Saturday, August 2, 2008

FAQ on AJAX Technology

AJAX has become an hot technology with Web2.0 but before starting AJAX Programming developers needs to know some important FAQ on AJAX.

Q) Ajax an Microsoft Technology?
A) Absolutely No, Ajax is an cross browser technology. It is browser dependent and uses JavaScript.

Q)Are Ajax applications easier to develop than traditional web applications?
A) Not necessarily. Ajax applications can involve complex JavaScript code on the client. To develop that complex code efficient and bug-free is not an simple task as it involves pure JavaScript & DHTML coding. But better development tools and frameworks are require to make the Ajax Application development much faster and easier.

Q) Do Ajax applications always deliver a better experience than traditional web applications?
A) Not necessarily. Ajax gives interaction designers more flexibility. However, the more power we have, the more caution we must use in exercising it. We must be careful to use Ajax to enhance the user experience of our applications, not degrade it.

Q) Apart from AJAX any other Technique exist for Dynamic Web Page Update?
A) IFRAMES

Q) Can AJAX access Server side script residing on different domain?
A) NO. Ajax can only access the Script residing on same domain. If you try to access the script from other domain browsers gives an error “Access Denied”

Q) Ajax can also fetch XML content from server side, if this is true how?

A) Using responseXML properties and then by using JavaScript XML DOM to access the attributes and value of XML data.

Q) Is Ajax is Browser Dependent?
A) Yes, Ajax object is part of JavaScript engine inside every browser. So if a new browser comes into market and the JavaScript engine doesn’t have XMLHTTP object then Ajax will not work.

Q) How can i check the progress of my Ajax call?
A) When making Ajax call the readystate has to reach 4 to capture the remote date. So you can insert appropriate messages until the readystate reaches 4.

Q) Do i have to wait endlessly after making Ajax Call?
A) Not always but there are some exceptional cases when the remote server is already busy and is unable to handle your request in that case the JavaScript code will wait until response is fetched from the remote server or there is browser request timed out. You can use the interval to make another call after specific interval.

Q) Do i have to explicitly use Ajax Frameworks for implementing Ajax?
A) Not necessarily, Ajax Frameworks are meant to make the life of programmers simpler. These frameworks acts as an wrapper to the Ajax Code, they provide you with the function call that will do all the Ajax Call and you don’t have to write the Basic Ajax Code.

Q) Can Ajax work with all Web Technologies?
A) Yes, Ajax is browser dependent and if the web technology you are using supports browser then Ajax will work.

Q) Can i make multiple Ajax Call?
A) Yes you can make multiple Ajax call provided you have separate Ajax Object variables created. Making another Ajax Call on the existing Ajax Object will overwrite the previous make call.

Q) Can i do Ajax Connection Pooling Techniques?
A) Yes you can do connection pooling for making Ajax call. Here you will be storing all the Ajax objects in a connection pool so that every individual object will perform their own task.

No comments: