Well I guess I will start with A as in Ajax. This is a growing methodology for developing sites on the modern Web. Before we get into the guts of the matter let me share with you a usage scenario for Ajax.

A man calls up a Web design firm in a panic. “I have been trying and trying to update my Web site and make it fast and shiny using Ajax.” He franticly blurts out. “What seems to be the problem, sir?” The puzzled designer asks. “Well I keep hearing that everyone is using Ajax on their Web sites and that it makes them faster and more interesting. I tried this but it has only made my Web site unreadable.” “Well how are you implementing it, sir?” The curious designer asks. ” Well I keep scrubbing and scrubbing and all it seems to do is scratch up my Web site and make it unreadable.” ;)

Lesson#1 Do not use Ajax cleaner use Ajax code to enhance your Web site.

Ajax - Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a Web development technique for creating interactive Web applications. The intent is to make Web pages feel more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes, so that the entire Web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user makes a change. This is meant to increase the Web page’s interactivity, speed, and usability.

You see Ajax all over the Web these days and you will find some amazing and not so amazing implementations of this technique. Everything from interactive maps and the Gmail interface that Google uses to predict results in search forms. The interactive nature of components like drag and drop features as well as the fast response to quires can be really helpful.

You will find major players developing various Ajaxian Methodologies and creating a ton of tools

GWT - Google Web Toolkit

The ATF Project at Eclipse

Atlas from Microsoft

Sun - Java & Ajax

Adobe Spry *need an Adobe Labs account

Yahoo UI

Ajax has really evolved over the last year a has many more frameworks and tool kits to help you design with Ajax. However, it’s not all honey and sunshine and we will get into that in part 2 of What is Ajax?

[tags]Ajax, Code, JS, XML, Frameworks[/tags]