Letting Flash Lead the Way

One of the toughest projects any developer will handle is on how to create an Ajax based reporting tool. Think of Crystal Reports – it’s an online program that streams information endlessly to a webpage without a single action from the user. All they have to do is to screen the possible information they need.

Pushing for this type of program is definitely a challenge but the rewards are remarkable. For one, an Ajax based program will take up lesser bandwidth. It’s also very user friendly since it can be changed by developers while avoiding to compromise the functions of the Ajax based reporting program.

Let’s take a look at the specific problems related to the creation of an Ajax based reporting tool. We’ll give specific recommendations on how to work around these problems and render an almost perfect Ajax based program.

Among the problems that any developer will face in creating a reporting tool are the browsers themselves. In a simple Ajax based website, developers will just have to face XMLHttpRequest and ActiveXObject in dealing with different browsers. However, the reporting tool will have to be more than that. Reporting tools could have a totally different coding package in IE and when rendered in Mozilla, developers will have to review their code to ensure every thing works well.

Before we go to the answer, here’s another problem:

If you’re thinking that JavaScript could be friendly in any size, think again. Reporting tools are very big projects that could take years to develop. Since it’s going to be Ajax based, it’s going to use JavaScript really extensively. But there’s a big chance that JavaScript will eventually load like its HTML counterpart. That means any command that is given to any browser based program will have to look for the information, interact or update other information and reload the information. It sounds really easy however in JavaScript it’s already a big leap. Because of the massive codes, JavaScript may not perform as expected. Eventually, when you’re expecting a good Ajax based program that could update you with seamless information, what you’ll have is a program that might not fare well even when you compare them to Crystal Reports. Instead of creating a better alternative, you’ll end up with so something worse.

To answer the problem of performance and compatibility, we’ll have to think outside the box. Apparently, the answer is not another coding trick but a totally new program. For this I only have one word: Flash.

If you think about it, Flash is cross browser so you wont have to think about configuring the whole package per browser. Flash will eventually take over the interface and Ajax will cover the webpage. On its performance, Flash will also answer the problem of streamlining information without refreshing each webpage. Just think about it: Flash based games could easily load in a webpage and could be very responsive. If you transfer that technology in reporting program, flash based program will definitely work well.