Practical DWR Web 2.0 Projects addresses the needs of most developers who would rather learn by example and by doing. This book contains several projects that developers can sink their teeth into doing. Written by accomplished Ajax and Java Web developer and author, Frank Zammetti, this book explores DWR and all it offers. It features six full, working applications that use DWR. This book allows you to lean by example, as you tear the applications apart, you see what makes them tick, and even discover how to extend them at your own pace.
The Ajax craze is sweeping the world, and there is no shortage of libraries from which to choose to make it all easier to develop. One of those libraries has risen near the top in the Java space, and that library is DWR. DWR, or Direct Web Remoting, allows you to treat your Java classes running on the server as if they were local objects running in the browser, bringing the full power of your server–side business logic to the client without the usual problems that entails. In this book, you will: Explore DWR and all it offers Find six full, working applications that use DWR, instead of a lot of theoretical musings Learn by example, more importantly, by doing, as you tear the applications apart, see what makes them tick, and even extend them at your own pace In the end, you’ll have a great feel for what DWR offers and how Ajax can bring the world of Web 2.0 to your doorstep, and you’ll have a good time doing it. What you’ll learn Call a server–side object in a snap and make it look like any local JavaScript call to boot Provide a strong security mechanism for securing your server-side code Integrate with many of the most popular frameworks out there Provide not only Ajax but Comet capabilities (sometimes called reverse Ajax) Dig into Ajax using DWR in a practical and hacking kind of way starting with a webmail client and Wiki projects Build a simple file manager application and an online timesheet system Complete a DWR–based game project Who this book is for Web application developers, senior projects leads, and application architects.
This ground-breaking book brings together cutting-edge researchers who study the transformation of practice through the enhancement and transformation of expertise. This is an important moment for such a contribution because expertise is in transition - moving toward collaboration in inter-organizational fields and continuous shaping of transformations. To understand and master this transition, powerful new conceptual tools are needed and are provided here. The theoretical framework which has shaped these studies is Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). CHAT analyses how people and organisations learn to do something new, and how both individuals and organisations change. The theoretical and methodological tools used have their origins in the work of Lev Vygotsky and A.N. Leont’ev. In recent years this body of work has aroused significant interest across the social sciences, management and communication studies. Working as part of an integrated international team, the authors identify specific findings which are of direct interest to the academic community, such as: the analysis of vertical learning between operational and strategic levels within complex organizations; the refinement of notions of identity and subject position within CHAT; the introduction of the concept of ‘labour power’ into CHAT; the development of a method of analysing discourse which theoretically coheres with CHAT and the design of projects. Activity Theory in Practice will be highly useful to practitioners, researchers, students and policy-makers who are interested in conceptual and empirical issues in all aspects of ‘activity-based’ research.
