Building a PHP AJAX Framework

Thora_Fan

This may be the wrong place for this, but bear with me.

I've been looking into AJAX recently, and while I'm familiar with some of the basics (calling a PHP script from a page and returning the results, for example), I am wondering about some of the other things I am seeing. Specifically, I am wondering if these things are even related to AJAX.

Recently in dealing with Joomla, I noticed that their templating system uses what appears to be custom tags, such as <jdoc:whatever>. I know that .NET has something similiar, as do a few of the Ruby based CMS' that I've looked at. My questions, I suppose, are:

1) What is the proper term for these tags?
2) How do they benefit the design of the framework?
3) Are they even in the same category as AJAX or am I way off base?

I am basically interested in learning about PHP/AJAX frameworks and, specifically, how to design and develop one of my own. Are these tags that I've seen part of an AJAX framework? If so, can anyone point me towards a good location where I can learn more? The web is fraught with tutorials, and I'm not even really sure what to call what I'm looking for in the first place.

I hope this makes sense. If it doesn't, then God help us all.

ManWithNoName

<jdoc:whatever>

1) What is the proper term for these tags?

... I think you are referring to XML (either you have been living under a rock, or I have completely misunderstood you...).

The "jdoc" part is a so called "XML namespace", I never needed to use one but they could come in handy.

You can read more about XML and namespaces over here: http://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp

2) How do they benefit the design of the framework?
I think that answer will vary depending on who you ask.

3) Are they even in the same category as AJAX or am I way off base?
XML is supposed to be the "X" of AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript And XML).

This seems however - after reading different articles - to be a poor choice of acronym.

The XhttpRequest that enables the "AJAX magic" can be used with different technologies (I believe "JSON" is the next big thing right now), and is not exclusively reserved for XML.

Well, I hope I have understood you and answered your questions correctly.

Thora_Fan

Thanks for the reply.

I am familiar with XML (to a point), and do understand the concept of namespaces.

I guess, in the end, since I have heard so much about brouhaha about PHP/AJAX Frameworks, I am wanting to know exactly where I can go to learn more about building one of my own. I was hoping to find a site somewhere that might give me a tutorial on how to go about doing that. I've googled several things, but unless my understanding of what it's all about is way off, I just keep coming up with things that have already been written, and not necessarily an explanation of how it all works and is put together.

Thanks again for the response.

ManWithNoName

Well, because I am not a programmer, or a web developer for that matter I can't give you much more to go on.

But I think you are looking at this in the wrong light.

I would guess that a AJAX/PHP framework would simple mean that you let PHP do most of the job instead of, let's say, JavaScript (are there any other client side languages out there? -- sit down MS VBscript!.

"I just keep coming up with things that have already been written, and not necessarily an explanation of how it all works and is put together. "

I think the answer to that is "creativity". You should ask your self what your project is, and what kind of method -- whether it is "AJAX", PHP, JavaScript, XML, JSON etc. -- is best suited for you and your "way of the web developer".

Speaking of the devil: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_framework (I haven't read the entire article, but you will see in the first sentence why I'm referring to it)

But then again, you shouldn't be listing to a "non-expert" on this subject. Or a man with no name (speaking of creativity...)