Using Ajax for Creating Web Applications

In the past few years, developers could choose between two approaches when building a web application. The first approach was to create a screen-based system with very rich interactions using a sophisticated, powerful technology such as Java or Flash. The alternative approach was to create a page-based system using easier-to-learn core web standards like XHTML and CSS whose more basic capabilities force less-rich interactions. A new technological approach, dubbed Ajax, might just be the right mix between the two.

Porter, Joshua. User Interface Engineering (2005). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Ajax

An Ajax Tutorial

AJAX is a name given to an existing approach to building dynamic web applications. Web pages use JavaScript to make asynchronous calls to web-based services that typically return XML.

Volkmann, Mark. WePapers. Resources>Computing>Academic>Ajax

AJAX Aids Accessibility?

Yes, if you do it right, using Ajax techniques can improve accessibility. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Ajax is like most techniques and technologies on the web—they are what you make of them.

Spool, Jared M. User Interface Engineering (2009). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Ajax

Build Your Own Social Home!

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is what all the hip applications are serving up these days with their API’s as an alternative to XML. The cool part about JSON is that you don’t need to parse it in the same way you do XML. That data you get from a JSON call comes back as an object all ready-to-rock and let you do stuff with it. So here's the jQuery code to pull in and append all data from Flickr, Twitter, and Scrnshots all onto one page.

Coyier, Chris. CSS Tricks (2008). Articles>Web Design>Server Side Includes>Ajax

JSON, The Fat-Free Alternative to XML

JSON is a lightweight, language independent format for data interchange. It is especially popular in Ajax (or interactive web browser-based) applications.

Crockford, Douglas. XML 2006 (2006). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>Ajax

PHP, JSON and JavaScript Usage

Today i want to introduce you to jSON (JavaScript Object Notation), in short, it is a simple format designed to exchange data between different programming languages. I will show you how to create JavaScript object, convert it to JSON string, and send to PHP script, which will decode jSON string to readable format (for PHP). But that’s not all, PHP script will create it’s own data object encode it to jSON string and send it back. All communication between JavaScript and PHP will be done thru AJAX.

Ditio (2008). Articles>Web Design>Ajax>PHP

Ajax Tutorial (Asynchronous JavaScript + XML)

Ajax is only a name given to a set of tools that were previously existing. The main part is XMLHttpRequest, a server-side object usable in JavaScript, that was implemented into Internet Explorer since the 4.0 version.

XUL.fr (2007). Articles>Web Design>Ajax

Enabling Cross-Domain AJAX in Firefox

Unfortunately, Firefox doesn't allow cross-domain XMLHttpRequests for security reasons. While good security is a plus, this restriction can make development and testing a real chore. For those of us willing to risk the security vulnerability, here is how to bypass the cross-domain restriction once and for all.

Dirolf, Mike. Mike Dirolf's Blog (2007). Articles>Web Design>Ajax

The AJAX response: XML, HTML, or JSON?

Since my last AJAX project I've increasingly been wondering about the "ideal" output format for the AJAX response. Once you've succesfully fired an AJAX request, what sort of response should the server give? An XML document? An HTML snippet? A JSON string which is converted to a JavaScript object? Or something else? In this entry I'd like to discuss the three formats, with examples, and ask you which format you've used in your practical AJAX applications.

QuirksBlog (2005). Articles>Web Design>Ajax