Introduction to JavaScript Object Notation

Chapter 6. The JavaScript XMLHttpRequest and Web APIs

The JavaScript XMlHttpRequest and web APIs might be difficult to say three times fast, but it’s really not as complicated as it sounds. It is a simple client and server relationship. The JavaScript XMLHttpRequest is the client making the requests, and the web API  is the server sending the responses.

In the client–server restaurant example discussed in the previous chapter, I referred to the server as the kitchen and the client as the customer. This chapter will focus on a type of kitchen and how this kitchen operates.

It goes without saying that not every restaurant operates the same. In some restaurants, you can drive up to a window to order your food. Some restaurants are open to the public and other restaurants may only serve as a cafeteria inside of a large company campus.

A client–server relationship that most of us participate in is surfing the Internet. Oftentimes we think of ourselves as traveling, or exploring around the Internet. In reality, we are usually sitting and staring into a screen. The Internet browser isn’t going anywhere either. It just sits in place, as if at a table in a restaurant, making requests and receiving responses. Once the server gives us our response, it is done with us and moves on to some other entity making a request.

The request being made by the Internet browser is for a resource. When we are “surfing the Internet,” we either click a link with a URL or we directly type in a URL in our ...