Professional Ajax, 2nd Edition

Chapter 4. Ajax Libraries

With the popularity of Ajax applications exploding in 2005, developers and companies began looking for ways to streamline the process. As with many common programming practices, Ajax involves a lot of repetitive procedures that can be identified and simplified for common use. It wasn't long before JavaScript developers started introducing libraries to ease the redundant and sometimes quirky behavior of Ajax communication techniques. These libraries sought to break outside of the hidden frame and XHR modalities of communication and introduce their own methods (which typically are just wrappers for already accepted forms of Ajax communication). All of the libraries discussed in this chapter use interfaces that resemble but do not mimic the techniques discussed in Chapter 2. Remember, the goals of such libraries are to free the developer from worrying about cross-browser Ajax issues by hiding the details.