Ajax Fast and Easy - Part one, two and three

The purpose of this post is to try to explain AJAX the way I understand it. To me, AJAX is not some complicated technology that you need to go out and buy books to learn. Rather, it is simply two or more web pages, and a couple of simple Javascript functions. I have come to hate the term AJAX. It seems every time I mention AJAX, either developers get nervous, or account managers get excited. Neither situation benefits me. Actually, I’ve pretty much stopped using the term at all. Depending on my audience, I’ll make up different terms. Like when I’m talking to Java developers, I’ll say “we need to do a back end call” and that doesn’t freak them out, but telling them we need to do an AJAX call makes them sweat.

Hopefully, if enough people read posts like this, the mystery and glamor will be removed from the term AJAX. So, lets get to the de-mystification.