Javascript and Ajax
While XHTML and CSS produce the Content and Style for your webpages, the ability to bring the content to life and make it dynamic by controlling it’s behavior is accomplished with a client side scripting language called Javascript. It has typically been used for common things like drop-down navigation menus and a variety of effects such as rollover behaviours amd text animations, but in recent years it has vaulted to popularity as the main ingredient in a method of application development called AJAX. With AJAX your web pages can now be immediately interactive and responsive, utilizing something called the XMLHttpRequest object which can retrieve data from the server on-the-fly so it doesn’t require page reloading every time an action is requested by the user. An excellent example of AJAX at work is on the iGoogle Homepage where you have things like drag ‘n drop modules, tabbed content browsing, and edit-in-place text fields, and it is now being incorporated into most current web applications as a Web 2.0 defining Feature (be hip or be square!).
For the #1 place on the net to obtain free, original Javascripts that will enhance your web site, just visit Dynamic Drive. The scripts are easy to install, thoroughly tested, and compatible with most modern browsers, and although there are other sources on the web, this is a pretty complete resource being added to all the time, and has become a standard of sorts when looking for JS nuggets.
A favorite source for Ajax related scripts is Mini Ajax, with an intriguing Gallery of eye-popping Ajax scripted components, the likes of which have propelled this technology beyond Flash in terms of it’s coolness factor, something often revealed by the smiles that appear on clients’ faces . . .
I think perhaps my favorite example of javascript is one I’ve implemented several times called Highslide JS, a javascript thumbnail viewer by Torstein Honsi. It’s incredibly versatile and easy to use, and a non-commercial license is FREE so you can play play around with it on your personal site, while a Single Commercial license is only $29.
If client-side scripting language interests you and you’re interested in taking an indepth look at Javascript and Ajax, a few good books to take a look at are Simply JavaScript
