Question : Fastest/Best Method of Parsing Data with AJAX

I made an AJAX/php/mysql poker game around 3 years ago.  I had never done anything with AJAX before, so I was pretty much making it up as I went along.  I am now looking to improve this application to take it to a larger scale, and looking for some best practices input.

Current the way I have it setup, is that every 2 seconds I make a call to a script that prints a bunch of data, seprated with "~!@#~" (I know this probably sounds moronic), and I then split this data when it is returned to the javascript and update what the user sees.  I am looking for a better way of doing this (or if this actually is the best way...which I find hard to believe...then great!).  Whether that is doing it with XML, JSON, etc I am not sure.  Or if I am thinking through this completely wrong that would be great to know.  Any references or examples would be great as well.

Answer : Fastest/Best Method of Parsing Data with AJAX

I would recommend using a pattern called JSONP.

Essentially you have JavaScript functions which can process JSON encoded data.

You use AJAX to make a request of the server (sending any data you want) along with the name of a function that will handle the response.

The server processes the received data and encodes it using json_encode().

It then wraps it with the name of the function that will handle it.

Then it supplies the appropriate header to make the client process the response as JavaScript.

I use the prototype library for this as it is much easier to work cross-platform (http://prototypejs.org).