Hello, I was reading an interview of the the MyBB creator on adminfusion (http://www.adminfusion.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3158) What do you think about the future of Ajax in forums? Is it worth looking in to? I'm always looking to make things more interactive and easier, but I don't know what I'm getting myself into. Below was the answer mentioning Ajax in forums: How do you see the forum industry changing over the next 5 years? People are going to continue being hyped up over "web 2.0" technologies such as AJAX functionality. We're going to see forum interfaces become more dynamic with no refresh required to see new content. It may sound cool, but it is misuse of the technology and will present problems such as accessibility and usability - not to mention would make it difficult to browse busy forums if a thread listing keeps changing its order, with items appearing and items disappearing as threads are updated. People are going to fall for this technology because it is so hyped up and they think it is "groovy", but it presents significant problems as well. Another change I've noticed recently and I think will also continue is the increased popularity in simple discussion products such as PunBB and miniBB. These are very small packages with very lite user interfaces which are gaining in popularity.
I was looking at Ruby on Rails the other day and it does all kinds of cool stuff like that. I dunno what to say about those comments . AJAX definatly is way cool for alot of forum functions that are not impacted by the comments quoted however.
It is a website development enviorment for creating sites and uses dynamic updates for posting, AJAX. It's for starting from scratch, not enhancing existing forums. I suspect there will be a forum project based on Ruby on Rails in the near future if there isn't one already.
AJAX is already a wonderful setup for forums!! This vbulletin forum already uses AJAX as basic functions. The on page editing and quick reply = AJAX. As well, go to "advanced search" and start typing a persons name into the "find posts by username" field. It show a drop down list of possible user names that you may be looking for. AJAX is already becoming a part of forums, and vbulletin just had a major upgrade again (surprise), that implemented even more AJAX features!
Interesting... great news even. How does one go about learning Ajax? Is an understanding of php or javascript needed? I have neither. Is my lack of programming know-how a pro or a con in this case?
It would be a con, and a pro, my friend. Your inexperience will let you learn AJAX fresh without bias from other languages; the downside, well, your inexperience will let you learn AJAX fresh without bias from other languages... :grin: AJAX is an understanding of Javascript and XML (AJAX Asychronous Javascript and XML). It is defeinately the future, but it is still in its baby stages.
I am looking at this Ruby on Rails too. What should I try to learn, Ajax or Ruby on Rails? Thanks again.
So for someone looking to start up a forum... vbulletin (type boards) are the way to go... also are they pretty upgradable and scalable for different uses.