Ajax enhanced features supported out of the box by JViews products.

• Cached tiling
  Many Web-based graphical applications often involve both a static background and dynamic layers. Traditionally, it takes a significant amount of time to generate displays on a server and transport them over a network. Like the popular Google Maps, ILOG JViews "tiles" the background layers and uses the browser’s local cache in conjunction with a dedicated server cache for a great end-user experience and improved server scalability. The overlay of static backgrounds with custom data objects that update themselves is unique to ILOG JViews Maps and ILOG JViews Diagrammer.
  
  

Web application, showing dynamic weather data on top of static map data. Enlarge image (opens a new window).



• Context-sensitive menus
  When a user right-clicks on a display object, JViews products make a small, asynchronous request to the server to retrieve contextual information. Once received, the menu is displayed without a full page refresh.
  
  



• Interactive editing
  Users often have to create or reposition objects in many types of graphical displays. JViews supports this function and provides user feedback during the operation.
  
  

Interactive node and link creation on an Ajax Web client. View the demo (opens a new window).



• Modifying properties
  ILOG JViews lets users perform "get" and "set" operations locally, with server synchronization performed when the task is completed.
  
  
• Real-time updates
  Ajax-enhanced ILOG JViews displays are often used in applications where the display must constantly refresh in order to reflect the current status of the underlying data. ILOG JViews products can efficiently send the data representing the change from the server to the client, and can be configured to only update the affected parts of the display.

ILOG is a proud member of the OpenAjax Alliance, an organization of leading vendors, open source projects, and companies using Ajax that are dedicated to the successful adoption of open and interoperable Ajax-based Web technologies. For more information, please visit the OpenAjax Alliance website.

All ILOG products support various Ajax design features. To try out these features for yourself, please visit our demos page.