Ajax

Asynchronous JavaScript and XML is a technology that changes the way web pages w
ork by achieving asynchronously exchanges with the server. Web applications, run
ning on a browser, are all subject to call XMLHttpRequest to communicate with th
e server as well as making use of dynamic HTML, technologies that are the core o
f Ajax.
The name Ajax was coined by Jesse James Garrett in an article published on the A
daptive Path site in 2005.
Summary
* What's Ajax?
* Ajax and data formats.
* Ajax frameworks.
* Resources.
* Beyond Ajax.
What's Ajax?
The technique became popular as soon as the article was published and that has i
mproved greatly the quality of some websites by allowing smooth and innovative a
pplications.
Ajax is a combination of existing technologies to create dynamic Web sites opera
ting just as desktop software:
* XMLHttpRequest. Object of the browser used by JavaScript, it performs GET or P
OST requests to the server to read a file or send parameters.
* JavaScript. Scripting language running server side.
* DOM. The Document Object Model is a representation of the structure of an HTML
or XML document and allows to access elements in the document.
* CSS. Cascading Style Sheets, define the presentation of a page.
* XML or other data format. Although the term XML is in the definition of Ajax,
the XHR object allows both to read text files or JSON.

Ajax and data formats

The XHR object as defined in the standard specification allow to use two differe
nt attributes used when the file is loaded in XML format or not, knowing that a
file JSON is seen as a text file. There are responseXML and responseTxt.
To choose between formats, the article Comparison of JSON and XML should help to
the decision.
Ajax frameworks
Using a framework avoids to the programmer to rewrite common functions of Web ap
plications, they are all available and tested on major browsers.
An Ajax framework when it is pure JavaScript can run on any system, it runs clie
nt side. Or it may also have a part running server side, in different programmin
g languages: PHP, Java, ASP.
The main JavaScript frameworks are JQuery, Mootools, Yahoo UI. The Google Web To
olkit allows for building Java programs that are compiled in JavaScript to work
client side.
Resources
* The Ajax tutorial.
Complete tutorial with GET and POST examples.
* Firebug.
Firefox Extension to facilitate debugging Ajax applications.
* Anaa
A lightweight and easy to use library to make Ajax pages without to load a
full framework.
Beyond Ajax
* Which interface for a Web application?
Comparison of all solutions: Ajax, XUL, XAML, Laszlo, and also the new sta
ndards of the Web. The evolutions of these technologies are studied, as th
ey can modify definitively the decision.
* Ajax crawlable: Understanding the specification from Google
Google made a proposal for a standard to dynamic content indexed by search
engine.
* RIA
Which tools to build a Rich Internet Application?
* Google Gears
A plug-in to run Web apps offline.