Ultra Lightweight Web Applications: A Single-Page Wiki employing a Partial Ajax Solution

Dr Michael Rees, School of Information Technology, Faculty of Business, Technology and Sustainable Development, Bond University, Qld 4229, Australia. Email: mrees@bond.edu.au

Keywords

Ajax, XML, JavaScript, ultra lightweight web applications, rich internet applications, wikis.

Abstract

The overloaded term Web 2.0 web site usually connotes an interactive web application that offers features normally associated with free-standing applications running directly under the control of an operating system. Such an interactive web applications, also known as a rich internet application (RIA), run within web browsers and must download XHTML and client-side scripts to control user interactivity. Via a variety of technologies the web server must provide a storage mechanism to support the RIA and the presentation of dynamic data in the browser interface. Such storage may be of large volume and bring concomitant bandwidth, response and server storage problems. It is usually the case that the XHTML and client scripts are relatively small in size so the use of the browser in this context to be called a lightweight client. Certainly the dynamic construction of the RIA user interface on demand completely eliminates the download and install problem of free-standing applications and ensures the user always uses the latest version of the RIA.

This paper explores the possibility of building an ultra lightweight RIA where a single web page combines the interactive user interface and the storage mechanism in a single file. The author discovered this approach being used in the TiddlyWiki RIA created by Jeremy Ruston who employed client-side JavaScript to provide all functionality. Here all the main features of a wiki are supported by a single web page. DotWikIE is a re-implementation by the author of an ultra lightweight wiki with significantly improved editing and employing XML for storage of the wiki contents. Apart from being a useful personal wiki application DotWikIE can be extended in a number of ways. An example of automated clipboard monitoring is presented and discussed.

For its implementation DotWikIE uses the JavaScript and XML parts of AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML). Using full AJAX requires the use of a web server. The paper contains a description of DotWikIEWeb that adds the asynchronous part of  AJAX to extend coverage to a more usual web-based wiki while still retaining the simplicity of single, independent wiki web pages for deployment convenience. In the conclusion the paper discusses further extensions of the ultra lightweight RIA and other applications of this RIA implementation technique.