ISBN:0132272679Book Description
The Easy, Example-Based Guide to Ajax for Every Web Developer
Using Ajax, you can build Web applications with the sophistication and usability of traditional desktop
applications and you can do it using standards and open source software. Now, for the first time,
there's an easy, example-driven guide to Ajax for every Web and open source developer, regardless of
experience.
Edmond Woychowsky begins with simple techniques involving only HTML and basic JavaScript. Then,
one step at a time, he introduces techniques for building increasingly rich applications. Don't worry if
you're not an expert on Ajax's underlying technologies; Woychowsky offers refreshers on them, from
JavaScript to the XMLHttpRequest object. You'll also find multiple open source technologies and open
standards throughout, ranging from Firefox to Ruby and MySQL.
You'll not only learn how to write "functional" code, but also master design patterns for writing rocksolid,
high-performance Ajax applications. You'll also learn how to use frameworks such as Ruby on
Rails to get the job done fast.
- Learn how Ajax works, how it evolved, and what it's good for
- Understand the flow of processing in Ajax applications
- Build Ajax applications with XML and the XMLHttpRequest object
- Integrate back-end code, from PHP to C#
- Use XSLT and XPath, including XPath Axis
- Develop client-side Ajax libraries to support code reuse
- Streamline development with Ruby on Rails and the Ruby programming language
- Use the cross-browser HTML DOM to update parts of a page
- Discover the best Ajax Web resources, including Ajax-capable JavaScript libraries
Reviews From AMAZON.COM
Not a good fit for anyone
The book is an unfortunate failure, given the popularity and importance of the topic. It is filled with geeky humor, but far too much so, such that this fluff adds almost a third to the length of the book. There is plenty of code, but much of it is detached and not useful at all to someone trying to learn these concepts from scratch. The book is of little use to either the expert or the complete beginner. The expert will be puzzled by extremely repetitive explanations of the absolute basics of XML and Javascript, while the beginner will be bewildered by the fact that it contains such introductory passages even as they are overwhelmed by pages of PHP, C#, advanced XML, and countless short-cuts in the code which feel like unnecessary showing off when you are trying to teach users how to use AJAX.
Easy Reading, But Lacking
I found the book to be an easy read because the author wrote in a conversational, and often humorous manner. However, what I found disturbing and difficult to learn from was that, even though the author included a lot of code in the book, there were almost no screen shots of what should be expected of the code. It made understanding what was being explained difficult because there was no visual side to the code. Also, he talked about the ability to hide pages and using a method to unhide those pages for debugging purposes, but, again, should have included screen shots to demonstrate his techniques. Unfortunately, I will have to find another source to help me learn this topic.