Added by Colin Clark, last edited by Jacob Farber on Oct 08, 2009  (view change)

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What is Infusion?

Infusion is a different kind of JavaScript framework. Built for creating applications that are highly usable and accessible, Infusion provides a rich set of APIs for creating loosely-coupled models and views using a declarative and event-driven style. Infusion is built on top of jQuery, and embraces unobtrusive, functional techniques that promote less code and greater flexibility. Modular and interoperable, everything about Infusion is open: its architecture, source code, and community.

Infusion is...

  • A growing collection of user interface components
  • An application framework for developing applications with JavaScript and jQuery
  • An open and extensible architecture: no black boxes or canned designs here

The Infusion Framework

Models, Views, but no Controllers

Most other model-view-controller Web frameworks require you write a lot of repetitive glue code in the controller layer. Infusion is different: we think it's the job of the framework to take care of the glue, leaving you to focus on the stuff that makes your application tick. Models and Views are are the heart of the Infusion framework, wired together with an event-driven approach that helps take the drudgery out of keeping your data in sync with the DOM.

Unobtrusive Template Rendering

Infusion's client-side template renderer is completely unobtrusive, allowing you to dynamically render your user interface without having to mix up bits of code with your HTML. No code in your templates means more reuse, less chance for mistakes, and an easier job when it comes time to do a redesign.

Fluid Skinning System

Infusion includes a lightweight CSS framework that is built from the ground up to be extensible. The Fluid Skinning System (FSS) lets you mix and match styles to create beautiful and themeable user interfaces, providing pre-baked layouts, widgets and text styles to get you started. In combination with our UI Options component, the FSS lets your users customize the appearance of your application, ensuring that it can accommodate a wide range of user needs.

Usability and Accessibility From the Ground Up

We built Infusion to help designers and developers create better user interfaces. Recognizing that you can't bottle good design, Infusion provides easy-to-adapt components, accessibility plugins, and a variety of extensible themes, giving you all the building blocks you need to create the right user experience for your application. All our designs are tested with a variety of users, and have been carefully crafted by a community of interaction designers and accessibility experts.

An Open, Interoperable Architecture

Infusion's architecture is incredibly open, allowing you to modify and extend our components and framework to suit your needs. Need to use other toolkits, too? We play nice with other JavaScript code, avoiding the conflicts that are common when combining different JavaScript libraries. This makes Infusion particularly well suited to building mashups and portals where you don't control the whole environment.