Is Adaptive Path selling Ajax components or trademarking the name? Where can I download it?
A. Ajax isn’t something you can download. It’s an approach — a way of thinking about the architecture of web applications using certain technologies. Neither the Ajax name nor the approach are proprietary to Adaptive Path. Q. Is Ajax just another name for XMLHttpRequest? A. No. XMLHttpRequest is only part of the Ajax equation. XMLHttpRequest is the technical component that makes the asynchronous server communication possible; Ajax is our name for the overall approach described in the article, which relies not only on XMLHttpRequest, but on CSS, DOM, and other technologies. Q. Why did you feel the need to give this a name? A. I needed something shorter than “Asynchronous JavaScript+CSS+DOM+XMLHttpRequest” to use when discussing this approach with clients. Q. Techniques for asynchronous server communication have been around for years. What makes Ajax a “new” approach? A. What’s new is the prominent use of these techniques in real-world applications to change the fundamental interaction m
A. Oops. Sorry; fooled you. It’s not a product; cool acronym though, right? Q. Is Ajax just another name for XMLHttpRequest? A. Damn you kids are smart. Wait! I meant “No”. We put “CSS” in there too, and “XML”. Yeah; XML changes everything. Q. Why did you feel the need to give this a name? A. Two words: Midlife Crisis. Q. Techniques for asynchronous server communication have been around for years. What makes Ajax a “new” approach? A. Because I said so; I’m Jack Bauer! Q. Is Ajax a technology platform or is it an architectural style? A. Is using the BLINK tag a platform or is it an architectural style? Snatch the pebble from my hand, Grasshopper. Q. What kinds of applications is Ajax best suited for? A. Hmmm… That’s a tough one. How about “web pages”? Does that sound nice? Q. Does this mean Adaptive Path is anti-Flash? A. Yes. If we liked Flash, why would we pull our hair out attempting something this complex in Javascript? Q. Does Ajax have significant accessibility or browser compat
Ajax isn’t something you can download. It’s an approach — a way of thinking about the architecture of web applications using certain technologies. Neither the Ajax name nor the approach are proprietary to Adaptive Path. Should I use an HTTP GET or POST for my AJAX calls? AJAX requests should use an HTTP GET request when retrieving data where the data will not change for a given request URL. An HTTP POST should be used when state is updated on the server. This is in line with HTTP idempotency recommendations and is highly recommended for a consistent web application architecture. How do I debug JavaScript? There are not that many tools out there that will support both client-side and server-side debugging. I am certain this will change as AJAX applications proliferate. I currently do my client-side and server-side debugging separately. Below is some information on the client-side debuggers on some of the commonly used browsers. * Firefox/Mozilla/Netscape – Have a built in debugger Venkm
