Live preview (as I type) underneath this comment is a waste, if it is using AJAX because I, as a web developer, can figure out how this posting is going to look like.

Real time error checking is indeed cool, I should add that to the wiki.

Simple forms that are not used that often? I still think they don’t really need Ajaxification.

On my blog, I implemented a different sort of Ajax-based search — one that lets you submit the form and get results without leaving the page.

It’s not anything life-changing, but I like it more than the default Movable Type search that I had before (or the awful Google Suggest rip-off that followed soon thereafter).

Also, “places you *must* use Ajax” sounds a bit overstated.

The rub though is, as others have pointed out in the past there’s no D or V in “AJAX”. No DHTML. No VML. No SVG. Really no graphical user interface concept described in the terms underlying the AJAX acronym. Tighly defined AJAX is just the way to get data to and from the client — not how it gets displayed.

Accordingly from what I see there are currently four quantum states of the term “AJAX” today (all of which are exemplified in ajaxian.com’s coverage).

These are:

ajax communication libraries — just the communicaiton routines, with little more.

html/dhtml/vector/js components pre-wired to ajax communication libraries — GUI widgets that are scripted to do background communication with ajax techniques.

gui frameworks — full integrated libraries of interactive gui components that share common methods for data acquisition persistence and communication. These are sometimes server-centric and at other times client centric as in TIBCO General Interface AJAX Framework offering.

libraries supported by visual development tools — ajax authoring today is mostly happening in the real that HTML did at first — that is the textual code editor. Visual tools for certain frameworks are emerging. Here at TIBCO we even build the AJAX tooling using AJAX (in the 3rd quantum state definition of the term) to create the Rich Internet Application IDE we call TIBCO General Interface.

The thing is that while ajax strictly defined may be just the communications aspect, it’s really AJAX + DHTML and Vector rendering capabilities in the browser that provide the possibility to deliver web based applications that can give desktop installed applications a run for their money.

So is AJAX just some of the ingredients in a no-plugins, no-applets, no-active-x, approach to Rich Internet Applications?, or is AJAX a class of Rich Internet Applications unto itself. Or is it all of the above.

Far as I can tell from a semantic survey of the web (or just ajaxian.com alone), the term has 4 quantum states of being. Anwser: All of the above.

–Kevin Hakman, TIBCO Software Inc.

Saying that, Alex’s points here are mostly quite valid – he’s advising caution on various points, not ruling them out. e.g. Drag-And-Drop is okay for re-ordering lists, but overkill for selecting a boolean value!

again just IMHO,
tope

Exactly. I’m amazed whenever I read someone saying how they want to simulate several pages using Ajax. Let’s say you had a 10 page site about widgets. What possible advantage could there be in using Ajax to load the content of each page as opposed to just going to an actual page.

It’s true that it is very nice to be able to go back to a previous search, but I think there’s a place for both a normal search->submit->get a result and a search->get instant index kind of search.

Once again, sorry if its a newbie question