Advice needed on ZPG ( Zero Player Game )

Hi guys,

I am relatively new to web programing. I do have knowledge on HTML, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript and AJAX.

Can I have some advice on how to program a web based zero player game? ( eg. Godville, etc... ). I do not understand how to use the front end client browser, which I maybe using Javascript and AJAX, to communicate with the backend game engine.

Is the browser communicating with the game engine? or is it just pulling data from some databases...and there is another game engine running on the web server that keeps updating the databases.

Thanks guys.