>Why is it so important to have ID instead of CLASS as a
>mapping between the data and the template?
>

Personal preference. I feel its the most adequate reference since by definition it should be unique, like any variable name. As such it makes sense for me to match up the uniqueness of variables or keys in the JSON hashes with the uniqueness of IDs

>Otherwise, on iterations you would end up with multiple
>times the same ID’s
>

One could generate IDs with a sequence number attached (id=”foo-X”). …

— MV

Thanks for your presentation at Codebits :-)

>Including the most flexible client-side template system we
>could come up, called Live Markup. It is essentially Javascript
>extended with a bit of syntax handy for templating.
>

I assume that you are referring to the “a:page” “a:list” sort of markup. From the examples at the blog post I also see stuff like {} and foreach mixed in the HTML. I really do not like or agree with that approach.

We did that some 6 years ago and found out through experience that it was the wrong approach (check out http://web.archive.org/web/20030205211447/http://www.blogdot.org/ and http://web.archive.org/web/20020721153247/http://daaz.pt/ and View Source)

— MV

Not good stuff I would think :-)

But this is an issue with the millions of pages out there that are using AJAX interactions.

I guess that this would be more of an issue with people who are too much worried about SEO. I’m not, I’m interested in the technical/architectural issues.

And eventually Google will index JS generated pages, like they started indexing Flash. Its just a matter of time.

— MV

I dont get it. What is the issue? Care to explain?

>And your comment system rips out the html instead of
>encoding it.
>

Its standard WordPress go and complain there.

>“So I should just leave (h1)(/h1) in my html and hide it
>with JavaScript? Are you kidding? Never heard
>of semantics?”
>

If it has no content is it displayed? No. But it is still on the page content. If it has content then the templating system wouldnd hide it and present it.

>Aargh. How can anyone take you seriously?
>

Whoever wants to do so. I’m not looking for aproval.

>If you only knew how many kittens you have killed by the >way you program. The worst thing is you’re not aware of it.
>

Actually, I am :-)
And even though I do, that is not the issue at hand, is it?

— MV

Those ID’s should disappear once they are used?
Otherwise, on iterations you would end up with multiple times the same ID’s

Richie Hindle (PyMeld’s author) even posted on the blog that he was seeing more value in being able to use any selector and not just ID.

Didn’t know you had a PhD on the subject ;)
Cheers,
Mic

We have been working on a stack very close to what you describe for a couple of years now. Including the most flexible client-side template system we could come up, called Live Markup. It is essentially Javascript extended with a bit of syntax handy for templating.
Also we are working on a serverside to match this. Currently we are a bit more XML focussed than JSON, but we’ll support both.
Check http://www.ajax.org and a bit of the live markup demos. We are still in beta so its not all polished yet.
My colleague Ruben wrote a short blog article about it,
http://www.rubendaniels.com/2009/10/22/live-markup-a-preview-of-a-hot-new-technology/
let me know what you think, i’m curious what you think of the templating.

Rik Arends

The problem for me was that js still isn’t supported very well on the server, it’s not easy to get it running on a decent enterprise grade server.

So I switched to using php on the server, until we get decent js interpreters built into our server products like lighttpd. I really want js on the server, but I really appreciate the ease of developing with a tool that has good debugging and a well used approach like php.

To be honest, I don’t think it’s a big compromise. I don’t do view control on the server, so that is done in javascript on the client anyway. Most of the work I do implementing any web app is still going to be reusable on the client side, and that’s where the beauty is in using the same language client & server side.

What will Google’s bots think about that?