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Ajax: The Definitive Guide | 
 enlarge | Author: Anthony T. Holdener Iii
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $49.99
Buy New: $28.75
You Save: $21.24 (42%)
New (36) Used (7) from $25.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 42288
Format: Illustrated
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 980
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 7.1 x 2
ISBN: 0596528388
Dewey Decimal Number: 006.7
EAN: 9780596528386
ASIN: 0596528388
Publication Date: January 25, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new book. Shipped from our NYC store. Slight Shelf wear to cover. Pages are clean and unmarked.
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| Editorial Reviews:
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 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 muchbroader 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Great Resource and Very Thorough November 29, 2008
This book was a bit intimidating and it took me a while to get through it. The nice thing is that all that reading was worthwhile because I gained a very thorough understanding of Ajax and its associated technologies. I would recommend this title to anyone who wants to know what Ajax is, how it works, etc. and is serious about it.br /br /This book is not for someone looking for a quick and dirty intro. But it wont leave the reader wondering either - this is a deep dig into Ajax.
Very thorough treatment of Ajax October 20, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
If you are looking for a book with thorough treatment of Ajax, you are in the right place. The book does justice to it's title. I appreciate all the code snippets. However, they tend to repititive. When presentig a variation of a code snippet already presented, the author repeats the whole code snippet, instead of just highlighting the differences.
 Generally on the mark September 8, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Let me preface this review by saying that I have never been a fan of thick programming or computer books. If a book is 2 inches thick, I often find only 1/2 to 1 inch of it to be valuable. However, most of Ajax: The Definitive Guide seems to hit the mark. Since Ajax development is such an expansive, and rapidly changing, topic, it is perhaps a good idea to shoot for too much rather than too little information. Most developers will find this book not only a good learning guide, but also a handy reference for a wide variety of coding needs.br /br /One thing you will notice when scanning through this book is that there is a *lot* of code. The author is not afraid to publish pages and pages of Ajax code for readers to consider, copy and hack up to create their own applications. Not all is useful in real-world applications, however, since some of it is not cross-browser compatible (most often failing in Internet Explorer).br /br /The first three chapters are largely an introduction to Web technologies, and can be skipped by most developers. In Chapter 4, the author introduces the XMLHttpRequest object, the object that puts the "asynchronous" in Ajax (an acronym for "asynchronous JavaScript and XML"). He details how to make simple applications that pull information from server-based XML or JSON, an alternative data format well suited to Ajax. Chapter 5 deals with Document Object Model programming, a critical task that allows developers to change the look and content of Web pages that have already been rendered. br /br /After these foundational concepts, Part 2 contains nine chapters that provide specific solutions to common Web programming needs. Readers learn the ins and outs of creating Ajaxified navigation, forms, lists, tables, frames, etc.br /br /Part 3, called "Ajax in Applications," goes a step farther by showing the reader how to integrate Ajax with other applications. Chapter 16, for example, shows the reader how to incorporate Ajaxified Google search into a site and even include such dynamic features as search hinting. Other chapters in this section introduce Web services, Web APIs and even show how to create Ajax animated games.br /br /Part 4 contains two chapters that show readers how to create more modular code, and how to create faster, more compressed code. This is critical considering the importance of speed to the user experience in Ajax.br /br /One of the book's shortfalls is the lack of information about the various Ajax libraries. Libraries and frameworks provide solutions to common programming needs: ready-made widgets, improved JavaScript programming notation, useful objects and easy cross-browser compatibility. The author includes a brief introduction to the libraries in chapter 4 and a reference in Appendix B. There are also mentions of the major libraries scattered throughout the chapters. However, it would be worthwhile to include at least a chapter devoted to each of the major libraries such as Dojo, Prototype and jQuery.br /
really defenitive guide August 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
i always trust "The defenitive guide" titles from oreilly and this book is no exception , it covers everything in the Ajax world begin with the fundamentals and every related technology , then dive into how using these technologies for real world applications , then covers WEB dervices ,mashups and API , then end up with modular coding best practices during all app developements phases , and the most interesting part is the reference which covers the most popular ajax frameworks , popilar web services api , and what you need to know about Xpath and XSLT .
 Exhaustive but flawed March 27, 2008
16 out of 22 found this review helpful
While "Ajax: The Definitive Guide" is certainly exhaustive, it's hard to have confidence in a text so riddled with errors. Other O'Reilly titles I've purchased in the last few years suffer from the same problem: very poor copy editing. In a "Definitive Guide," this is inexcusable.br /br /Furthermore, he author's decision to rely on the Prototype framework is misguided. It saves a few lines of code per page, but one expects a "Definitive Guide" to define, explore, and use the actual objects and methods defined by the language itself, not those defined in one of many, many external libraries.br /br /It is also somewhat comical to read on page 10 that developers, rather than browser vendors, "are to blame for not adopting standards" and that they are "stuck with the mentality of the 1990s, when browser quirks mode, coding hacks, and other tricks were the only things that allowed code to work in all environments," and then to read on page 191 that "Yes, there are always caveats in the world of standards compliance" and that "Example 7-2 will not work in Internet Explorer because Internet Explorer does not support the CSS2 rules that are used to make this work." And on page 187 that "Internet Explorer does not natively support :hover on elements other than a. For this reason, instead of using the CSS that will work for all other browsers, we must use this...."br /br /(It's hard not to laugh, too, at a sentence that begins with "To take the file menu example fully to the Web 2.0 level....")br /br /By the time all the errata are corrected and a second edition issued, it might be appropriate for the author to wag his finger at developers who can't yet afford to to be totally standards-pure, but by then the faddish jargon will seem very dated.br /br /And until O'Reilly starts employing copy editors, I'm not buying the first edition of any title they release.
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