##################################################################### OVERVIEW
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This is "js-app", a framework for building applications in Javascript.

• for installation instructions, see the INSTALL file

##################################################################### DESCRIPTION
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JS-App is a Javascript Application framework with which you can build rich web applications and widgets embeddable in web pages. The framework is object-oriented, data-driven, cross-browser, internationalizable, themeable, extensible. (+ Ajax)

##################################################################### REQUIREMENTS
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The js-app framework is designed to allow programs to be developed that meet the following requirements.

• Rich, highly-interactive applications which give the feel of a desktop application but delivered by the web
• Widget-based, Object-oriented framework
• Widgets should be embeddable within a page as easily as they are used to implement an application taking up the entire page
• Widgets should be useful within any other page-generation technology (JSP, ASP, PHP, SSI, Perl Mason, Perl TT, App-WidgetJS, CGI.pm, etc.)
• Cross-browser (type and version) (as much as possible) with graceful degradation allowed for convenience features
• Internationalizable (translation dictionary, content encoding)
• Themeable (based on CSS)
• Data-driven application development
• Supports asynchronous event dispatching and callbacks
• Employs JSON-RPC (XMLHttpRequest/iframe) for server interaction
• Built-in Timer/Scheduler
• Bookmark-ability: access to any widget and session state encoding
• Support printing (via separate CSS style sheet?)
• Support for Sessions that makes sense (stored in a cookie?)
• Support for Bookmarks/Favorites
• Support for Bug submission (to drive a regression test with libjs?)
• Support templates in every widget
• Framework version support (About box)
• Support light-weight widgets
• Framework needs a style guide

Project Requirements:

• Name: js-app (or JS-App)
• Pure Javascript (with css/js/png resources) but includes Perl installer and reference server interface programs.
• Stand on the shoulders of as many other projects as we can find. (probably meaning using their code)
• Regression testable manually with many sample html files
• Needs browser compatibility database and collection system
• Regression testable with perl Javascript (libjs.a) and DOM::Mozilla modules
• Hosted on SourceForge
• Licensed as LGPL
• Announced on Freshmeat
• Distributed on CPAN with a Build.PL (App::Build) installer
• Distributed on theoryx via PPM
• Project includes core and extended subprojects (i.e. js-app, js-app-security, etc.)

Nice to have.

• Limited local storage in cookies (?!?) (Preferences/Settings?)
• Supports an interactive screen-builder
• Standard regression test database application
• Theme generation tool (requires theme-neutral image resources)

##################################################################### SOURCEFORGE DESCRIPTION
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OVERVIEW

JS-App is a Javascript Application framework with which you can build rich web applications and widgets embeddable in web pages. The framework is object-oriented, data-driven, cross-browser, internationalizable, themeable, extensible. (+ Ajax)

BACKGROUND

• I needed to write a rich web application using Javascript/DHTML and searched for a good framework. I found a variety of miscellaneous Javascript/DHTML widgets (menus, navbars, treeviews, grids, date selection calendars), but no general application development framework which ties it all together.
• There is a lot of hoopla these days about Google's DHTML-driven apps and Ajax techniques. The only framework I found on Sourceforge addressing Ajax techniques is "sajax", but this is PHP-centric. I need a good way to build a complete application in Javascript which addresses the full range of application concerns.

REQUIREMENTS

• data-driven - the Widget code exists, we need only configure to use it
• cross-browser - architected for maximum compatibility (versions and brands)
• internationalizable - a simple translation table should allow t
• themeable - should reserve maximum flexibility of look and feel for the app developer
• leveraged - incorporate existing (3rd party) widgets with a thin wrapper layer
• object-oriented and extensible - every application requires custom widgets/logic
• Ajax - asynchronous interaction with the server

DETAILS

• Language: Javascript (for the framework) (+CSS)
• Auxiliary Language: Perl for installation, regression testing, and server-side support
• Browsers: As many as possible (IE 4+, NS 4+, Moz/Gecko/Firefox, Opera, Safari, Konqueror)