- AJAX Tutorial
- AJAX - Home
- AJAX - What is AJAX?
- AJAX - History
- AJAX - Dynamic Versus Static Sites
- AJAX - Technologies
- AJAX - Action
- AJAX - XMLHttpRequest
- AJAX - Sending Request
- AJAX - Types of requests
- AJAX - Handling Responses
- AJAX - Handling Binary Data
- AJAX - Submitting Forms
- AJAX - File Uploading
- AJAX - FormData Object
- AJAX - Send POST Requests
- AJAX - Send PUT Requests
- AJAX - Send JSON Data
- AJAX - Send Data Objects
- AJAX - Monitoring Progress
- AJAX - Status Codes
- AJAX - Applications
- AJAX - Browser Compatibility
- AJAX - Examples
- AJAX - Browser Support
- AJAX - XMLHttpRequest
- AJAX - Database Operations
- AJAX - Security
- AJAX - Issues
- Fetch API Basics
- Fetch API - Basics
- Fetch API Vs XMLHttpRequest
- Fetch API - Browser Compatibility
- Fetch API - Headers
- Fetch API - Request
- Fetch API - Response
- Fetch API - Body Data
- Fetch API - Credentials
- Fetch API - Send GET Requests
- Fetch API - Send POST Requests
- Fetch API - Send PUT Requests
- Fetch API - Send JSON Data
- Fetch API - Send Data Objects
- Fetch API - Custom Request Object
- Fetch API - Uploading Files
- Fetch API - Handling Binary Data
- Fetch API - Status Codes
- Stream API Basics
- Stream API - Basics
- Stream API - Readable Streams
- Stream API - Writeable Streams
- Stream API - Transform Streams
- Stream API - Request Object
- Stream API - Response Body
- Stream API - Error Handling
- AJAX Useful Resources
- AJAX - Quick Guide
- AJAX - Useful Resources
- AJAX - Discussion
AJAX - Browser Compatibility
AJAX creates dynamic webpages in which the communication between the user and the server takes place in the background without loading the whole page. So it is important to know the browser compatibility because different browsers can implement XMLHttpRequest object and its related properties and methods differently.
The following are the key points that are used to check the compatibility of the browser −
Support XMLHttpRequest's object − A browser must support the XMLHttpRequest object. Some of the old browser(like internet explorer 6 or earlier versions) does not keep the XMLHttpRequest object. To make them compatible with other browsers you will need to use the fallback approach using iframe or form elements to run all the AJAX functionalities.
Cross-origin request − Some browsers don't support cross-origin requests made using XMLHttpRequest. So to prevent these vulnerabilities we use JSONP(JSON with padding), CORS(Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) or proxy server to do cross-origin requests.
Response Type − Distinct browsers may support different response types like text, JSON, XML, binary data, etc, for XMLHttpRequest. So if you want your application to support a wide range of web browsers, you need to find the supported response type and handle it wisely.
Error handling − Different browsers handle XMLHttpRequest errors differently. So you need to check your error handling code to ensure that it works well for all browsers.
Event Handling − Different browsers may have their own ways of handling events for XMLHttpRequest like onload, etc. So you need to test and then adjust your code to ensure that it works well for all browsers.
Although most modern browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari, and Opera fully support AJAX. But some of the older browsers like internet explorer 6 and 7 have limited support of AJAX. So in that, never forget browser compatibility because it will affect the working of the AJAX web application.
Conclusion
To ensure the compatibility of your AJAX application among all the browsers, you need to use a JavaScript library or framework which provides cross-browser support to AJAX. Also, these libraries help you to remove away the browser-specific differences while handling XMLHttpRequest and give a consistent API for the AJAX request. Now in the next article, we will see the security features provided by AJAX.