AJAX is the Future!
There has been a lot of buzz regarding AJAX. What is it? What can I do with it? Will it mow my Lawn?? In a nutshell…. AJAX, which stands for Asynchronous JavaScript+CSS+DOM+XMLHttpRequest (say that fast a few times!) is a better way to enhance User experience. Chances are you have already experienced AJAX in one form [...]
There has been a lot of buzz regarding AJAX. What is it? What can I do with it? Will it mow my Lawn??
In a nutshell…. AJAX, which stands for Asynchronous JavaScript+CSS+DOM+XMLHttpRequest (say that fast a few times!) is a better way to enhance User experience. Chances are you have already experienced AJAX in one form or another. If you have ever checked out google maps or google suggest you will appreciate the power of AJAX.
Whats so great about it?
Well for starters, you dont need a plugin. If you have a browser which was made post 2001 you have AJAX. I have listed a few points below from ajaxpatterns.org which goes a little further in explaining the benefits.
- Continuous Feel: Traditional web applications force you to submit a form, wait a few seconds, watch the page redraw, and then add some more info. Forgot to enter the area code in a phone number? Start all over again. Sometimes, you feel like you’re in the middle of a traffic jam: go 20 metres, stop a minute, go 20 metres, stop a minute … How many E-Commerce sales have been lost because the user encountered one too many error message and gave up the battle? Ajax offers a smooth ride all the way. There’s no page reloads here - you’re just doing stuff and the browser is responding.
- Real-Time Updates: As part of the continous feel, Ajax applications can update the page in real-time. Currently, news services on the web redraw the entire page at intervals, e.g. once every 15 minutes. In contrast, it’s feasible for a browser running an Ajax applciation to poll the server every few seconds, so it’s capable of updating any information directly on the parts of the page that need changing. The rest of the page is unaffected.
- Graphical Interaction: Flashy backdrops are abundant on the web, but the basic mode of interaction has nevertheless mimicked the 1970s-style form-based data entry systems. Ajax represents a transition into the world of GUI controls visible on present-day desktops. Thus, you will encounter animations such as fading text to tell you something’s just been saved, you will be able to drag items around, you will see some static text suddenly turn into an edit field as you hover over it.
We at flip have not just skimmed the surface of this exciting technology but have dived right in and gotten our hands dirty with it. The next version of our CMS, Chameleon, uses a lot of AJAX Controls to help make it a more user friendly CMS to use. From our WYSIWYG write panels to personalization features, we are making sure we provide the best of this technology to enhance our customers experiences when using our products.
comments
Jim @ The ZK Project
November 22nd, 2005 at 10:36 amAs AJAX gives Web applications a fresh look, the cost of developing AJAX applications is challenging its way to success.
That is the reason we founded the ZK project ( http://zk1.sourceforge.net ): make AJAX transparent to app developers.
ZK is an Open Source and Live Demo at http://www.potix.com/zkdemo/userguide.
ZK has the following characteristics.
* XUL-based Components.
* Event Driven Model.
* Server-Centric Processing.
* Script in Java and EL Expressions.
dotone
November 25th, 2005 at 5:44 amDid we have an SGML even in 1970s??
Beleive me AJAX is no big deal. Just a new term. It’s been there all the time. The only new component here is XMLHTTPRequest. That’s it. The rest is just the ol’ DHTML. Flash was packed with HTTPRequest modules(rememer loadvariables function?) since version 5, What’s the big deal now? check out my article on AJAX vs. Flash (shamelss plug
).
Btw, Google dev-team said we use Javascript; they didnt call it AJAX. Well, what to do, a new sticky buzzword.