The new version 5.0 of JsHttpRequest – easy-to-use cross-browser AJAX library with uploading support – is ready. Most significant changes:

* Compatibility with Prototype. Library JsHttpRequest could be used as its server part in PHP. Even so, all additional features of JsHttpRequest (cross-browser compatibility, file uploading support, work with national charsets etc.) are still available.
* Fully automatic regression test suite. As a result – even better and guaranteed cross-browser compatibility.
* Library code is now module-based. You may switch off unneeded loading methods to shrink the JS file size. By default library supports and automatically chooses one of 3 different loading methods: SCRIPT (most cross-browser method, works when no XMLHttpRequest nor ActiveX is present); XML (native loader); FORM (for transparent file uploading). But if you do not need some of these method, you may choose a shrinked library version: JsHttpRequest-script.js (8K only!), JsHttpRequest-xml.js etc. or compose your own version manually – module separation is very clear. See http://en.dklab.ru/lib/JsHttpRequest/demo/lib/ JsHttpRequest/mini/
* Support and “transparent” work with any character encoding (including any national). You may write your scripts in a usual way, library will take care about everything else.
* Library code is now compressed using dojomin utility, size is lowered greatly.
* Automatical support for PHP’s native JSON functions (if available). This speeds up 3 times the execution in PHP 5.2.
* XML loader now returns valid JSON. There is no reference to loading ID in this format.
* New documentation: easy to understand tutorial ( http://en.dklab.ru/lib/JsHttpRequest/ ) and protocol specifications (http://en.dklab.ru/lib/JsHttpRequest/protocol.html ).

I’ll give this a shot!