What is AJAX?

When I was a kid, my mother used to hand me a can of Ajax to scrub the tub with. (Apparently, I was dirty enough to leave rings behind.) This was my first experience with Ajax, not to mention Comet.

Ajax in the Computer World.

• AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML.
• AJAX is not a new programming language; rather, it is a new way to use existing standards.
• AJAX is the method of exchanging data with a server, and updating parts of a web page - without reloading the entire page.

By definition, AJAX is a development technique for creating interactive web applications that is used on the client-side, as opposed to the server-side, to create network/web applications with data exchange running to and from the server in the background. This background data transfer method enables the user to view an existing webpage without interruption. Both HTML and CSS can be used to configure styles of your choice.

AJAX uses a combination of: 

• CSS for styling information.
• The Document Object Model (DOM) accessed with a client-side scripting language like JavaScript to dynamically display and interact with the information.
• The XMLHttpRequest object to exchange data in the background with the web server.
• XML can be used as the format for transferring data between the server and client, although any format will work.