AJAX Technology

By: Anand Singh

Ajax stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. It can send as well as receive information in a variety of formats, including XML, HTML including text files. To elaborate a little, it is a term used to describe client-server communication achieved without reloading the current page.

It was Jesse James Garrett of Adaptive Path who first coined the term “Ajax” in February of 2005, but AJAX technology is not entirely new. Several large companies including Google have created amazing applications using the AJAX technology. Google Maps, Google Gmail, and Google Suggest are all built using Ajax. Until recently, the technology was known as web remoting or remote scripting. What has changed recently is the inclusion of support for the XML http request object in the JavaScript runtimes of the mainstream browsers. The real magic is the result of the JavaScript technology's XML http request object.

Let us take a look at the actual use of AJAX Technology. Web pages designed using these technologies do not require to be refreshed to update the information on it. Instead, Ajax apps can simply update parts of the page at any time, giving users an instantaneous response to their inputs and queries. This allows users to continually see what they're working on and react to any changes, errors, or updates the interface notifies them of. Ajax is possible provided the two core technologies are present: A JavaScript-enabled browser that supports either XMLHTTP or XML http request objects or HTTP Server technology that can respond in XML

By allowing more sophisticated functionality using easier-to-implement web standards, Ajax is proving a real alternative for creating powerful web applications. These applications look and act very similar to traditional desktop applications without relying on plug-ins or browser-specific features

Some uses for AJAX technology are as follows:

Refreshing Data: Web pages often have data from a server for up-to-date details such as scores, stock quotes, weather, or application-specific data. A client may use AJAX techniques to get a set of current data without reloading a full page.

Form Data Validation: User IDs, serial numbers, postal codes, or even special coupon codes and other such data that has to be filled in forms require server-side validation. This can be validated even before the user submits the form.

Auto-filling: Data such as an email address, name, or city name can be automatically filled in a form.

Load on Demand: Based on a client event, an HTML page can fetch more data in the background, allowing the browser to load pages more quickly.

User interface controls and effects: Certain controls like menus, data tables, rich text editors, calendars allow better user interaction and interaction with HTML pages, generally without requiring the user to reload the page.

The importance and use of AJAX Technology, therefore, is quite clear. It has paced up things making them user friendly and easy.