Monday, July 17th, 2006

Return of the POJO: Plain ‘Ole JavaScript

Category: Editorial

A funny thing happened a few years ago in the Java community. Architectures were so complicated that myriads of patterns were born just to make them work (major contributor: Enterprise JavaBeans).

At first developers though we needed these “enterprise” features, so they went along with it all. Then the complexity shone through after a few years of failed projects and “huh?” moments. People were sick of having to create Session Facades, Value Objects and Fat Primary Keys to try to get around performance failings. You ended up with 20 objects when you just needed 1 :)

Then a set of previously burned developers got together to create simpler frameworks, and the term “POJO” (Plain Old Java Object) was born. That is right, things got so complex that you needed a way to say “No mate, we just want a normal object here”. “But what about the Entity Bean? and the Home interface, and the Remote interface, and the Facade, and the”. “NO. POJO”.

Ironically we are seeing the rise of the slightly shorter POJ here on the JavaScript side.

POJ: Plain Old JavaScript

We are needing to POJ up, because so many people think that anything JavaScript MUST be “Ajax”. Yes, we are to blame too. “That is a cool ajaxian component”. No. It is a dhtml rollover. There is no Ajax interaction model in place.

So, if you know someone who calls every piece of JavaScript “Doing Ajax” let them know about POJ.

Next we will need to have a term that tells people “actually that is just CSS. No JavaScript code was needed for that effect”

Posted by Dion Almaer at 4:01 pm
27 Comments

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4.1 rating from 43 votes

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PLOJ or POJ?

In the age of Ajax this and Ajax that, just remember – for some things, plain old Javascript (PLOJ) may…

Trackback by Alex Barnett blog — July 17, 2006

[…] 2.0: Update User Controls without postback? » Bookmark on del.icio.us In the age of Ajax this and Ajax that, just remember – for some things, plain old Javascript (PLOJ)may all you really need. Or is it POJ?   […]

Pingback by PLOJ or POJ? » Wagalulu - Microsoft » » PLOJ or POJ? — July 17, 2006

Reminds me of a discussion I had with someone regarding a simple little gallery thing I whipped up for my site. The other participant kept referring to it as AJAX and I kept correcting him that it was just DHTML that was being generated by PHP and he kept arguing that that was what AJAX is and I kept countering saying that AJAX is about two-way communication between the client and server and has the ability to be continuously dynamic while my scripts are dynamic at generation but static afterwards and data is really only flowing one way.

I think that many people don’t really have a clear idea of what AJAX is other than a cool sounding buzz word ;)

Comment by Twist — July 17, 2006

From a user’s point of view, that we are using an asynchronous call to the server is completely irrelevant. We need another phrase to describe the different user experience without referencing the technology. I think that’s Web 2.0 though I’m not sure how I feel about that.

In terms of technologists, yeah, +1. It’s just CSS. It’s just JavaScript. It’s cooler now because there are libraries that work across browsers but that’s not AJAX.

Comment by Jason Yip — July 18, 2006

Ajax is a methodology, not a technology. It does not necessarily have to use XMLhttpRequest, but could be IFRAMES or “JSON/Creating Script tags on the fly” driven.

Web 2.0 is a bit more than just an asynchronous interface, it also entices tagging and a social content/collaboration element.

Comment by Chris Heilmann — July 18, 2006

This comparison between JAVA and JS fails from the start.
The problem in Java was implementation and resulted in “failed projects”.
The problem in JS is nomenclature and results in people who know the definitions of the buzz-words looking down on people who only know the buzz-words.
You should drink more beer or something.

Comment by Mrs Malaprop — July 20, 2006

[…] A vast majority of the tutorials are under a “Getting Started” category, but there is a lot of valuable info still there. Here are a few of the areas that are covered: Bookmarklets, Chat, Drag and Drop, Dynamic Content Loading, File Uploaders, Lightbox effects, Shopping Carts and more. Although I haven’t looked through all of the tutorials, it seems a few may actually be Poj. […]

Pingback by Graphic Design Web Design Development Blog » Need a Few Good AJAX Tutorials? — August 4, 2006

Its all about Web 2.0 …..

Comment by Joshinthecity — December 11, 2006

this is a neat use of ajax check it out
http://ajaxbee.com/jquery/fish/

Comment by Richard S — December 28, 2006

About the Ajax this Ajax that… there is still a need for plain old javascript and html. A little php and css thrown in for a little icing on the cake.

Comment by Richard S — December 29, 2006

Yes I fully agree with Richard S.

Comment by John — January 24, 2007

absolute pleasure to read it, instead of reading
all that crap which is floating about on blogs.
Looking forward to more posts from you, I will be sure to check back again very soon. Keep it up!

Comment by Paul — February 1, 2007

I am waiting for something past web 2.0

Comment by william — March 1, 2007

As someone who often feels like a dinosaur in this day and age (I stopped working as a front-end programmer in 2001), it is good to know that a great deal of what I *do* know still works. And works pretty damn well.

Comment by Best Energy Drinks — March 3, 2007

I would love to know javascript. Its way to complicated. I hope one day i do learn this code though. My website heavily uses javascript and AJAX which is a great tool. I had to pay developers money to create my javascript functions which i didnt like :(.

When using javascrip on a website the webmaster should remember that not every web user accepts javascript. Therefor important parts of a website may not work!

Comment by Leanne — April 16, 2007

Nice Ad!

Comment by Jeremy Mills — May 24, 2007

PHP is getting better, and faster, all the time. As a result I see PHP becoming – a web replacement for BASIC – and becoming increasingly valuable as a prototyping tool that can often go straight to production.

Comment by Paul — June 6, 2007

Java was nice when it first arrived but it’s nice to know that newer things have come along

Comment by Erik — June 7, 2007

i wonder if sun micro will ever come up with a new program and blow us all away?

Comment by bryan — June 13, 2007

yep there is still a place for html and php, its what the engines like that counts, fancy is nothing if they cant read and index your site!

Comment by mystery shopper — June 22, 2007

arh Im sorry to say but I think we have to stick to traditional coding languages a few years still :(

Comment by pc to phone — June 23, 2007

Yes too bad, .. anyway it still works fantasctic.. hehe

Comment by spil — June 23, 2007

yep, i agree for a few more years yet

Comment by jeff — July 21, 2007

Java was great for its time, and still some use today. Yet as programing technology develops and improvements are made, I think the change is a good thing. From it we benefit which can only be a good thing.

Comment by Fan — August 10, 2007

im still an old school program, java and html are my bread and butter

Comment by jason — September 11, 2007

thanks for the info on java, i love this stuff

Comment by pay off debt — September 11, 2007

Java was nice when it first arrived but it’s nice to know that newer things have come along I think.

Comment by gratis — October 27, 2009

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