Programming Atlas

Pure JavaScript

To conclude this chapter, it should also be mentioned that you do not even need Ajax to create Ajax-like effects. Or, to be more technically accurate, you do not need XMLHttpRequest to exchange data with the server. Using a bit of HTML knowledge and adding a bit of JavaScript to the mix, you can avoid the complexity of the various frameworks and just rely on your scripting knowledge.

The idea is to use a hidden frame to load another file in the browser, but in a way that the user does not see it. This new file contains JavaScript code that is created on the server and can therefore access server-side information. This code then changes some elements on the original page. This asynchronous approach has been quite common for several years, but without a fancy name like Ajax. This method avoids some of the browser incompatibility problems that made it so painful to create browser-agnostic web sites.

Figure 16-5 shows the concept: the code is loaded in either a hidden frame (<frame> element) or in an invisible iframe (<iframe> element). The latter option is preferable, because iframes can be embedded into a page. Then, the code in the iframe can change other HTML elements on the page.

Figure 16-5. Emulating Ajax without XMLHttpRequest

First of all, an invisible iframe is required:

<iframe name="calculator" style="display: none;"></iframe>

As you can see, the iframe is ...