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The acronym Ajax meaning Asynchronous Javascript and XML,refers to the use of several web technologies in an application running on the internet in order to improve it's efficiency and interactivity. Javascript and XML are the most used technologies but they can be replaced by several others.

Basic web applications are written that way:
An HTML page is delivered to the client web browser when he goes on a site web server. Then if the client follows a link, an other web page is delivered to the client. Briefly, it means that each action of the client requires an HTML page download.

Ajax web applications follow that model:
An HTML page including a Javascript code, is delivered to the client. Now when the client makes simple request, the Javascript engine(downloaded since the beginning of the transaction and who is running on the web browser client) will automatically transform the HTML page(often using DOM).
The server is only needed when new data needs to be displayed.
XML is used to encode the data that the server will send to the client, thanks to the XMLHttpRequest() javascript function (similar functions exist in other languages).

Downloads are no longer systematic. The applications runs faster.

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