While I have seen this question asked previously, it has been a while without any satisfactory responses... My attention has been caught by Aptana's Jaxer, and I must say, the concept is quite intriguing.
For those unfamiliar with it, here's a brief overview:
Jaxer claims to be "the world's first true AJAX server". It utilizes the Mozilla engine, allowing scripts to be written in JavaScript with full access to the DOM on the server-side.
Scripts are included on pages using <script> tags, with the option to specify a runat attribute (similar to ASP.NET) to designate whether the script should run on the client, server, both, or act as a "server-proxy" where the functions are executed on the server via AJAX but made available on the client. This setup enables the use of favorite client-side libraries like jQuery and Prototype on the server side as well.
Jaxer can also process documents generated in other languages such as PHP or Ruby, though this might primarily serve as a transitional aid for migrating existing applications to Jaxer.
- What are the advantages and disadvantages?
- How stable and mature is the API?
- How does its performance compare to other server-side HTML preprocessors?
- Have you used Jaxer alongside another technology (PHP, Perl, Ruby, etc.)? If so, what were your experiences?
EDIT: I've posted a follow-up question addressing an issue I encountered while experimenting with Jaxer: Defining objects when using Jaxer