Introduction to AJAX
AJAX is a technique that updates some pages without reloading the entire page.
What is AJAX?
AJAX = Asynchronous JavaScript and XML.
AJAX is a technology for creating fast, dynamic web pages.
AJAX enables asynchronous updates of web pages by exchanging a small amount of data with the server in the background. This means that parts of the page can be updated without overloading the entire page.
Traditional web pages (without AJAX) must overload the entire page if they need to update content.
There are many examples of apps using AJAX: Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube, and Facebook.
How AJAX works
AJAX is based on Internet standards
AJAX is based on Internet standards and uses a combination of the following technologies:
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XMLHttpRequest object (asynchronous interaction data with server)
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JavaScript/DOM (show/get back information)
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CSS (styling data)
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XML (commonly used as a format for data transfer)
AJAX applications are browser- and platform-independent!
Google Search Suggestions
With the release of Google Search Suggestions in 2005, AJAX became popular.
Google Suggestion uses AJAX to create a highly dynamic web interface: JavaScript sends characters to the server when you type in Google's search box, and the server returns a list of suggestions.
Start using AJAX today
In our PHP tutorial, we'll show how AJAX can update parts of a page without overloading the entire page. Server scripts will be written in PHP.
If you would like to learn more about AJAX, please visit our AJAX tutorial.