Getting started with jQuery's AJAX functionality

At the heart of jQuery's AJAX functionality is the .ajax() function. This little guy allows you to do some heavy lifting and has everything you need for all your XML HTTP Requests (XHR) needs.

For those of you with a little AJAX experience under your belts, you'll be pleased to find that in true jQuery form, this function eliminates the need for setting up the traditional if/else statement to test for support for the XMLHTTPRequest object and if not then, the ActiveXObject (for IE browsers).

Using the .ajax() function

Let's take a quick look at some of the functionality available in the .ajax call:

jQuery.ajax({
type: //"GET" or "POST",
url: //"url/to/file.php",
dataType: //"script", "xml", "json", or "html"
data: //a query string "name=FileName&type=PDF"
beforeSend://a callback function
function(){
alert("Starting Request");
}
success: //a callback function
function(){
alert("Request successful");
}
complete: //a callback function
function...