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EasyCommunicator AJAX or Flash Persistant Connection Object Version 1.2 7/17/2006 EasyCommunicator uses either JavaScript with DOM (AJAX) or JavaScript and a Flash object for the purpose of communicating with a web server without refreshing a page. A small (400 bytes - not kilobytes, bytes!) Flash movie and a JavaScript object plus server-side code for PHP, ASP.NET and JSP/Java, released under the LGPL license - created by Level Three Solutions. The goal of EasyCommunicator is to establish a simple tool for eliminating the round-trip problem in web-based applications. Communication is accomplished with just 5 methods - setRequestPage, setVariable, send, load, and Get. No XML parsing is necessary. For example, it is the basis of L3Connect, a web based application that allows company staff to communicate with their site visitors with instant messaging. See this screenshot. DHTML is very powerful and complex web-based applications with easy to use interfaces can be developed using DHTML and any number of server technologies, but currently there is no cross-browser mechanism for communicating with the server without loading a page in a hidden frame or reloading the entire page. By including the EasyCommunicator object in a web page, and using its very flexible and extensible object-oriented design, anyone can now create powerful web-based applications that use DHTML exclusively for the front-end. Java is often used when a persistant connection is critical, such as with web-based chat clients. However Java is no longer included in Windows or Internet Explorer - for many users loading Java applets requires that they first install the Java runtime environment on their computer, a task many users will not complete solely at the request of a site they are visiting. Flash, on the other hand, has the same persistant connection features Java has, including socket support and HTTP requests, but most developers do not wish to create an application with Flash's limited GUI feature set. The EasyCommunicator object eliminates these issues by using a hidden Flash movie which communicates with a simple JavaScript object. It has only four methods - setRequestPage, setVariable, send, and load. Data is sent through a combination of the setVariable method and the send method. Data is received through an event and a NameValue object. See the documentation for details on these methods and events. In more recent browsers, EasyCommunicator can function without the Flash object by using XML abilities built into the DOM. For comments, a list of issues, or to submit an new issue see: https://sourceforge.net/projects/ecommunicator/