O Gmail e outros aplicativos do Google, como Google Maps (maps.google.com) estão usando JavaScript com XML para renderizar somente parte das páginas HTML como se fosse uma interface client-server.
Essa tecnologia recebeu o nome de AJAX: Asynchronous Javascript and XML. Ela se baseia no componente XMLHttpRequest do Mozilla ou no ActiveXObject(“Microsoft.XMLHTTP”) do Internet Explorer.
É uma evolução daquilo que a gente já faz há algum tempo de mandar o submit para um iframe escondido e depois acessar o parent e colar o texto através do innerHTML das tags.
O ADF UIX da Oracle que agora se chama ADF Faces (porque se adaptou ao padrão JavaServer Faces) já usa esquema como uma opção ao request/response normal do HTTP.
Links:
http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000385.php
http://www.omnytex.com/articles/xhrstruts/
http://radio.weblogs.com/0118231/2005/05/19.html#a550
[quote]Thursday, May 19, 2005
AJAX, AJAX Everywhere!
I’ve trained a trusty PubSub feed to bring me news from the blogosphere about the AJAX technology (short for Asynchronous Javascript And XML) that many web developers are beginning to acknowledge as a cool technique for building more interactive, browser-based applications. The Ajaxian blog is also an interesting place for news on the subject. One thing that might not be so widely-known is that Oracle’s JavaServer Faces component set called ADF Faces (currently in early access release) and its currently-production predecessor called ADF UIX are both leveraging AJAX techniques in a really easy-to-use way. One way to see how easy these technologies are to use is to follow the Building J2EE Applications with Oracle JHeadstart for ADF tutorial (no coding required), which highlights a number of the ADF UIX controls in use in a real-world, database-backed business application.
In our current documentation and developer guides, ADF UIX uses the less technical-sounding terminology “Partial Page Rendering” for what others are now calling AJAX-style web user interfaces. Under the covers, it’s using the asynchronous javascript and XML to get the job done, without the developer having to understand or master these technologies. It provides the ability to update a partial area of the page without fully redrawing the whole web page. [/quote]