Ajax

Description

Ajax, or asynchronous Javascript and XML, allows data to be sent and received from a server behind the scenes and at differing rates while a user is viewing a page.

Name
Description
Ajax enabled

Used when importing older projects built with Alpha Five Version 9 or earlier. Ajax is required for most features in Alpha Anywhere.

This lets users access new data much more quickly; as they do not have to wait for the data to load or refresh when they click a button or input some other event. Enabling Ajax in the Grid Builder means that your component will load data separately through an ajax call instead of doing everything on the server directly. In this way, your component will not show a top level page refresh. Rather, users will experience a smooth transition in viewing new pages or data as the javascript underlying the component populates it with the data it requires. Before Ajax existed URL calls were used to accomplish this task. However, this was like starting over from scratch every time someone wanted to load new data, which made using something like a Grid Component a much more jarring experience.

There are a number of ways in which you can use Ajax callbacks in Alpha Anywhere. You might use it to compute shipping charges and taxes on an order. You could also use it to filter records or add transaction records to a database.

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