|
Professional Ajax 2nd Edition provides a developer-level tutorial of Ajax techniques, patterns, and use cases. The book begins by exploring the roots of Ajax, covering how the evolution of the web and new technologies directly led to the development of Ajax techniques. A detailed discussion of how frames, JavaScript, cookies, XML, and XMLHttp requests (XHR) related to Ajax is included. After this introduction, the book moves on to cover the implementation of specific Ajax techniques. Request brokers such as hidden frames, dynamic iframes, and XHR are compared and contrasted, explaining when one method should be used over another. To make this discussion clearer, a brief overview of HTTP requests and responses is included. Once a basic understanding of the various request types is discussed, the book moves on to provide in-depth examples of how and when to use Ajax in a web site or web application. Different data transmission formats, including plain text, HTML, XML, and JSON are discussed for their advantages and disadvantages. Also included is a discussion on web services and how they may be used to perform Ajax techniques. Next, more complex topics are covered. A chapter introducing a request management framework explores how to manage all of the requests inside of an Ajax application. Ajax debugging techniques are also discussed. The last part of the book walks through the creation of two full-fledged Ajax web applications. The first, FooReader.NET, is an Ajax-powered RSS reader. The second, called AjaxMail, is an Ajax-enabled email system. Both of these applications incorporate many of the techniques discussed throughout the book. Professional Ajax 2nd edition is written for Web application developers looking to enhance the usability of their web sites and web applications and intermediate JavaScript developers looking to further understand the language. Readers should have familiarity with XML, XSLT, Web Services, PHP or C#, HTML, CSS. This book is not aimed at beginners without a basic understanding of the aforementioned technologies. Also, a good understanding of JavaScript is vitally important to understanding this book. Those readers without such knowledge should instead refer to books such as Beginning JavaScript, Second Edition (Wrox, 2004, ISBN: 978-0-7645-5587-9) and Professional JavaScript for Web Developers (Wrox, 2005, ISBN: 978-0-7645-7908-0). Professional Ajax 2nd edition adds nearly 200 pages of new and expanded coverage compared to the first edition. Some of the new topics covered here include: And of course the Second Edition retains and updates the core first edition content including: - the range of request brokers (including the hidden frame technique, iframes, and XMLHttp) and explains when one should be used over another
- different Ajax techniques and patterns for executing client-server communication
- Ajax patterns including predictive fetch, page preloading, submission throttling, incremental field and form validation, periodic refresh, multi-stage download and more
- Syndication with RSS, Atom, and XParser
- JSON and creating an autosuggest textbox example
- web site widgets for a news ticker, weather information, web search, and site search
- Ajax Frameworks JSpan, DWR, and Ajax.NET Professional
- A Web-based RSS/Atom aggregator case study
- An AjaxMail case study
This book is also available as part of the 4-book JavaScript and Ajax Wrox Box (ISBN: 0470227818). This 4-book set includes: - Professional JavaScript for Web Developers (ISBN: 0764579088)
- Professional Ajax 2nd edition (ISBN: 0470109491)
- Professional Web 2.0 Programming (ISBN: 0470087889)
- Professional Rich Internet Applications: Ajax and Beyond (ISBN: 0470082801)
|
 Ajax made fun |
| Review Date: May 11, 2006 |
| Reviewer: M. Sanford, San Francisco, California |
I found this book to be extremely informative. It is written in a clear, engaging style that makes it a pleasure to read. The examples are well constructed, relevant to real world applications, and thoroughly explained. The essential bits of code are highlighted for quick reading. The most irritating thing about web development is cross-browser support, and authors do a great job to making this less intimidating and point readers to libraries to abstract away the differences. Also covered are related JavaScript XML, XPath, XSLT support, web services, RSS/Atom.
PHP is the primary server side language used, though they chose .NET/C# for creating a web service. Microsoft's .NET web service tools are excellent, but I would have liked it if the authors had rounded this out with giving the basics of creating a web service using open source solutions.
If you want to learn Ajax techniques and related technologies, this book is well worth your time and money. |
Best code explanations ever
|
| Review Date: September 4, 2006 |
| Reviewer: L. Israel, London United Kingdom |
As a newcomer to Ajax, I cant comment on the coverage but it seemed reasonably comprehensive.
But the code walkthroughs were terrific - completely readable, easy to follow and sometimes even quite fun to read. I cant remember reading better code runthroughs ever. |
Very well written. Excellent resource.
|
| Review Date: July 27, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Ron Herman, Burlington, VT USA |
| I'm a senior ASP.NET/Web developer with no Ajax experience. This is my first Ajax book. I wanted to learn Ajax from the ground up, not just the Microsoft controls. Our ecommerce site is very highly trafficed and there's no forgiveness for inefficiencies. This book certainly fulfilled my expectations, but it also introduced me to some new worlds of concepts that I did not expect. For instance, the chapter on Ajax Patterns: It's a new way of thinking about Web Development. I'm very impressed with its content. The book is clearly written, the examples are excellent. I am learning a great deal from this book. Nice job guys! |
excellent in several respects
|
| Review Date: March 23, 2007 |
| Reviewer: harborsparrow, Kingston, NJ |
Last year (2006), I plowed through practically every available book on Ajax. This one really stands out for its excellent historical overview of how Ajax grew to exist. It also is one of the few that covers the use of hidden frames and Iframes as an Ajax technique (it has been around longer but is still used widely). The writing is outstanding. If you can only buy one Ajax book, this one should be it.
A free copy of chapter 1, "What is Ajax?" is available online at [...] |
Only AJAX book you should buy!
|
| Review Date: April 30, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Frank Stepanski, PA |
AJAX is the we technology everybody is talking abot now and its something that you should know if you are a web developer/designer now or want to be.
This book starts with a great chapter explaing how AJAX started and what it really is and how it works. Explaining how AJAX really works can be dificult for the beginner and the authors do it wonderfully. The next chapter goes into the basics of AJAX and how to create a very simple example(s) to give the user a solid foundation of how this new technology works (old technology but new way of using it actally).
The next chapter goes into Patterns which describes the programming techniques used by AJAX applications. This is a crucial chapter because it is this technique that allows developers to reall understand how to develop dynamic applications with AJAX. Lots of keywords are thrown around (throttling, periodic refreshing, multi-stage downloads, pending requests, etc) and each are excplained in detailed in a very concise manner that does not confuse the reader.
The next chapter focuses on the data format that is used to transfer this data (XML, XPath, XSLT) between each other using AJAX. Various techniques with the different browsers are discussed as well as workarounds if needed for the browser differences.
The rest of the book covers web services, JSON, widgets, andhte different frameworks that are available to use.
A very complete AJAX book that will get any reader ready to se AJAX in their web development work. A must by... |
|
No video reviews found for this product.
