Ajax, shorthand for AsynchronousJavaScript and XML, is a web development technique for creating interactive web applications. The intent is to make web pages feel more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes, so that the entire web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user makes a change. This is meant to increase the web page's interactivity, speed, and usability.
The Ajax technique uses a combination of:
XHTML (or HTML) and CSS, for marking up and styling information.
The XMLHttpRequest object to exchange data asynchronously with the web server. In some Ajax frameworks and in certain situations, an IFrame object is used instead of the XMLHttpRequest object to exchange data with the web server.
XML is sometimes used as the format for transferring data between the server and client, although any format will work, including preformatted HTML, plain text, JSON and even EBML.
Core JavaScript Guide: Version 1.5 Starting at the beginning, this reference explains everything you need to know about using core JavaScript. It assumes you have the following basic background: a general understanding of the Internet and the World Wide Web and a good working knowledge of HTML. An excellent resource. Categorized & Searchable List Boxes This script creates a list of categorized links from a data array. The list is also searchable. A great navigational aid for small spaces. Very easy to implement. Yahoo! UI Library: Paginator The Paginator Control allows you to reduce the page size and render time of your site or Web application by breaking up large data sets into smaller pages. Paginator addresses the navigation aspect of chunked content, offering a set of controls that it can render into your UI to allow users to navigate through logical sections of local or remote data. Event Listeners Add event listeners for all browsers at once. Easy to use, for all browsers. Dropdown Menu This is a very nice animated dropdown menu. Highly customizable, using unobtrusive JavaScript and CSS. Easy to implement. MooTools Basic Tips for Web Designer: Part 3 - Interaction with HTML Forms This tutorial series illustrates some simple tips to begin working with MooTools. This installment illustrates how to implement simple interactions with form input elements using this powerful framework and unobtrusive JavaScript code.
Adaptive Path - AJAX: A New Approach to Web Applications - Seminal article which popularized AJAX as a term.
Meta Description: [ A User Experience design and consulting firm that unites theory and practice to advance the art of user experience design while helping clients make better business decisions. Located in San Francisco, California, USA. ]
AJAX by Mozilla Developer Center - A comprehensive guide on getting started with AJAX including articles, tutorials and links to other useful websites.
AJAX Matters - A directory of sites, books, and events about Asynchronous JavaScript and XMLHTTP, as well as sites using AJAX.
Meta Description: [ AJAX Matters provides Asynchronous JavaScript and XML development information including code libraries, sites using ajax, and books on ajax. ]
Ajax Patterns - A wiki with principles, gotchas, frameworks, and common techniques. Also the homepage for the Ajax Design Patterns book.
AJAX: Usable Interactivity with Remote Scripting - Tutorial article about AJAX, including a discussion about usability.
Meta Description: [ Remote Scripting, more sensationally known as AJAX, enables slick and powerful interactivity by making on-the-fly server requests without page reloads. But with this power comes the potential for usability nightmares. ]
Atlas - AJAX Implementation By Microsoft - Atlas for ASP.NET is the implementation of AJAX technology introduced by Microsoft.
Meta Description: [ Microsoft portal site for the ASP.NET development community. Download Visual Web Developer, post to the forums, read ASP.net blogs and learn about ASP.net. ]
Direct Web Remoting - DWR - A Java open source library which helps developers wanting to write web sites that include AJAX technology.
ONLamp.com: Ajax on Rails - Curt Hibbs demonstrates the use of Ajax within Ruby on Rails applications.
Meta Description: [ Curt Hibbs demonstrates the use of Ajax within Ruby on Rails applications. ]
Prototype JavaScript Framework - Provides class-style OO and Ajax, freely distributable under the terms of an MIT-style license.