Customer Reviews

Ajax on Rails

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Scott Raymond's book "Ajax on Rails" (published Jan 2007) serves as an introduction, tutorial, and reference for web development using Ajax and Rails. It is roughly 1/3 introductory and intermediate level text; 1/3 more advanced material for developing "Ajax on Rails" applications; and 1/3 sample - life-sized - applications. (The sample applications can be downloaded from the O'Reilly site.)

The author writes that Ajax is "a really simple idea: web pages, already loaded in a browser, can talk with the server and potentially change themselves as a result." [p. 2] There is elegance in this simplicity and the book reveals a lot of the mystery around Ajax and how it works.

The author does a great job exploring the basics. You will quickly get all the motivation needed to realize why this simple idea is so powerful in practice. You'll also soon see why "Ajax on Rails" is a productive approach for developing next generation applications on the web.

One of the real strengths of this book is its many working examples. I found even tricky techniques described in ways that were easy to understand. As I read the book, I entered sample code described on each page. (Having a working Rails installation is key for getting the most out of the book. The author provides a quick installation introduction which is supplemented with URLs for added help.) It was easy to apply "Ajax on Rails" to my own project, which I worked on as I read the book.

The centerpiece of the book is Chapter 5, which covers RJS (also known as Ruby-generated Javascript.) I expected to learn about Ajax, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I learned about the magic of Rails and Ruby development! A number of critical technical topics, often overlooked, are also covered - including `Usability', 'Testing and Debugging', 'Performance' and 'Security'.

The author does a great job taking the reader from simple working examples to more complex applications. I certainly felt more comfortable with advanced aspects of Ajax and Rails by the end of the book. It seems to me this is the definitive text on the topic.

"Ajax on Rails" has been a joy to read and work through. It was easy to mark my learning progress along the way. The material is organized clearly. The writing moves at a great pace. Sample code explores how everything works. (I expect I'll be referring back to the extensive examples in the future.) This book is a great tool to sharpen your skills around two of the most exciting aspects of the evolving web - Ajax and Rails.

This is a great book to get. The author is an expert in the field - I've seen him speak in person, and read his articles in the past. The book does not disappoint.

It's really three books in one. The first part is a tutorial, taking you through the paces and up the ladder of frameworks. You go from JavaScript to Prototype to Scriptaculous to RJS, chapter by chapter, and it really makes sense. Then you get chapters on Usability, Performance, Testing, and Security, which really cover more than just the basics - Mr. Raymond shows you how to build your application around Ajax, and do it intelligently. The chapter on Performance had a better explanation of caching than I'd read anywhere else!

The second part is two chapters, two comprehensive references on Prototype and Scriptaculous, respectively. Combined, these might be worth the price of the book for some folks. I'm sure I'll be referring to these pages for some time.

Finally, you have three real-world application examples. Again, these might be worth the price of the book as well! You get a Review Quiz, Photo Gallery, and Intranet Workgroup application. The code is available at the O'Reilly site now, so you don't have to type them in, of course. Still, it's nice to read about them in the book, and why the author wrote them the way he did. All of the applications are useful, and use best-practices throughout.

It's nice to see O'Reilly starting to get their Rails titles out. Predictably, they're awesome. They always choose the best authors, edit and proof the books meticulously, and put out a quality product. Highly recommended.

Outstanding, with a few nits. The author is a technical master and a master communicator, the editing is first rate, the book really flows. (The new Agile Rails book (skateboard book) has an excellent section which covers the same material, but in somewhat less detail.)

The sections on testing, security and performance are quite valuable. They're not too Ajax-specific and present best practices succinctly. The three case studies in the end are the most valuable chapters to me. I learn by taking apart code like this, I've hunkering down over the book,

BTW, if you don't use Ajax now and think you don't need to know about it etc, you don't UNLESS: you never work with other develoeprs, you never use anybody else's code, and all your users have JS turned off.

Nits: doesn't cover basic ECMA/javascript syntax at all. Chapter 1 (30,000 foot view of Rails) is perfunctory. The index isn't great, (the Pragmatics have really raised the bar on this). Doesn't use migrations. The 1-liner method def's (no semicolons) and the ones with no parentheses around parameter lists are hard to read, IMHO.

But all very minor complaints. On the whole, I would call this book indispensable

I bought this book thinking I would learn a lot. I've done very little JavaScript and Ajax before so I was expecting to soak this up like a sponge. I did the examples and read through the book and felt like I got a great introduction to using Ajax with Rails. That's the problem though, I feel like the book needs more meat, especially in the RJS section. Now that I have a good foundation, I'm looking elsewhere for more intermediate concepts that should've been part of this text.

I'm working through this book as I work to transition from PHP development to Rails with Ajax. I'm starting a new project from scratch and wanted to take on this "newish" methodology that is supposed to make my development more fun and way faster.

Well I bought the book a year ago when I was thinking the same thing. But I didn't find the time to invest in a new language until now.

Unfortunately Rails 2.0 has been out for a while and this book is written to 1.2 or something. Prototype is also in version 2.x and the book was written to something like 1.5

And that doesn't even mention that there are much different ways to get Ruby and Rails installed now.

So far I've spent a few days just making Rails work at all on my XP computer. It turns out that there is now a package called InstantRails that you just unzip and run in place. So I wasted those days trying to track down the components described in this book to no avail.

Now that I'm working with the code, I'm finding that the examples simply don't work in about half the cases due to the deprecated functions and new naming conventions and so on. It's like learning how it was done two years ago along with how it is done now. And it's really slowing me down.

Every time something doesn't work, instead of learning the lesson intended by the book, I spend a lot more time learning how to troubleshoot the problem until I find the new correct way of doing the same thing.

So I can't say that I'm not learning from this book. I'm learning a lot. It just that I'm learning by correcting errors on my own instead of by clear examples that work. It's kind of painful and slow.

The book seems to be good other than that. My only complaint is that some of the terms used aren't clearly explained early on. But I think most programmers can get past those and just keep reading and be fine.

I just don't recommend buying this book anymore. If there's an updated version to cover the current versions of the applications, that might be worth getting.

Visuals:
Pretty standard layout. Good clear type. Page numbers, chapter titles, and section titles at bottom of page for easy skimming / searching. Screenshots are clearly printed.

Readability:
Overall the book is written in a instructive & readable format. There are also complete reference for Prototype & scriptaculous, which although you wouldn't necessarily "read" them provide explanation and examples of the various functionality provided.

Practicality:
This is a useful book for individuals looking to start adding AJAX features to their Rails application. Like most books, if you are already using the subject matter (AJAX) at a high level you will find much of the material to be a review of what you have perhaps already learned in the "trenches". Nevertheless, for beginners or experienced users alike, there is valuable information to be had. In addition to "how to do it" type material, there is also some theory about why and when to do it. For example, there are chapters covering "Usability", "Testing & Debugging", "Security" and "Performance".

Audience:
The book describes itself as written for individuals with existing web development experience. While Ruby / Rails specific experience in not necessarily required - those are fundamental topics which are beyond the scope of this book. If you are new to Ruby or Rails, it is best to acquire separate books for those topics.

Overall:
It's a keeper.

Web programmers who want to use Ajax in conjunction with Ruby on Rails for maximum website impact will love AJAX ON RAILS, which shows how to use both to build high-performance web sites. From using RJS to generate JavaScript in Ruby templates to building easy applications and building versatility into an Ajax application, AJAX ON RAILS is a top design pick for any who have the foundations 'down' and who want to move to the next level, making it a fine pick for any serious programming library holding.

I'm a relative newbie to the Rails programming world, but thanks to this book I've become more than competent at using ajax within the rails framework in a very short time. This book starts with a clear step-by-step introduction to vanilla ajax, then progresses quickly into prototype and finally into using rails helpers for prototype. Next, Raymond delves into Prototype in detail, then Scriptaculous, and finally RJS. This is only the first 5 chapters, and the book would be well worth the price for the first 5 chapters alone. Beyond that are 4 solid chapters on Ajax / Rails / Web programming best practices (Usability, Testing, Security, Performance), and while none of these is exhaustive, they are all full of very good real-world advice and examples. If that's not enough, Raymond rounds it all off with comprehensive reference chapters on Prototype and Scriptaculous. (Far better than any documentation I've seen online for either of these libraries.) Lastly, he includes code and walkthroughs for 3 full-blown Rails apps. (Although I had trouble getting a couple of them up and running on my dev machine). Basically, if you're a Rails programmer or want to be a Rails programmer, you Should Have This Book. My guess is even seasoned Rails/Ajax pros could fill in some gaps with this book as a reference, and the rest of us can step up our game with it immediately. One of the best tech books I've bought in the last 5 years.

I thought this was an excellent book. Examples were clear, relevant and easy to implement.

But maybe the third book.

The book is good for learning more about programming Rails. You need to read something else if you are just starting in Rails.

For those of you who are alreadying doing rails this adds a few more arrows to the programming quiver. It does not have a bunch of information as it is a thin book. The information it does provide is worth the cost of the book. I always just my professional books as to how much money they would save me and this book has saved me money. It is worth about 40-80 hours Internet searching and trial & error work.

It has explainations of scrip.aculo.us packages. It does have a good set of features that I find useful in a good collection.

For those of you familiar with O'Reilly books of the past, this book can be a little hard to read like the books of 10 years ago. Needs a little better editing.

A good book on Rails, just not a good starting book.