AJAX display of MySQL data

I currently have a MySQL table with 5554 records in it. The table is defined as: -- Table structure for table `arquizzes` -- CREATE TABLE `arquizzes` ( `quiznum` int(8) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', `lang` char(2) NOT NULL default 'EN', `title` varchar(100) NOT NULL default '', `author` varchar(100) NOT NULL default '', `level` decimal(2,1) NOT NULL default '0.0', `points` decimal(2,1) NOT NULL default '0.0', PRIMARY KEY (`quiznum`), KEY `title` (`title`,`author`) ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 COMMENT='accelerated reader'; Sample data: INSERT INTO `arquizzes` VALUES (26986, 'EN', 'Milton Hershey: Chocolate King T', 'Charnan Simon', 4.8, 0.5); INSERT INTO `arquizzes` VALUES (26994, 'EN', 'The Tenth Good Thing about Barne', 'Judith Viorst', 2.8, 0.5); I need an elegant way to limit the amount of data displayed based on user entered criteria. The page should load with some reasonable defaults (100 records perhaps) so the web user does not have to wait for 700KB of data to download. Above this default display of data there should be column headers, and a way to refine the 'search'. So, the user may want to sort a column ascending or descending, or may want to list books beginning with J or W, or might want to see books with a level between 4.1 and 6.9 only, or maybe ones with points over 12.0. In addition to being able to sort and select criteria on the fly, the user should be able to search in author or title by entering a search string. There should also be a configurable setting for number of results per page, and pagination for results sets larger than the max result per page. I could do all this with PHP and forms, but it's clunky and old-school. I want something slick using AJAX, XMLHttpRequest, web 2.0, in order to be fully buzz word compliant. Examples of things that feel the way I want are: Google Suggest (beta) Google Groups (where you 'unhide' options to print, etc.) see also deliverables ## Deliverables [login to view URL] More examples of sites using AJAX are listed here. I am a demanding software buyer. a. Work needs to be XHTML compliant and pass validation at [login to view URL] . b. Source code should be clean and well-formatted, using tabs and indenting as appropriate. Ugly code will not be accepted. c. Source code should be commented d. Presentation should be done with XHTML & CSS and a valid stylesheet will be provided by me to you for your use - no font tags. e. php must use long tags,