Ajax Patterns and Best Practices

Chapter 1. Introduction to Ajax

Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax)^[1] is both something old and something new—old because already existing technologies are used, but new because it combines these existing technologies into techniques that very few considered previously. Simply put, because of Ajax a new generation of applications and ideas are bubbling on the developer scene.

A very brief definition of Ajax is as follows:

Ajax is a technology that complements Web 2.0 and the integration of many web services at once.

This brief definition poses more questions than it answers, as now you are likely wondering what Web 2.0 is and what the integration of many web services are.

Web 2.0 can be thought of as the Internet economy.^[2] Think about something ...