Oracle Corp. on Tuesday said it would contribute its Ajax user interface technology to the open-source community.

Ajax, which stands for Asynchronous Javascript And XML, enables Web pages to be more interactive and behave like desktop applications. The technology is used by many of the largest Internet companies, including Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc.

Oracle said it would donate a set of Ajax-enabled user-interface components in the next few months. The Redwood Shores, Calif., database company said developers would be able to assemble the reusable components on a page and connect them to an application data source. The company has integrated Ajax with JavaServer Faces technology to build highly interactive user interfaces that run 100 percent within a browser with no downloads, officials said.

"Java, open source, and scripting languages are key elements for the development of the next wave of Web applications," Ted Farrell, chief architect and vice president for tools and middleware at Oracle, said in a statement.

Oracle also its plan to support open-source scripting communities such as Groovy and Grails and the new JSR-223 specification to enable scripting languages such as Groovy, PHP and Grails to be used in Java server-side applications.

Oracle made the announcement the same day partner Sun Microsystems Inc. released its open-source strategy for Java at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco.