Manning.Ajax.in.Practice.Jun.2007.pdf

The Web has always been a hotbed of innovation, and, in its short history, we’ve seen many examples of an invention being repurposed and reused in ways far beyond the intentions of the original inventor. A network-based docu- ment retrieval protocol was subverted by the Common Gateway Interface into serving up dynamically-generat ed documents delivering data from a database back-end, allowing online access to one’s data from anywhere in the world. HTTP headers were leveraged to provide the continuity of a user session on top of this stateless protocol, opening the door to stateful applications such as reservation systems and online commerce. Encrypted layers were built on top of the core protocol, to give confidence to the customers of these new online stores and users of business applications. ed documents delivering data from a database back-end, allowing online access to one’s data from anywhere in the world. HTTP headers were leveraged to provide the continuity of a user session on top of this stateless protocol, opening the door to stateful applications such as reservation systems and online commerce. Encrypted layers were built on top of the core protocol, to give confidence to the customers of these new online stores and users of business applications.