Lately I have been using inline editing in web apps.  I really am falling in love with it.  By inline, I mean the user just clicks on an object in the interface.  Rather than a link, it changes a field into an edit able area, and then when you hit save, it updates the interface, all without updating the page.

General I use prototype’s form serialize and ajax updater to save the change.  I like to use an abouslutely positioned dive with a scriptaculous appear effect.

Maybe later I will give a more detailed technical explanation.