Towards Ajax
Have your server side HTML page interact with the server
This text initially loaded with page
When you make a selection, the answer comes here
Ajax stands for "Asyncronous Javascript and XML" ... and this demonstration
is headed toward Ajax.
Using Ajax, a suitable browser can ask a server for dynamic information
to be filled in to an existing page, without the need to retransmit the
whole page - and in this example, we're calling up a server to replace the
text in the light blue box just above whenever a selection element on the
form is completed.
Why do I say "towards" Ajax rather than calling it "Ajax"?
• In this easy example, I have NOT gone asynchronous - in other
words, the page is waiting for the response from the server within
the Javascript rather than setting up an event handler for later
• The response isn't XML data in this case ... it's just a
chunk of HTML!
In this simple example too, we have not checked within our JavaScript as
to the make / version of the browser, so if it's used with a non
compliant browser it will fail silently.