What is Ajax?

AJAX as an acronym means Asynchronous Javascript And XML, and put in simplest terms it grabs new content from a web page's server.

This is an emerging technology, and the above description may not sound spectacular but in reality it jumps a lot of hurtles that web developers have been facing for a while.

Now when a request is sent to the server from a user's web browser, that server will take that request and perform the operations the web developer has told the server to perform, whether it be grabbing information from a database, reading log files, or just displaying a standard HTML file.

Generally speaking, after a server is done processing this information, it spits that info back to the browser and thats it. That is all the info the browser gets unless it requests an entirely new page.

This is where AJAX comes in. Ajax can gather new information from the server or send new information to a server without reloading an entire page. This gives the application developer a new level of freedom to operate within.

A good example of AJAX use is Facebook, which uses AJAX extensively. When you post a comment to a note or status update Facebook does not reload the entire page to add the new content, it uses javascript to post the information to the page you are currently looking at, then AJAX to send a request to the server to update the information, behind your back, so to speak!

Why should I care about AJAX?

In one word: Speed

AJAX allows J-Cap Web Design to build programs on the internet that more resemble desktop applications, which is a user interface that people are more familiar and at home with than the generic web.

The average web user has no idea why the entire page needs to reload when all he wants a little bit of new content. Only loading the new content can add a level of efficiency and familiarity that would be much more difficult and much more costly without ajax.

The difference between 5 and 20 seconds on the web for some people is an eternity, and only reloading the information you absolutely need to can give your website that kind of edge that speaks to your timeliness as a company.

Providing your clients with the information they want about you faster than your competitors is a courtesy that can win many of them to your business.

How does J-Cap Web Design use AJAX?

J-Cap Web Design used AJAX when working with Creative Information Systems and their SMS Online Reporting application.

SMS Online Reporting by J-Cap Web Design tied into Creative Information System's main product, SMS Turbo. The reporting application sent information into SMS Turbo, which then processed that information, which took time, more time than was reasonable to expect the user to wait for the web page to load.

So J-Cap Web Design used AJAX to send requests to the server over and over again until the server informed the web page through ajax that the information was ready, and then provided a link to that information.

This is just one example of the many ways J-Cap Web Design uses AJAX to build rich internet applications to provide timely information.