What is Ajax and why to use it with PHP?

AJAX or Ajax which stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. It is a web development technique that helps to create a highly responsive, fast, and dynamic user experience in web pages. In this blog, we will look at the ways to use Ajax with PHP.

Let’s first understand about Ajax in detail.

What is Ajax?

It just uses a combination of built-in XML HTTP request objects of the browser and JavaScript in the background. This combination is used to request data from the server. We can display the data via HTML to the web browser where the user will see the response magically.

Different tasks are done by all:

• HTML & CSS is for the representation
• JSON/XML is for sorting data
• The XMLHttp request object is for action in the background
• JavaScript puts all this together.

Please note that by using Ajax we can make our web applications faster. It is not a programming language; it is just a technique of web development developed by Google.

If we talk about JavaScript, it is known as a client-side programming language. On the other hand, we have XML which stands for Extensible Markup Language that is used to define data.

Some of the examples where Ajax is used are:

1. Showing suggestions while searching
2. Adding review to the product
3. Like and Comment feature
4. Star rating
5. Load more page content

Why use Ajax?

1. Better User Experience
2. No page reload on each request
3. Send/ Receive data to the server in the background
4. Update the particular part of the page
5. Improves speed and performance

Types of Requests

There are two types of requests:

1. Asynchronous
   • Asynchronous type call allows us to execute the next line even if the previous code isn’t completed.
2. Synchronous
   • Synchronous type call stops JavaScript execution until the response from the server.

Remember that Asynchronous Ajax will affect the SEO because we will not have a specific URL for the pages.

How to use Ajax in your code?

Ajax is implemented with the help of client-side programming languages like JavaScript and jQuery. However, knowledge of a server-side language like PHP, Python, or Node.js with a database like MySQL is preferred.

There are two methods to use Ajax in your web application:

• The first one is the traditional way of using Ajax with JavaScript
• The second one is to use Ajax with jQuery.

Ajax is used to communicate with the server and get the data from the server.

Let’s see an example of how a server responds without an Ajax request.

When we submit a form, its data directly goes to the PHP and is stored in the MySQL database. Thereafter page reloads and the user will scroll down again to resume where they left off. This counts for the bad user experience.

Now, let’s discuss an example with Ajax request code.

We will do the same code as we were doing previously. The only change will be that we will submit the form data through Ajax now.

We will make JavaScript prevent default method to prevent the form submission and call a jQuery function on form submission. In that function, we will get all the form data and send it to the PHP. This data can be sent to any server-side language we are using for that page.

We will set the method to post or get from to transfer data to the PHP in the background. And within a few seconds, the result can be seen on the form page without the page reloads.

Users can’t even realize that the form is submitted until see some message. This message will be from the PHP code. we will show the user a message that the data is submitted successfully or not. In the PHP code, we will submit the data to the database MySQL.

This is how the Ajax with jQuery code looks:

$('#searchOrders').on('keyup', function () {
            let search = this.value;
            $.ajax({
                url: 'searchOrder.php',
                type: 'post',
                data: {
                    data: search,
                },
                success: function (data) {
                    $('#order_data').html(data);
                }
            })
        })

We prefer to use Ajax with jQuery because it is very easy and we need to write less code. But in JavaScript, it is huge code and becomes difficult to understand.

Why use Ajax in PHP?

A majority of PHP-based sites are using Ajax & jQuery-based solutions for better user experience. The reason behind this is that asynchronous JavaScript and XML allow for such rich features in the website. PHP alone or just JavaScript can’t provide us with the website. Some of the features are:

• Search auto-suggestions
• Form submitting without page reload
• Content loading on the scroll

So while working with PHP a server-side language using Ajax for some small task will make our lives easy. We don’t need to make multiple pages and it also provides a better user experience. In this approach, users do have not to wait for the page to be reloaded again.

Although jQuery is a library of JavaScript only, meaning it is built in JavaScript. One of the best things about jQuery is its shorter code. While in JavaScript, you need to write too much to achieve the same.

There are many advantages of using Ajax in our web applications, some of them are mentioned below:

• Callbacks

Ajax makes a callback in the background. It makes it possible to communicate with the server very fast without the page reloading.

• Asynchronous

By using Ajax we can achieve asynchronous calls to website servers. This method allows the browsers to avoid the waiting period to get the data.

• User-Friendly

The applications that use Ajax are faster and more responsive to the user. The applications that don’t use Ajax are slower and don’t offer a good user experience.

Landing on the conclusion of the blog

Using Ajax on your website has no downside. It only adds to the overall design and experience of the user making your web user-friendly.

I have discussed just about the basics of AJAX here. You can check more about AJAX using jQuery on their website.

Get ready to acquire the right skills to create stunning and user-friendly websites. To master the Ajax you also need to learn other important front-end and back-end programming languages, libraries, and frameworks. To do so, you can join a complete web design and development course to become a full-stack web developer.

About author

Hi there, this is Mohd. Wasim is a web design and development student at ADMEC Multimedia Institute. I’m pursuing a Web Master course here. With the help of this blog, I’ve tried to explain Ajax and its uses in my way. I hope you’ve found it useful.