"Ajax [1] is changing web applications, giving them a responsiveness that’s unheard of beyond the desktop. But behind all the hype, there’s not much to Ajax — (X)HTML [2], JavaScript [3], and XML [4] are nothing new, and in this tutorial, I’ll show you how to simplify the process of adding Ajax to your application even further with the help of jQuery, a popular JavaScript library."

Web application development has been revolutionized by Ajax. What was once a new and flashy technology is now becoming ubiquitous. End users are coming to expect that certain interactions with a Web application will be done "with no refresh," in other words, using Ajax. The ubiquity of Ajax for users has not yet translated to client-side technologies.

Maintaining a complex web application that uses a lot of Javascript for client-side, "AJAX"-style interactivity is rather difficult. The clumsiness of the Javascript language itself, as well as the various tricks needed to make an application work consistently across multiple browsers, all of which must be wrapped up inside HTML, makes for a jumble of issues for the application developer.

"Ajax is surprisingly easy to use with the Arc language. This article shows how to implement Ajax-based autocompletion and dynamic page updates using the script.aculo.us and Prototype JavaScript frameworks. These frameworks allow Ajax applications to be implemented with just a few lines of additional code. The hard work is done by the script.aculo.us and Prototype libraries.

Sometimes, it seems that the world is all about man vs. technology, and one has to lose. This seems to be the question raised about AJAX; from the general challenges of AJAX, including cost and expertise needed, to its security issues, will the technological good prevail or will we humans be seeking an alternative?

Companies that have used Asynchronous JavaScript and XML to jazz up corporate Web sites may be dangerously vulnerable to a variety of Web-based threats, warned researchers at the Black Hat USA conference in Las Vegas this month. Billy Hoffman of SPI Dynamics said at the conference that many corporate Web developers are not paying attention to fundamental Ajax security issues.

"There are so many different javascript frameworks out there, but I have recently started to use jQuery, and I love it. Not only is the library much smaller than others, but it is so simple to use. I wanted to show how easy it is to turn a regular form into a AJAX form..."

A new book on jQuery, the powerful JavaScript library, has been released by Packt Publishing. In Learning jQuery, Karl Swedberg and Jonathan Chaffer, creators of the popular jQuery learning resource www.learninjgquery.com, share their knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm about jQuery to help users get the most from the library and to make their web applications shine.

Packt is pleased to announce details of a new book for ASP.NET developers, which will help them to understand how Microsoft AJAX will impact on the way they develop web applications and help them to make the transition to better, more responsive applications as easily as possible.