About AJAX
AJAX is an acronym which stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, and it is a specialized technique that is used for the process of web development. AJAX has become popular for its ability to create web programs that are highly interactive. The basic concept of AJAX is to create web pages that feature high degrees of interactivity by transferring small amounts of information with a server, and when a change is made on the page, the user is not forced to go back and reload it. In addition to interactivity, this technique is also used to make the website faster and more usable. It should be noted that AJAX is comprised of a number of older technologies.
Some of the technologies which make up AJAX are CSS, XHTML, and DOM. The format XML is also commonly used to transfer information back and forth among the client and the server. However multiple formats can be used besideds XML, and once of these is EBML. It is important for those who are interested in using AJAX to remember that it is not a technology. It is merely an integration of existing technologies. The word AJAX was first coined by Jesse James Garret. He was looking for a word to describe the various technologies that could be merged into one client. The foundation for AJAX was laid during the 1990s when Microsoft introduced Remote Scripting.
Some of the tools that used AJAX like features in the 1990s were Netscape 4 and Internet Explorer 3. Both of these tools used what was called a src attribute. The introduction of Remote Scripting allowed information to be pulled from a Java applet, and this made the information much smoother. There are a number of advantages and disadvantages to AJAX. One of the best advantages is the use of bandwidth. Because it is responsible for pulling up HTML regionally inside the browser, web pages built with Ajax will appear much faster than usual. An additional reason for this is because JavaScript is only used for the true data.
The next powerful advantage of Ajax is its interactivity. The vast majority of Ajax programs will be processed on the computer of the user, and this will be done by altering the current page that appears in the browser. This will be done through a process that is called document object model. There are a number of processes that AJAX can carry out, and some of these are deleting or storing records, returning basic search requests, and editing certain categories. This can be done without the need to get a full page of HTML information whenever a user makes a change. It is these features that have allowed AJAX to be used with things such as DHTML.
One of the biggest disadvantages to Ajax is its usability. If the user clicks on the back button of the browser, the Ajax program may do unexpected things. There are a number of things that programmers have done to deal with this issue. One of the most popular is to use an invisible IFRAME. Another problem with AJAX is bookmarks. The dynamic feature of AJAX has made it hard for some users to bookmark pages. One of the ways to solve this problem is with a URL fragment identifier.
