Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
A fundamental part of this revolution is the ability to develop applications that
can behave in a manner similar to what we know from our day-to-day operating sys-
tem. the technology to do so has been around for a long time but has taken off over
the last five years, mostly under the name Ajax. A typical Ajax object is shown in
Figure 5.9.
Ajax
Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, more commonly known as Ajax, is a group of interrelated
web development techniques used for creating interactive web or rich Internet applications.
With Ajax, web applications can retrieve data from the server asynchronously in the background
without interfering with the display and behavior of the existing page. Data is retrieved using the
XMLHttpRequest
object or through the use of Remote Scripting in browsers that do not support
it. Despite the name, the use of JavaScript, XML, or its asynchronous use is not required.
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We won't debate whether or not you should track Ajax-enabled sites—the answer
is obviously yes. I still believe, though, that the most difficult part is not so much col-
lecting the events but choosing which events to collect and then finally making sense
of it all. our irst task, which has been the theme of this irst part of the topic, is to
understand how to collect the data.
Figure 5.9
Typical Ajax object
Ajax-based websites require different tracking, as these sites do not always
refresh the page to perform various actions such as adding an item to the shopping
cart, subscribing to a newsletter, or as in Figure 5.9, flicking through the pictures.
technically, upon loading the page, the Yahoo! Web Analytics include file is
loaded and will track the initial page view. As you work the page, every subsequent
event or change on the page can be tracked as a new page view or as an action only.
keep in mind that tracking Ajax objects does not change any of the previously men-
tioned elements from chapter 1 through 4—all it changes is the methodology to
do so.
