October 2005
Intermediate to advanced
680 pages
19h 51m
English
Overview
Web users are getting tired of the traditional web experience. They get frustrated losing their scroll position; they get annoyed waiting for refresh; they struggle to reorient themselves on every new page. And the list goes on. With asynchronous JavaScript and XML, known as "Ajax," you can give them a better experience. Once users have experienced an Ajax interface, they hate to go back. Ajax is a new way of thinking that can result in a flowing and intuitive interaction with the user.
Ajax in Action helps you implement that thinking— it explains how to distribute the application between the client and the server (hint: use a "nested MVC" design) while retaining the integrity of the system. You will learn how to ensure your app is flexible and maintainable, and how good, structured design can help avoid problems like browser incompatibilities. Along the way it helps you unlearn many old coding habits. Above all, it opens your mind to the many advantages gained by placing much of the processing in the browser.
About the Technology
"What is Ajax?"
Manning proudly presents the original screencast "What is Ajax?" which defines Ajax and shows you an entertaining, working example of Ajax in action. By gradually adding features, the screencast makes you think about the richness of your users' experience and shows you how it is done. It is 18 minutes long (27MB download).
About the Book
What's Inside
- Ajax principles
- Why Ajax design patterns matter
- How to avoid Ajax pitfalls
- Examples of Ajax in action: type-ahead suggest, live searching using XSL, and many more.
- Examples using Ajax frameworks: Prototype, Scriptaculous, x and Rico
- Ajax usability, security, and performance
About the Reader
If you are a web developer who has prior experience with web technologies, this book is for you.
About the Authors
Dave Crane has pushed the boundaries of DHTML, and latterly Ajax, on digital TV set-top boxes, in home automation and banking and financial systems. He lives in Gloucestershire, UK. Eric Pascarello is an ASP.NET developer and a moderator of the HTML and JavaScript forum at JavaRanch. He lives in Laurel, MD. Darren James is the architect of the opensource Rico project. He lives in Sunnyvale, CA.
Quotes
Best Computer and Internet Book of 2006.
- Customers' Favorites, Amazon.com
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access
More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.