This page gives several suggestions for quickly getting familiar with Jaxer within Aptana Studio.
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Introduction
Aptana Studio 1.1 is bundled with the Jaxer Ajax server, and includes several sample projects that demonstrate the functionality of Jaxer. The instructions below describe how to familiarize yourself with the sample projects and links with resources to more in-depth information about how to develop these applications on your own.
Aptana Studio 1.1 includes five sample projects that you can preview and use to start your Jaxer development work:
- Chat
- Diagnostics
- Shell
- Tasks
- WikiLite
About the Jaxer Chat application
The Jaxer chat application (shown below) is a basic chat room web application that allows users to create accounts, login to chat, enter chat rooms, create new chat rooms, and, of course, chat. Use this application to learn about the following concepts:
- Preparing a database on page load
- Determining which code runs on the client and which on the server
- Authenticating users
- Using client-server callbacks
- How to use the different values for the Jaxer runat attribute
- Server-side include statements with Jaxer
Learn more about the JavaScript code and the Jaxer technology for this application at Inside the Jaxer chat application.
About the Jaxer Diagnostics application
The Jaxer Diagnostics application (shown below) provides a simple way to interact with the Jaxer server and to get feedback about your Jaxer server environment. Use this example to familiarize yourself with the following concepts:
- Doing server-side development based off of a popular Ajax library (jQuery)
- Getting basic information about your Jaxer server
- Testing callbacks
- Testing a parser
- Determining jQuery compatibility
About the Jaxer Shell application
The Jaxer Shell sample application (shown below) is simply a web version of the Jaxer Shell View in Aptana Studio. Use the Jaxer Shell to interact with the Jaxer server and display the result of your interactions in a console. You can use the Jaxer Shell to type single line commands or even function definitions.
About the Jaxer Tasks application
The Jaxer Tasks application is a simple task list. Users can type tasks to add them to a list and check them off. When a user checks off a task, it is dynamically deleted from the list. Use this sample to learn about the following concepts:
- Jaxer runat attributes
- Adding server-side Ajax functionality to a client-side script
- Using JavaScript to execute SQL to interact with a database
- Reading/writing data between a client and server
Learn more about the JavaScript code and the Jaxer technology for this application at Getting started with Jaxer development using the Tasks sample application.
About the Jaxer WikiLite application
The WikiLite sample demonstrates a basic Wiki application where a user can edit content, save content to a remote file, and the contents of the Wiki persist from one session to the next. The WikiLite sample introduces the following concepts:
- Setting the contents of a page when the page loads
- Toggling read-only mode on and off through various mechanisms
- Determining which functions to run on the client and which on the server (or both!)
- Validating user input on both the client and on the server
- Writing user input to a remote file
Learn more about the JavaScript code and the Jaxer technology for this application the Jaxer WikiLite Guide reference.
Instructions
This section describes how to import and preview the Jaxer samples that are included with Aptana Studio.
Previewing a sample
To preview a Jaxer sample:
- In the Samples View, expand the Aptana Jaxer folder.
- Click the folder for the sample that you want to preview.
- Click the Preview Sample
button.
Aptana Studio displays a preview of the application in the HTML Editor tab.
Importing a sample as a project
Importing a sample as a project can be very useful when you want to develop a similar project. Once a sample is imported, all of your directories and references for Code Assist will automatically be set up for you.
To import a sample as a project:
- In the Samples View, expand the Aptana Jaxer folder.
- Click the folder for the sample that you want to preview.
- Click the Import Sample
button.