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In one of my previous articles, I introduced a lot of different AJAX frameworks. In this article, I will look in more detail at the Script.aculo.us framework and discuss why you may want to use it in your web applications. Script.aculo.us is purely a client-side framework that gives developers a new way to code in JavaScript by providing new shortcut functions, new powerful objects including Form, Effect, Control and Ajax, and some custom widgets. Script.aculo.us is really not an independent product, but an add-on to the Prototype.js JavaScript library developed and maintained by Sam Stephenson. Prototype by itself is a very well thought out and implemented library of JavaScript methods that helps a great deal with creating rich, highly interactive, and dynamic web pages. Script.aculo.us builds on the existing Prototype implementation. It enhances Prototype by adding effects and controls, morphing, and custom UI widgets such as a Slider.

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In this article, I will discuss the Direct Web Remoting (DWR) technology developed by Joe Walker and maintained by the small IT consultancy Getahead in UK. This technology is a unique way of Ajax-enabling existing Java server-side code by exposing it in JavaScript. This sounds complicated but, in reality, the technology is relatively straightforward. It has some limitations, such as exposing overloaded Java methods or marshaling of very complex Java Objects to JavaScript and will work only in a web application server. But overall, DWR is a very powerful concept that works with any existing Java web application and makes the process of web remoting easier.

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