AHAH, a simpler AJAX
I ran across this very interesting page detailing a simple way to do AJAX style pages, called AHAH: Asynchronous HTML and HTTP.
Now AJAX has many issues, but most of them are to do with the way people program/design their AJAX applications, rather than the underlying technology. However, the underlying JavaScript that is in any AJAX application often causes complications with browser compatibility, which of course is a major stumbling block with AJAX.
AHAH limits this problem by sending (X)HTML clips directly to the browser, ready to be inserted into the DOM with no additional parsing. This reduces complexity in a number of ways and has the following useful properties:
- The lack of custom XML schema dramatically reduces design time
- AHAH can trivially reuse existing HTML pages, avoiding the need for a custom web service
- All data transport is done via browser-friend HTML, easing debugging and testing
- The HTML is designed to be directly embedded in the page’s DOM, eliminating the need for parsing
- As HTML, designers can format it using CSS, rather than programmers having to do XSLT transforms
- Processing is all done on the server, so the client-side programming is essentially nil (moving opaque bits)
Now no doubt this will not be able to solve all issues that AJAX is currently used to solve, but it will be useful in many areas where the added complexity of fully fledged AJAX doesn’t justify the benefits. I have no doubt that the vastly reduced JavaScript will also benefit with browser compatibility.
RSS Feed
