AJAX Technology

AJAX Technology

Introduction

Jesse James Garrett named AJAX, Asynchronous Java Script and XML, in 2005. It is a cluster of several technologies designed to create fast and dynamic web pages. Using simple and small amounts of data, AJAX updates the web page asynchronously. When using AJAX the web page remains uninterrupted in the midst of processing. All the techniques that make up AJAX operate independently, hence creating no interruption at the user end. AJAX makes web applications more spontaneous and easy to use. AJAX complies on the standards that are browser based and platform independent.

Discussion

Why AJAX

AJAX, as described earlier, based on a group of technologies operates independently and whilst they communicate with a server, no interruption occurs at end user. The dynamic and responsive Asynchronous communication enabled websites has gained significant popularity over classic request response Web model. Asynchronous communication is executed by AJAX (F.Schneider, et. al., n.d.). High end online giants such as Google Map, Gmail, YouTube and Facebook prefer AJAX based web pages over conventional web design mainly due to the uniquely embedded technology (Garrett 2005). AJAX cannot be called a technology, it is an approach through which Web application are made user interactive (Jun Cha, et al. 2007).

AJAX is intertwined with network, so bad coding results in a lot of troubleshooting by the networking administrator. The coding must be secured in JavaScript when Web application uses AJAX. The data that need to be transmitted from server to the client must be made small for effective performance by AJAX. This ensures that transmission and processing take less time. AJAX based web pages can asynchronously asks the server for data, and the user is oblivious of any transactions taking place at the server end. AJAX can retrieve raw data from the server (Skinner, J. 2008).

Operation and Relevance of AJAX

The operation performed by AJAX is simple. It exists in between the client side code and server side code. This middleware, AJAX engine is written in JavaScript and is responsible for the asynchronous communication (Stamos and Lackey, 2006). As soon as the user starts a session, the browser loads the engine, which allows the user's interaction asynchronously with the application. The communication with the server is autonomous as the user does not have to wait long for processing and browsing. The web page when browsed by a user loads an HTML page. The JavaScript runs the user interface in that page and issues XTMLHttpRequest calls. XML formats and presents the results on the page. The client interacts with the user interface on the page (e.g. by clicking the link on the browser). JavaScript generates XTMLHttpRequest message to the server. The server sends XML data to the browser. JavaScript code handles XML data and presents it on the HTML. During this procedure at the back end, only the page refreshes at the front end providing the results. AJAX uses JavaScript that binds everything in the technique (Garrett, 2005). This makes AJAX technique efficient. The server uses only a few bytes during the whole process ...