Facebook pokes and pop-ups

[staticbob]

Guys, sorry for my ignorance , but what technology does facebook use?

When you poke, or message somebody, you get the nice pop-ups that fade out.

Whats that then?

Bob

[Bobalandi]

probably js and ajax n stuff...

[capsulecorpjx]

probably js and ajax n stuff...

What's the server side tech? Java Servlets, ASP or PHP?

[timeshifter]

Probably not JS... MySpace is as of recently, ASP.NET... wouldn't surprise me if Facebook was too. It's designed to do that kind of thing.

[Bobalandi]

Look at the ending on the url, aspx, html, php, etc...

[timeshifter]

Doesn't help. trust me. I have several sites I've built that use almost exclusively .htm extensions, even though there's only one page you're looking at and it's a .aspx page.

URL rewriting is fun stuff.

[staticbob]

Well whatever it is, how do you go about coding those pop-up windows that you see when you poke ? I want an action confirmation message on a few asp.net pages and that kind of actionless pop-up message that fades out would be perfect.

Also, I have suggested that you should be able to set direction on pokes. For most people I know, I would like to poke them in the eyes, or give them a sharp jab in the ribs.

[kregg]

I've been building apps on Facebook, and if I was to guess, it would probably be a mock ajax written in PHP, or something with Java involved.

[eyeRmonkey]

I know those poke dialog very VERY well. I wrote this:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3910

Yes. They do use PHP. And yes. They do use mock ajax.

Here is a good starting place for an AJAX library:

http://jquery.com/

[staticbob]

Cheers,

So what would it take to write this sort of poke message for asp.net, just to inform users that their action is confirmed, then fade away. Dont need any user intervention. I'd like to use this on lots of different screens with different messages on each. Is it easy enough to make this a re-useable control as you would anything else?

Bob

[eyeRmonkey]

jQuery is what I would recommend. Read some tutorials on jQuery and on AJAX in general. When you have a specific question, we can help you with that, but we can't write the code for you.

As far as reusability, that's totally up to how well you program it.

[staticbob]

Cool, I'm onto it. Its not rocket science is it!

[capsulecorpjx]

php just seems to be king. I think many major sites use php on linux or unix servers it seems.

ASP.NET? The Windows Servers probably are not as stable or simple to maintain as bare bones command line Linux servers, plus I think ASP.NET, though easier to program, is probably not as fast as php.

[eyeRmonkey]

Let's just put it this way:

Facebook = Linux+PHP
MySpace = Windows+ASP.NET

You decide which runs better

[dclamp]

myspace constantly has errors... PHP FTW! WOOT!

[eyeRmonkey]

To be fair, it's more likely that MySpace (even with billions of dollars) just can't seem to hire good programers and write a proper website. I'm sure ASP.NET is decent (although I've never tried it), but I'm sure PHP is better in most regards.

[Bobalandi]

Well, with far over like 1million people on at once it is kind of understandable, dont you think?

[timeshifter]

To be fair, it's more likely that MySpace (even with billions of dollars) just can't seem to hire good programers and write a proper website. I'm sure ASP.NET is decent (although I've never tried it), but I'm sure PHP is better in most regards.

I'm blocking you.

Right now.

You suck.

[dclamp]

[Anti-Timeshifter Encryption]

@eyeRmonkey: just to let you know, ts is a .NET freak. If you dont tell him what he wants to hear (ex: I <3 ASP.NET!) then he hates you forever.

[/Anti-Timeshifter Encryption]

[eyeRmonkey]

@dclamp: Just to let you know, ts <3s me too much to block me.

[timeshifter]

Blast... he knows...

[dclamp]

OH NO! you didnt use Anti-Timeshifter Encryption!!!! GAH! now we are all going to die