The Ajax Approach to Browser Scripting

Summary

This chapter introduced the Ajax style of creating XML applications. Ajax uses a combination of XML, the XMLHttpRequest object, JavaScript, XSLT, XHTML, and CSS to create responsive web applications. Because you’d seen the other technologies earlier in the book, I focused on the new XMLHttpRequest object in this chapter.

You saw how to use the XMLHttpRequest object to make server requests. You were able to display a HEAD request and retrieve content from an XML document. You looked at two simple examples—validating a username in a form, and creating an address-book application.

I showed how to use the Sarissa library to create cross-browser code, and I listed some of the other toolkits that may help. I finished by looking at criticisms of Ajax and some ways to address these. I also covered some of the Ajax best practices.

In the next chapter, I’m going to look at a totally different approach to working with XML on the client. You’ll see how to use Flash to load and display XML content.