One of the latest crazes in the online world is the (reintroduction) of the XMLHttpRequest method, and Joshua Eichorn has two new posts that might be helpful to anyone out there trying to get a grasp on it.

In this first posting, he talks a bit about what the functionality is (by the name that seems to be spreading - AJAX), and two options that you can use to integrate it with your current application: SAXJAX and JPSPAN. What this means to the average php developer is that you’ll have the abilility to reduce page reloads and make your webapp feel a lot more like a normal desktop app.

In his second posting, he looks more in detail at one of the pieces of software that he mentioned earlier - SAXJAX. He shows how to get it set up, create a simple "Hello World" application in it, and the HTML to output it all.

I have to admit, I've gotten sucked into the whole "XMLHttpRequest Revolution" that seems to be going on...I've made a few scripts, played with some of the features. My conclusion - it is definitely a technology that has a place in the future of the web and, thankfully, there are sites out there already taking advantage of this powerful feature...for more information on the topic and a simpel guide on how to get started, see http://jibbering.com/2002/4/httprequest.html.