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By Anthony T. Holdener, III
First Edition
January 2008
Pages: 980
ISBN 10: 0-596-52838-8 |
ISBN 13: 9780596528386
Press Release
(Average of 2 Customer Reviews)
Ajax builds on older technologies and techniques but reaches a tipping point where the results are new. This book gives you a boost to this next stage of web application development, teaching you how tried-and-true web standards not only make Ajax possible, but why developing with them is faster, easier and cheaper. Learn to build browser-based applications that function like desktop programs.
Full Description
Is Ajax a new technology, or the same old stuff web developers have been using for years? Both, actually. This book demonstrates not only how tried-and-true web standards make Ajax possible, but how these older technologies allow you to give sites a decidedly modern Web 2.0 feel.
Ajax: The Definitive Guide explains how to use standards like JavaScript, XML, CSS, and XHTML, along with the XMLHttpRequest object, to build browser-based web applications that function like desktop programs. You get a complete background on what goes into today's web sites and applications, and learn to leverage these tools along with Ajax for advanced browser searching, web services, mashups, and more. You discover how to turn a web browser and web site into a true application, and why developing with Ajax is faster, easier and cheaper.
The book also explains:
Browse within this book
Ajax: The Definitive Guide explains how to use standards like JavaScript, XML, CSS, and XHTML, along with the XMLHttpRequest object, to build browser-based web applications that function like desktop programs. You get a complete background on what goes into today's web sites and applications, and learn to leverage these tools along with Ajax for advanced browser searching, web services, mashups, and more. You discover how to turn a web browser and web site into a true application, and why developing with Ajax is faster, easier and cheaper.
The book also explains:
- How to connect server-side backend components to user interfaces in the browser
- Loading and manipulating XML documents, and how to replace XML with JSON
- Manipulating the Document Object Model (DOM)
- Designing Ajax interfaces for usability, functionality, visualization, and accessibility
- Site navigation layout, including issues with Ajax and the browser's back button
- Adding life to tables & lists, navigation boxes and windows
- Animation creation, interactive forms, and data validation
- Search, web services and mash-ups
- Applying Ajax to business communications, and creating Internet games without plug-ins
- The advantages of modular coding, ways to optimize Ajax applications, and more
Cover | Table of Contents | Colophon
Featured customer reviews
Reads like a university textbook, May 02 2008
Rating:
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thewebguyca
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This book was my first real look at Ajax and I thought I'd get in and out quickly, painlessly and easily. Not a light read. You’ll find yourself reading… rereading… rereading… rereading…
It turned out to be a mouthful I had trouble chewing but that was mostly me. For those of you like me who want to start developing with Ajax much of the first four chapters are a waste of time. Lock yourself in your office and use the table of contents to cherry pick specific areas.
Holdener really knows his material… this really is “The Definitive Guide” to Ajax.
Definitely one of the better offerings from O'Reilly, April 11 2008
Rating:
Submitted by Anonymous Reader [Respond | View]
It's been a while since I read a decent O'Reilly book. I've been disappointed a lot recently by O'Reilly. Too many of the O'Reilly books I've read have been patchy, or tediously written, or lacked an adequate index. So, why do I keep buying them?
I keep buying them because now and then they produce decent books. Ajax: The Definitive Guide comes under that category. The author knows the subject well, but more importantly, knows how to share his knowledge. The writing is clear, concise and keeps one interested. Apart from the jarring change of pace between chapters 3 and 4, which plunges head first into Ajax proper - rather like plunging down a ravine -, the book progresses at a good pace, digressing where necessary (but not too much), and covers a good breadth of the subject matter.
To qualify myself, I admit I haven't read the entire volume. What I've read so far, and more importantly, how I've read so far, leads me to assume that barring any serious disasters the rest should be a matter of course. Recommended.
