Uploaded October 2016 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
One of the core capabilities that enable web application is the ability of JavaScript to perform network operations in the background. The original name for this design pattern was AJAX: asynchronous JavaScript and XML. However, today the wire format for data exchange between client-side JavaScript and the backend server is as likely to be JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) or something else, rather than XML. But the concept remains: JavaScript can both send and receive data from a web server in the background, either with or without user interaction. These requests do not trigger the page to reload in the traditional sense, and they are happening all the time for web apps without you noticing.
Credits: Talking: Geoffrey Challen (Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, University at Buffalo). Producing: Greg Bunyea (Undergraduate, Computer Science and Engineering, University at Buffalo).
Part of the internet-class.org online internet course. A blue Systems Research Group (https://blue.cse.buffalo.edu) production.
One of the core capabilities that enable web application is the ability of JavaScript to perform network operations in the background. The original name for this design pattern was AJAX: asynchronous JavaScript and XML. However, today the wire format for data exchange between client-side JavaScript and the backend server is as likely to be JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) or something else, rather than XML. But the concept remains: JavaScript can both send and receive data from a web server in the background, either with or without user interaction. These requests do not trigger the page to reload in the traditional sense, and they are happening all the time for web apps without you noticing.
Credits: Talking: Geoffrey Challen (Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, University at Buffalo). Producing: Greg Bunyea (Undergraduate, Computer Science and Engineering, University at Buffalo).
Part of the internet-class.org online internet course. A blue Systems Research Group (https://blue.cse.buffalo.edu) production.
