Ample SDK Development Update (October)

With this post I would like to shed some light on what was being done recently in the development of Ample SDK and the dates for the release of Ample SDK 0.9.3

• jQuery APIs
• Core Globalization service
• HTML5 Forms
• Plugin system
• MVC library
• Simplified UI components registration APIs
• Ample SDK 0.9.3 release

jQuery APIs

One of the major additions to the framework to happen in 0.9.3 is the jQuery API. We listened to many developers and agreed that a simpler (compared to DOM) scripting API was necessary. The implementation of jQuery API in Ample SDK covers about 95% that accounts for The Good Parts. See Ample SDK for jQuery users article to find out what differences are and what you can use already now.

Core Globalization service

Another major move is the adoption of Globalization library generously provided by Microsoft to the Open-Source community. In Ample SDK this library has been incorporated into the framework core (unlike jQuery where it is plugin) and is available both for applications and UI components. The cultures are loaded asynchronously whenever needed.

HTML5 Forms

There is still no single modern web browser that supports HTML5 forms, except for Opera which has had better implementation since the specification was known as Web Forms 2.0. It is clear, web browsers will implement support HTML5 forms sooner or later, but this will leave web platform fragmented for a very long time (also take into consideration Internet Explorer with major market share that has very slow pace in rolling out features and also browser upgrade). Major aspect of the technology is styleability of forms elements, this has not been addressed even in Opera who has the most advanced implementation.

We are now actively working on HTML5 forms implementation that will come with 0.9.3 All new input types and other new elements will be supported, will be scriptable and easily styleable with CSS.

We are looking for individuals willing to create platform-specific skins for our implementation of HTML5 forms

New plugin system

There is now new plugin system, largely influenced by the jQuery plugins architecture. In version 0.9.3 we will ship Cookie, XSLT, Forms, Store and maybe XPath plugins with the framework.

MVC library

There is also work being done on an MVC JavaScript library to address application development needs. The initiative is in a rather earlier phase and it is not clear if the project will end up in 0.9.3 release. Take a look a the Sample Ample SDK App project for directions.

Simplified UI components registration APIs

The UI components registration system has been simplified and merged into ample.extend(), which will require less proprietary APIs. All UI languages in Ample SDK have been upgraded to make use of the new system. You may be interested in reading the updated Creating UI Elements tutorial.

Ample SDK 0.9.3 release

We are currently planning to release Ample SDK 0.9.3 in the middle of November. It is not clear if MVC library and XPath plugin will end up in the release, the rest should be in. You should also be aware that XML Schema data-types module WILL NOT be included with this release.