Foundations of Ajax (Foundation)
 | Foundations of Ajax (Foundation) Ryan Asleson, Nathaniel T. Schutta Date: 17 October, 2005 — $26.39 — Book Rating: |
The first of part of the book, as other books, gave a history of web apps. This was a little long and proved to be a tired read. Though the history of web page dynamics, browsers and such finally landed in AJAX. hint: (skip the first chapter) The basics of AJAX are covered in Chapter 2 and 3 and deliver the AJAX core (XMLHttpRequest) and several small examples providing a good foundation.
As you read the book, working with the examples hammers the AJAX mindset into your thoughts with clear precision. If you are just reading to learn what its all about, then skim as you see fit.
However, if your intent is to use AJAX, by all means do the examples, type them yourself, work with the functions. Re-factor the functions to process multiple fields, for example by passing parameters and such. Remember, they were writing a book, terse examples to convey concept. You’re looking to learn. Learn by using this book and doing, learn the behavior.
The style is right on target with a common mantra, using AJAX in the small. Which simply means don’t bring down the works of Davinci through an AJAX call.
The coverage of AJAX as related to the DOM API and JavaScript is brief but well delivered. The fourth chapter and on delivers AJAX techniques, using servlets, webservices, unit testing and several tools for debugging and documentation.
The book is good for a read; its meat is in the fourth chapter and beyond. There are some good ideas in the book a bit repetitive though Im not sure it can be helped. Repetition is good. This is a good start followed up by web research. Alot a good stuff here.
Links to hit
Google Suggest
AJAX Tutorial