Ajax, REST, JSON, XML-RPC, and SOAP

Ajax, JSON, and SOAP are technologies that are commonly used by client-side code to communicate with a server. They are especially useful for creating interactive web applications that respond quickly to user input without requiring the entire web page to be reloaded.

Our Ajax package includes a range of services that make it easy to build these types of applications, improving the overall user experience and making your web-based projects more efficient and effective. Whether you're a seasoned developer or new to web development, these technologies can be powerful tools for building interactive and engaging applications.

Ajax is a set of web development techniques that are used on the client-side to build interactive web applications. Although the name suggests that XML is used, many developers prefer to use URL-encoded data when sending data from the client to the server, and JSON as the response. URL-encoded data, which is often sent using JavaScript code, is similar to the form data that is sent by a browser when a user clicks the submit button on an HTML form. The server-side tools included in our platform make it easy to manage form data that is received from the client, and also include functions for automatically generating JSON from Lua tables. Whether you're working on a simple web application or a more complex project, these tools can help you build interactive and engaging applications that are efficient and effective.

See also:

Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)

AJAX and JSON are typically used by JavaScript code in modern web based user interfaces when querying the server in real time. JavaScript code may, for example, send URL-encoded data to the server, and the server may respond by sending back a JSON object.

Did you know that AJAX can run over WebSockets?

JSON

The JSON format is often used for serializing and transmitting structured data over a network connection. It is often used to transmit data between a server and web application, serving as an alternative to XML.

Barracuda supports JSON-RPC, where data is sent as JSON from the client to the server and vice versa. JSON-RPC is a good alternative to the more complex SOAP protocol. We also provide a JavaScript JSON-RPC client library that can be used by the client web-application. However, for many applications, Ajax as described above is sufficient.

XML-RPC & SOAP

The XML-RPC server stack provides a server API virtually identical to the JSON-RPC server API. XML-RPC is typically used when creating web-services for legacy client XML-RPC implementations.

Barracuda support for SOAP web services is based on two foundations:

  • An optimised, fully utf-8 aware XML parser implemented in "C" code.
  • A SOAP stack implemented in the Lua Scripting Language.

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