Web Work
Ajax & Connected Technologies
“Almost as soon as it started Ajax was at an end.”
Little known fact, I invented Ajax.
Working on a website for bathroom giants Ideal Standards back in 2001 I faced the problem of trying to update a site of over 1,000 pages every time any element changed with the restriction that those changes had to be reflected even if the page was not reloaded.
At the time it seemed like an unachievable aim although there was a caveat, that the website was only required to work with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6.
This meant giving access to the talked about (and at the time generally unusable) XMLHttpRequest to call on a created XML file which is the cornerstone of the concept of Ajax. The rest falls into place building the menu in this strange and unusual way.
So I invented Ajax independently, but I did not invent it first, so it is not called Michael-Jax.
Ajax changed from being all about XML (and sometimes it is not about JavaScript either) and now describes any server to front end transfer and many of the biggest websites in the World could not offer an experience without it.
It is a core part of every website consideration, and an understanding of it is key to creating a modern web experience.