Ajax for Java developers

The page-reload cycle presents one of the biggest usability obstacles in Web application development and is a serious challenge for Java™ developers. In this series, author Philip McCarthy introduces a groundbreaking approach to creating dynamic Web application experiences. Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a programming technique that lets you combine Java technologies, XML, and JavaScript for Java-based Web applications that break the page-reload paradigm.
Ajax, or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is an approach to Web application development that uses client-side scripting to exchange data with the Web server. As a result, Web pages are dynamically updated without a full page refresh interrupting the interaction flow. With Ajax, you can create richer, more dynamic Web application user interfaces that approach the immediacy and usability of native desktop applications.

Ajax isn't a technology, it's more of a pattern -- a way to identify and describe a useful design technique. Ajax is new in the sense that many developers are just beginning to be aware of it, but all of the components that implement an Ajax application have existed for several years. The current buzz is because of the emergence in 2004 and 2005 of some great dynamic Web UIs based on Ajax technology, most notably Google's GMail and Maps applications and the photo-sharing site Flickr. These UIs were sufficiently groundbreaking to be dubbed "Web 2.0" by some developers, with the resulting interest in Ajax applications skyrocketing.

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