[ Overview ]

The goal of XML11 is to help programmers write AJAX-applications without requiring any JavaScript knowledge. AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) has become very popular for building web applications. AJAX basically proposes to move part of the application to the browser without requiring a JRE-plugin. In order to do so the application needs to be written in JavaScript since JavaScript is the lowest common denominator across different web browsers in terms of prerequisites. Writing portable JavaScript is a daunting and tedious task.

XML11 allows you to write your application in Java (not JavaScript!). XML11 then translates your Java application to JavaScript so that it can run inside any browser. Just like a C++-compiler shields the programmer from the assembly language, XML11 shields the web-developer from the intrinsic complexities of writing cross-browser portable JavaScript code. As a consequence, a web-developer never has to write or even look at one line of JavaScript code. One thing you should also consider is monitoring your web and AJAX-applications. There are a variety of application monitoring tools you can use to do this, so we'd recommend checking out this list by DotcomTools to see the differen't options that are available for applications.

Most of the best web applications are hosted live online where they are publicly accessible to everyone. Examples of popular web applications like this are Dropbox, and Evernote. If you're getting started building a web application, we'd really recommend that you choose good web hosting. Our favorite host for web applications is Bluehost because they offer unlimited SQL databases and have fast, reliable servers. You can pick them up using a Bluehost coupon deal by clicking here. They are a great place to host XML11 apps as well as Java apps too.

Below you can see a little demo of this idea. On the left you can see a screenshot of a Java application implementing a simple calculator. Click here to view the Java source code of this application. Using XML11, this Java application is automatically translated to an AJAX application. On the right hand side you can see the actual calculator running as an AJAX application. Try out a calculation such as "21 * 2"! Click here to view the source of the AJAX calculator application to see the generated JavaScript code. You can do other cool things with XML11 such as running X-Windows applications inside a browser only using JavaScript. Check the documentation page for more information. There is also a Google Tech Talk featuring XML11 (slides). XML11 is member of the OpenAJAX Alliance.

Screenshot of AWT application


AJAX calculator
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