[Javascript] DOM vs AJAX

[david at dorward.me.uk (David Dorward)]

On Wed, Jun 21, 2006 at 09:02:37AM +0200, Michael Borchers wrote:

> indeed i work with php. so regarding adding content when working with mysql
> and other php solutions there is no other way than AJAX / web 2.0 / ... .

Umm. The choice of server side language has no impact whatsoever on
what technologies are available client side.

> let's say the new content will be a <table>.
> 1. the link now could call a javascript function that creates this table by 
> createElement(...) (what i like to call DOM:) )
> 2. the link could call a XMLHttpRequest, which returns the table that has 
> been stored in a seperate file (what i call AJAX:) )

3. The link could load the content into an iframe

4. The link could call XMLHttpRequest to get some data which it then
uses to build a DOM tree with create element et al.

5. etc etc etc
 
> i see the advantage in solution 2 because it's pretty easy to change the 
> table

Once you have your functions for building a table, its also easy to
change the data that goes into building it. You don't need to (and
probably shouldn't) define every createElement/appendChild manually -
write a function to walk a data structure.


>, its layout whatever.

and that data structure could easily include information about what
classes to apply to what elements.

-- 
David Dorward                                      http://dorward.me.uk