PHP & AJAX

Ajax stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML.
It allows you to get or send information to other pages on your server using Javascript. Usually, those pages are php, which parse the information and reply back to your browser. Basically, it's communication between the web page and your server without reloading the entire page.

Let's say you have a site that you have to register for.
Instead of them submitting the form and waiting for all the style, images, and text to reload, just to be told that the username they attempted to use was taken is annoying (Also, they'll probably have to re-fillout part of the registration form).

With Ajax, you can have javascript grab the contents of a page like "checkname.php?name=[whatever they enetered]". The php page would only need to say "1" or "0" depending on whether it's taken or not.

The Javascript would see that and could alert the user almost immediately after they finished typing the name.

It's very useful, but shouldn't be relied on (haha, I've made that mistake before) because if their connection is slow, the response can be delayed. It also relies heavily on JavaScript, which is a problem if they don't have a lot of Ram (Or don't have JS enabled).

Note that if the script is on www.website.com/hello.js, you can only grab files from www.website.com/*

Valid requests would be for:
www.website.com/test.php
www.website.com/directory/file.php

Invalid requests include:
subdomain.website.com/file.php (A different subdomain)
http://website.com/file.php (Again subdomain, but this time the sub-dir. is blank)
www.google.com (Any other site)


Bruce

Here is an easy tutorial: http://www.w3schools.com/Ajax/Default.Asp

I see.Thanks a lot guys. Any suggestion on my site here
Check Page Rank :yell:
Seems a bit slow to load the results and I want it to be faster. Still dev the design so a bit out of alignment.
Thanks a lot
Anyway rep+ for both

AJAX is good for better user interface. But it should only be used if there is a need for it.

Just using it for nice and cool effects is headache.

You can also read more about improving user interface on Yahoo GUI library page.

Try to visit developertutorials.com and learn more about AJAX and PHP you will find great and helpful tutroials and helping resources.

ajaxdaddy.com is good if you want some apps built with ajax, and you can see how its done. Its how I learnt it (that and w3schools xD)