AJAX Web Development
AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) has become a popular word in web development. Web 2.0 sites are able to better communicate and establish sprawling on-line communities. The increase in popularity of Web 2.0 and the incorporation of AJAX has seen the establishment of stylish and highly interactive web sites that allow users to navigate, search and click links without the whole page refreshing, giving a feeling of speed/instant response.
AJAX uses the XMLHttpRequest object which exchanges data asynchronously with the web server. The advantage of this is small amounts of data can be transferred and displayed on the page without having to refresh the whole page.
Examples of AJAX web pages:
The search box on this blog uses AJAX. Try it out and you’ll see how your search results appear in a drop-down menu as you type. This is quite a common use for AJAX, however, there are great developers who are pushing the boundaries of the web-based user experience.
If you use FireFox, you may have noticed the Google suggest drop-down, which is designed to give the user instant results.
For an extensive list of AJAX-powered examples have a look at ajaxpatterns.org.
Development Software:
Although AJAX has its lovers and its haters, it appears to be here to stay. Open source software such as RubyOnTheRails is becoming a firm favourite amongst many AJAX users.
The ability to use AJAX in web design is something many web developers are adding to their arsenal of skills. More on AJAX in forthcoming posts…
I am curious how WordPress AJAX plugins affects the MySQL database for WordPress blogs.
We discussed this once before about how I need to reduce the Javascript on my site but does that include AJAX?
I hope it is okay to comment here on your site because you have a fanantsic site and it should help with other users to learn as well.
Thanks Mark!
I like your site also, I make a regular trip over to see what’s new on the locomonowebsite.
AJAX is a form of JavaScript, without looking at your coding in detail I’m not sure if you are using Ajax or not. Basically Ajax tends to pull information or validate information on the page without needing the whole page to refresh.
I’m building a site at the moment and am using Axax for the contact form validation. Basically it checks if the fields have been filled in correctly and gives an instant warning if not.
It can be very useful for user interaction and speed, however wherever possible I minify the JavaScript files, and again rely on caching to help speed up page loads.
Ajax shouldn’t adversely effect MySQL databases, as it is simply pulling information or putting information into the database. It’s just a quicker way of doing it.
Bear in mind that some users disable JavaScript so you should always have an alternative. In the case of my contact form, non-JavaScript users are validated using a server-side script.
Thanks Mark!
I like your site also, I make a regular trip over to see what's new on the locomonowebsite.
AJAX is a form of JavaScript, without looking at your coding in detail I'm not sure if you are using Ajax or not. Basically Ajax tends to pull information or validate information on the page without needing the whole page to refresh.
I'm building a site at the moment and am using Axax for the contact form validation. Basically it checks if the fields have been filled in correctly and gives an instant warning if not.
It can be very useful for user interaction and speed, however wherever possible I minify the JavaScript files, and again rely on caching to help speed up page loads.
Ajax shouldn't adversely effect MySQL databases, as it is simply pulling information or putting information into the database. It's just a quicker way of doing it.
Bear in mind that some users disable JavaScript so you should always have an alternative. In the case of my contact form, non-JavaScript users are validated using a server-side script.