Noupe Editorial Team November 2nd, 2008

Most Wanted Ajax Techniques: 50+ Examples and Tutorials

Web applications have made huge leaps and bounds in improving user experience thanks to a lot of recently developed Ajax technology. When you combine some neat functionality courtesy of PHP with the cleverness of javascript you can produce some pretty cool results. In an effort to help you take it up a notch, we’d like to share some methods for helping your site anticipate a user’s next move. The list below is made up of the best 50 FREE scripts available, they are all of the highest quality and more or less easy to configure. Give them a try. jQuery, Mootools, Prototype and script.aculo.us are used in these examples, so every taste has its demos served. You might be interested to check other Ajax related posts.

1. Ajax Forms

Submitting a form with AJAX doesn't get any easier than this!
1.1 Server side jQuery with Jaxer
Ajax Examples
Create one 'master' form, and use server side DOM manipulation with Jaxer to disable, or completely remove certain form elements before they reach the client's browser. We can then use jQuery on the server side to select these elements and disable them, or even completely remove them from the DOM before they reach the clients browser.
  • Download Jaxer here
1.2 Ajax login form (PHP & Javascript)
Ajax Examples
A nice ajax login form using 3 javascript files, 2 php files and 1 stylesheet.
  • Demo can be found here.
1.3 Form Plugin
Ajax Examples
The jQuery Form Plugin allows you to easily and unobtrusively upgrade HTML forms to use AJAX. The main methods, ajaxForm and ajaxSubmit, gather information from the form element to determine how to manage the submit process. Both of these methods support numerous options which allows you to have full control over how the data is submitted.
  • Demo can be found here.
  • Download Jaxer here

2. Ajax ShoutBox

2.1 wTag (Ajax shoutbox)
Ajax Examples
wTag is a shoutbox (chatbox or mini chat) that is written in JavaScript and PHP, and using Ajax to exchange data with the server without need to reload an entire page. Uses MySQL database as backend. Features Include: Anti-spam filter, CSS based drop-down smileys menu, Bad-word filte, form validation.
  • Demo can be found here.
  • Download wTag here
2.2 Shoutbox Ajax
Ajax Examples
Shoutbox Ajax script is based on jQuery library and Form plugin and allows you to implement a shoutbox on your website. This jquery shoutbox is file based, but it's very easy to write a few more lines to keep your messages in a database.
  • Download Code here

3. Validate a Username AJAX

3.1 Validate a username using Javascript and PHP ( AJAX )
Ajax Examples
Learn how to check if a username is valid without leaving the page using ajax.
  • Demo can be found here.
  • Download Code here

4. Ajax Instant Messenger

4.2 Ajax and XML: Ajax for chat
Learn to build a chat system into your Web application with Asynchronous JavaScript™ + XML (Ajax) and PHP.
  • Download Code here

5. Ajax Tabs Content

5.1 Ajax Tabs Content
Ajax Examples
This is a versatile Ajax Tabs Content script that lets you display content pulled from external files inside a DIV and organized via CSS tabs. Features Inlcude: Fetch and display an external page, Supports auto mode, Ability to also expand/contract arbitrary DIVs, Ability to dynamically select a tab, Supports nested Ajax Tabs.
  • Demo can be found here.
  • Download Code here
5.2 AjaxControlToolkit TabContainer
Ajax Examples
TabContainer themes for some of the other tab-style controls that is floating around the web.
  • Demo can be found here.
  • Download Code here

6. Ajax Shopping Carts

6.1 Drag and drop shopping cart
Ajax Examples
An interesting script.aculo.us Shopping Cart with drag and drop feature.

7. Ajax Star Ratings

7.1 Starbox
Ajax Examples
Starbox allows you to easily create all kinds of rating boxes using just one PNG image. The library is build on top of the Prototype javascript framework.
  • Demo can be found here.
  • Download Code here
7.2 Unobtrusive AJAX Star Rating Bar
Ajax Examples
This is a rating bar script done with PHP and mySQL that allows users to rate things like can be done on Netflix or Amazon, all web 2.0-like with no page refresh. It is unobtrusive, meaning that if Javascript is off it will still work.
  • Demo can be found here.
  • Download Code here
7.3 CSS: Star Rater Ajax Version
Ajax Examples
Uses komodomedia's star rating technique. Works on a database without having to refresh any pages (but updating the database with AJAX). In this version it uses for rating an image (with unique id = imgId).
  • Demo can be found here.
  • Download Code here

8. Ajax Inline Edit

AJAX, DOM, whatever you call it makes it possible to let people edit a piece of text inline without having to use a submit button.
8.1 Easy AJAX inline text edit 2.0
Ajax Examples
A small piece of javascript reads al SPAN tags, checks if it has class="editText" and a id=. If that is true, it adds a onclick function. That onclick function will create a textfield or input (depending on the size of the editable text). Someone has the ability to edit the field. When the text field is blurred, it will read the contents, and starts a XMLHttpRequest and ‘sends’ the content + fieldname + any set vars to an update file. That file will update your database, and reply with the newly set text and the textfield will dissapear again.
  • Demo can be found here.
  • Download Code here
8.2 Ajax.InPlaceEditor
Ajax Examples
The in-place “text edit” testing allows for Flickr-style AJAX-backed “on-the-fly” textfields. The constructor takes three parameters. The first is the element that should support in-place editing. The second is the url to submit the changed value to. The server should respond with the updated value (the server might have post-processed it or validation might have prevented it from changing). The third is a hash of options. The server side component gets the new value as the parameter ‘value’ (POST method), and should send the new value as the body of the response.
8.3 Edit In Place with AJAX Using jQuery
Ajax Examples
An AJAX (or AHAH) proof-of-concept page that allows the visitor to edit the very (x)HTML page they are viewing, without leaving the page. Click the text to be edited and magically a textarea appears with buttons beneath to save or cancel the changes. Changes are sent via AHAH to a PHP script which normally would be used to update a database (MYSQL or flatfile).
  • Demo can be found here.

9. Ajax Progress Bar

Sometimes, when we are building websites and web applications, we need a percentage bar / progress bar to show the progress of a specific task. However, it is very difficult to find a working and easy solution without using Flash. Here are very interesting Progress bars using ajax instead of flash.
8.1 jsProgressBarHandler
Ajax Examples
jsProgressBarHandler is a Javascript based Percentage Bar / Progress Bar, inspired upon JS-code by WebAppers and CSS-code by Bare Naked App. Next to a structural rewrite of the WebAppers code, this javascript progress bar can easily be extended and tweaked just by setting a few parameters.
  • Demo can be found here.
  • Download Code here
8.2 A YUI Loading Panel Widget
Ajax Examples
A web page which is processing a lengthy Ajax request and doesn't provide a loading indicator of any kind will mostly mislead the user to think that the page has stopped responding. So the solution? Use a loading indicator of course. Here's a very handy loading indicator widget for Ajax programmers who use YUI.
  • Download Code here

10. Ajax Pagination

10.1 Ajax Pagination Script
Ajax Examples
This script lets you include content from multiple pages and display them on demand, using Ajax. Pagination links are automatically created, with each page downloaded only when requested (speeding up delivery and saving on bandwidth.
  • Demo can be found here.
  • Download Code here
10.2 Preloading Data with Ajax and JSON
Ajax Examples
It’s a paging demo that shows how we can preload in the background the next and previous queries from a database. When the user pages through, they can do so quickly without having to wait for an Ajax call to finish.
  • Download Code here

11. AJAX File Browser & Manager

11.2 jQuery File Tree
Ajax Examples
KFM is an online file manager which can be used on its own, or as a plugin for a rich-text editor such as FCKeditor or TinyMCE. Features include: drag-and-drop everything, icon-view, list-view, plugins, image manipulations...
  • Demo can be found here.
  • Download Code here

12. Ajax Calendar

Online calendars are often used in many web applications. Though popular, the logic behind creating a calendar can be scary especially for those who are new to programming. There are many web calendars in the market but some of them are quite complicated. Check out these excellent ajax calendars.
12.1 Vista-like Ajax Calendar version 2
Ajax Examples
The Vista-like Ajax Calendar (vlaCalendar) version 2 is a unobtrusive web version of the slick and profound Windows Vista taskbar calendar, by using the MooTools javascript framework, AJAX, XHTML, CSS and PHP.
  • Demo can be found here.
  • Download Code here
12.2 Quick Calendar Using AJAX and PHP
Ajax Examples
Learn how to create an interesting calendar using Ajax and PHP. You will be able to navigate through the calendar months without refreshing the page.
  • Demo can be found here.
  • Download Code here

13. Ajax Photo Manipulation

13.1 Phototype
Ajax Examples
A client/server-side library, based on prototype, which supports all kinds of image manipulations. On the serverside the library is powered by combination of PHP/GD that renders the image. With phototype, you are able to rotate, resize, flip and do some other cool effects to images.
  • Download Code here
13.2 mooImageCrop
Ajax Examples
An easy-to-implement image cropper based on the mootools framework and php. This demo shows you how to use ajax and php functions to create cropped areas from images and return them directly. You can specify the width and the height of the overlay, which is used to crop that part then. This can be come in handy if you wish to let users create avatars from uploaded images with a certain with and height or any other process of cropping images.

14. Ajax Dynamic Image Gallery and Slideshows

14.1 Dynamic Image Gallery and Slideshow
Ajax Examples
This extremely lightweight JavaScript image gallery and slideshow script clocks in under 3kb packed and includes a number of cool features.

15. AJAX File Upload

15.1 Max's AJAX file uploader
Ajax Examples
Max's AJAX file uploader is a simple and easy to use script, which allows you to upload files to your webserver without reloading the current page. During the upload an animated progress bar is shown. The server side is written in PHP.
15.2 Ajax Multi Image File Upload
Ajax Examples
Ajax driven image file upload with thumbnail view and delete function.
15.3 jQuery Multiple File Upload Plugin
Ajax Examples
The Multiple File Upload Plugin (jQuery.MultiFile) is a non-obstrusive plugin for the jQuery Javascript library that helps users easily select multiple files for upload quickly and easily whilst also providing some basic validation functionality to help developers idenfity simple errors, without having to submit the form (ie.: upload files).

16. AJAX AutoCompleter

16.1 Autocomplete Control Version Released
Ajax Examples
Now you can change the look of the suggestion item with your own customizable template. Also it is possible to pass your own suggestion items from the server and work with all their properties on the client side.
16.2 FaceBook Like - jQuery and autosuggest Search Engine
Ajax Examples
An autosuggest search engine inspired by facebook for design while using jquery.
  • Download Code here

17. AJAX CMS

17.1 NicEdit
Ajax Examples
NicEdit is a Lightweight, Cross Platform, Inline Content Editor to allow easy editing of web site content on the fly in the browser. NicEdit Javascript integrates into any site in seconds to make any element/div editable or convert standard textareas to rich text editing.
  • Demo can be found here.
  • Download Code here
17.2 FCKEditor
Ajax Examples
This plugin makes it easy to install FCKEditors on your page the jQuery way. It integrates FCKEditors with the jQuery Form Plugin and enables the contents of FCKEditor to be submitted via ajax.
  • Demo can be found here.
  • Download Code here

18. AJAX Polls

18.1 Ajax Poller
Ajax Examples
This script requires that you have PHP installed on your server and access to a mySql database.
18.2 Creating a Dynamic Poll with jQuery and PHP
Ajax Examples
In this tutorial we'll create a poll using PHP and XHTML, then make use of some jQuery Ajax effects to eliminate the need for a page refresh, and to give it a nice little bit of animation.

19. AJAX Tabular data manipulations

19.1 Sorttable
Ajax Examples
Create clickable headers that sort the table by the clicked column. Note how the numeric and date columns all sort properly, too, rather than sorting alphanumerically.
19.2 FlexiGrid
Ajax Examples
Lightweight but rich javascript data grid with resizable columns and a scrolling data to match the headers, plus an ability to connect to an xml based data source using Ajax to load the content. Similar in concept with the Ext Grid only its pure jQuery love, which makes it light weight and follows the jQuery mantra of running with the least amount of configuration.
19.3 DDDrasticGrid
Ajax Examples
DrasticGrid is an Ajax-based datagrid with editing support. It uses MySQL as a data source and it supports pagination, sorting, editing records, adding records and removing records.
19.4 Improving Extra wide Grid View
Ajax Examples
Refactored the Tablecloth example to use the ASP.NET AJAX client side API.

20. Miscellaneous

20.1 Ajax Scrolling pages
Ajax Examples
This script loads content from the server and inserts it into an empty HTML element(example a DIV tag) on your page. New pages can be appended dynamically and the script will scroll down to the content of the new pages.
20.2 jTip – A jQuery Tool Tip
Ajax Examples
jTip, not unlike Thickbox, pulls data from the server using a hidden http request. jTip pulls content into a tool tip using the HttpXMLRequest object. By adding a class attribute value of “jTip” to a link element you can create a tooltip from the content found in the file the href is pointing too. Also jTip can be customized by providing user defined widths (defaults to 250px wide) via a url query string.
20.3 Ajax Broken Link Checker
This module checks your links on the current page by requesting them and reading the server response. If the server returns 200 OK the link gets 'active' class, if other header - the link marked as inactive.
  • Download Code here
20.4 Facebox
Ajax Examples
Facebox is a jQuery-based, Facebook-style lightbox which can display images, divs, or entire remote pages. It's easy to use and easy to drive programmatically -- use it for error messages, confirmations, previews, galleries, etc.
20.5 Drop Down Panel script
Ajax Examples
Drop Down Panel adds a pull down panel to the top of your page that contains external content fetched via Ajax. Visitors click on the protruding button to cause the panel to drop down and reveal its content.

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89 comments

  1. Hmm… never used Ajax before – some of those things look good, so can anyone recommend any good Ajax tuts to get me started?

  2. 7.2 has horrible database design in the mysql tables they suggest making. 8.2 is pretty awesome and i wish i had an easy solution using only jquery.

  3. Great list, the lightweight star rating was exactly what I was looking for, thanks! ps: for some of you miniajax.com might be interesting, too

  4. Thanks going to try and reverse engineer the star system into a new project as I’m not happy with the current solution!

  5. Love to see new ajax app you posted here. thanks for the great article.

    Maybe its good to include tinyMCE in the list and the tableKit.

  6. I should congratulate you for this nice compilation of ajax scripts. Some i knew and already used and am glad you included them too.

    Thanks

  7. The AJAX User Name validator is a bad idea. Here’s why: If someone is trying to hack your site the first thing they will need is a list of valid user names. This technique will allow the attacker to script a list of user names and get instant feedback on whether the list is correct and then pick out the correct names. Since most passwords aren’t terribly difficult to crack this script could make your site much more vulnerable to unauthorized information disclosure.

  8. Very nice.
    Anybody know of a good looking weather widget for a site that the visitor can put in his zip and get his weather..?
    Would be nice if it remembered him as well..

  9. the fckeditor ajax submission looks good, i’ve had trouble with that in the past. also i didn’t know how robust jaxer is, and some of the grid stuff looks handy…definitely helpful

  10. What about layouts? Over and over, the one thing that I’ve found that websites really need is a decent layout manager, and thus far the only one really worth discussing is EXT.

  11. ASP.NET programmers should have a look at the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit – tens of possible uses of AJAX on a site or intranet, ready-made.

  12. i wish i had this link when i was working full time at a web development firm, i always struggled with Ajax techniques

  13. ajax file manager

    FileUltimate is an ASP.NET file manager control which you can add directly to your existing ASP.NET (.aspx) pages. The control renders a user interface similar to “Windows Explorer” within the page and this user interface allows you to view the contents of the predefined root folders and allow complete file management actions within those folders. File management actions can be limited by predefined permissions and quota limits on each folder separately.

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