Ajax Is Open for Business
We've all heard the significance of dynamic and hot-from-the-oven content to keep our web-sites relevant. With the advent of Web 2.0, web-sites once again impress us with easier to use and more responsive user experiences. These new enhancements are not powered by new technology, but rather by a new way of using old technology. This everything old is new again approach is called Ajax.
Technically speaking Ajax is an acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. JavaScript and XML are the building blocks of Ajax solutions and both have been around for years. Interestingly, the XML portion in practice runs in the background and is facilitated by standard HTTP requests.
Quite simply Ajax techniques allow web-sites to behave and feel more like our standard desktop applications, and this is done by allowing the web page to exchange data with the web server in the background. Only a portion of the web-page is refreshing as a result. This limits the need for the web browser to reload other data and graphics that did not change.
Okay, enough technical paraphrasing. The how in the case of Ajax is less important than the why. For example, Google has embraced Ajax like no other company. They rapidly created a suite of Ajax enabled applications that directly confront Microsoft. Their first solution was the widely successful Gmail. Since then they have rolled out a web-based spreadsheet program and word processor. While these solutions are not fully featured like their Microsoft counterparts they embrace the simple core of Google.
You can start using Ajax today. Everything one needs to deploy an Ajax solution is readily available, and included in your web-browser and can be interpreted by your web server. Most existing web applications can be rewritten to use AJAX technology instead of traditional HTML forms vastly improving performance and exceeding expectations. As documented by the original Ajax enthusiasts, Jesse James Garret, the only limit with Ajax is "to forget what we think we know about the limitations of the Web, and begin to imagine a wider, richer range of possibilities".Nov.29.2006.
marshal sandler on Dec.28.2006.
Excellent article Read a lot about AJAX In Tom Friedmans Book The World is Flat! The Secrets are finally out of thr bag !
Marshal Sandler
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