Which Ajax library do you use/recommend?

[wwb_99]

I use MS Ajax these days. And, in the pre-Atlas days, I was using Ajax.NET. I also have some very lightweight stuff that does not use any Ajax framework at all.

[toasti]

I use YUI and recently have started playing around with the EXT library. EXT is very cool:
http://extjs.com/

[Raffles]

Stormrider, if you want to use jQuery's $(document).ready() with prototype, you could just add it yourself: http://dean.edwards.name/weblog/2006/06/again/

[jtrelfa]

I use prototype/scriptaculous for several reasons:

Prototype offers many extensions to the core language that have proven to be invaluable.

For example, I used to wrote this:

for (var i = 0, len = arrayName.length; i < len; ++i) {
  //do a bunch of stuff
}

With prototype, I can replace it with this:

arrayName.each(function(elem) {
  //do stuff
})

The beautiful part of that isn't so much the ease of writing, it's also easier to 'read' the code.

In addition, you can string stuff together so that a function that produces an array will have the .each method available:

$A(document.getElementsByTagName("a")).each(function(elem) {
  elem.onclick = alert(elem.href);
});

How much easier can it get?

[damian34]

dojo is a great concept but too slow and too buggy, alot of the controls aren't complete or they change from version to version.

jQuery and Prototype definately win hands down for code quality, implementation and ease of use.

jtrelfa: if you like those features of prototype you may also like jQuery which can achieve similair things like

$('a').click(function() {
  alert($(this).href);
});

you could also extend a to only process those with a certain class, 'a .myclass', etc.

[jtrelfa]

very cool, damian34 - I've used jquery for a couple of projects and I like it! I only use it when I need quick and easy page-oriented stuff. When I have to do some heavy-hitting code (behind the scenes stuff), I prefer prototype's sugar.

[Stormrider]

Just realised my error from earlier, using jQuery again now - prototype didn't quite have everything I needed!

[jscheel]

Just wanted to add my support to jQuery. It is really an awesome js library.

[kyberfabrikken]

arrayName.each(function(elem) {
  //do stuff
})

How much easier can it get?

forEach(arrayName, function(elem) {
  //do stuff
})

[gnarly]

If I were to develop plugins for Wordpress using a JS library, should I rather try to understand and learn Prototype?

Wordpress is transitioning over to JQuery for future versions (at least in the back end), so I think you'd be better off targeting that: http://www.siolon.com/2007/the-trans...for-wordpress/

Personally, I quite like Mootools, and Dean Edwards' Base2 library.

[malikyte]

I like how small MooTools is. I like the power behind YUI. I have begun to fall in love with the examples from Ext JS and have thought about purchasing a developer's license.

Anyone that's tried Ext JS, do you have any comments on its use? Easy to understand/get started with? How's the documentation (not the tutorials/screencasts, but the actual docs)?

[soapergem]

Personally I use a combination of X and my own custom functions. I love X because it's very minimalistic and intuitive; you only take what you need and it's easy to work with.

[mcsolas]

I have never used any of them yet. I have only recently been interested in learning about spry, and only because I see in dw cs3 there is a lot of form elements and things that mention making use of this...

edit: found a nice form validation demo. A review of the code used

[Gibberish]

Another vote for JQuery. It's simple, easy to integrate, and has a nice collection of plugins. You can also easily make your own plugins.

[BrandonK]

I started with Prototype a long time ago and it was nice, but very large. Then I moved on to moo.fx and liked it a lot. We had some issues with compatibility, and learning the package wasn't that easy, so I moved over to jQuery. I absolutely love it. Writing code is simple and doesn't require much documentation because it's almost in plain english... visualjquery.com is also extremely helpful for some quick documentation lookup.

(it also doesn't hurt that John Resig is the team leader)

[Force Flow]

Would the Google Web Toolkit be a viable option? I haven't tried it out yet, but it's advertised as being able to generate javascript/AJAX code that cross-browser compatable.

[Young Twig]

I've used moo.fx, and I know they have an AJAX library as well.

jQuery looks interesting.

[Dan Grossman]

I used to use YUI.

Now I use Prototype/Scriptaculous, because that's what Symfony includes. Symfony's JavaScript libraries abstract away the underlying implementation, so I don't need to know anything about how Prototype works, and could swap it out for another library with the same functionality later.

[bluefooz]

I'm using jQuery. I'm a beginner, don't know much about JavaScript nor Ajax, yet I'm able to do requests, manipulation, and some fancy stuff with jQuery. That is clearly something.

Stormrider, if you want to use jQuery's $(document).ready() with prototype, you could just add it yourself: http://dean.edwards.name/weblog/2006/06/again/

I wish there's an official compilation from Dean for all the inputs there. I'm quite confused after reading all the comments.

[eldacar]

I use my own at the moment, but when base2 gets XHR support I'll use that.

I wish there's an official compilation from Dean for all the inputs there. I'm quite confused after reading all the comments.

http://dean.edwards.name/weblog/2006...ll#comment5338 That seems to be the best.

[codeTweaker]

Hi I'm a newbie to javascript and I tried jQuery. Its really easy to use. It works like magic I also had a looked on YUI. It has good set of javascript GUI.

[Fenrir2]

mootools is very good too.

[web_dev]

I recommend prototype js library. They have nice documentation and easy to begin with. You can find tons of tutorials on the net to get started with prototype. I totally recommend that.

[Mysticserver]

jQuery rocks! There are some great extension to it, and their are incredibly easy to add.

-JasonR

[Eric Suen]

ExtJS, with great editor support...