Is AJAX old yet?

Question

I'm about to begin building a real-time interactive website that will allow the user to create various objects and drag and move them around inside the browser, similar to, but very different than the newly announced Google Wave. Are there any newer methodologies than AJAX being used right now for creating real-time interactive web pages? If not, are there any methodologies/technologies that are in their early stages that you feel have the potential to be the next AJAX?

Thanks in advance for all your thoughts!

Answer 1

NO, it was just invented around 1999 or so!

Companies using AJAX:

• Google
• Everyone else

Also read wikipedia's Rationale & Critique on AJAX.

Answer 2

Json is a lighter-weight alternative to the X part of Ajax (XML), but obviously it isn't a full replacement. I think Ajax will be with us for a while longer.

Answer 3

That's a bit of strange question, "Is it old yet?". I think its more a case of Ajax now being a relatively mature and stable tech. There are some good frameworks out there you could use, like jQuery. Also, it shouldn't really matter which technology you use, as long as it does the job.

Answer 4

AJAX will be "old" when HTML/DHTML standarts will be changed. I can say that nothing was seriously changed since we use ourself "ajax" in 1999-2000.

Answer 5

Old does not imply dead or broken or even undesirable.

So, I would say yes. It's been around for a long time and many mature frameworks are built around it. Consider that ASP.NET Ajax, Google Web Toolkit, and jQuery are extremely popular in today's development world and we see Ajax everywhere. Perhaps mature is the best word.

Answer 6

wow, i forgot how mean some of the SO users can be sometimes (see top-level comments). ease up, guys, beeps is simply asking for your thoughts. if anything, you should be flattered.

i don't know much about ajax or web development in general, but if google's using ajax to develop their latest and greatest web apps, then i wouldn't worry about it being outdated when building your website. good luck, it sounds new and attractive :)

Answer 7

As I see it there are a variety of mainstream and competing methodologies for creating rich web based applications. One is the AJAX Javascript model another is Adobe Actionscript/Flex model which uses the Flash player plugin as the platform. Another is Silverlight similar to Flash but uses Microsoft technologies and C#.

AJAX

Pros: Uses web standards.

Can be run without plugin support.

Cons:

Browsers can have quirks in terms of support for different browsers. A framework helps with this though.

Different performance characteristics depending on browser. Safari and Chrome seem to have the fastest Javascript support.

Standalone Javacript can be time consuming to write. Best accomplished with a framework.

Flex/Flash/Actionscript

Pros:

Strong built in media support inside flash for working with graphics and video.

A single and consistent deployment platform (Flash player). If your browser and OS supports Flash then it supports your application runtime environment.

Cons: Flash is a proprietary plugin not supported on all clients (iPhone, and some open source OSes for example).

Dependent on one vendor to improve performance and maintain runtime environment.

Silverlight has similar pros and cons of Flash, but is not as widely supported as Flash player and/or AJAX.

Try googling RIA, Rich Internet Applications and you will find a variety of information about the various technologies available for building interactive web applications.

Other technologies include Java applets, but are not as common.

The larger question is do you want to use standard browser technologies or a proprietary framework/plugin? In the long run using AJAX will give you the most flexibility, probably the largest swath of support including clients that don't support Flash player, in particular the iPhone. But there may be very specific advantages to using a proprietary plugin like Flash or Silverlight, including DRM if you app requires it. But there are subtle trade offs.

As far as frameworks with AJAX go there is a large selection. Some notable ones include

Cappucino Web Framework

SproutCore

Google Web Toolkit

Jquery

Prototype

YUI, Yahoo! User Interface Library

and many others.

Answer 8

What does the question mean? Alternatives to Ajax? I assume that means anything that lets client and server communicate without a page refresh. So that would be:

1. Flash
2. Silverlight
3. Java
4. Any other plugin or addon that allows communication between server and client without a page refresh.

So Ajax is and will be how you do it in the browser "natively." The others are extensions to the browser.