IBM Spearheads AJAX Development Org

Looking to further AJAX, a Web-based technology that allows for the streaming of information to a Web browser without the need to refresh, IBM along with over a dozen companies have formed Open Ajax. The group intends to promote the technology's use and its universal compatibility with any application or operating system.

AJAX is short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. It has several possible applications, including its ability to update a Web page without refreshing the browser. This would allow for alerting a user if incorrect information is typed into a form as it is entered, dragging and dropping within a Web application, and rich navigational tools.

AJAX is also quite easy to add in to preexisting applications, making it cost effective and manageable, the group says.

Initial members of Open Ajax include BEA, Borland, the Dojo Foundation, Eclipse Foundation, IBM, Laszlo Systems, Mozilla Corporation, Novell, Openwave Systems, Oracle, Red Hat, Yahoo, Zend and Zimbra.

The popularity of the technology has grown recently, as companies like Microsoft and Google are now regularly including AJAX in their next-generation Web applications such as Web mail clients.

IBM will spearhead the movement, donating software to both the Eclipse Foundation and Mozilla Corporation that would aid developers in developing and debugging AJAX applications. The toolkit would be the first to support multiple runtimes, including Dojo, OpenRico and Zimbra.

Others would be invited to include their extensions within the toolkit.

"By building a community of innovation around Open Ajax, we are ensuring that the Web remains a place where breakthroughs can occur and where developers can quickly create applications to transform how businesses and people use, interact and access information on the Internet," vice president of emerging technologies at IBM Rod Smith said.