AJAX... Is it worth it?

[Gandiel]

Simple question...

My hosting company offers several different "plans". My current plan does not offer the use of AJAX. But, I can upgrade to a new plan that does offer AJAX... AND at the same price.

Trouble lies in the fact that there will be a server move. My vB will be OK as it resides on a seperate server. You know, though, that nothing is ever as simple as you think when it comes to moving a site.

So, back to my question. Will AJAX offer better performance? Is it worth it?



Thanks a ton,
Gandiel

[Kier]

Yes, it's worth it.

I'm a little confused as to how a host could possibly offer a plan that does not offer AJAX support, as it's really just standard HTTP when it's stripped down. They would have to expressly disable certain critical webserver functions to prevent AJAX from working.

[filburt1]

As Kier said, Ajax is built on foundational web technologies. It's not possible to not "offer" Ajax without completely shutting down the web server, for all practical purposes.

[Gandiel]

Thanks for the info... it's greatly appreciated.

Just so you know where I'm coming from, here's the plan that doesn't offer AJAX and here's the one that does. Scroll down to see the support for AJAX on both pages. Only difference I can see is dotNet 1.1 vs. 2.0. Maybe it's just a mistake on their part not marking it as enabled.


I've used this hosting company for... oh jeesh... going on 8 years now. I've had nothing but success with them.


Again, thanks for the info. Looks like I'll be switching over.
Gandiel

[Kier]

They may be talking about an AJAX scripting framework that is offered on one package but not another - but in terms of using AJAX itself, such as the AJAX features in vBulletin, all you need is a webserver.

[MrNase]

From their inline help.

ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 (formerly known as "Atlas") allows programmers to quickly create more efficient and interactive web content that works across all the most popular internet browsers. One of the main benefits is that the AJAX interface accesses remote services and data directly from the web browser, thereby reducing the number of post backs to the host server. This action makes for a more seamless and natural experience for the end user.
With ASP.NET AJAX, you can:

• Create next-generation interfaces with reusable AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) components
• Enhance existing Web pages using powerful AJAX controls with support for all modern browsers
• Continue using Visual Studio 2005 to take your ASP.NET 2.0 sites to the next level
• Access remote services and data directly from the browser without writing a ton of complicated script

To learn more about AJAX, please visit http://ajax.asp.net.

I am not really sure but I think Ajax itself will work even if you don't order the Ajax-enabled hosting plan because that doesn't have ASP.NET AJAX but Ajax (the technologie) isn't affected.

[Wayne Luke]

They are talking about specific methods that provides methods to use AJAX easier within the .NET 2.0 Framework. Since the first plan doesn't include .NET 2.0, you can only get it with the second. Most likely they aren't upgrading older computers for some reason and that is why they still have the old plan.