Chapter 4. Adding AJAX to Your Web Development Process

In this chapter

	4.1 Changes to the Development Cycle	page 78
	4.2 Integrating AJAX into a Framework	page 86
	4.3 JavaScript as a Primary Development Language	page 87
	4.4 Problems Created by the New Development Paradigm	page 88
	4.5 Advantages to Using a Library	page 89
	4.6 Reasons to Build Your Own Library	page 91
	4.7 How Open Source Fits into the Mix	page 91
	4.8 Use Case for Building: The Firefox Counter	page 95
	4.9 Use Case for Downloading: An Intranet Web Site	page 97
	4.10 Summary	page 98

AJAX is not really a new technology, but because it involves new skills and ideas in creating Web pages, it introduces many new difficulties for Web, developers. There are three basic sets of problems:

• Technical aspects of implementing AJAX (covered in Chapters 2, "Getting Started," and 3, "Consuming the Sent Data")

• Overall problems that are a result of the nature of AJAX as a whole

• Deciding how to integrate a new set of third-party tools

This chapter covers the second and third problems. We'll first explore the changes AJAX brings to the development cycle and then cover what changes using JavaScript as a primary development language brings. Then we will look at how AJAX libraries fit into the overall development process and how you should decide which one to use, or even when the best solution is to build your own.