You gotta admit, the Simple Web Framework does look interesting with all of the recent Ajax talk:
The Simple Web Framework (SWF) is an event based framework targeting Struts developers who want to build rich Web applications but do not want to migrate to JSF. The SWF is built upon the same Jakarta commons basis as Struts, but uses a different request processor (front controller.) The SWF event model supports form/submit style event posting, similar to VB.NET or JSF, as well as XmlHttpRequest based event posting with In place Page Updating (IPU) rather than page reloading, similar to the techniques underlying gMail. Read the SWF Overview for additional information.
My hope is that all web frameworks have some support for IPU by the end of the year. Then I won't have to build it into AppFuse. 
I think we can all probably learn a lesson from Google. I've heard that GMail is the "gold standard" for Ajax applications. If that's the case, then you should note that they've recently added a "basic HTML" link to the bottom of their pages. With this link, you can view your e-mail using the old way: Yahoo-style, no-JavaScript-needed. My guess is they added it because of demand, or simply to compete with other providers who have this feature. I think it's a good lesson though: use Ajax features in webapps where appropriate, but don't make JavaScript necessary to use your app.
A couple of Ajax features I've been thinking of developing:
- Saving forms with XMLHttpRequest: just display a success message at the top, and switch the "Cancel" button to "Done". Since the form's content doesn't change, this seems like a reasonable use of the technology.
- Switching out entire "content" <div> elements. Most of my apps have a <div id="content">, so it'd probably pretty easy to just replace that in response to button and link clicks. Of course, the hard part is having the requested server-side object load the view template, process it, and send back the content. This is probably more trouble than it's worth.
