Business Issues: Page (3) of 3 - 04/26/06

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The Non-Techie Manager's Introduction to AJAX An explanation for people who don't know or care about programming.
Two Things: User Interface and Asynchronous Updates
Managers' main interest in AJAX will be the improvement of web applications that the development staff builds. From your point of view, the benefit is that a web application can be as responsive and immediate as a spreadsheet. We don't mean that in the sense of fast performance (though AJAX applications may be able to speed up some user interactions), as much as the fact that the application is dynamic.

The easiest way to get this point across is with a consumer example: a travel site. With the current technology, you fill in a form with your flight preferences, such as destination and number of travelers. You click on a Search button, and then you wait while the web page queries its databases. If you want to make a change (such as limit the results to only non-stop flights), you change the form and click on Search again. The web site goes back through its search process. This is what you're used to today.

That method works. However, some people find it clunky to send everything in a batch mode. Programmers find it a little more irritating, because each change to your search request requires that the entire page be redrawn.



Instead, compare the existing method of searching for flights with what Yahoo has done with its Farechase site, or similar offerings at Sidestep or Kayak. You provide the same information to start with, but when you want to explore the options (such as non-stop flights), the page updates on-the-fly. If you were a programmer, you'd notice that only parts of the page were updated; and you'd think it was cool.

Okay, let's get back to understanding the programmers. What is exciting them about AJAX is its ability to do asynchronous updates. In other words, an AJAX application doesn't have to stop what it's doing, go off and talk to the web server or application, then come back and paint the whole page again. Because data is accessed and updated in a non-batch way, developers can create applications with more "live updates," whether that's an interactive search, a business process portal, or maps that automatically change to indicate location.

This is a whole new capability for Web development, and it brings us one step closer to a computing environment in which you'll find it impossible to distinguish between a desktop application and an Internet-based application.

AJAX is still a new technology, or rather a set of technologies newly joined together, so your development staff won't have a lot of examples to demonstrate what they want to accomplish with it. They may or may not have feasible ideas; that's up to you to determine. However, armed with this little bit of knowledge, at least now you'll be able to grasp what they're trying to tell you.

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