What is AJAX - PHP

The asynchronous JavaScript and XML technology, simply called AJAX technology is one main technology that is playing a major part in Web 2.0 revolution. Web developers are facing a major challenge from several years. They are unable to change the information on a part of the web page with out actually reloading the whole web page. This has really been a big problem over the years and it largely irritates the users while doing small changes in the information on a given web page. AJAX has solved this problem up to a great extent.

The asynchronous JavaScript and XML technology, simply called AJAX technology is one main technology that is playing a major part in Web 2.0 revolution. Web developers are facing a major challenge from several years. They are unable to change the information on a part of the web page with out actually reloading the whole web page. This has really been a big problem over the years and it largely irritates the users while doing small changes in the information on a given web page. AJAX has solved this problem up to a great extent.

With the help of AJAX, web programmers can make the web page to request web server to just change information which is on a part of the web page with out reloading the whole web page. In order to achieve this, SAJAX (Simple AJAX toolkit), which is a toolkit that is totally written in PHP programming language, has been introduced. This tool kit helps the web programmer to integrate the java Script with web server side PHP language. This will make the life of the web developer very easy.

But still, there are some down sides to this AJAX technology also just like with any other web technology, for that matter any technology. One of the major limitations of AJAX technology is related to the option of book marking. This limitation can create many hectic problems for the users of the web sites especially when the information requests to the web server are done through Post and Get methods. One another major limitation is related to the Back option on any web page. When a user presses on this option, this will take the user to first page rather than the last page which he viewed. This can surely surprise many web users who use extensively this option day in and day out.

AJAX technology can be easily used with many programming languages like java, PHP and so on. However, PHP is the most suitable web programming language to implement AJAX technology. Most of tool kits including SAJAX are also written in PHP. This should make the life of PHP programmers even easier.

GOOGLE is extensively using AJAX technology in many of its products, which includes GMail, Google Suggestions and so on. It is promoting this in a big way. So, if you are a web programmer, especially if you are a PHP developer then you should try and implement AJAX technology in your future projects to realize its real potential and power.

Copyright (c) 2006 Darren Dunner