The AJAX response:xml, HTML, or JSON?

-->
-->

Since my last AJAX project I ' ve increasingly been wondering about the ' ideal ' output format for the AJAX response. Once ' ve succesfully fired an AJAX request, what sort of response should the server give? An XML document? An HTML snippet? A JSON string which is converted to a JavaScript object? Or something else? In this entry I ' d as discuss the three formats, with examples, and ask your which format you ' ve used in your practic Al AJAX applications.

(This article has been translated into Spanish.)

When you receive the a additional bit of data for your AJAX application, your should start up a script so incorporates this Extra data into your Single-page HTML interface. Of course the form of the script heavily depends on the format of the data for you ' ve received. Should you search a XML document for specific nodes and copy their text to the HTML? Or did you receive a HTML snippet that should being added to the page ' as is '?

In the last project I received some data as XML documents and some as HTML snippets, and they needed different kinds of SCR IPTs to write the "data to the" page. Both formats, and Both kinds of scripts, have their advantages and disadvantages.

After I ' d finished the application I delved a bit deeper to JavaScript Object notation, invented by Douglas Crockford a ND recently chosen as the default output format for most Yahoo services, and I I am like it, although I ' ve never yet U Sed it.

I ' m left Wondering:which format is the best? Which format do you are best, or at least most useful in a practical AJAX environment?

Example

<