Ajax, WebSocket, WebRTC and client-server applications

Asynchronous JavaScript and XML is a technology that changes the way web pages work by achieving asynchronously exchanges with the server. This allow also to build online applications.

The name Ajax was coined by Jesse James Garrett in an article published on the Adaptive Path site in 2005, it represent a combination of existing technologies to create dynamic Web sites and application, whose the main component is XMLHttpRequest, a JavaScript object to communicate with the server asynchronously.

Ajax is still the best solution for updating web content at the request of the user, but Fetch is a simpler alternative to load resources and it is replaced by WebSocket and WebRTC for creating interactive applications online or local on a client-server model. These technologies are also the subjects of this section.

Which interface for a modern application?
Comparison of all solutions: Ajax, XAML, JavaFX, and also the new standards of the Web. The evolutions of these technologies are studied, as they can modify definitively the decision.

Comparison of JSON and XML
The XHR object as defined in the standard specification allow to use two different attributes used when the file is loaded in XML format or not, knowing that a file JSON is seen as a text file. There are responseXML and responseTxt.
To choose between these formats, the article should help to the decision.

Ajax crawlable: Understanding the specification from Google
Google made a proposal for a standard to dynamic content indexed by search engine.

XMLHttpRequest vs. WebSocket
A new modernized standard ways to access the server, with WebSocket we obtain a two-way access to the server which can send notifications.

WebSocket demo
We let communicate the browser's WebSocket standard object with a framework on the server or a local machine, to exchange texts or images.

WebRTC vs. WebSocket
With WebRTC the application get real-time access to data on the server. As well as WebRTC WebSocket have a JavaScript interface for standardized by the W3C which will facilitate their widespread use in browsers.

List of Ajax and PHP frameworks
An Ajax framework when it is pure JavaScript can run on any system, it runs client side. Or it may also have a part running server side, in different programming languages: PHP, Java, ASP. The main JavaScript frameworks are JQuery, Mootools, Yahoo UI.

Anaa
A lightweight and easy to use library to make Ajax pages without to load a full framework.

Ajax and Gears
Working offline with the Gears library.