Refactoring legacy AJAX applications to improve the efficiency of the data exchange component

The AJAX paradigm encodes data exchange XML formats. Recently, JSON has also become a popular data exchange format. XML has numerous benefits including human-readable structures and self-describing data. However, JSON provides significant performance gains over XML due to its light weight nature and native support for JavaScript. This is especially important for Rich Internet Applications (RIA). Therefore, it is necessary to change the data format from XML to JSON for efficiency purposes. This paper presents a refactoring system (XtoJ) to safely assist programmers migrate existing AJAX-based applications utilizing XML into functionally equivalent AJAX-based applications utilizing JSON. We empirically demonstrate that our transformation system significantly improves the efficiency of AJAX applications.

► This paper introduces a refactoring approach to convert XML-based Ajax applications to JSON-based Ajax applications.
► This approach provides programmers with a structured method to transform their Ajax applications.
► A proof of concept tool called XtoJ is produced to demonstrate that the transformation can be automated.
► It empirically demonstrates that JSON-based Ajax applications are more efficient than XML-based Ajax applications.