DWR 2.0 Release Candidate 1

It's been a long time coming, but we've at last updated DWR to a version 2.0 release candidate 1 status.

For the impatient:

• New and Noteworthy
• Download

There is a full run-down on the changes in the new and noteworthy documentation, however to whet your appetite:

JavaScript Proxy API

DWR can dynamically generate JavaScript from a Java API. This is done at runtime rather than compile time, so we can use it to remote control many browsers. This makes it very easy to write things like chat applications, or anything particularly dynamic. Messages are sent to clients using Reverse Ajax.

Reverse Ajax

DWR supports 3 ways to asynchronously transfer messages from the server to the browser: Comet (long-lived HTTP connections), Polling and Piggyback. Of these Comet and Polling are active (fast but require extra network traffic) and Piggyback is passive (slower but doesn't need extra network traffic). DWR automatically selects the best method transparently to the programmer.

Security

Two of the the biggest generic dangers to ajax applications today are Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), which most people are aware of, and the new tool in the hack-box: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF). DWR helps you protect your site against these attacks by providing automatic protection against CSRF attacks for many configurations, and by defaulting to a mode where XSS attacks are reduced.

Check back here soon for more on CSRF and how to protect yourself against it.

Update: Jurgen Van Oosterwijck has blogged with more details about Reverse Ajax.