Why AJAX gets criticised

                                                                               -Dhanapathi

Generally the creators of new technology highlight the advantages of their invention while hiding its limitations. In the previous News Letter we had a topic on AJAX. In this section we are going to understand the drawbacks of AJAX. You will be explained some reasons why AJAX is Criticised.


• Disabling JavaScript: - Ajax is an extension to JavaScript (We can assume it that way). If the user disables JavaScript in their browser then the AJAX application doesn’t work. It is said that at least 10% of the users in the world disable the JavaScript in their browsers.

• Distributed Environment: - Since clients cannot directly communicate with each other any distributed application developed using Ajax would require a central web server system to negotiate requests between clients. Client A could generate events/data for and respond to events/data from Client B however both would need to connect to a common web server to facilitate the communication.

• Server Delay: - The asynchronous mode may change the page with delays (when the processing on the server is too slow), this may be disturbing. Users may not even understand what is happening.

• Non HTTP Servers: - Ajax is primarily a client/server technology. Client nodes in the web do not typically run web servers that can respond to HTTP GET and POST requests.

• Back Button: - When we are using normal HTML pages we can click on the Back button to navigate back to the previous page. This may not be possible with application that was built on AJAX.

• Accessibility - Having pages that rely heavily on JavaScript and updating dynamically has the potential to wreak havoc on screen reader type programs for users with visual impairments.

• Search Engine: - It may be difficult for Search Engines to properly index content returned through complex AJAX updates.

• Bookmark the page:- Since the JavaScript is dynamically generating the page instead of the server, the URL is cut out of the loop and can no longer be used as an index into navigation. So you cannot book mark the page or send a link of an Ajax application to your friend.


Conclusion: - AJAX is a technology that is used widely in the world. Don’t just use it just to make sure that you are building an AJAX application or website. Ajax is definitely a great technology provided you build an AJAX application keeping its drawbacks into consideration. Proper Analysis is to be made before choosing AJAX. Some of the safety measures are as follows:-

• Issues such as Browser in compatibilities should be handled carefully.

• Too many asynchronous requests cause Congestion and should be avoided.

• Whenever an error happens at the backend, user may not prompt with any message. User will have absolutely no idea of what went wrong. So care should be taken such that the user is informed in case of errors like database connection failures or others.


If you want to develop an AJAX application, do it only after proper analysis. Develop the application keeping the havoc causing scenarios into consideration.