I’m comfortable with server-side development (like PHP, Java, Ruby or ASP) but not really into JavaScript – can I do Ajax?
The good news is that a lot of server side frameworks are starting to provide Ajax toolkits that mean you can write less code and let the framework generate the JavaScript for you.A good example of such a framework is the Ajax support in Ruby on Rails; the Rails framework provides some Ruby methods that will generate Ajax code for you, saving you the trouble of being a JavaScript expert.The same goes for PHP and other server side languages. The best thing about this approach is that it means you can continue to work in whichever language you are most comfortable with.The Rails Ajax tools are built on a number of existing open source JavaScript libraries; aside from providing you with some really cool special effects, these libraries also take care of a lot of the cross-browser issues that can arise in Ajax development.Of course it still helps to understand how things work under the hood when it comes to debugging issues – and there are unfortunately always issues.by: Richard Mischook –
