Chapter 1. A new design for the Web
This chapter covers
- Asynchronous network interactions and usage patterns
- The key differences between Ajax and classic web applications
- The four fundamental principles of Ajax
- Ajax in the real world
Ideally, a user interface (UI) will be invisible to users, providing them with the options they need when they need them but otherwise staying out of their way, leaving users free to focus on the problem at hand. Unfortunately, this is a very hard thing to get right, and we become accustomed, or resigned, to working with suboptimal UIs on a daily basis—until someone shows us a better way, and we realize how frustrating our current method of doing things can be.
The Internet is currently undergoing such a realization, as the basic web browser technologies used to display document content have been pushed beyond the limits of what they can sanely accomplish.
Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript + XML) is a relatively recent name, coined by Jesse James Garrett of Adaptive Path. Some parts of Ajax have been previously described as Dynamic HTML and remote scripting. Ajax is a snappier name, evoking images of cleaning powder, Dutch football teams, and Greek heroes suffering the throes of madness.