Web 2.0 Architectures

The Asynchronous Particle Update Pattern

Also Known As

The Asynchronous Particle Update pattern is related to two well-known architectural styles:

Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX)

AJAX, which has made web pages much more interactive, is a well-known implementation of this pattern and has been credited with being a major force behind the Web 2.0 movement.

Representational State Transfer (REST)

REST is a strongly related architectural style, one that often supports the update mechanism. Roy Fielding, one of the principal authors of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) specification, introduced the term REST in his 2000 doctoral dissertation on the Web, and it has since come into widespread use in the networking community. Like the Asynchronous Particle Update pattern, REST is a pattern or architectural style and principle of networks that outlines how resources are defined and addressed. The term is often used in a looser sense to describe any simple interface that transmits domain-specific data over HTTP without an additional messaging layer such as SOAP or session tracking via HTTP cookies. In true pattern style, it is possible to design any interchange in accordance with REST without using HTTP or the Internet. It is likewise possible to design simple XML and HTTP interfaces that do not conform to REST principles.

Business Problem (Story)

During the first iteration of the Internet, most clients retrieved content using HTTP GET requests, which returned complete HTML web pages. ...