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Sending Email with AJAX: Building a Small Application

AJAX has become ubiquitous, thanks to the fact that it gives web developers the ability to create applications that make http requests without reloading the page on which the application is running. It is also extremely versatile and powerful. This article, the first in a series, will start you on the way to creating an AJAX-based email application.

Author Info:

By: Alejandro Gervasio

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January 17, 2006

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

To keep things really simple, the whole structure of the user interface you just saw will be comprised of only three DIV elements. The first one will be the containing block that will wrap up both the left and right panels respectively. With reference to the process for collecting message data, I’ll use only two regular forms, handy for adding new contacts as well as for sending email messages.

As you can see, the user interface utilized by the program is quite simple, so here are the CSS styles that will give the look and feel for each (X)HTML element included in the web document:

body {
            margin: 0;
            padding: 0;
}
h1 {
            font: bold 16px Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
            margin: 5px;
}
a:link,a:visited {
            display: block;
            width: 120px;
            padding: 2px 0 2px 5px;
            font: bold 12px Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-
serif;
            color: #00f;
            text-decoration: none;
            border: 1px solid #cc3;
}
a:hover {
            color: #f33;
            background: #fff;
            border: 1px solid #000;
}
form {
            display: inline;
}
textarea {
            width: 575px;
            height: 380px;
            margin-left: 5px;
            background: #ffc;
            border: 1px solid #000;
}
#container {
            width: 800px;
            height: 572px;
            padding: 5px;
            margin-left: auto;
            margin-right: auto;
            background: #cc9;
            border: 1px solid #000;
}
#mailsection{
            float: left;
            width: 590px;
            height: 570px;
            margin-left: 5px;
            background: #cc3;
            border: 1px solid #000;
}
#contsection {
            float: left;
            width: 200px;
            height: 570px;
            background: #cc3;
            border: 1px solid #000;
            overflow: auto;
}
.mailfield {
            width: 575px;
            height: 20px;
            margin: 0 0 5px 5px;
            border: 1px solid #000;
            background: #ffc;
            font: bold 11px Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-
serif;
            color: #000;
}
.mailbutton {
            width: 120px;
            height: 25px;
            margin-left: 5px;
            font: bold 11px Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-
serif;
            color: #000;
}
.contfield {
            width: 185px;
            height: 20px;
            margin: 0 0px 5px 5px;
            border: 1px solid #000;
            background: #ffc;
            font: bold 11px Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-
serif;
            color: #000;
}

As shown in the CSS declarations above, I’ve styled the three DIVS mentioned before, together with the buttons and form fields that make up the respective web interface. Also, I’ve specified some additional styles for <h1> headers and links, but as I said earlier, feel free to write the CSS rules that best suit your specific needs.

At this point, I’ve shown you the CSS styles tied to the (X)HTML markup. Now, let’s move forward and define the structure of the web document, in order to finish building the application’s user interface. Scroll down the page and keep on reading.

Next: Working with building blocks: defining the (X)HTML markup for the email application >>