BlueFinity Incorporates Ajax Features into mv.NET
 

BlueFinity International, a member of the Mpower1 family of companies, has implemented Ajax features within its flagship product, mv.NET. This innovation gives MultiValue developers access to a wide range of Web development techniques for improving the look, feel and operation of Web-based applications. “Ajax gives developers a framework for significantly enhancing the usability and interactivity of Web applications,” explains David Cooper, Lead Developer at BlueFinity. 

“We have always aimed, with mv.NET, at providing much more than straight database connectivity for MultiValue developers,” he continues. “When Ajax-based techniques started to emerge within the Web developer community, we immediately recognized the potential for dramatically improving Web applications.”  

Ajax, shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a Web development technique for increasing the interactivity of Web applications. The aim behind Ajax is to make Web applications feel more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server – behind the scenes – so that the entire Web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user makes changes or selections. This also increases the speed of the Web page.  

“We estimate that, in 12 to 18 months time, the majority of Web applications will incorporate Ajax to some degree. This is key to Web applications taking a step forward in their evolution,” Cooper explains. Web application developers are the largest community of mv.NET users. “We don’t see this changing very much over the next couple of years,” he adds. “The incorporation of Ajax into mv.NET is a very natural progression for us.” 

The integration of Ajax techniques into mv.NET utilizes Microsoft’s “Atlas” component set in order to provide the developer with all the benefits of Ajax without any extra coding. The net result is the ability for developers to create Web applications offering a user experience very similar to traditional desktop applications.  

“It is the concept of Ajax being seamlessly woven into the fabric of the data binding framework that makes our use of Ajax such a compelling feature for Web developers,” Cooper remarks. “We take care of all the Ajax management – the developer simply has to set one property of our data binding manager to “true” in order to activate a whole layer of automatic Ajax integration.”  

BlueFinity will be previewing its Ajax integration at the end of July, with beta versions available in August. For more information, email ajax@bluefinity.com.