[cgiapp] Ajax and JSON recipe

[Ron Savage]

Hi Folks

On Thu, 2009-04-09 at 10:20 -0500, P Kishor wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 9:53 AM, Lyle Brooks <brooks at deseret.com> wrote:
> > I have a need to incorporate Ajax calls with JSON data into
> > our application.  I was looking for something in terms of a piece
> > of "starter" code or a recipe.  I didn't see anything on the website
> > related to it.
> >
> > CGI Application seems like such a robust framework, that this should be
> > a natural fit.
> >
> > Does anyone have a short starter example of code (both server and client)
> > that they would be willing to post/share that would show Ajax/JSON
> > usage with CGI::Application?
> 
> Short advice... don't. That is, don't mix CGI::App in the backend with
> Ajax in the front-end. Keep separate things separate.

Err, .... What? I /think/ you contradict yourself below...

> Create your JSON stream (I query the db, and convert the result set
> into JSON using JSON.pm) and send it back to the client via
> HTML::Template (I have a simple, one variable template with <TMPL VAR
> JSON_DB_QUERY> or something like that).

Aren't you mixing just like you said you shouldn't?

Actually, I do exactly as you do in querying the db, etc.

> Use your favorite way of manipulating the data on the client (I use
> jQuery to initiate the Ajax call and to deal with the results).

I use YUI http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/ which I find superb.

One of our list members, Peter Karman, put me on to it.

I don't have a simple, stand-alone demo, although I do have a large
web-bases address book program I built.

And, I do have a full weekend marking papers, but I long been thinking
of expanding my CGI::Application::Demo set to include Javascript via
YUI, and in particular Ajax.

If you can just hold your breathe for a couple of days, I'll see what I
can do.

In the meantime, install YUI (it's just a matter of unzipping it), and
start reading Connection Manager, which is their name for Ajax.

Try the demos, etc, etc.

Also, tell us a bit about your test env. I run Apache myself, but do use
mod_perl except on rare occasions. I do use FCGI::ProcManager.

-- 
Ron Savage
ron at savage.net.au
http://savage.net.au/index.html