jSEND 2.0

Speed up response + increase UX* of your WebApps

UX is short for User eXperience ~ how a person feels about using your web site or application.

jSEND is a JavaScript cross browser component for jQuery.

It provides compression in combination with binary-to-text encoding and achieves significant, lossless information reduction for your data transfers - supporting all kinds of textual data: XML, stringified JSON Objects, (X)HTML, plain text... Test it now!

jSEND is intended for use in Web 2.0 and rich applications - as invaluable supplement for post requests via the XMLHTTPRequest object (AJAX/AJAJ).

This software is absolutely free. It's licensed same as jQuery – under the terms of either the MIT License or the GNU General Public License (GPL) Version 2.

Why use jSEND?

For compressed data delivery from server to browser there are GZip/Deflate.

In the other direction there is - now - jSEND.

Integrate it in your web application if you want to:

• Increase user experience by faster response times
• Reduce amounts of transferred data and save bandwith
• Submit UTF-8 data as ASCII string and eliminate different character sets issues & confusion
• Obfuscate information delivered by AJAX posts
• Just have fun by Using (our) Solution Productively...

Runtime of code is - in most cases - nearly predictable, wire speed isn't.

Your users can read and inspect it - e.g. with tools like Live HTTP headers for Firefox. jSEND offers - generously interpreted - a kind of obfuscation, but it's NOT encryption. For that please use HTTPS/SSL.

jSEND is transparent, reliable, lightweight (2.5 KB minified) and fully UTF-8 compatible. It is free and open source and can easily be customized to fit your individual needs.

Why don't use jSEND?

###If you fully approve to one of the 5 questions below, you shouldn't use it:

• Are you NEITHER a web developer, NOR a web designer, NOR a web enthusiast? ...sniff :o(
• Do you want to achieve »AJAX uploads«*?
• Do you only send small amounts of data (< 500 bytes) to the server, always?
• Is bandwidth usage no subject and does all of your users have broadband internet access, all the time?
• Do your clients use outdated hardware** or extremely low performing devices to access your (web) application? Even though you think you don't need it, please evaluate the technical approach of jSEND.

Currently there is no way to do "real" uploading with AJAX, read more...

E.g. produced and sold before Y2K.

Usage

###The HTML/JavaScript part

Include jQuery and jSEND in your HTML file or template. Loading jQuery from CDN (Content Delivery Network) is recommended.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4/jquery.min.js"><script> 
<script type="text/javascript" src="jsend.min.js"></script>

Write JavaScript code!

var str = "String to Squeeze, ENcode & Deliver"; 
var data = $.jSEND(str); 
// Send data to server

###The PHP counterpart

Include jSEND class in your PHP file.

include('jsend.class.php');

Write PHP code!

$data = $_POST["data"]; 
// Checks, Validation etc. 
$jSEND = new jSEND(); 
$str = $jSEND->getData($data);

About jSEND

Author

jSEND was created and is currently maintained by Michael Kortstiege - a web developer from near Hanover, Germany.

His main fields of occupation and some of his personal interests are web-based applications, web usability and social media issues (both, pros and cons ;-).

»A short statement from him: code is poetry - see Smashing Magazine and Wordpress - but objects are the beat.«

Credits

• Lempel-Ziv-Welch - developers of the LZW compression algorithm
• Jakub Vrana http://php.vrana.cz/ - binary encoder/decoder, similar to PHP pack function
• Jürgen Helbing http://www.yenc.org/ - the idea how to clever escape an encoded string