Archive Web Sites Using AJAX and GWT

The last three years have seen much change in web technology and have created some significant breakthroughs. We are now able to let the user interact with an archive from the Web browser in ways we have never thought possible. The Web browser is no longer a glorified batch processing terminal, but an interactive environment that allows the user to have a similar experience as one might expect with an installed desktop application. We can now provide web based FITS viewing and interaction without any plugins. Much of this is made possible using AJAX. AJAX technology has made an major impact on how we think about developing on the Web. Users expect more and are drawn to more interactive and intuitive web sites. The problem with the Javascript part of AJAX is that it does not scale well to large Web applications, is hard to debug, and a lot of browser specific code is required. Google Web Toolkit (GWT) provides the solution to this problem. With GWT, you write code in Java that is compiled into Javascript. GWT handles many of the browser-specific issues and provides you an environment to develop very powerful web sites. This talk will discuss the concepts behind AJAX and GWT. We will also show how using these technologies in an archive web site will create a truly interactive experience