Overview
Professional Ajax 2nd Edition provides a developer-level tutorial of Ajax techniques, patterns, and use cases. The book begins by exploring the roots of Ajax, covering how the evolution of the web and new technologies directly led to the development of Ajax techniques. A detailed discussion of how frames, JavaScript, cookies, XML, and XMLHttp requests (XHR) related to Ajax is included. After this introduction, the book moves on to cover the implementation of specific Ajax techniques. Request brokers such as hidden frames, dynamic iframes, and XHR are compared and contrasted, explaining when one method should be used over another. To make this discussion clearer, a brief overview of HTTP requests and responses is included.Once a basic understanding of the various request types is discussed, the book moves on to provide in-depth examples of how and when to use Ajax in a web site or web application. Different data transmission formats, including plain text, HTML, XML, and JSON are discussed for their advantages and disadvantages. Also included is a discussion on web services and how they may be used to perform Ajax techniques. Next, more complex topics are covered. A chapter introducing a request management framework explores how to manage all of the requests inside of an Ajax application. Ajax debugging techniques are also discussed.
Professional Ajax 2nd edition is written for Web application developers looking to enhance the usability of their web sites and web applications and intermediate JavaScript developers looking to further understand the language. Readers should have familiarity with XML, XSLT, Web Services, PHP or C#, HTML, CSS.
Professional Ajax 2nd edition adds nearly 200 pages of new and expanded coverage compared to the first edition.
Synopsis
With Professional Ajax, 2nd Edition, as your guide, you'll discover how to break free of the "click and wait" standard and defy all the traditional rules of what can happen on the web. This book arms you with a developer-level understanding of Ajax techniques, patterns, and use cases so that you can create an unprecedented user experience in your web applications.
Thoroughly updated throughout, this expanded 2nd edition adds almost 200 pages of new coverage on recently developed Ajax techniques, clearly showing you how to execute client-server communication on your site. It takes you through request brokers such as hidden frames, dynamic iframes, and XHR, explaining when to use each method. You'll also find out how to effectively implement a request management framework as well as how to utilize the latest debugging techniques. All of this will help you create your own full-fledged Ajax web applications to make your site more dynamic.
What you will learn from this book
- All about working with Ajax design patterns and libraries
- Best practices for dynamic script loading and incorporating Ajax-enabled images into your site
- Steps for using Ajax with RSS and Atom to produce a web-based news aggregator
- Tips for taking advantage of Ajax maps APIs from Google® and Yahoo!®
- Techniques for automating part of the Ajax development process
- How to use ASP.NET AJAX Extensions to simplify the creation of Ajax applications
Who this book is for
This book is for web developers who want to enhance the usability of their sites and applications. Familiarity with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS is necessary, as is experience with a server-side language such as PHP or a .NET language.
Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewIf you’re an experienced programmer who wants to do serious work with Ajax, Professional Ajax was written for you.
Wrox’s authors start with a fast-paced summary of what Ajax can do, the elements of an Ajax solution, and what makes a good Ajax application (for example: minimum server traffic, familiar user interaction, broad accessibility).
Next, they illuminate three Ajax communication options, including hidden frames, iFrames, and XMLHttp requests. You’ll find practical examples of each. The authors also identify pitfalls that require careful programming, including JavaScript’s “same origin policy” security restrictions, and browser caching issues.
Before you dive too far into coding, they introduce several emerging patterns for effective Ajax development: communication control patterns such as “Submission Throttling,” and “fallback” patterns for dealing with server errors and failed client requests.
You’re now ready to see how far Ajax can take you. You’ll build, integrate, and test a web-based Ajax RSS reader: client-side and server-side components, and the links between them. You’ll learn how to use Ajax with web services. There’s a full chapter on using JSON, a lightweight data interchange format that many folks prefer to XML (and is now supported by many Yahoo! APIs). You’ll create four small “web widgets,” and then construct a larger mail application, from architecture to user interface.
Professional Ajax thoroughly illuminates both client and server issues, using server-side examples ranging from PHP to .NET. It even offers a taste of three promising Ajax frameworks: JPSpan, DWR, and Ajax.NET. By the time you’re done, you’ll know how to take Ajax to the limit. Bill Camarda, from the April 2006 Read Only