Product 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: 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; and the advantages of modular coding, ways to optimize Ajax applications, and more. This book also provides references to XML and XSLT, popular JavaScript Frameworks, Libraries, and Toolkits, and various Web Service APIs. By offering web developers a much broader set of tools and options, Ajax gives developers a new way to create content on the Web, while throwing off the constraints of the past. "Ajax: The Definitive Guide" describes the contents of this unique toolbox in exhaustive detail, and explains how to get the most out of it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26603 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 957 pages

About the Author
Anthony T. Holdener III currently builds Internet/Intranet applications utilizing the latest available technologies while striving for accessibility and cross-browser compatibility. He has worked with the web in one form or another since 1997 when he helped open an Internet cafe in Fairview Heights, Illinois. A graduate of St. Louis University with a degree in Computer Science, Anthony has worked as a web architect or developer for the past eight years for a number of Fortune 500 companies in the St. Louis area.

Customer Reviews

Magnum opus
I have the feeling this started out another book altogether and was given an Ajax-spin midway through writing. It's really more "everything the author wanted to write about almost anything". There's a section on different database products. There's a page on sorting algorithms. If you are looking for a brief and coherent presentation on Ajax, this book isn't for you. But if you are an experienced web developer looking for an update on the developments of the last couple of years and you are prepared to skim-read to get what you need, there is plenty of good information and good examples. The constant references to accessibility are commendable. I'm just surprised this book slipped past O'Reilly's editors.

Is this the most opaque book from OReilly?
I probably could have got more from this book if I knew what it was meant to achieve. I'm only up to page 86 and I'm now skimming like crazy. It seems from what I've seen so far, that AJAX means writing a lot of code to:
Initialize some objects, pull some data from a database (what database? where database? why database?), put it in an object and manipulate it for some reason and then - nothing. I can do this with very little effort in perl and old-fashioned cgi.
The next chapter is, apparently on interface design but it seems unlikely I'll ever get there. The book has already covered (mentioned) requirements analysis but it seems strange that after four chapters we're deep into code with no mention of what this application is for and what the users (heaven help them) are expected to be doing all this time.
Did anyone read this before it went to press?
I blew my budget on this book as OReilly is normally a safe bet when looking at something new but it looks like I'll have to start again with a different book.