Hi, I am attempting to re-design the ThinkTeen site. In the process of designing, I thought that the use of little "widget" things would be very useful and would help. I think AJAX or javascript would help? The page would be similar to igoogle in that you would be able to expand/simplify the gagets, and possibly remove them (cookies would be needed, though this feature may come later, need to get main done) The site's gadgets would include: a news widget, random youtube video, member's login thing (logs them in, then takes them to the main page. I can see from a SEO persepctive that this may not be wonderful, so how about all widgets are expanded a guest viewal, then once logged in, the user can personalize by adding removing widgets? I wish the team would grant me money, however, due to financial difficulties, they are unable to accommodate. How would I attempt this? Thanks in advanced?
I think the best thing to do would be to use an existing javascript framework. They all have drag/drop, expand,resize and AJAX functionality. I blog about jQuery (Check my siggy) but other frameworks you might would to check out are scriptalicious and mootools.
MMJ has a good point, there is really no need to use ajax unless there is an actual need for it. Using it for web applications is great, but not just to make a site have more features. I think we all have had the urge at one time or another to incorporate something that looks really cool into our sites, but you must sit back and think, is it really worth the time and effort, and will it benefit my site in the long run?
Ok - here is now the current situation with will involve ajax anyway - a light box like MS silverlight in a way...
Can you please link to an example of a light box, or whatever it is you are trying to recreate. Thanks