Customer Reviews

AJAX and PHP: Building Responsive Web Applications

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I admit, when I first opened this book, I thought it would contain a dry discussion of how to use AJAX methods with PHP. But the book turned out to be so much more than advertised, I think its title must be wrong. It should have been called, "How to Use AJAX Methods with PHP, MySQL, DOM, CSS, SVG, XSL, XML, RSS, and JavaScript Frameworks." I certainly never expected to read it cover to cover, but that's what I did.

In addition to integrating a wide range of modern web technologies, the book contains great examples of how to write building blocks for powerful web applications. These include form validation, chat, suggest, auto-complete, charting, grid, RSS, and drag-and-drop. Somewhere in the code for these functions are techniques for almost everything you might want to program into an application. What I really like about the book, however, is the ongoing explanation of how to write the code so it will be secure, and will perform correctly in every browser. Most books I have read don't bother with such details, but this one even lays out a method to create user-friendly error reporting in production mode. It has a strong focus on writing code that might actually be used in a production environment.

My only quibble with the authors is that they seemed to be avoiding OOP in their JavaScript, though they used it with their PHP code throughout the book. They said OOP emulation techniques required a longer learning curve. However, the result of their decision is JavaScript files that run for seven or eight pages. I really think that OOP would have been less intimidating to a new programmer than page after page of unbroken code. I would recommend that the authors at least use eye-catching headers for the major functions in these files to help the reader understand the structure of the code. (Readers of the book as published might want to take a highlight pen to the function headings.)

As someone who is attempting to write my first significant web application, I think this book is wonderful. I expect to wear it out before I'm through looking up techniques. I already know that my application will need chat, validation, suggest, and data grid. This book practically hands me the code for these. But more than that, it provides me with a view of the basic methods to do many other things.

Much of the major content of this book is code. While the authors explain how the code works, the reader will still need to know the basics of HTML, CSS, SQL, and scripting languages, such as PHP and JavaScript. Another major advantage of this book, however, is that the authors give web links to many of the best tutorials on these topics. In fact, it would be possible to start with this book, and use the authors' suggested links to look up almost every major web technology in order to learn it in the context of AJAX and PHP. All in all, that's a lot of value for a book that has less than 300 pages!

This book teaches by example. The first few chapters introduce AJAX and what part PHP, Javascript and XML all play. Then the remainder of the book takes you through several example applications. The example apps are simple enough that you can easily follow. These applications include Form Validation, Chat, Suggest and Autocomplete, Charting with SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), using grids, and Drag and Drop.

Each example begins by showing you the source code and how to actually implemented/deploy that application. There is also a supporting appendix for additional information about deploying the examples on a web server. Then each chapter follows by by explaining how the example worked.

If you would like to quickly begin using AJAX from PHP this book is a great start.

There need to be more Ajax books like this. No, let me rephrase. Rather, more of the Ajax books out there should've been like this one. I just finished reading through AJAX and PHP: Building Responsive Web Applications and it is by far my favorite book on the topic of Ajax yet. The authors of this book: Bogdan Brinzarea, Mihai Bucica, Cristian Darie and Filip Chereche'-Tosa have done a great job of keeping the topics focused and applicable.

While other books I have read covered the concepts behind Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, they did so with a shotgun blast of information. While I appreciate an eclectic approach, it is irrelevant because many examples are for languages I never use. For instance, one single book might have a slew of exercises in ASP.NET and Java, with maybe a few chapters on PHP.

Sure, I could install Microsoft's .NET SDK or Sun's J2EE, but the likelihood of me every either using these two platforms is pretty slim. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against Microsoft or Sun as companies. I use Windows like everyone else, and am quite fond of OpenOffice. Suffice it to say, I am a front-end designer who is familiar with PHP.

There is a full gamut of examples to test out. I liked the way they list the full code in the text, in addition to offering the option of downloading it from Packt. I've read too many programming books that assume you're right there at your computer while reading. I don't know about you, but I like to take books with me to read when I can grab a spare minute here or there.

Before I get into the contents of the book, let me point out a few caveats, in case you are considering purchasing it (which I would still recommend, if you're into PHP). In some of their code examples, they use XHTML 1.1. This is all well and good, but they neglect to specify content-type, meaning that it defaults back to text/html. So, while it still works just fine in a browser, it is against the W3C recommendation for how to serve various media types.

XHTML 1.1 should be served only as application/xhtml+xml, so their code examples would be better off as XHTML 1.0 Strict, because they aren't making use of any of the additional features to be found by stepping up to 1.1. Another thing to correct in their code would be line-breaks, which are consistently written throughout as [br/] when really it should be [br /]. Though seemingly innocuous, that single space is important. (Note: I used square brackets in the place of angled brackets, since Amazon does not allow for HTML in their reviews.)

Anyway, here is what topics are covered in the book: JavaScript and the Document Object Model, some CSS, XMLHttpRequest, proxy servers, and MySQL. They also touch on how to make use of Prototype and Script.aculo.us. Using this armament, they show you how to create fun stuff such as: live form validation, chat room (with color picker), auto-complete search, real-time SVG charts, XSLT grids, an RSS reader, plus a drag-and-drop to-do list.

While some of these topics are covered in other books out there, I had not found one which covered them all from a PHP standpoint. Now that I have, I think I will probably give book reading on Ajax a rest (not REST) for awhile, because I think that with this book, I am contented. Now it's just a matter of going out there and actually making use of the topics that were covered.

If you are a PHP programmer who is looking to start integrating AJAX in your upcoming projects, then this book will be a perfect start for you. The book focuses more on code rather than theory, and explains the pile of code in an easy manner.

The book starts with a great chapter explaining how web evolved and why the need for AJAX was created. It then explains what AJAX is and how it works - a difficult task to explain to the beginners, but the authors did it wonderfully. For the kick-starters, the chapter ends with a simple yet interesting hand-on example of a quick AJAX app, something that inspires many.

The next chapter goes into the basics of JavaScript, DOM, XMLHTTPRequest and related key points and explains each of them with good examples. This makes sure that you know what you'll do and why you'll do things in a specific way.

Before going into building core AJAX functionalities, the authors then introduces you to handling several PHP situations with AJAX (error handling, returning outputs, etc). Also, they show you how you can create the bridge between AJAX and MySQL.

After telling you everything you need to boost your own site with AJAX, they start to tell you how you can avail different AJAX functionalities in your site - Form Validation, Auto complete, Real-time Charting, Drag-n-drop, and so on. These are divided in the rest of the book in chapters. Each of them has a real-life working example that can make you think "Oh man!! I was looking for this to be in my site!!!" Although it's more code than theory, you won't loose the path as they start the chapters with a problem-solving manner and after showing the code, explain them step-by-step.

The book marvels at boosting you with both knowledge and practical application of AJAX to start with. But, it lacks in telling about the many great AJAX frameworks out there for PHP. The authors could have gone further to include a chapter mentioning the PHP-based open-source frameworks currently available (such as AJASON, XAJAX, TinyAJAX, AJAX Agent, etc). This could have helped the readers avoid writing all the basic request handling codes by hand (in both JavaScript and PHP). Also, there could have been a more detailed explanation on where the usage of AJAX is not appropriate.

Apart from this, the book was a sheer pleasure to follow and the choices of examples were very relevant to the current web trends and should help anyone who wants to implement AJAX real soon.

Ajax and PHP came at exactly the right time in my self-inflicted education as I am just now gaining functional literacy in OOP, Client/Server. PHP, CSS et. al..

There are a lot of things to like about this book, starting with its organization. It starts off by documenting what you need to know to best use of this book. And supplies the URL/Hyperlinks to get those literacies if you don't have them. (Thank you!)

It achieves a nice balance of choosing what needs to go into an appendix.

It dispenses with the common irritating practice of showing code "excerpts" in favor of showing the entire script and follows each script example with a "What just happened" section that is as clear and concise as you will find anywhere.

If you only buy one AJAX book, make it this one.

I think the marketing hype for Ajax has some people skeptical. So let's get the record straight: Ajax is here to help move web development ahead into the arenas that it needs to be in, while not needing to rely on Flash to implement a killer interface. It utilizes standard technologies that have been around, and is functional on almost all web browsers, but with a new mentality and intention. It's also a load of fun to develop, and see the results...

This book far exceeds the majority of PHP development books out there. Besides teaching you how to implement exciting and creative interfaces into your web site, this book actually is giving you first hand insight as to higher level PHP development as well. I can tell you from experience with Cristian Darie's previous books that I've read and used, his PHP development knowledge and skills far exceed the majority of PHP books that I have read. This one is not an exception. While the code isn't exactly beginner's stuff, I would suggest that some who has just begun on their road to PHP development give this a whirl. Because it'll not only show you a larger scope in PHP and Javascript, it'll also give you something fun and inspiring to want to shoot for...

The actual projects have a component feel to them. Meaning, you aren't just limited into developing these things, and then left scratching your head as to how you would need to customize them to make them work in your web projects. You can work through the code separately, and then implement them into your current web project via an include.

So, for those who are looking to not only learn about developing Ajax into your PHP pages, but to improve your scripting skills as a whole, as well as one of the more fun and enjoyable "activity books" to help you make killer U.I's..this is the best book I could recomend...

A technical book is only useful if it appropriate for your current skills and knowledge. I am a system admin who has written a fair amount of C++ code and lots of Perl and other scripts. I now need to develop a simple web app from scratch, and this book was perfect for me. While I have many issues with the PHP language, the popularity of LAMP solutions makes PHP a necessary evil that will be around for some time.

This book is a great intro to AJAX as well as PHP, XML, CSS and the DOM. The book is laid out and progresses very well, assuming virtually no knowledge in the first three chapters and with many sidebar comments that answer anticipated questions. The code examples are explained well and give you some good, functional examples to play with and learn from.

They also do well by giving brief intros to important concepts such as DOM and CSS, but then provide links to good on-line resources rather than getting bogged down in these details. Why reinvent the wheel? If you start getting lost following the code that introduces one of these new concepts, just stop reading and peruse the sites they reference.

If you truly new to these concepts, I would recommend reading the first 3 chapters closely and not at your computer, except to refer to the websites they mention. Then go back and re-read them while creating and playing with the code they provide. This helped me a great deal.

The book is good, the topic is right, and pretty much everyone is thrilling to learn how to benefit from AJAX -- even if this means you're going to use a lot of JavaScript, which you thought it was not necessary, since you know PHP, a powerful language, right?

To be frank, I was contemplating this book quite a lot before daring to open it for real. I can't really explain why, but I was intimidated by the idea: not by its size (274 pages is a common size), not by the technology itself (I'm coding PHP pretty often, and JS is no more than... JS), so maybe it was just because I'm too conservative. I'm prone to use PHP pages the "go-to-the-server-and-come-back-with-another-one-please" way.

And this book really tries to learn you the basics of AJAX, through practical examples, that is. Quite impressive, given that most of us are usually grabbing new ideas & technologies from on-line articles, not from books entirely dedicated to a subject.

Packt (pronounced "packed") has made every effort to support this book, even up to a point where you're overwhelmed by their will to make it easier for you.

Here's what the web offer is:

* A book's "classical" page with the publisher

* A book's mini-site with the publisher, featuring demos of the case studies developed in the book

* A book's mini-site with one of the authors, hosting an Errata and Notes

Downloadables:

* Chapter 1: AJAX and the Future of Web Applications

* AJAX Chat Revised - Chapter 5: Ajax_Chat_and JSON, a revised version of Chapter 5, now using and presenting JSON instead of XML. The first printed edition is only featuring the original XML-based chapter.

* AJAX Whiteboard mini-book - a case study on how to implement efficient client-server communications when heavy realtime communication is needed.

* Appendix A - installing and configuring Apache, PHP, MySQL, and prepare the database used in the demos.

* Appendix B: tools that can make your AJAX and PHP programming/debugging life easier.

* Appendix C: - Advanced XML: XPath and XSLT.

* Code download: the code for the samples described in the book.

Let's get to the point.

The first contact with AJAX was, for most people, the suggest & autocomplete feature of Google Suggest, somewhere at the end of 2004 or beginning of 2005. If you want to implement such a feature for yourself, the whole Chapter 6 is dedicated to this subject: you will be implementing suggestions from PHP functions, with direct redirection to the corresponding manual page.

Unless you don't actually need any book on the matter, you should start with the beginning, to get a clear idea of what "Asynchronous JavaScript with XML" really is, and why is it needed to improve usability and to make a site more responsive, or to find out some drawbacks of using AJAX (bookmarking may become pointless).

The basic principles of AJAX are very much disclosed from the first chapter, where you're presented with a simple (and useless) simple PHP AJAX application, described in detail.

There is to note that the book features the full sources of all the applications used in the instructional process. If you download the source code, the use of the printed one is somehow limited, unless you want to make notes on the book, for analysing how things are done.

To ease the understanding, the book holds a few flowcharts, in key places. Otherwise, a rather important number of screenshots are presented to help you follow the topic even if you're not in the front of your computer.

OK, you're an intermediate PHP developer, but you know very few of JavaScript. Client-side scripting was not one of your major interests. How are you going to swallow the book?

Chapter 2 is set to make you feel more relaxed and comfortable. Not only it describes JavaScript and the Document Access Model (DOM) in a nutshell, but it also provides you with useful reference links (page 30).

As a general rule, you will find useful URLs in several places throughout the book, so be prepared to improve your skills even after having finished with it.

The next "hard nut" is the very heart of AJAX: the XMLHttpRequest object. You will learn of it in the same Chapter 2, and the table at page 47 lists its methods and properties.

But it wasn't tough, so far. Most people already knew about DOM (at least if they have used CSS), and a bit of JS too. Some people never needed to use XML though, but, you know, the "X" in AJAX is from XML, even if there is no XML involved in the functioning of XMLHttpRequest, and you're not bound to use XML if you don't want to!

XML is a vast subject, and so are DTSs, schemas and namespaces, XSLT and Xpath, etc. Page 55 lists some starting points, and recommends Appendix C (not present in the first printed edition) for an introduction to XSLT and Xpath.

Fininshing the Chapter 2, which is very dense in information, will get you introduced to some basic handling of XML, but more important, to handling errors and throwing exceptions.

In the real world, you will need to do some serious data processing at the server level. This is what Chapter 3 is meant for, with some more examples too.

This time, you will also need to work with a database, MySQL in our case. Make sure you'll properly setup the database, because you will need to create some tables in some future sample project too -- fortunately, the book is supportive, especially if you're using phpMyAdmin.

As a general rule, once the access to the database is solved, everything should "just work". Each sample needing MySQL access has the credentials in a config.php file, so it's better you just create the user "ajaxuser" with the password "practical", to avoid editing several files.

The only problem I encountered was an error message:

"Class 'mysqli' not found"

which should be solved by adding

extension=mysqli.so

or

extension=php_mysqli.dll

to php.ini (and don't forget to restart Apache).

One of the first usability gain of using AJAX is form validation within the same page, without pushing back and forth error pages and the like. This is the first thing I'll implement in a web site in the process of "ajaxing" it -- and you will read Chapter 4 to get a good grip of one of the most useful usages of AJAX.

The rest of the book is very much a sequence of labs where you will learn more and more through practical exercises, with full code and explanations provided. You will do with AJAX:

* a web chat (Chapter 5).

* real-time charts with SVG (Chapter 7).

* grids with client-side XSLT (Chapter 8).

* a RSS reader (Chapter 9).

* drag and drop (Chapter 10).

What are my impressions with this book?

Once I went beyond the initial reluctance, I could see the book is actually not a bad one. The four Romanian authors did a good job, although some would have appreciated if a more playful style was used, instead of the rather academic one. For instance, PHP books by Julie C. Meloni can be swallowed easier due to the lighter style, more appropriated for people not willing to feel like in the front of a teacher.

Also, fragmenting the code with more comments shouldn't hurt -- no, actually not "code comments", but textual descriptions of what is actually happening in there.

For a practical introduction into AJAX with PHP, I would rate the book with 4 stars out of 5, but not more, for style reasons mainly.

For under 300 pages of content, this books packs quite a punch. I've always liked books that are under 400 pages because we never get to finish reading those that are over 1300 pages (definitely not for learning a new language). I start out with a mid-size book like this one and once I grasp the basics, I dig into advanced topics with another hefty book. But this one had me covered with so much I don't think I need an advanced book. Christian Darie proves it again - big books are heavy books, small books are great books. He and his co-author organized the content nicely and included lots of code examples that work. Real code! With links to some of the best stuff on these topics.

First off I'm fairly new to web programming (Javascript and PHP) but I didn't find much to broaden my knowledge with this book. Ajax Javascript is covered extremely well elsewhere ("Pragmatic Ajax", "Ajax in Action" and "Ajax Design Patterns" for instance) and is PHP programming ("PHP and MySQL Web Development" and "Advanced PHP Programming").
The book is not complete enough to serve as an introduction to Javascript or PHP. It really doesn't seem to cover the issues with distributed asynchronous programming either.
There is a huge need for a book that concentrates on building solid asynchronous servers with PHP. For instance how can state be carried from server call to server call (PHP session management?). What happens if multiple XML requests are sent while a PHP script is running? Can a single instance handle multiple requests without restarting from the beginning? How can a long running PHP program (yes you need to change the server time out) handle streams of data to and from Javascript?
My suggestions for the next edition are:
1) More on server side patterns (PHP) for AJAX
2) Session management
3) remote RPC techniques
4) JSON servers (techniques like phpolait?)
5) Talk through the code examples more.
I found the code in the book to be the hardest to read through and at the same time the most boring of any programming book I've ever read.