Dojo has just announced that the new version of the javascript toolkit 0.4 is now available for download. Some exciting new features in this release include:

•GFX Library - graphic library
•Internationalization Infrastructure
•Widget Infrastructure - namespace support, subwidgets
•New Widgets

See the Release Note for more details.

For a change of view, today we have some news about OpenSSO. Via TheAquarium, over at Superpatterns, Pat Patterson has just announced the first drop of his SAML 2.0 PHP service provider code. There is more detail at that link, particularly in the linked docs, but, briefly, this is a collection of PHP scripts that SAML 2.0 enable a service provider, 'outsourcing' user authentication to an identity provider. This is very much 'proof-of-concept' code - contributions are welcomed, particularly from PHPers!

In his recent article, Daniel Rubio talks about the advantages of JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), and how JSON as an approach has recently gained popularity with Ajax services and Web-based clients. In this entry on TheServerSide, a discussion is open on Daniel's article. "What benefits have you been experiencing while using JSON? Do you agree that its recent boost in popularity has been due to Ajax?"

Technorati recently announced that bloggers will now be able to claim ownership of their blogs with OpenID credentials. The use of openID claims to be much easier than the number of different ways to verify authorship that have been long supported by Technorati. Check out the Technorati announcement and a related blog by Marshall Kirkpatrick.

A. Sundararajan has blogged about Groovy and JRuby for Java programmers ([part 1], [part 2]), he now ventures into yet another script language, Jython. In his latest blog, he compares Jython with JavaScript and Java.

Are you in the process of trying to figure out if Ajax is for you? FrontForge has published an article on the top 8 evaluation criteria that you should consider. Each criterion is nicely explained with just the right amount of details. Check it out if you are still puzzling over Ajax.

Both Tim Bray and Dave Johnson's blogs mentioned a study done by the U.S. Intelligence community, which compared RSS and Atom in numerous areas including standards, schemas and many more. The conclusion, the study recommends moving toward Atom. What do you think?

Thanks to the blog on an online image manipulation tool, ResizeR, this artistically challenged editor can finally create entries anywhere with an internet access. That is, when I am without iPhoto. But check out the Script.aculo.us effects on ResizeR.

At the upcoming AJAX World Conference and the ApacheCon, David Van Couvering is going to talk about how to build an AJAX enabled application that can run offline and then re-synchronize with the server, using Java DB as a local browser-embedded relational store. Events will take place in Santa Clara, CA and Austin, TX during the first a couple of weeks of October. Check them out if you are close by!

In his two part blog ([1], [2]), A. Sundararajan gives Java programmers some pointers to jump start on scripting languages such as Groovy and JRuby. Let's see how different idioms could make one's head spin. But with the help from A. Sundararajan, it is a less bumpy ride.

Grazr just announced their 1.0 release. Grazr is a publishing tool for feeds. It lets you quickly and easily display RSS, RDF, Atom, and OPML files on any Web page so they can be viewed by any visitor to the site. TechCrunch has raved about this release. Check it out! Do you think "if HTML was the architecture of Web 1.0, RSS is the architecture of Web 2.0"? Is so, Grazr is going to play a big part in the future of web.

In Learning the New Web series, we will recommend articles, web sites and books for users who would like to keep up with the ever changing web development world. Today's recommendation is an editor's personal favorite (and no, it didn't actually take me 10 weeks!): Sang Shin's FREE 10 week Online AJAX with Java Programming Course. The course covers the basics and introduces some of the popular AJAX tools, technologies and frameworks including JSON, DWR, Dojo, jMaki, Wicket, GWT and JavaServer Faces. There's also a whole Class dedicated to writing good JavaScript. It was really nice to not only learn about the technology but also the tools that go with it. It would help anyone to hit the ground running afterwards.

If there are any tutorials that you would like to share, please write to us at thegalaxy@sun.com.

Welcome to TheGalaxy. This is a blog that will bring you the latest news about the next generation of web technology. We, the editors, would love to hear your thoughts on the rapidly evolving web development arena. Please send your comments or your blogs to thegalaxy@sun.com. We will highlight your entry. TheGalaxy is officially open for business!