Separate loading areas of a site

Question

Whats the idea behind having a div that will keep the same info on it (And will not load/reload) when the user navigates the rest of the site.

So say a sidebar has some info in it and I want that info to stay as is even when other parts of the webpage are loaded.

I hope that makes sense. I'm just looking for the basic idea of how it would work and then I can just google more info. Like is it Ajax or something easier than that?

Kinda like how soundclouds top info bar never changes or reloads and a user can still navigate the site.

ty

Answer 1

You can use AJAX or iFrame to do the same.

Jquery AJAX API

iFrame

Answer 2

You will find this is the case in jquery mobile as well. The way it works is to use ajax to change the rest of the page. but using jquery can make ajax simpler. if you wanted to design a mobile like site jquery mobile provides a mobile.changePage function that allows you to keep the header/navigation bar but changes the "active page" div http://jquerymobile.com/