introduction to Ajax

AJAX  means Asynchronous(异步的) JavaScript and XML.

Remember on sentence:

It is possible to update parts of a web page, without reloading the whole page.

How Ajax works?

browser An event occurs.... 1. Create an XMLHttpRequest Object 2. Send HttpRequest

Ajax is based on Internet Standards and Uses a combination of:

• XMLHttpRequest object (to exchange data asynchronously with a server)
• JavaScript/DOM (to display/interact with the information)
• CSS (to style the data)
• XML (often used as the format for transferring data)

AJAX applications are browser- and platform-independent!

Google Suggest  is using AJAX to create a very dynamic web interface: When you start typing in Google's search box, a JavaScript sends the letters off to a server and the server returns a list of suggestions.

POST and GET:

GET is simpler and faster than POST, and can be used in most cases.

However, the following three cases we use POST:

1) A cache file is not an option(update  a file or database on the server)

2) Sending a large amount, POST has no size limitations.

3) Sending user input(Which can contain unknown characters), POST is more robust and secure than GET.

//code

function loadXMLDoc()
{
var xmlhttp;
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
  {// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
  xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
  }
else
  {// code for IE6, IE5
  xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
  }
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function(){
  if (xmlhttp.readyState==4 && xmlhttp.status==200){
    document.getElementById("myDiv").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
    }
}
xmlhttp.open("GET","demo_get.asp",true);
xmlhttp.send();
}