Name: Performance Optimization of SOA based AJAX Application
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1506233&dl=ACM&coll=DL&CFID=120989012&CFTOKEN=50544860
By: Kanakalata N, Udayan
Banerjee, Shantha Kumar. NIIT Technologies
Ltd.
Review:
Nowadays we can see java script based libraries been used in
almost every web site or web application. AJAX is one of the most popular JS
libraries around. This research paper shows how AJAX can be used to optimize
SOA based applications. This paper has a nice organization and a flow that take
the reader through several fine points that will prove that, there is a room
for optimization in SOA based applications using AJAX. This talk about several
AJAX based solutions to optimize the response time and the usability of the
application. This does not talk about how to optimize the server performance.
It shows that writer has identified the boundaries of the paper and has managed
to stick to it.
This Paper starts explaining and elaborating on the topic
through an example of an insurance underwriting application. This walks the
reader through main design considerations, elimination of coding inefficiencies,
and selecting though design alternatives and finally optimizing for usability.
This makes a fine order to anyone who reads this paper. Writer of this paper
has not made it hard, which make it readable by anyone with a basic knowledge
in AJAX and SOA.
Other main factor, that make me believe in their idea of
using AJAX for SOA optimization is that, all of their arguments are backed up
by good facts and theories. As a example, in this paper they describe why we
should shift the load entirely to the client. Writer took well-known Moore’s
law to show how power of servers and client computers increase over years. However
if we take “power per user” servers do not show a large increment compared to
PCs, as number of users are rapidly increasing. With above argument writer proves
the importance of AJAX.
Another point, which fascinated me, is the “Micro
Granular Repainting”. This talks
about having a XML files for both data and HTML and, repainting at the node
level. Using this approach, it is possible to repaint the part of the page at
the lowest level of granularity. In the next section, they talk about client
side caching which is a relatively new idea with AJAX. Here they say that, it
improves the response time and overall performance of the system. Use of
caching reduces the number of requests for the server, which enables sever to
handle higher number of users.
In the “Improve
Perceived Response” section, they talk about “Lazy Loading” which is known
by most of developers, mainly as a concept and a design pattern. However, I
think it would be better if they give the brief description on “What is lazy
loading”, at least for the completeness sake. “Lazy loading” as they suggest
can reduce the initial page loading time. According to my experience, there are
users who let the page load while he is doing something else and return after
sometime. This type of uses might get irritated seeing that only a partially
loaded page.
The research paper
ends with nice set of test result that shows the success of this framework and
design considerations. However, these results are taken relative to “insurance
underwriting application”, and can change as the domain changes. Nevertheless,
the underline facts of those search results suggest that such a change will not
happen. According to my knowledge in AJAX and web applications it is clear to
me that this framework will improve the responsiveness in any SOA based
application regardless of the domain. I see a better future for SOA based
applications through AJAX optimization which give you the total control over
how, when, where your application should be loaded.
Reviewed By: Romesh
Malinga Perera. Undergraduate, University of Moratuwa
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