I hate buzzwords almost as much as I hate acronyms. As a programmer I’m required to know all the latest computing trends (rss, xml, spry, blogs, seo, mvc, web 2.0, sql, api, dom, oop to name a few). Usually these things are ideas that have been around for a long time, reworded and packaged so people can understand them, Ajax is no different. It stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML.
Ajax is not one product like everyone’s favorite word processor nor is it a set standard put forth by some agency like XHTML. It is more a collection of technologies that allow websites to become more interactive by doing things “behind the scenes” of a page without completely reloading it.
The traditional way websites are structured is a series of pages, you click a link and you go to a new page. AJAX makes it possible to change the page “on the fly” aka “asynchronously.” Delaware.net’s first AJAX-intensive applications were recently launched largely thanks to Adobe’s new release of ColdFusion (version 8).
ColdFusion 8 includes a whole host of new features that allow for the creation of AJAX applications much more quickly than the previous versions. The new version of Team-Logic™ and Mail-Logic™ include dynamic content updates, asynchronous form posts, tabbed layouts that pull data on-the-fly, and popup windows that exist completely inside one browser window, eliminating the need to change popup blocker settings and searching for them on your start menu when they go behind the screen.
Another important feature of these technologies is speed. Instead of reloading the whole page every time you make a change, the system only has to reload the part that is relevant. AJAX-type applications are fast becoming the standard for the World Wide Web, allowing a linear world to blossom into something more dynamic. If that isn’t reason enough to care, you can still use what you just read to impress someone at the next cocktail party.
It really is amazing how much faster our applications are since we’ve optimized them, improved the databases, built a new login structure, and lastly installed the AJAX technology that Charley is mentioning here. It really is groundbreaking stuff. This technology makes it possible for a web application that is used for business to rival the speed of a local network or desktop application. This is great news for Delaware.Net, as we are poised now to offer our complete suite of services in an on-demand way for our customers, using this latest technology. These advancements will continue into 2008 as we include more and more applications into this master framework for our customers. Features include PDF generation, web page generation (CMS), calendaring, CRM, email newsletters, online billing, eCommerce, and much more with ONE login. If your web site is over a year old, NOW is the time to speak with Delaware.Net so that we can show you this latest technology, and how it can save your business time and money.