Request/Response in an Ajax world

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So you now understand Ajax and have a basic idea about the XMLHttpRequest object and how to create it. If you've read closely, you even realize that it's the JavaScript technology that talks to any Web application on the server rather than your HTML form being submitted to that application directly.

What's the missing piece? How to actually use XMLHttpRequest. Since this is critical code that you'll use in some form in every Ajax application you write, take a quick tour through what a basic request/response model with Ajax looks like.

Making a request

You have your shiny new XMLHttpRequest object; now take it for a spin. First, you need a JavaScript method that your Web page can call (like when a user types in text or selects an option from a menu). Then, you'll follow the same basic outline in almost all of your Ajax applications:

  1. Get whatever data you need from the Web form.
  2. Build the URL to connect to.
  3. Open a connection to the server.
  4. Set up a function for the server to run when it's done.
  5. Send the request.

Listing 5 is a sample of an Ajax method that does these very things, in this order:

Listing 5. Make a request with Ajax
function callServer() {
  // Get the city and state from the web form
  var city = document.getElementById("city").value;
  var state = document.getElementById("state").value;
  // Only go on if there are values for both fields
  if ((city == null) || (city == "")) return;
  if ((state == null) || (state == "")) return;

  // Build the URL to connect to
  var url = "/scripts/getZipCode.php?city=" + escape(city) + "&state=" + escape(state);

  // Open a connection to the server
  xmlHttp.open("GET", url, true);

  // Setup a function for the server to run when it's done
  xmlHttp.onreadystatechange = updatePage;

  // Send the request

A lot of this is self-explanatory. The first bit of the code uses basic JavaScript code to grab the values of a few form fields. Then the code sets up a PHP script as the destination to connect to. Notice how the URL of the script is specified and then the city and state (from the form) are appended to this using simple GET parameters.

Next, a connection is opened; here's the first place you see XMLHttpRequest in action again. The method of connection is indicated (GET), as well as the URL to connect to. The final parameter, when set to true, requests an asynchronous connection (thus making this Ajax). If you used false, the code would wait around on the server when the request was made and not continue until a response was received. By setting this to true, your users can still use the form (and even call other JavaScript methods) while the server is processing this request in the background.

The onreadystatechange property of xmlHttp (remember, that's your instance of the XMLHttpRequest object) allows you to tell the server what to do when it does finish running (which could be in five minutes or five hours). Since the code isn't going to wait around for the server, you'll need to let the server know what to do so you can respond to it. In this case, a specific method -- called updatePage() -- will be triggered when the server is finished processing your request.

Finally, send() is called with a value of null. Since you've added the data to send to the server (the city and state) in the request URL, you don't need to send anything in the request. So this fires off your request and the server can do what you asked it to do.

If you don't get anything else out of this, notice how straightforward and simple this is! Other than getting the asynchronous nature of Ajax into your head, this is relatively simple stuff. You'll appreciate how it frees you up to concentrate on cool applications and interfaces rather than complicated HTTP request/response code.

The code in Listing 5 is about as easy as it gets. The data is simple text and can be included as part of the request URL. GET sends the request rather than the more complicated POST. There's no XML or content headers to add, no data to send in the body of the request -- this is Ajax Utopia, in other words.

Have no fear; things will become more complicated as this series progresses. You'll learn how to send POST requests, how to set request headers and content types, how to encode XML in your message, how to add security to your request -- the list is pretty long! Don't worry about the hard stuff for now; get your head around the basics, and you'll soon build up a whole arsenal of Ajax tools.

Handling the response

Now you need to actually deal with the server's response. You really only need to know two things at this point:

The first of these -- ready states -- is going to take up the bulk of the next article; you'll learn more about the stages of an HTTP request than you ever wanted to know. For now, if you simply check for a certain value (4), things will work (and you'll have something to look forward to in the next article). The second item -- using the xmlHttp.responseText property to get the server's response -- is easy. Listing 6 shows an example of a method that the server can call based on the values sent in Listing 5.

Listing 6. Handle the server's response
function updatePage() {
  if (xmlHttp.readyState == 4) {
    var response = xmlHttp.responseText;
    document.getElementById("zipCode").value = response;

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Сегодня интернет стал хорошим источником прибыли как для веб-мастеров так и для бизнесменов. Все больше людей творят или заказывают сайты для того чтобы подзаработать в интернете. Если у вашего ресурса хороший дизайн и он наполнен полезной информацией для пользователей, он может быть почти невидим поисковыми роботами в следствие чего иметь низкий трафик. Для того чтобы поменять эту ситуацию вам нужно воспользоваться поисковой оптимизацией.

Again, this code isn't so difficult or complicated. It waits for the server to call it with the right ready state and then uses the value that the server returns (in this case, the ZIP code for the user-entered city and state) to set the value of another form field. The result is that the zipCode field suddenly appears with the ZIP code -- but the user never had to click a button!. That's the desktop application feel I talked about earlier. Responsiveness, a dynamic feel, and more, all with a little Ajax code.

Observant readers might notice that the zipCode field is a normal text field. Once the server returns the ZIP code and the updatePage() method sets the value of that field with the city/state ZIP code, users can override the value. That's intentional for two reasons: To keep things in the example simple and to show you that sometimes you want users to be able to override what a server says. Keep both in mind; they're important in good user-interface design.