What is AJAX

AJAX is an acronym for asynchronous JavaScript and XML. While a bit of a misnomer since it doesn’t have to be asynchronous, use JavaScript, or XML, the term refers to a collection of technologies that enable client-side scripting to communicate with the web server outside of the typical page refresh scenario. In a nutshell, AJAX uses JavaScript to request data from the web server. It then updates the page content using the Document Object Model (DOM). This allows portions of the web page to be updated as needed without a complete refresh.

AJAX can also be used to call web services independently from the web server that is hosting the web page. You can use this to access data provided by a third party such as stock quotes or currency conversion. You can also call your own web services to perform real-time updates or load data based on user input. For example, you can provide a product search feature and use AJAX to call a web service that returns the matching products.