Writing Web 2.0 Applications for Science Archives

Writing these sorts of science archive web applications is now possible because of some significant breakthroughs in web technology over the last four years. The Web browser is no longer a glorified batch processing terminal, but an interactive environment that allows the user to have a similar experience as one might expect with an installed desktop application. Taking advantage of this technology requires a significant amount of UI design and advanced interactions with the web server. There are new levels of sophistication required to effectively develop this sort of web application. The IRSA group (NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive) is developing web-based software that equally takes advantage of modern technology and is designed to be reused easily. This way we can add new missions and data sets without a large programming effort while keeping the advanced interface. We can now provide true web-based FITS viewing, data overlays, and interaction without any plugins. Our tabular display allows us to filter, sort, and interact with large amounts data in ways that take advantage of the browser's power. This talk will show how we can us AJAX technology, the Google Web Toolkit (GWT), and Java to develop a data archive that is both well designed and creates a truly interactive experience.