The “standardization” effect of the Web has led to the development of Web Application Frameworks, allowing common elements of Web software to be reused from libraries, which not only provide templates, but access to reusable software to cover routine tasks such as database access, session management, etc.

AJAX, standing for “Asynchronous JavaScript And XML” is one of the best known, but what is not widely appreciated is the sheer number of AJAX-based frameworks that have appeared through the Open Source process, with each focusing on some aspect of a web application where AJAX provides specialized functionality.