What is the full form of AJAX

AJAX: Asynchronous JavaScript and XML

AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. It is not a technology but a group of technologies. It uses many web technologies to create a set of web Development techniques. It works on the client side to create asynchronous web applications. With the help of AJAX, we can send and retrieve the data from a server asynchronously (in the background) i.e. without disturbing the existing page on display.

History

Earlier all the websites were made only with HTML. They were difficult to use as they took a lot of time to reload the page every time. In 1996, the Iframe tag was introduced by Internet Explorer.

The term "Ajax" was publicly stated on 18th February 2005 by Jesse James Garrett in an article titled "Ajax: A New Approach To Web Applications".

Technologies used

1. HTML and CSS for the presentation.
2. The Document Object Model (DOM) for dynamic display and interaction with data.
3. JSON and XML for the interchange of data
4. XMLHttpRequest for asynchronous communication
5. JavaScript to bring all these technologies together

Drawbacks

1. It will only be implemented in the browsers which support them and not in all.
2. Some screen reading technologies do not support Ajax.
3. Some screen reading technologies supporting Ajax will still not be able to properly read dynamically generated content.
4. It is difficult to bookmark and return to a particular state of the application.
5. It leads to complex code that is hard to maintain, debug and code.

How Asynchronous JavaScript and XML works

It is crucial to keep in mind that AJAX comprises two essential components: the online browser and the web server, in order to comprehend how it functions.

Classical web applications also employ synchronous requests to send and receive data to and from the web server, sending the user to a new page with updated data from the server. The user presses the submit button while using AJAX, and JavaScript sends the request to the server, interprets the replies, and asynchronously updates the browser's view (or takes some other action). This is how the procedure goes:

• A few things occur on a webpage. For instance, a user might click a certain button or the page might load.
• An object for XMLHttpRequest is created by JavaScript.
• This object requests information from the relevant web server.
• The server responds to the browser after handling the request.
• JavaScript interprets the reply.
• According to the triggering event, JavaScript takes the appropriate action.

AJAX engines and AJAX apps

Without the need to install any plugins, AJAX apps run directly in a web browser. XML is typically used by these apps to transfer data. But they can also deliver plain-text or JSON text data.

Applications using AJAX make use of an engine that stands between a user's browser and the server being queried for data. As a result, the browser loads the engine rather than a standard webpage, which the engine then shows to the user. The engine keeps running in the background and communicates with the browser via JavaScript.

Any user action, such as clicking anywhere on the website, causes the engine to be called in JavaScript and normally answers right away. If the engine needs more information, it updates the page while also requesting it from the server, typically using XML.

Benefits of asynchronous JavaScript and XML

The following are some major benefits of AJAX:

• Widely used open standards serve as the foundation of AJAX.
• It increases the interactivity of websites.
• It is incredibly efficient and speedy for responsive web apps in e-commerce and other online platforms.
• It is a workable technology for Rich Internet Applications and is frequently used to refer to Web 2.0.
• AJAX facilitates user interactions that are intuitive.
• It enables the material to be changed in response to particular user activity, a period of time, or other logic unique to an application.
• There are numerous open-source toolkits and libraries that support cross-browser AJAX-based interactions.