Ajax Bible

by Steven Holzner

Build interactive Web applications with Ajax Create live searches and online spreadsheets Discover programming mistakes to avoid Create blazing-fast Web applications with powerful Ajax If you think... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0470102632
• ISBN13: 9780470102633
• Release Date: April 2007
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Length: 695 Pages
• Weight: 2.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 7.4" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Excellent for learning how AJAX works

This book is perfect for learning AJAX from the ground up. It goes into perfect detail with a lot of example code and great explanations. Considering how important AJAX is to web developers today, I consider this to be a must have in my reference books. The one thing I would say is that this book is more of a tutorial than a quick reference, and I would highly recommend getting the JavaScript Bible to go with it as an excellent reference book for everything javascript, including all the AJAX material.

Pretty Good Book

I just made it to chapter five and I am understanding the topic of AJAX pretty well. I have other AJAX books but they failed to explain a few imporant topics or they did it poorly. This book is pretty easy to follow. I recommend it!

Solid beginning to end coverage of Ajax...

Finding a book on Ajax isn't too hard any more. Finding one that covers beginning to advanced Ajax (and does it well) is another story. Steve Holzner has put his entry into the field with Ajax Bible. This is one of the better titles out there, and there's something to appeal to all levels of developers. Contents: Part 1 - Fundamental Ajax: Essential Ajax; Know Your JavaScript; Creating Ajax Applications; Serious Ajax Programming Part 2 - Ajax In Depth: Introducing Ajax Frameworks; More Advanced Ajax Frameworks; Using Server-Side Ajax Frameworks Part 3 - Ajax and the DOM, XML, CSS, and Dynamic HTML: The DOM and Event Handling; XML and Ajax; Cascading Style Sheets and Ajax; Dynamic HTML and Ajax Part 4 - Advanced Ajax: Introducing Ajax and PHP; PHP - Functions and HTML Controls; Handling User Input in PHP; Ajax and Security; Filters, MVC, and Ajax Index Holzner's written over 100 technology books, so I've come to expect a high level of writing from him. He definitely delivers here. Part 1 gives you all the information you need to start writing an Ajax-enabled application. The JavaScript chapter is designed to give you enough background if you've never worked with Ajax before, but not so lengthy as to dominate the entire book. The Serious Ajax Programming chapter will appeal to readers who have done some Ajax coding already, covering such subjects as multiple XMLHttpRequest objects and calling other domains. Part 2 gets into the whole topic of frameworks and how they can save you time and effort in your coding projects. No need to reinvent the wheel if someone else already has done that. Part 3 covers more of how you can take the returned data from the Ajax call and format your web page to display and use that data. And finally, Part 4 goes into some fairly advanced topics that won't mean much to the beginner, but might be exactly what the advanced developer needs. What I especially liked are Holzner's code examples. In many books, you get a code example all at once. The following writing then tries to explain whatever was just shown. That's usually OK, but sometimes longer code snippets can get confusing. Holzner "builds" the code alongside the writing. So you first get the start and end of the function along with the explanation. Then you get that code along with a new bold section that explains the next step. This pattern is repeated until the entire code snippet is built. While some might feel that it pads the book with redundant pages of code, I prefer it as you see the specific part of the code being discussed without getting confused about additional lines you don't yet understand. If there was a need for me to recommend a book on Ajax to someone without knowing their background, this would be a very safe bet. Beginners will get exactly what they need, and intermediate/advanced readers will find stuff that they don't know. Nice job...

Another winner - a fine AJAX ontribution

If you're alive and into computer books, you've got to know the name Holzner. The fellow has got a talent for putting together a book that is always (at least the ones I read) at the top of the heap in terms of readability and content. He does it again in this book. This book is an enhanced version of his Ajax For Dummies, a very good and lower level book. There's more in it. AJAX for the un-initiated (are they out there ?) is the name given to the technique of using a bunch of already true and tried components, Javascript, XML, dynamic HTML, and CSS and the XMLHttpRequest object to obtain some rather dramatic effects toward creating websites that perform in a crisp way. As in snap, crackle and pop. AJAX is not a language, it is not a new technology. It is a novel way of using the above mentioned already existing stuff in a very clever way. As such, you need to learn an awful lot of stuff and to learn how it all hangs together. And this is where the author excels. He has already written other books where this stuff is described. He brings it into this book from scratch and does a very good job of tying it all up into a nice neat package. The book is self-contained. It is a very good book for the beginner and the more advanced reader will find some interesting reading too.