Hi there,

after nearly a decade in which I avoided anything "web" after 2002 and worked on "real software"... Now it looks like I need to upgrade my good old FrontPage 2000...

I need to work on some GUIs and I want to make them very dynamic as in "i-google-style" ( http://www.google.com/ig ). I know what that means at the backend, but I would like to start to work on some GUI prototypes without the actual programming in the back yet. Does anybody know some good tools for dynamic web developments? (Ideally freeware... )

Thanks!

Cracks would probably refer you to a text editor, such as Notepad. If you are interfacing with the server, some tools match up better to some server OS than others. If you are interfacing to a generic server, your GUI development will likely only concern itself with standard Javascript, CSS and HTML. In the case of Google apps, those are AJAX GUI components.

I think Eclipse has a lot of interesting plug-ins, but quite heavy and complicated. I normally generate the basic part in Dreamweaver or some graphical IDE, then edit in PSEdit or Jujuedit.

I am aware that I am talking Ajax here - or some of the similar dynamic alternatives.

I can do all my basic fun in a text editor - that's what I used FrontPage for a decade ago. The question is more: If you want to make a prototype of an Ajax website - how would you do it as simple as possible: Have the "boxes", be able to move them around (and just make some mock-ups of the content without any integration of sources yet).

Some ideas here:

http://mashable.com/2007/09/28/ajax-tools/

This is a good list. But it also reflects how deep the topic can go. The Google AJAX API and jQuery are both very useful APIs, but will require a knowledge ramp-up curve.



If you know Javascript, the moving of boxes are simple events of changing the location of the object to the mouse location. But if what you are really interested in is designing the look and feel of the GUI, you might be better off mocking it up in a static graphics program, then hand it over to someone who has the knowledge and time to code it in Javascript. Otherwise, you could rip off the source of any AJAX app you find on the Internet, then modify its source to your liking. Ultimately, you will be entering code in text. Perhaps Dreamweaver has a drag and drop interface, but it isn't free.

I also would be interested to know if there is a free and better app for this purpose.

It's a bit of all:
- I know Javascript (well, I did a decade ago or so) and I can fake it all the way. But I guess I can then just as well make a static demo... it is only to give an idea of the concept.
- I want Ajax or similar for technical reasons. I am trying to build a web interface for a VERY complex software. Making it with a "widget" approach means that we can take the various components of the software and include them step by step in a web framework. So you have many little projects that you can run in parallel instead of making one massive web GUI with a terribly slow release cycle... and if one thing doesn't work or is not on time, I still get a good product out of it...