AJAX : Understanding AJAX

AJAX Tutorial: Nowdays, you can find AJAX topic everywhere. Yes, this method bring more advantage in internet word. Some people say AJAX is not new technology. It just a method. Other people say it is a technology. In this post, we talk about AJAX in preview.

AJAX is an acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. For me, it mean simple "empowered JavaScript". What that mean? Mmm.. before talk what AJAX exactly, do you ever see (or taste) Yahoo Mail! Beta Version? Or Gmail (not HTML version)? At that web page, without reload full page, we can jump between pages.

It is a technique use JavaScript as client side to make background server calls and retrieve additional data as needed. It update certain portions of page without causing full reloads. This is little example web that apply AJAX:

1. Google Suggest, check it out at http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1
2. Gmail, http://www.gmail.com
3. Google Maps, http://maps.google.com

1. JavaScript, is essential of AJAX. We use for Client Side function and use Document Object Model (DOM) to manipulate parts of HTML page.
2. The XMLHttpRequest object enable JavaScript to access server asynchronously.
3. Server side technology to handle the request that come from the JavaScript Client, example PHP.