AJAX Introduction

AJAX is designed to update certain parts of a web page without reloading the entire page.

What is AJAX?

AJAX = Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML).

AJAX is a technology for creating fast and dynamic web pages.

By exchanging a small amount of data with the server in the background, AJAX allows web pages to be updated asynchronously. This means that certain parts of the web page can be updated without reloading the entire web page.

A typical web page (without using AJAX) must reload the entire page if the content changes.

Typical use cases for AJAX include: Google Maps, Tencent Weibo, Youku Video, and so on.

How AJAX works

AJAX is based on Internet standards

AJAX is based on Internet standards and uses the following technology combination:

  • XMLHttpRequest object (used for asynchronous interaction with the server)
  • JavaScript/DOM (displays/retrieves information)
  • CSS (sets the style of data)
  • XML (commonly used as a data transmission format)

Tip:AJAX applications are independent of browsers and platforms!

Google Suggest (Google Suggest)

With the release of Google Suggest in 2005, AJAX began to gain popularity.

Google Suggest uses AJAX to create highly dynamic web interfaces: when you type content into Google's search box, JavaScript sends characters to the server, and the server returns a list of suggestions.

Start using AJAX today

In our ASP tutorial, we will demonstrate how AJAX can update a part of the web page without reloading the entire page. We will use ASP to write server-side scripts.

If you want to learn more about AJAX, please visit our AJAX Tutorial.