| |
| |
MX AJAX Toolbox comes with a set of rich user interface controls that you can use to display content in your site. Some of these controls also have a simple DHTML version, which does not require any server technology to run. This means you can also use them in site setups that do not employ a server scripting language or a database.
Displaying tabular data is certainly not new: dynamic tables have been around since the early versions of Dreamweaver. With MX AJAX Toolbox, however, you can build improved dynamic tables, that look nice, load fast and allow visitors to sort and filter data in a snap.
With the AJAX dynamic tables, your site visitors will no longer have to refresh the entire page when they navigate through records or when they filter them.
MX AJAX Toolbox provides a neat way to display images in a fast-loading AJAX gallery with thumbnail navigation. Use it to display photos from your vacations, or product screenshots.
Images will be loaded as you navigate, without refreshing the entire page and thumbnails will be generated gradually. It also features a slideshow playback mode, which is perfect for showing vacation photos to friends and family.
Tabsets are ideal for structuring site content and offering an easy way to browse through tabs of information.
You can place any type of content in the tabs: images, animations, text, forms or recordset listings.
You need to display similar bits of information, but you only got limited space on your page? Then the accordion control is what you need. Switch between regions with only one click, to display the information you need at one time.
The content from the other regions is loaded asynchronously, using AJAX, when you want to open them.
Sometimes you only need to display content once, and then dismiss it. It can be a sales promotion, some instructions or other optional elements that you only need to show to visitors once. For these situations, you can use the collapsible region: expand it, read it, collapse it.
A dialog box is the unobtrusive AJAX version of a pop-up window.
Use it anytime you want to interact with site visitors, to ask their confirmation, display extra tips, or ask them to fill in additional details.
Web 2.0 is all about interaction and communities. So why not let your site visitors decide what's cool and what's not. Add the AJAX Rating widget to your site, to allow people to vote for their favorite article, favorite artist, or favorite products.
Use this intelligent text field to help site visitors fill in forms, by offering them hints retrieved from a database recordset. You can also build "guided searches", to suggest popular search keywords for your site.
Insert dynamic content into your site pages and allow your users to edit the information in place, without having to go to an administration section or to load another web page. All they need to do is click on the edit region and then enter the correction they desire, in order to implement the changes.
In the next section, you will learn how MX AJAX Toolbox can help you create appealing site designs.