jQuery and JavaScript Phrasebook

Understanding AJAX

Despite its importance, AJAX tends to be a bit daunting to get into at first. With all the communication terms, it may seem easy to get overwhelmed. That really shouldn’t be the case. AJAX is simply a request from jQuery or JavaScript to the web server. The request sends data to the server, and the server responds with a success or failure and possibly additional data. That is it—nothing more, nothing less.

Watch out!

Don’t confuse server-side dynamic creation of web pages with AJAX. Dynamic creation of web pages is still the old traditional method, but it is just a bit easier to manage. Each request back to the server still requires a full new web page to be returned. The only advantage is that the web page is generated ...