The Zend Developer Zone has posted the fifth part of their Ajax chat tutorial series from maugrim today, picking up from the previous parts before.

One aspect of writing AJAX enabled applications is that one can no longer pass off Javascript as an afterthought. If you're intent on creating dynamic web applications using AJAX, visual effects, and funky new age interfaces then you'll just have to start recognising that Javascript is going to be a primary development language.

They show how to create and use the XMLHttpRequest object to grab the information from the backend script using a saveMessage call from a form button. When the message comes back, their handleRefresh function takes care of updating the textarea with the results.

They also include the code to allow user's to change their name on the server via the same interface (and the same controller).