Tutorials
With the surge of open source frameworks and tools for the development of Ajax, developers around the world should be glad that building an application shouldn’t be very expensive. There was a time when developing an application requires licensing fees every time a developer wants to add something in their application. Today, developers don’t even have to spend a single cent as long as he or she is willing to work with certain limitations.
There are also open source products that don’t even have restrictions – giving developers full access of their applications with absolutely no strings attached. Ajax is one of the leading web development techniques that have been receiving open source support. That’s no wonder since Ajax could be a little bit daunting for some developers to tackle. Ajax now has hundreds of frameworks, tools and libraries that could practically port any web development language into JavaScript and ultimately building an Ajax based application.
Because of its popularity, businesses have also opted to use open source products to cut costs. Ajax based websites today could be easily developed with full feature from open-source frameworks and tools from different software developers. Security, speed and better user interaction is ensured with the use of open source tools.
However, developers have to be cautious when using open source tools as they could be biting more than they could chew. Open source frameworks and tools are free but it comes with a price of uncertainty. Developing an application with these frameworks is really easy and cost friendly but once an update is available, the present framework may not be at par with the updates that is needed with the website. Developers could rely on established open source frameworks and products for different but still it’s not a guaranteed situation.
In order for us to fully understand the situation, you have to consider it from the standpoint of the framework developer for Ajax based application. By building an open source framework or tool for Ajax, they could easily gain popularity in their application. They could gain recognition and on the side earn from the website but developers could never earn from something they have built.
When an upgrade comes they could easily change the configuration even without any fees. But judging from the way applications, browsers and other key applications speed of upgrades, developers can’t just put down anything they do which are actually their jobs. So the level of commitment is not as high when compared to licensed products.
But this should never discourage developers from using open source frameworks and tools. Developers have to ensure that the open source framework or tool they are currently using has the community support that would last for ages. There are also established open source tools for Ajax that are supported by some of the largest online companies today.
A great example is Google’s GWT and Yahoo’s UI through the small online application called Pipes. By using an established open source framework and tools, developer will have a free and highly competitive framework for their Ajax based application.
