Articles by James Benson

JSON - An Attempt to Bring XSS Back

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 19:00:00 EDT

JSON lets one take advantage of the 'On Demand Javascript/Script Tag hack' described earlier. This technique allows new HTML script tags to be dynamically generated and the 'script' to be downloaded from any server. When the downloaded script is made up of data formatted in JSON, the script tag is effectively being used to download new data across domains outside of the same-origin policy.

AJAX IM Client

Wed, 16 May 2007 19:15:00 EDT

In this chapter, we'll step through the creation of an Instant Messaging (IM) client application built with AJAX, JavaScript, and dynamic HTML/CSS. While most of this chapter will be detailing the specifics of this code, we wanted to start off with a brief overview of the process of designing this application. We found this process to be about as necessary as writing the code itself.

Real-World AJAX Book Preview: Input Focus and Blur in Chat Windows

Wed, 16 May 2007 11:00:00 EDT

We've also included a couple pure usability features in our ChatWindow class. The focus() and blur() methods simply change the background color of the chat window's text input to help the user know which window is active and where they are typing.

AJAX Logging Functions

Tue, 15 May 2007 18:45:00 EDT

Because we want our JavaScript to be able to write to the log window in our HTML, we'll first add the logging code to our JavaScript. This content is reprinted from Real-World AJAX: Secrets of the Masters published by SYS-CON Books. To order the entire book now along with companion DVDs for the special pre-order price, click here for more information. Aimed at everyone from enterprise developers to self-taught scripters, Real-World AJAX: Secrets of the Masters is the perfect book for anyone who wants to start developing AJAX applications.

AJAX Load Buddies

Tue, 15 May 2007 18:45:00 EDT

The load buddies function uses the Prototype library's Ajax.Request() to get the user's buddy list, which includes the current status of each buddy. Again, we use Prototype's bindAsEventListener to ensure that, when the AJAX request is complete, it calls the display() function on the instance of the Buddies object that started the AJAX request.

Real-World AJAX Book Preview: Designing the Server API

Sun, 13 May 2007 11:00:00 EDT

At this point, we'll look at the functionality that we need on the server to serve our client. We'll create an API that matches our major service needs, which are:

Real-World AJAX Book Preview: The Basic HTML Structure

Sat, 12 May 2007 11:00:00 EDT

First, we create a simple structure in HTML that represents the major elements of our user interface: Our goal at this point is to just represent the structural pieces of the user interface. In HTML (XHTML 1.0 Transitional, specifically), it looks like this:

Real-World AJAX Book Preview: A Safer More Secure AJAX

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 13:00:00 EDT

As with any new technology or methodology, AJAX development has security risks. Many of these are easily avoided through good Web coding standards. Even so entire books could still be written on the elements of AJAX security. This chapter provides an overview of security issues to give the new practitioner a good idea of where to start.