Is there anything like ASP.NET AJAX for PHP5?

[sofakng]

I really like how easy it is to use the ASP.NET AJAX toolkit and I'm wondering if anything like that exists for PHP5.

I know there are a bunch of Ajax libraries for PHP5 but they don't seem to come close to the ASP.NET AJAX toolkit.

Also, I'm really not trying to start a war here. I'm simply trying to decide whether I should learn/use ASP.NET+AJAX or PHP5.

Thanks for any information!

[kromey]

One significant and unarguable (although I'm sure someone will argue it) advantage that PHP has over ASP (.NET or otherwise) is that it's platform agnostic - you can write PHP apps and take them to Windows, Linux, BSD, Mac, heck even Solaris! ASP locks you into Windows. Maybe that's not a bad thing to you, but a lot of PHP programmers that I've talked to love PHP because of this independence (among other reasons).

As for a PHP5 equivalent of ASP.NET+AJAX, I can't help you out because I have no idea what ASP.NET's AJAX toolkit gives you. I can point you to some of the more popular PHP frameworks (symfony I know has AJAX goodies, and I would not be surprised to also find them in CakePHP or the Zend Framework). Personally, I learned how to implement AJAX and have created my own libraries, as well as pulling in additional libraries others have created and published. While none of these are integrated into a PHP framework, I personally like the separation of server- and client-side execution.

That was one thing that confused me to no end when I started working with ASP.NET - you often have no idea whether the code you're writing will execute server- or client-side. Not to mention that ASP.NET completely removes you from the HTTP model entirely, and you have no way of knowing in your code what corresponds to what page views. While this may improve productivity for someone who comes from a background of developing desktop apps, it confuses those of us whose background is web apps and removes our ability to control what is happening where. (Heh, and when I started this post I promised myself I wouldn't attack ASP.NET. I guess I can't help - I really do not like it, and my attitude toward it is not at all helped by the fact that I am being forced to learn and use it at work.)

[Jhorra]

So, you have no answer for him, but felt this a good opportunity to bash ASP.Net?

As far the OP's question, no, there is not an AJAX Toolkit like you have with ASP.Net. The closest thing might be something like Prototype. You still have to write all the javascript to send and use the processed data. There's nothing that does it all for you.

[kromey]

So, you have no answer for him, but felt this a good opportunity to bash ASP.Net?

Note that he also asked whether he should learn ASP.NET or PHP. I gave my 2 cents on the subject. Besides, I hardly think my post is "bashing" ASP.NET - I said I don't like but could see how programmers with different backgrounds may find it attractive and good for them.

Additionally, I did point him toward some possible solutions for his problem.

[Jhorra]

Sorry, I didn't see his question about what he should learn.

[wwb_99]

That was one thing that confused me to no end when I started working with ASP.NET - you often have no idea whether the code you're writing will execute server- or client-side. Not to mention that ASP.NET completely removes you from the HTTP model entirely, and you have no way of knowing in your code what corresponds to what page views. While this may improve productivity for someone who comes from a background of developing desktop apps, it confuses those of us whose background is web apps and removes our ability to control what is happening where. (Heh, and when I started this post I promised myself I wouldn't attack ASP.NET. I guess I can't help - I really do not like it, and my attitude toward it is not at all helped by the fact that I am being forced to learn and use it at work.)

I never really had a problem understanding what parts of the application lived where in ASP.NET. AJAX blurs the line a bit, but most things are still running server-side. Biggest issue is that they really don't teach ASP.NET correctly most of the time. One really needs to start with .NET 101 and then HTTP 101 and then figure out how they interplay.

Anyhow, to answer the question, no there is no functional equivalent. You can, in fact, use the client-side parts of ASP.NET AJAX with any HTTP environment--PHP, RoR, Lisp or just plain HTML. The server-side parts are so ASP.NET specific that one would have trouble simulating them.

[earl-grey]

I am not sure if it offers AJAX-based controls, but PRADO is sort of ASP.NET analog for PHP.

[devbanana]

Prado does indeed offer some ajax controls, but they are beta at best in my experience, and still aren't as good as ASP.NET ajax.

If you have the ability of doing so, I'd strongly recommend choosing ASP.NET, as you will find no equivalent in PHP. You will only find more tools in ASP.NET that have nothing similar in PHP. Not to mention, how can you resist Visual Studio... that's honestly a huge factor for me for choosing ASP.NET because it improves efficiency for me. I'm doing a project right now where PHP was requested and I'm really missing Visual Studio along with all the additional features of ASP.NET....