The topic of this event is “Web Development Technologies: ASP.NET vs. Java & JSF vs. PHP vs. Ruby”. The .NET team will present the ASP.NET, ASP.NET AJAX, ASP.NET MVC and the new ASP.NET extensions in .NET Framework 3.5. The Java team will stand up for JavaServer Faces (JSF), Google Web Toolkit (GWT), Echo Framework and other Java Web development frameworks. The PHP team will stand up for the Web frameworks in PHP, especially the Symphony framework. The Ruby team will stand for Ruby on Rails.

Venue

The event will be held on 6 March 2008, starting from 17:30 h in Park-hotel Moscow, Sofia, hall Moscow. The hall capacity is 350 people.

Agenda

ASP.NET

ASP.NET is a set of Web development technologies provided by Microsoft as part of .NET Framework. It is used by developers to create dynamic Web applications and Web services. ASP.NET provides component-based architecture with comprehensive page rendering and execution model that relies on the concepts of the event-driven development. ASP.NET supports the concept of separation between the code and UI presentation and supports custom components, data binding and master pages. Developers can use C#, VB.NET and other .NET languages to create ASP.NET Web applications. ASP.NET is the best Web technology, isn’t it? If you don’t agree, come to fight at the ring.

ASP.NET AJAX

ASP.NET has a really strong story for AJAX. The AJAX implementation supports both a server centric and a client centric programming model. On the server new AJAX controls extend the Page Framework and offer the well-known control based and event-driven way of working. The AJAX controls take care of partial rendering of Web pages. Microsoft has released an impressive cross-browser compatible AJAX library on the client side. It allows you to do full client-side JavaScript development, and adds object orientation with inheritance, a type system including reflection and namespaces. And to top it all, the AJAX library is royalty-free and you can use and change it however you like. Surely no other AJAX framework can put up against this much power and survive a 12 round fight!

ASP.NET MVC Framework

Microsoft goes into a new direction of web application development with the introduction of the Model-View-Controller framework for ASP.NET. The benefits of the MVC approach include the ability to achieve and maintain a clear separation of concerns (data, presentation and actions), and also facilitates test driven development (TDD) and define page navigation rules. Microsoft’s MVC implementation is all about extensibility and flexibility. You have a free choice of the type of controller, the way URLs are routed and how views are created. The MVC Framework leverages the ASP.NET runtime and should be easy to learn for existing ASP.NET programmers, but also those coming from other runtimes and frameworks. All in all, the ASP.NET MVC Framework is sure to pack a punch. Will the combination of ASP.NET and MVC bring a quick knockout?

Java Web Technologies

The Java Enterprise platform (Java EE) provides solid foundation for development of Web applications and Web services. It introduces the concept of Web containers and Web applications. Java Web applications are built on the top of Servlet/JSP standards which serve as basis for the more complicated Web technologies. The Servlet API provides the basic execution model for the Web applications. The JavaServer Pages (JSP) technology provides additionally custom tags and tag libraries and has built-in expression language.

JavaServer Faces (JSF)

As a natural extension to the Servlet/JSP standards JavaServer Faces (JSF) provides standard component based architecture for Web applications. It provides reusable UI components and comprehensive rendering and execution model. Developers can benefit of using event driven development, data binding, control validation and page navigation rules. JSF is naturally extended to support AJAX with partial rendering and asynchronous execution and update of controls on the page. Shall the JSF gain a victory over the opponents as a technical effort or the Java team fill fall into boxing combat? Be sure to come and see.

Google Web Toolkit (GWT)

This session intends to reveal some of the benefits of GWT as UI Framework. Nowadays having a dynamic web UI is a must. Java programming is always preferred compared with pure HTML and Java Script. So combining both can really boost productivity and in the same way give us the opportunity to have a nice and flexible UI. The session will also include the usage of GWT in a real SAP project so that everybody can get a feeling for the product. Somebody mentioned JavaScript and AJAX support in .NET and PHP? No need of fight: GWT does not just use JavaScript and AJAX; those are in its blood.

Echo2 Framework

Echo2 is a platform for building Web applications that approach the capabilities of rich clients. The applications are developed using a component-oriented and event-driven API, eliminating the need to deal with HTML, JavaScript and the “page-based” nature of Web browsers. Echo2 applications are by their nature AJAX-enabled. To the developer, Echo2 works just like a user interface toolkit with and presents very simple approach to write efficient Web applications. Any AJAX pugilists?

PHP and PHP Web Frameworks

Some developers believe that PHP code is always low quality and PHP does not have good frameworks and standards for enterprise development. Is this true? What makes PHP the most widely used Web development language?

PHP frameworks are hot topic in the Web development community. Some of the most popular frameworks are: ZendFramework, Symfony, Codelighter, CakePHP, eZ Components but this list can not be either accurate or comprehensive.

PHP does not need to fight or dispute with the rest. It is the largest community and keeps the largest market share in Web technologies, isn’t it?

Symphony Framework for PHP

Symfony is a complete PHP framework designed to optimize the development of Web applications. It contains numerous tools and classes aimed at shortening the development time of a complex Web applications. Additionaly, it automates common tasks so that the developer can focus entierly on the specifics of the application. Some of the key features are: MVC separation, simple templating and helpers, cache management, smart URLs, scaffolding, multilingualism and I18N support, AJAX support and built-in unit and functional testing framework. Does anybody think Symphony is not better than ASP.NET and JSF? We shall see.

Smashing Rails

Since its inception several years ago Ruby on Rails has steadily garnered a lot of attention. The rolling stock seems not to be hype-powered only in shunting established technologies. Rather than presenting Rails the Ruby team decided to let it speak on its own. Ruby on Rails will squash the other Web technologies. Come to see this.

Teams

5 teams and 23 contestants take part in the event. The teams:

• ­ The .NET Team (Alex Thissen from INETA, Branimir Giurov from SofiaDev, Stefan Dobrev from Avaxo, Deyan Varchev from Avaxo, Galin Iliev, Martin Kulov and Emil Stoychev) – stands up for the ASP.NET Web technologies
• ­ The Java Team (Nikolay Dokovski from SAP Labs Bulgaria, Jordan Jordanov from SAP Labs Bulgaria, Peter Milev, Nikolay Nedyalkov from ISECA, Vesko Arnaudov from VMWare, Naiden Gochev from ProxiAD) – stands up for the Java Web technologies like JSF, GWT, Echo, etc.
• ­ The PHP Team (Peter Vukadinov from pi consult and Valery Gantchev) – stands up for the PHP Web technologies
• ­ The Ruby Team (Sava Chankov from Tutuf, Petyo Ivanov from 3atwork, Stanislav Bozhkov from svejo.net, Stanislav Peshterliev and Dimitar Ivanov) – stands up for the Ruby and Rails technologies
• ­ The Referees Team (Svetlin Nakov from BASD, Dimitar Kapitanov from Telerik and Mihail Stoynov) – technologically neutral, moderate the discussion

Free Event

The event is free and the hall is large, so please come with your friends! Everyone will get small gifts from our sponsors.

Official Web Site

Visit the IT Boxing Official Web site for more information.