Asynchronous Javascript and XML technology, or AJAX, takes advantage of your browser's built-in functionality. Using the power of an AJAX engine, we can eliminate the start and stop nature of typical Web interaction and build better Rich Internet Applications.
What this means is that instead of loading a Web page, the browser loads an AJAX engine that is written in JavaScript contained in a hidden frame. This engine is responsible for both producing the interface seen by you and communicating with the server as requested by you. The AJAX engine allows you to interact with the application asynchronously, meaning the interaction is independent of server communication. In other words, you never stare at a blank browser window and an hourglass icon, waiting for the server. Such AJAX application functionality is particularily useful for company intranets and data presentations.
With AJAX, your actions that normally generate an HTTP request becomes a JavaScript call to the AJAX engine instead. Any response to your action that doesn’t require a trip back to the server, like data validation, editing data in memory and some navigation, is handled by the AJAX engine itself. If the engine needs something from the server in order to respond — to submit data for processing, load additional interface code or retrieve new data — the AJAX engine makes such requests asynchronously using XML so your interaction with the application isn't disrupted. |
