Introduction to Ajax

Ajax – called DHTML just a few months ago – has revolutionized (or “radically iterated”, if you like) web application development in the short few months since the term was coined.

What is it all about? Why are we excited about a set of capabilites that have been sitting in our browser for years? What can you do with it? And, how can you do it?

Ajax, short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a technique for communicating with servers from within a web page without causing a page refresh.

This session provides an introduction to Ajax and an orientation to the state of the ajaxian universe. The basic ajaxian techniques will be demonstrated through live coding, and more advanced examples of Ajax will be demonstrated and deconstructed.

Attendees will understand how the Google Maps UI is built (and why it isn't as hard as it looks), how Ajax can improve portals, community sites, and pretty much any other type of web application.

Furthermore, the issues surrounding how to create an Ajax application that doesn't turn into an unmaintainable pile of hacked up crap JavaScript will be discussed.

At the end of the session, an off-line capable, web services consuming Ajax RSS aggregator will also be demonstrated.

This talk will be presented by one or more of the founders of Ajaxian.com.

The session “Ajaxian JavaScript Frameworks” complements this session, and dives deeper into specifics on how to use many of the frameworks introduced in this session.

About Ben Galbraith

Ben Galbraith is a frequent technical speaker, occasional consultant, and author of several Java-related books. He is a co-founder of Ajaxian.com, an experienced CTO and Java Architect, and is presently a consultant specializing in Java Swing and Ajax development. Ben wrote his first computer program when he was six years old, started his first business at ten, and entered the IT workforce just after turning twelve. For the past few years, he’s been professionally coding in Java. Ben has delivered hundreds of technical presentations world-wide at venues including JavaOne, The Ajax Experience, JavaPolis, and the No Fluff Just Stuff Java Symposium series; he was the top-rated speaker at JavaOne 2006.

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