WSRP, ajax, and javascript

[Michael Freedman <michael.freedman@oracle.com>]

Now that we are making progress on defining the fragment processing semantic, I think we need to work through related  issues that arise from encouraging portlets to heavily use javascript and in particular javascript libraries.  My assumption is that the types of rich client behaviors we want to support will be quickly baked into toolkits/frameworks that are implemented via a set of  javascript (libraries).  As portlets are consumer components aggregated into a single page/response we now have to worry about how any particular portlet's dependency on javascript impacts either the consumer itself or other portlets in the consumer's page.  It seems the consumer may need more knowledge to determine whether a portlet (and its javascript) needs to be isolated from the rest of the page in order to run.  Likewise additional knowledge is needed to share javascript (references).

Consider the matirx of scenarios:
Consumer

1. Doesn't rely on rich client facilities itself (i.e. no Ajax use other then in support of portlets)
2. Has its own Rich Client facilities that are distinct from those used by the portlet.
3. Has its own Rich Client facilities which are based on the same one used by the portlet.
4. Has its own Rich Client facilities which are based on the same one used by the portlet but is a distinct version of these facilities.

And of course, because the consumer is likely dealing with multiple portlets from distinct producers any given page in the consumer there is a combinatorics problem.

In the case the consumer itself doesn't rely on rich client facilities we still need to look at:

1. portlets from different producers use distinct rich client facilities.
2. portlets from the same producers use the same rich client facilities.
   
3. portlets from different producers use the same rich client facilities.
4. portlets from different producers use the same rich client facilities but rely on different versions.

In the case the consumer also uses rich client facilities:

1. portlets from different producers use distinct rich client facilities and the consumers usage is distinct
2. portlets from the same producers use the same rich client facilities and this is distinct from the consumer's.
3. portlets from the same producers use the same rich client facilities and this is the same as the consumer's.
4. portlets from different producers use the same rich client facilities and these are distinct from the consumer's.
5. portlets from different producers use the same rich client facilities and these are the same as the consumer's.
6. portlets from different producers  and the consumer use the same rich client facilities but rely on different versions.