The Buzz About AJAX

AJAX itself isn't a technology that you can just go out and buy and use. It’s not even a new technology’s actually a way of thinking about web architecture and employs several technologies in a very particular manner. The core AJAX technologies are established, reliable, and prevalent in the marketplace. AJAX is shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. It incorporates:

• Standards-based presentation utilizing XHTML (or HTML), DHTML and CSS
• Dynamic interaction and display utilizing the Document Object Model (DOM)
• Asynchronous data retrieval through XMLHttpRequest
• Data manipulation and interchange utilizing SOAP and/or XML and XSLT
• JavaScript tying it all together

AJAX is part of the fundamental shift in what's possible on the Web, bringing us to Web 2.0. An AJAX application eliminates the start-stop-start-stop nature of interaction on the Web by introducing an intermediary – an AJAX engine – between the user and the server. It seems like adding a layer to the application would make it less responsive, but the opposite is true. Instead of loading a web page, at the start of the session, the browser loads an AJAX engine – written in JavaScript and usually tucked away in a hidden frame. This engine is responsible for both rendering the interface the user sees and communicating with the server on the user’s behalf. The AJAX engine allows the ’s interaction with the application to happen asynchronously – independent of communication with the server. So the user is never staring at a blank browser window and an hourglass icon, waiting around for the server to do something. An AJAX application can be any size you need, from very basic, single-function applications to the most extremely involved and elaborate.