5.2: AJAX

Search…
5.2: AJAX
Introduction
​AJAX or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML is browser functionality that can make requests from within JavaScript. It means that within a single page (and page request) we can build logic that interacts with servers outside the browser page. Eventually we will be able to move more of the view logic that renders elements and interacts with the user into browser-side JavaScript. We will see more examples of this in coming modules.
AJAX Order of Actions
1.The browser makes a request to the server.
2.The Express.js server sends back HTML.
3.The browser reads a script tag in the HTML response. The script tag's src attribute triggers a GET request.
4.The Express.js server, based on the request path, looks in the hard drive for a file that matches the request and sends the file contents back in the response.
5.Because the request was invoked from a script tag, the file contents in the response is digested by the JavaScript interpreter of the browser.
6.The JavaScript file contains code that executes a JavaScript HTTP request using Axios. A request is sent to the server for path /ha.
7.The Express.js server receives a request at the path /ha. The server sends back a JSON response.
8.Axios receives and parses the JSON response, turning it into a JavaScript Object.
Exercise
Let's implement all of the above steps in some real code.
Setup Server and Items Route
1.Clone the ajax-bootcamp repo​
2.Install NPM packages
3.Update config/config.js with our Unix username
4.Create a Postgres DB with createdb with the DB name in config/config.js
5.Run migrations and seeds with Sequelize. There is a migration and seed file in the repo.
6.Start server locally
7.Visit http://localhost:3004/items in the browser to verify the server is set up and the browser can receive items in the response.
Note step 1 assumes the browser creates the incoming request for the route.
Create New Page With AJAX Request - Step 2
Add a new route for a page. This route will respond with HTML.
routes.mjs (Step 2 above.)
1
app.get('newroute', (request, response)=>{
2
    response.render('home')
3
});
Copied!
Create the view directory.
1
mkdir views
Copied!
Create a view file- Steps 3, 4 & 5
home.ejs should contain:
1.Add a script tag to the view page for a JavaScript file called script.js
2.Add a script tag to the view page to import Axios.
Create script.js
Add a JavaScript file called script.js to the public folder.
These are steps 3, 4 & 5 above.
views/home.ejs
1
<!DOCTYPE html>
2
<html lang="en">
3
  <head>
4
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
5
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
6
  </head>
7
  <body>
8
    <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/axios/dist/axios.min.js"></script>
9
    <script src="/script.js"></script>
10
  </body>
11
</html>
Copied!
Axios - Step 6
Axios is a library that helps create requests from inside the browser JavaScript code **and** _use the response data inside the JavaScript logic._** This is step 6 above.**
script.js
1
// Make a request for all the items
2
axios
3
  .get('/items')
4
  .then((response) => {
5
    // handle success
6
    console.log(response);
7
  })
8
  .catch((error) => {
9
    // handle error
10
    console.log(error);
11
  });
Copied!
Read more about Axios here. Note that Axios itself is not the library that creates the request- the browser DOM JavaScript itself creates the request, Axios simply wraps the native JavaScript library so it can use Promises.
Response - Step 7 & 8
Note the console.log on line 6. Our starter code is sending back data from the server here: https://github.com/rocketacademy/ajax-bootcamp/blob/main/controllers/items.mjs#L5 When the browser gets to line 6 we have access to the data sent back from the server.
Open the browser network tab and run the code. Inspect the request to see the data come back in the response. This is step 7. Note console.log on line 6 in script.js outputs a JavaScript object. This is the final step, step 8. The Axios library has transformed the string HTTP GET request response into a JavaScript object. To explicitly demonstrate that this is a live object, console.log only the name of the first item in the response.
Manipulate DOM with Server Response
After we receive the server response on line 6 in script.js, manipulate the DOM to show all items in the HTML page.
Comfortable Exercise
Trigger AJAX Call On Click
Add a button to our view and refactor our script.js such that the above AJAX request and DOM manipulation happens when we click the button.
5.1: DOM Manipulation with Express App
5.2.1: AJAX POST Requests
Last modified 2mo ago
Copy link
Contents
Introduction
AJAX Order of Actions
Exercise
Setup Server and Items Route
Create New Page With AJAX Request - Step 2
Create a view file- Steps 3, 4 & 5
Axios - Step 6
Response - Step 7 & 8
Manipulate DOM with Server Response
Comfortable Exercise
Trigger AJAX Call On Click