What is AJAX?

Stacee asked me if I knew what AJAX was. And I told her I had no idea. And when I don’t know something, I usually ask Google. ;)

According to Wikipedia, AJAX, or Asynchronous Javascript & XMLHttpRequest is..

a web development technique for creating interactive web applications using a combination of :

• HTML (or XHTML) and Cascading Style Sheets for presenting information
• Document Object Model and Javascript to dynamically display and interact with the information presented
• XML and XSLT to interchange and manipulate data asynchronously with the web server (although AJAX applications can also use other technologies, including plain text, to do this as well).

Like DHTML or LAMP, AJAX is not a technology in itself, but a term that refers to the use of a group of technologies together.

AJAX applications use web browsers that support the above technologies as a platform to run on. Browsers that support these technologies include Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari.

When I saw this example of Ajax, and this one, I was really impressed! Now I’m wondering if I should also incorporate this technology into my CMS!

More Examples:

• Edit Text on the Fly (click on any paragraph!)
• Google Suggest Wiki (Google Suggest Site)
• Gmail
• Hundreds of XMLHttpRequest & Ajax Working Examples (Thank you for the link, Digital Minute!)

More Resources:

• Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications, by Jesse James Garrett. The original article which coined the term
• AJaX: Two steps forward… Two steps back?by John Reynolds.
• Guide to Using XMLHttpRequest (with Baby Steps) by Bill Bercik.
• Ajax, promise or hype? by Peter-Paul Koch.
• Ajax (XMLHttpRequests & JS).