The next generation Web 2.0 applications with enhanced user experience have been extremely popular on desktop computers. Now they can also be utilized in the new S60 OSS Web browser using AJAX - Asynchronous JavaScript™ Technology and XML.

In a traditional Web application all business logic is on the server side. Every user action is a request to the server. The AJAX approach is to use asynchronous communication between the client and server and execute part of the business logic on the client side using JavaScript. This leads to better end-user experience. The browser acts as the presentation layer of the whole application. The major part of the application is still on the server side. The server side is implemented, for example, as Java Server Faces, Web services, or a simple Servlet.

In particular, AJAX allows content to be designed so that specific data based on user interaction can be fetched, instead of loading the whole Web page. This is especially useful in a mobile environment with the limited bandwidth of the cellular network. Using AJAX, developers can optimize content for mobile use; AJAX sites can even provide an excellent user experience and better performance in a high latency network due to the fact that developers can reduce the amount of content that needs to be fetched from the server. For the user, this translates into lower costs and more responsive and dynamic Web applications.

AJAX is not a technology in itself, but rather a set of technologies used together: It consists of a standards-based presentation using XHTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and HTML; dynamic display and interaction using the Document Object Model (DOM); data interchange and manipulation using XML; asynchronous data retrieval using XMLHTTP REQUEST and HTTP; and finally, JavaScript, which binds everything together.

XMLHTTP is an important part of the AJAX Web development technique, and it is used by many Web sites to implement responsive and dynamic Web applications. XMLHTTP is a set of APIs that can be used by JavaScript and other Web browser scripting languages to asynchronously transfer and manipulate XML data to and from a Web server using HTTP, establishing an independent connection channel between the client side and the server side.

While the object is called, the XMLHTTP Request object is not limited to being used with XML; it can request or send any type of document. To make a request, you tell the XMLHTTP Request object what sort of HTTP request you want to make and which URL you want to request.

In addition to XMLHTTP, there are a number of additional innovations and offerings on top of the AJAX engine, such as UI libraries and widgets.

For creating AJAX-enabled content for mobile devices, developers do not need any specific tools for the mobile environment, but they can choose from a number of available AJAX tools on the market. However, all created content should always be tested on an S60 SDK emulator and on an S60 device because there may be some limitations in the way AJAX can be supported on current mobile devices due to smaller screen size and limited input capabilities.

The S60 OSS Web browser is supported from S60 3rd Edition onwards. Read more about it at opensource.nokia.com/projects/S60browser.