AJAX 101

Coined in 2005 by Jesse James Garrett of Adaptive Path, AJAX was developed to increase Web site usability by making them feel more responsive through increased interactivity and reduced page loading requirements.

So what does AJAX stand for, exactly?

- Two-way communication; not at the same time

JavaScript - Web browser programming language

And

XML - Extensible Markup language. A standard format for representing data.

Per the example below, in the days before 2005, a Web user submitted a form/request through their browser. This information would be sent to a Web site's server via HTTP , which then returned a new page to the user's browser to display (the blinking effect).

Now, thanks to AJAX, when a Web user submits a form/request through their browser and the information would be sent to a Web site's server via xmlhttp . This new process allows specific page element to refresh as opposed to entire Web pages (no blinking effect). Here is an example:

Learn about AJAX's benefits and drawbacks in Part 2 of this article.