The Spry framework for Ajax (Asynchronous JAvaScript and XML) is a JavaScript library that provides easy-to-use yet powerful Ajax functionality that allows designers to build pages that provide a richer experience for their users. It is designed to take the complexity out of Ajax and allow designers to easily create Web 2.0 pages.

The Spry framework is a way to incorporate XML, JSON or HTML data into pages using HTML, CSS, and a minimal amount of JavaScript, without the need for refreshing the entire page. Spry also provides easy to build and style widgets, providing advanced page elements for end users. The Spry framework is HTML-centric, and easy to implement for users with basic knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The framework was designed such that the markup is simple and the JavaScript is minimal. The Spry framework can be used by anyone who is authoring for the web in their tool of choice.

Spry data widgets are used to incorporate XML data into a Web page. Dreamwaever can display this data interactively.

Spry form widgets allow you to perform JavaScript validation functions and supply your visitors with user-friendly error messages when they complete your form incorrectly.

Spry layout widgets allow you to insert complex and sophisticated layout controls such as tabbed and accordion panels.

Before you can use Spry to display data on a Web page, you need to first establish an XML data source. XML is a strict set of guidelines for tagging data in a text file in such a way that it can be read and processed by any system or device capable of reading text files.

Using proper data types is necessary if you want to be able to sort your data properly. The available data types are string - any data that doesn't fall in the other three categories; number - any numeric data; date - any complete date such as 11/17/2007 or November 17, 2007; and image link - any file name or path to an image.