Graphic Editor :

Initially JS Designer was created in order to simplify the design process of complex web interfaces that had to be stored in a database (MySQL / Oracle).

If you want to make your interfaces re-useable, highly customisable (skins), multi-lingual, you can either think to an HTML/XML based solution (like many applications using skins), or either think to store all graphical informations in a database.

In this later case, when you call you web-application, a couple of PHP scripts then reconstruct the interface(s) being called by building on-the-fly all necessary HTML and CSS.

With this approach, if you don't want to waste time filling database tables manually with graphical informations, you then immediately need a graphic editor capable of filling the DB for you, while you design your favourite interface with your mouse in a WYSIWYG way.

JS Designer is such a graphical editor, written entirely in Javascript, being itslef a client-side web-application.

Code Editor :

The concept of JS Designer has now been extended to the edition of your application code, changing it from a graphical editor to an IDE(still simple although).

When you are designing an interface, you can now indeed write javascript code directly from within JS Designer. This javascript code is attached to an event, itself attached to the graphical object being edited, just like you would do in VisualBasic for example.

This javascript code written is then also stored in the DB, and when you call you web-application, the JS is also built on-the-fly like the HTML and CSS.

This creates very interesting perspectives about application code centralization and re-useability.

Created applications :

JS Designer interacts with the SQL database online (without page reloads), using a small ingenious homebrew js piece of code.

This piece of code, with several others (like dynamic tables handling) can be used in your own DB application.

You will then build an application that works (almost) entirely in Javascript; YES it is very possible, even for complex applications and YES it is indeed very stable, portable (crass-platform, cross browsers) and fast.

Check what I already built using JS Designer in the screenshots, and look in the tutorial page to get a better idea as well.

As no page refresh are needed anymore, you enjoy great response time, just like any other client-side application, but still, it is web-based in the way that your code is centralized & portable.

Of course, the code of such a javascript application can't be protected, and altough not modifiable, it will always be visible to your users, but hey, if you don't think opensource yet, you wouldn't be reading this right ? ;-)