Tips on Getting Started with Ajax in Salesforce

It appears that there are a few things to keep in mind in order to reduce frustration and wasted time when implementing AJAX behavior with Salesforce.

• The reRender attribute only works with apex:output* standard components.


• The apex:outputPanel standard component produces a DIV tag, which means that it cannot be used to encapsulate table rows or table cells. However, the component can be used within a table cell.

I don't know why, but it took me a few hours to figure this out while I was trying to achieve Ajax behavior with as few Apex components as possible.