Webupon

Web development is an activity that helps to design and develop web sites or web pages. How a web site looks like when it’s fully developed is a direct result of the web development tools and languages that are used in the development. Each time it seems like it’s as good as it’s going to get, some new technology is invented or created to make it a little easier and a lot better. The addition of Ajax has contributed to a lot of the dynamics we now see on websites.

What Is Ajax?

Ajax is a shortened version of Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. Ajax is a web development technique that’s used to create interaction among different web applications. It’s a collection of other web development technologies that have been proven to be successful in the past such as CSS, XHTML, XHR (XML Http Request) and JavaScript. Ajax and JavaScript work side by side; in fact, any browsers that are JavaScript enabled are compatible with Ajax. Many describe Ajax as a modern-day replacement for flash. We all know what flash is, right? I don’t know how many times I’ve gone to a site that states “Flash is required to fully view this page”. Flash makes the page do all the things it’s capable of doing as far as loading brightly colored graphics with movement, etc.

I’ll try to give you a simple example of what Ajax is all about. Pretend you are going to a website that has a form you need to fill out for a membership to something. You put all the required information into the different fields and click ’submit’. As soon as you’ve hit submit, all the information you just put in the form is sent to the server on the Internet. This server will then send you to another page.

But, what’s fascinating about this process is that the information is being sent before your very eyes but you can’t see it being done because it’s all in the background. It’s the Javascript that’s allowing this integration. Ajax allows full integration between different pages on your site and is fully dependent on Javascript. If your site does not have Javascript enabled, any applications with Ajax will not work properly.

Advantages of Using Ajax

There are many advantages to using Ajax but the most common advantage is that it makes Internet applications much simpler to use and allows them to operate quicker and more efficiently, improving otherwise slow loading pages. Ajax also helps to make Internet applications more user friendly and easier to load. Although it is based on other web languages like CSS, XML or HTML, Ajax also works independently of other web server software programs.

If you’re on an Ajax-enabled browser, Ajax will be loaded as soon as you go to that page. It allows you to flip through page after page in a natural way with complete integration rather than the conventional stop and start we used to see when trying to load new pages on the same site. Ajax is definitely a phenomenal advancement to web development!