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

Ajax, JSON, and SOAP are technologies 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 reloading the entire web page.

Our Ajax package includes a range of services that make building these types of applications easy, 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 used on the client side to build interactive web applications. Although the name suggests that XML is used, many developers prefer URL-encoded data when sending data from the client to the server and JSON as the response. URL-encoded data, often sent using JavaScript code, is similar to the form data sent by a browser when a user clicks the submit button on an HTML form. The server-side tools in our platform make it easy to manage form data received from the client and 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 a web application, serving as an alternative to XML.

Barracuda supports JSON-RPC, sending data 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 for the client web application. However, for many applications, Ajax, as described above, is sufficient.

XML-RPC & SOAP

The XML-RPC server stack provides an 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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