So let’s talk Ajax!
This is a set of programming techniques that enable a web page to seamlessly be updated, or just a part of the page.
To put this in an easy to understand formula, what it does is communicate with files that are on the websites server and fetch back the information the user as requested, there is a lot more to it than that, if you are looking for the tech side of it there is lots of sites that can help you. This article is here to try to explain what it does and aimed at the user and not the coder.
In the good old days of the internet when you clicked on a page link to view the next page, the request would be sent back to the websites server and then the new page would have to be downloaded to your pc and the new page displayed onto the screen. Ok this is still going on, but now there is a way to speed up the process. This is were Ajax comes in; instead of having to send the full page to the server it sends just the request, it then brings back the required data and displays it on the page. This speeds up the process and puts less strain on the web server. The process is seamless so the user gets a real time experience and does not have to wait for an age for the full page to download again.
Ok Ajax does make your site look good and impressive; the website visitor gets a web page that works like a program running on their computer.
This is a good thing is it not?
Well not always, yes absolutely brilliant in the fact it speeds up the site and puts less strain on the web server. BUT it does have its down side, and a website developer needs to decide if the good part out does the bad side.
Let me explain this a little clearer. You already know the good side of Ajax so lets talk about the bad side. There are in my book two major problems with using Ajax or should I say using it in the wrong place.
When should Ajax be used?
If used correctly Ajax can be very helpful to your site. It is great for contact forms and tool tips (they are little pop up help or description boxes) If the site is a member only site you can safely use Ajax all the way through the site, as the logged in part of the site will not be indexed any way so will not affect SEO for your site.
Shopping sites
In most shopping sites a lot of data is being pulled from the web server and the database to dynamically output all the products for the clicked on category. These sites have to be dynamic as it would take for ever to add all the products to the page’s code and the amount of pages would be in the hundreds for a large site. Now I bet you are thinking that Ajax would really come into its own now? Well yes it would be great as all you would need to download would be the products, and that would really speed up the site. Are we not forgetting the last part about search engines? A shopping site can have hundreds of pages (Only a couple of files but as they change dynamically each change is a separate page) all getting an index from the search but if you use Ajax you could loose all them possible search hits.
So you have heard when to use this great scripting and when not to, lets see some Ajax at work.