Advantages of AJAX

AJAX (also referred to as "remote scripting") stands for Asynchronous JavaScript And XML. AJAX is being used quite extensively these days, particularly on a lot of "web 2" websites.

AJAX is perfect for when you need to call a server process without reloading the page. Often this server process would be called based on user input. Traditionally, this would result in the page having to reload in order to call a server side script. But with AJAX, this doesn't have to be the case - you can call the server side script without reloading the page.

For example, based on the user's input, you might need to call the database so that you can display a list of options. Using AJAX, you can combine XML, JavaScript, your favorite server side language, and your database to provide a seamless experience for your user.

Quackit has a quick AJAX tutorial that shows you how to dynamically populate a drop down list from the database - based on the user's input. Using this example, I'm hoping you'll be able to see the potential of AJAX in providing usable interfaces on today's websites.