AJAX: Pros and Cons
I’ve been toying with AJAX from a developer standpoint the past few weeks as well as sampling the many Web 2.0 projects that are coming out on what seems to be a daily basis. IT seems like they all use AJAX, and rightly so. It allows for enhanced interactivity without the curse of page loads, but that “niceness” comes with a penalty. Let’s look at some of the pros and cons:
Pro: Flashy interactivity via Javascript that makes the users mouth water
Con: All that javascript is weighty on pageloads.
Pro: No need to have pages reload
Con: Ultimate care must be taken to prodide permanent links for users to reference in the future.
Pro: Faster display of data.
Con: Forget the Pro. The same POST/GET process occurs as with pageloads. The difference is it happens transparently. But not necessarily quicker. Therefore, developers must be concerned with providing the user visual clues as to what is happening so they don’t think the system is hung on extra long data loads due to network latency, etc
Pro: Ability to provide more desktop-like user interfaces.
Con: Potential to break the functionality of basic UI premise such as the browser back button.
Pro: Utilizes Javascript and XML which is almost universally indepenedent of platforms.
Con: IE <= 6 AJAX handler, xmlHttpResponse, is implemented through ActiveX which may be disabled on Enterprise or Corporate systems due to security restrictions. IE7 has a new implementation of the xmlHttpResponse object which does not depend on Microsoft proprietary functionality.
What can you add to this?
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POSTED IN: AJAX, Emerging Earth
5 opinions for AJAX: Pros and Cons
Vinnie Garcia
Feb 15, 2006 at 11:43 am
XMLHttpRequest, not XMLHttpResponse ;)
I think your post/get point is right on. There have been a few instances in my recent past where I got rid of AJAX because the process seemed to be taking longer than a regular old form submission/page reload.
Aaron
Feb 15, 2006 at 1:31 pm
Oops. :p Thanks for the correction.
JUST GOOD DESIGN | BLOG » AJAX time!
Dec 2, 2006 at 5:11 am
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senapati
Apr 22, 2007 at 12:03 am
hm,
Plenty of AJAX experts have been pleading the populace to stop equation AJAX to fancy menus. And I guess it is right. It is a mechanism to pull content onto the page, not display it. It brought JavaScript to such a level of prominence that things like Scriptaculous and Prototype took advantage.
Where I see the real potential of AJAX is alongside forms. Putting AJAX in the homepage just to call it Web2.0 is pointless. There has to be some use for the asynchronously-updated information.
K][TZZ
Sep 14, 2007 at 2:34 am
Ajax is a Very Good Technology makin’ web pages as like desktop utilities….i don’t think the cons of AJAX will be a Major issue..coz,, it got the greater feature than old web development…..
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