AJAX = Asynchronous JavaScript and XML

AJAX uses the following web standards:

• JavaScript
• XML
• HTML
• CSS

AJAX applications are browser- and platform-independent.

Asynchronous JavaScript + XML is not a new technology or a new programming

language It is a term coined in 2005 by Jesse James Garrett, which describes a "new"
approach to using a number of existing technologies together, including: HTML or
XHTML, Cascading Style Sheets, JavaScript, The Document Object Model, XML,
XSLT, and the XMLHttpRequest object. It is a new technique for creating better, faster,
and more interactive web applications.

When these technologies are combined in the AJAX model, web applications are able to
make quick, incremental updates to the user interface without reloading the entire
browser page. This makes the application faster and more responsive to user actions.

With AJAX, a JavaScript can communicate directly with the server, with the
XMLHttpRequest object. With this object, a JavaScript can trade data with a web
server, without reloading the page.

AJAX uses asynchronous data transfer (HTTP requests) between the browser and the
web server, allowing web pages to request small bits of information from the server
instead of whole pages.

The AJAX technique makes Internet applications smaller, faster and more user-friendly.

AJAX is about better Internet-applications

Internet-applications have many benefits over desktop applications; they can reach a
larger audience, they are easier to install and support, and easier to develop.

However, Internet-applications are not always as "rich" and user-friendly as traditional

desktop applications and most Web applications are slow and tedious.

In the traditional Web application, the interaction between the customer and the server
goes like this:

1. Customer accesses Web application

 2. Server processes request and sends data to the browser while the customer waits
3. Customer clicks on a link or interacts with the application
4. Server processes request and sends data back to the browser while the customer
waits
5. etc....

There is a lot of customer waiting. It’s a model adapted from the Web’s original use as a
hypertext medium.

How Ajax is Different

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.
Instead of loading a webpage, 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 user’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.

Ajax Acts as an Intermediary

The Ajax engine works within the Web browser (through JavaScript and the DOM) to
render the Web application and handle any requests that the customer might have of the
Web server. The beauty of it is that because the Ajax engine is handling the requests, it
can hold most information in the engine itself, while allowing the interaction with the
application and the customer to happen asynchronously and independently of any
interaction with the server.

Asynchronous

This is the key. In standard Web applications, the interaction between the customer and
the server is synchronous. This means that one has to happen after the other. If a customer
clicks a link, the request is sent to the server, which then sends the results back.

With Ajax, the JavaScript that is loaded when the page loads handles most of the basic
tasks such as data validation and manipulation, as well as display rendering the Ajax
engine handles without a trip to the server. At the same time that it is making display
changes for the customer, it is sending data back and forth to the server. But the data
transfer is not dependent upon actions of the customer.

Some of the real time examples of Ajax are

Take a look at Google Suggest/GMail. Watch the way the suggested terms update as you
type, almost instantly. Now look at Google Maps.,Yahoo Maps and Windows Live Local
Zoom in. Use your cursor to grab the map and scroll around a bit. Again, everything
happens almost instantly, with no waiting for pages to reload.

Google Suggest and Google Maps are two examples of a new approach to web
applications using AJAX.

Limitations of AJAX:

AJAX will not work in all web browsers. As its name suggests, AJAX requires
JavaScript. This alone means that AJAX applications will not work in web browsers and
devices that do not support JavaScript. For this reason it is not accessible to many typical
Web users

Future of AjAX:

The biggest challenges in creating Ajax applications are not technical. The core Ajax
technologies are mature, stable, and well understood. Instead, the challenges are for the
designers of these applications: to forget what we think we know about the limitations of
the Web, and begin to imagine a wider, richer range of possibilities.

AJAX is a tool that web developers can use to create smarter web applications that
behave better than traditionalweb applications when interacting with humans.

We are Web development company which uses this as one of the technology. So for any
further inquiries or real time projects you can conact marketraise