The asynchronous JavaScript and XML technology, simply called AJAX technology is one main technology that is playing a major part in Web 2.0 revolution. Web developers are facing a major challenge from several years. They are unable to change the information on a part of the web page with out actually reloading the whole web page. This has really been a big problem over the years and it largely irritates the users while doing small changes in the information on a given web page. AJAX has solved this problem up to a great extent.
Background
Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) has recently become the craze thanks, in no small part, to Google’s usage of it in Google Suggest as well as Google Maps. In ASP.Net terms, AJAX allows server-side processing to occur without requiring postback, thus enabling clients (browsers) with rich server-side capabilities. In other words it provides a framework for asynchronously dispatching and processing requests and responses from the server. AJAX leverages a number of existing technologies, which aren’t particularly new, however fondness for what these technologies have to offer (collectively, they are AJAX) has recently soared.
But still, there are some down sides to this AJAX technology also just like with any other web technology, for that matter any technology. One of the major limitations of AJAX technology is related to the option of book marking. This limitation can create many hectic problems for the users of the web sites especially when the information requests to the web server are done through Post and Get methods. One another major limitation is related to the Back option on any web page. When a user presses on this option, this will take the user to first page rather than the last page which he viewed. This can surely surprise many web users who use extensively this option day in and day out.
GOOGLE is extensively using AJAX technology in many of its products, which includes GMail, Google Suggestions and so on. It is promoting this in a big way. So, if you are a web programmer then you should try and implement AJAX technology in your future projects to realize its real potential and power.