Web 2.0: Top reasons to use AJAX!
One of the most happening technologies on Internet today is AJAX. Though, it had been in existence for several years now, its usage has been emphasized and highlighted with its implementation by Google. Who started it all is arguable and there are several companies who reportedly started implementation of AJAX in their applications even before the term ‘AJAX’ was coined.
1. AJAX is capable of delivering functionality of a desktop over the web to end users. It can deliver commercial strength applications, on the fly, to the user on internet.
2. Central point of deployment and upgrades makes it a better choice to consider over other technologies. You will have to only upgrade any piece of code on the central web server [such as Apache] and it can be easily replicated on the client side.
3. Its ability to deliver cross platform, cross browser and desktop quality applications have made it more popular. More and more frameworks are under development and instead of developing your own, you can customize the existing ones to fit into your requirements.
4. AJAX reduces the amount of coding it might take to develop a web based application which requires lot of interaction and data selection at user’s end. For example, imagine a user requiring to fill in item codes in an order form and then fill out the rest of fields to place the order. What if one of those items was out of stock and user would realize it only after submitting the form? AJAX can dramatically cut the processing time and pain by dynamically querying the database as and when the user types the item code and moves onto next field to enter the next item code. The application will then tell the user about availability of the stock without user having to submit the form at all. User may either continue to fill up the form or leave it. The application at the back end can send out an email or alert the concerned personnel about a user filling out an item which is not available in the inventory. Thus taking maximum advantage of such an implementation. User can also be dynamically presented with alternate items if need be, in the same form without him submitting it.
5. With ‘Drag & Drop’ feature, AJAX makes applications more interactive and fun to use. Users will not have to go through the traditional method of clicking and selecting several check boxes to make their selection. It reduces the end users time while interacting with your application.
6. Another possibility of interlinking different AJAX applications into one single application is also catching up fast. It’s possible to interlink several AJAX applications to deliver all of them in one interface to your user, which makes your applications rich in functionality.
Some of the most popular examples of AJAX implementation can be seen in [GMail], [NetVibes], [Google Maps] etc.
