Best Technologies for AJAX Web Development

Question

I have some experience in AJAX development, mostly on .NET and MooTools. However, I want to learn more and see what others out there thought about the various other options available. I am looking more for advice about the front end. The back end, I will most probably be coding it in .NET using c# and WCF services.

Please feel free to provide me as much information as you can. Also, I would appreciate any links to resources.

List of Options (feel free to add)

• Write my own Javascript

• Use a framework like MooTools, JQuery, etc. Which one is better?

• Use Google Web Toolkit. Am I tying myself to the limitations of GWT? Or are there not limitations?

• ASP.NET AJAX

• WPF (Will this run on non-IE browsers?)

• Flash (it'll be a pain to learn action script)

Thanks Jaspreet

Answer 1

Writing your own Javascript often means reinventing the wheel when it comes to trying to attain cross-browser compatibility. Frameworks such as jQuery and MooTools take care of much of that grunt work for you.

Personally, I would suggest picking a Javascript framework or using GWT, but really it's just a matter of personal preference at that point, much like choosing a programming language. Pick that one that is best for your purposes, or that you're most familiar with.

Answer 2

I'd go with jQuery.

jQuery will be bundled with the next version of Visual Studio. Google uses jQuery. jQuery has the largest user-base of any of the frameworks out there.. And speaking of not re-inventing the wheel: jQuery also has the largest plugin-repository of any of the frameworks out there.. Including its own official UI library which is in constant development.

.. And if you're a fan of books; there's 3-4 books about the framework out currently.

Oh, yeah! Check out Douglas Crockford's website for great vanilla JavaScript tips and tricks.

Just my two cents :)