AJAX and Javascript in Drupal7 (for developers)

Lots of work has gone into AJAX (formerly AHAH) and Javascript in Drupal 7.

AJAX is WAY easier to use now, and there are lots of new Javascript/JQuery features, including JQuery UI in core. Our goal is that you'll walk out of this session no longer afraid of AJAX in Drupal.

What is AJAX? AJAX was called AHAH just yesterday (D6), and in the Drupal context it most often means the ability for Drupal forms to dynamically refresh without a page load. So it means cooler forms that don't have to press the submit button all the time - they can dynamically respond to user input.

Who is this for? Any developer or themer who knows some PHP and a little Javascript. We'll aim to make the AJAX portion accessible to anybody who has ever seen the Drupal forms API, and the javascript portion should be accessible to anyone who has used or wants to use Javascript in Drupal.

In this talk we'll cover:

• How to use AJAX Forms. It's easy now.
  • Example: Dependent dropdowns
• Javascript usage and features
  • Module scaffolding and best practices
  • Theme scaffolding and best practices
  • Some nifty Javascript use cases
• The Examples module's AJAX and Javascript examples
• Drupal 7 Javascript coding changes from D6

Subtopics that will be addressed:

• jQuery UI
• AJAX Links
• Javascript States system

Here's a link to our slides

Some related sessions you may be interested in:

• Roger Lopez: Leveraging the Chaos tool suite for module development. Roger will cover the CTools AJAX Command Framework, which has been incorporated into Drupal 7 AJAX but won't be covered in any detail in this session.
• kkaefer: Instant Dynamic Forms with #states