AJAX is a set of technologies that has been around for quite some time but only maturing and being taken advantage of now. In true geek speak it stands for Asynchronous Javascript And XML. What it really translates to layman’s terms is being able to dynamically update a partial section of a web page without having to refresh the entire page. Google Maps, Wikimapia and most of Google’s webmaster tools are built on AJAX. Pages are built with DHTML, such as DIV elements that can be filled with content by creating an XMLHttpRequest object with Javascript. A request is sent to the remote server to retrieve either a snippet of XML or text which can be interpreted and displayed on the web site. For example, if you wish to have your visitor select the region they are from, when they select their country a list of regions for that country could be displayed on the page in a DIV element which is dynamically filled with content from the XMLHttpRequest object without the need to refresh the entire page. There are many possibilities for this technology and it is taking the web a step closer to the responsiveness and type of applications previously dominated by traditional desktop software. A fine example of AJAX at work is Google’s spreadsheet application at spreadsheet.google.com. Many more will follow and over time the underlying desktop operating system will become less significant as most of our everyday desktop tools are migrated into an AJAX equivalent. The term Web 2.0 has been coined by Tim O’Reilly and other leading figures in the Internet marketplace, AJAX is more or less the foundation of this new craze that’s spreading through the web like wildfire.
Diarmuid Ryan, Managing Director
Blue Star Web Design Ireland
