Ajax

[ciancomp]

Is anyone using AJAX in their websites?

[iZone]

lots of people! what do you want to know?

[stoney666]

Check out the live search at Ordered List by Steve Smith for a good example of someone using AJAX. There's lots more, but thats the only website that came to mind.

[masonbarge]

If you want to see Ajax kick ass, use Google's map function. I'm in awe -- in awe of Google's coding team and in awe of seeing what an internet-connected computer can do. It makes MapQuest look like a horse and buggy.

[scorbett]

I'm using it on my new site at www.yapura.net too. I perform async searches against Amazon's ecommerce web service to find products matching your search criteria. The UI is really responsive - much better than paging through loads of pages of results waiting for each new page to be loaded like you have to using Amazon's own web site.

[Dan Williamson]

Currently learning this awesome thing in-depth although I know quite a lot of the basic implementations, I will be coding part of my upcoming Content Management System in AJAX for cool dynamic looks.

[beherenow_uk]

Originally Posted by scorbett

I'm using it on my new site at www.yapura.net too. I perform async searches against Amazon's ecommerce web service to find products matching your search criteria. The UI is really responsive - much better than paging through loads of pages of results waiting for each new page to be loaded like you have to using Amazon's own web site.

Your site doesn't work on a Mac. Bummer, I was looking forward to that.

[scorbett]

OK - thanks for letting me know - I'll try to fix the problem!!!
I'll post here again when I manage to sort it out.
Steve :-)

[spinal007]

I'm sorry to all you graphic designers but I HATE MACS!
Come to it, I hate Windows too... I just put up with it!


AJAX: I'm just getting started with Ajax myself. I'm using it to improve user experience in my content management system (back-end). It helps you do the little things that make the user's life that little bit easier...

[Donny Bahama]

I'm still trying to figure out what all the buzz is about. How is Ajax different than DHTML?

[spinal007]

for starters,
DHTML is a markup language.
Java Script is a scripting language.
Ajax is a java script "platform" (I prefer to call it a methodology).

The idea is that, rather than requesting a new page everytime, you send small requests to the server and dynamically update sections of the page.

It's Java script, only it works in real time with live data directly from the server.

Want an example? The quickly reply function on this site uses ajax... Have you noticed how you don't have to leave the page?

[Donny Bahama]

Does anyone else use the personalized home page (http://www.google.com/ig?hl=en) on Google? The means by which you drag and drop to arrange the content you've selected is extremely cool. Is that Ajax?

[spinal007]

Yes and no.

Don't mistake Ajax with standard Javascript... It's a very crude misconception I've been reading around the web (and it's really begining bugging me, lol).

The drag/drop effect is just Javascript. Nothing to do with Ajax. You don't "need Ajax" for it.

Ajax comes in when saving your page settings. It's is nothing but the method used to send a small piece of information to the server. You modify the page locally with Javascript. The script sends a request to the Google server (Ajax), which the stores your settings.