Beginning Ajax with ASP.NET [Paperback]

Wallace B. McClure (Author), Scott Cate (Author), Paul Glavich (Author), Craig Shoemaker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 5, 2006 | ISBN-10: 047178544X | ISBN-13: 978-0471785446 | Edition: 1

Ajax has the power to revolutionize the way web-based applications are designed. This book provides you with a thorough working knowledge of what Ajax has to offer and how to take full advantage of it in your application development.


Following an exploration of how Ajax works with .NET, you'll get acquainted with DHTML, the role of JavaScript and the Document Object Model, and the XMLHttpRequest Object, which is the foundation of Ajax. Then you will examine the Ajax-type features built into ASP.NET and explore the Ajax.NET Professional Library in detail. Finally, you will explore client scripting as well as building and using controls with Microsoft's Atlas. With an entire chapter devoted to debugging, you will have all you need to use this cutting-edge technology.

What you will learn from this book
* What you can do with the open source Ajax.NET Professional Library
* How to use the corresponding functionality, Asynchronous Client Script Callbacks, that comes with ASP.NET 2.0
* Techniques for using the XMLHttpRequest Object to communicate between the client web browser and the server
* An overview of XML, XSLT, and other ways to send data between client and server
* How to integrate Microsoft's Atlas with many of the services available in ASP.NET 2.0

Who this book is for

This book is for programmers who use ASP.NET and are just starting to use Ajax technologies to create more responsive, modern applications.

Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Ajax has the power to revolutionize the way web-based applications are designed. This book provides you with a thorough working knowledge of what Ajax has to offer and how to take full advantage of it in your application development.

Following an exploration of how Ajax works with .NET, you'll get acquainted with DHTML, the role of JavaScript and the Document Object Model, and the XMLHttpRequest Object, which is the foundation of Ajax. Then you will examine the Ajax-type features built into ASP.NET and explore the Ajax.NET Professional Library in detail. Finally, you will explore client scripting as well as building and using controls with Microsoft's Atlas. With an entire chapter devoted to debugging, you will have all you need to use this cutting-edge technology.

What you will learn from this book

• What you can do with the open source Ajax.NET Professional Library
• How to use the corresponding functionality, Asynchronous Client Script Callbacks, that comes with ASP.NET 2.0
• Techniques for using the XMLHttpRequest Object to communicate between the client web browser and the server
• An overview of XML, XSLT, and other ways to send data between client and server
• How to integrate Microsoft's Atlas with many of the services available in ASP.NET 2.0

Who this book is for

This book is for programmers who use ASP.NET and are just starting to use Ajax technologies to create more responsive, modern applications.

Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

About the Author

Wallace B. "Wally" McClure graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1990 with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering. He continued his education there, receiving a master’s degree in the same field in 1991. Since that time, he has done consulting and development for such organizations as The United States Department of Education, Coca-Cola, Bechtel National, Magnatron, and Lucent Technologies, among others. Products and services have included work with ASP, ADO, XML, and SQL Server, as well as numerous applications in the Microsoft .NET Framework. Wally has been working with the .NET Framework since the summer of 2000. Wally McClure specializes in building applications that have large numbers of users and large amounts of data. He is a Microsoft MVP and an ASPInsider, and a partner in Scalable Development, Inc. You can read Wally’s blog at http://weblogs.asp.net/wallym.
Wally and coauthor Paul Glavich also co-host the ASP.NET Podcast. You can listen to it at www.aspnetpodcast.com. In addition, Wally travels around the southeast United States doing user group talks and sessions at various CodeCamps.
When not working or playing with technology, Wally tries to spend time with his wife Ronda and their two children, Kirsten and Bradley. Occasionally, Wally plays golf and on July 30, 2005, broke par on a real golf course for the first time in his life. If he hadn’t been there, he would not have believed it.

Scott Cate is the President of myKB.com, Inc., in Scottsdale, Arizona. myKB.com, Inc., is a technology company specializing in commercial ASP.NET applications. His product line includes myKB.com (knowledge base software), kbAlertz.com (Microsoft knowledge base notifications), and EasySearchASP.net (a pluggable search engine for ASP.NET sites). Scott also runs AZGroups.com (Arizona .NET user groups), one of the largest and most active user group communities in the country, and is a member of ASPInsiders.com, a group devoted to giving early feedback to the Microsoft ASP.NET team. In addition, Scott has coauthored the novel Surveillance, which can be found at http://surveillance-the-novel.com.

Paul Glavich is currently an ASP.NET MVP and works as a senior technical consultant for Readify. He has over 15 years of industry experience ranging from PICK, C, C++, Delphi, and Visual Basic 3/4/5/6 to his current specialty in .NET C++ with C#, COM+, and ASP.NET. Paul has been developing in .NET technologies since .NET was first in beta and was technical architect for one of the world’s first Internet banking solutions using .NET technology. Paul can be seen on various .NET related newsgroups, has presented at the Sydney .NET user group (www.sdnug.org) and is also a board member of ASPInsiders (www.aspinsiders.com). He has also written some technical articles that can be seen on community sites, such as ASPAlliance.com (www.aspalliance.com).
On a more personal note, Paul is married with three children and two grandkids, and holds a third degree black belt in budo-jitsu.

Craig Shoemaker can’t sit still. As the host of the Polymorphic Podcast (polymorphicpodcast.com), Craig teaches on topics as timely as software architecture and as cutting edge as the latest Ajax technologies. Whether he’s writing for CoDe Magazine, ASPAlliance, or DotNetJunkies or speaking at local user groups, Southern California Code Camp, or VSLive!, Craig loves to share his passion for the art and science for software development. Craig is also a full-time software engineer for Microsoft Certified Partner PDSA, Inc. (pdsa.com) in Tustin, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 500 pages
• Publisher: Wrox; 1 edition (September 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 047178544X
• ISBN-13: 978-0471785446
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,719,540 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Wally is a Software developer, business owner, and budding entrepreneur. He is a lover of the web, mobile devices, and databases. His current passion is the iPhone/iPad, Android, and HTML5 Development. He also loves the business side of web development (where he has been involved in launching 3 companies), web services, and scaling .NET apps up to ridiculous numbers of users and proving the anti-.NET skeptics wrong. Before that, I loved databases like Sql Server, Oracle, and other client-server style databases. And somewhere in there, AJAX is pretty cool too.

Currently, 24 years in the business of writing software, but is always looking to learn more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Feels like it was thrown together September 10, 2006

By Dan Crevier

Format:Paperback

This book feels like it was thrown together quickly to cash in on the Ajax craze. The various chapters don't really flow together that well. It seems like they were written independently and then they threw in "For more information on <whatever> see chapter <whatever>". Some of the chapters were pretty good for getting started, like the stuff about XMLHttpRequest. But others lacked enough information to be useful on their own (like the one on XPATH and XSLT). The book may be useful to get a survey of a bunch of the technologies behind Ajax and how to use Asp.net, but I don't think this book will stand the test of time.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a great AJAX starter book. January 9, 2007

By Don Mason

Format:Paperback

GREAT INTRODUCTION to implementing custom AJAX solutions.

Starts with a detailed review of some of the technologies used in AJAX; CSS and Javascript in particular. The intro alone is likely to increase your coding efficiency for these technologies.

The book then goes on to give the nuts and bolts for creating roll-your-own AJAX scripts that are not locked into a specific vendor tool. By understanding these basics you can realize what some of the vendors are providing in way of RAD tools. While the design tools offer a developer great productivity gains, old-school developers will appreciate knowing the under the hood mechanics.

AWESOME.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best AJAX book, period! October 21, 2006

By Dan.Wygant.org

Format:Paperback

Not only have I learned lots of AJAX but also many other aspects of ASP.NET programming. This is a readable book unlike many tech books. Very well done with very good language.

I say it is readable, but it has also served me well for reference back to various subjects around JavaScript and other ASP.NET aspects which I felt were well explained here.

What I also like are the "Try it now" sections where you can get some immediate instruction in an instant. The website behind the book is also a good resource... with the code they talk to.

The book is well structured and explains 200-300 level material in 100 level terms yet with a conciseness that eludes more authors. I mean to say that I see presentations constantly at local Users Groups that do the same - well done - but they go past the 2hr mark - where Wally can put the knowledge in your brain in a short short instead of a long wind.

I mean lots of stuff you may not get in the 10000 page reference books which only skim the surface. This book gets to the nitty gritty and in a very well laid out way, easy to "get".

"Get more Wally" is what I say!

Dan

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Get Under the Hood or Jump Right In September 25, 2007

By Brian C. Lanham

Format:Paperback

Wrox continues to produce pragmatic books. This book is very traditional in its approach. It starts with a history of Ajax and goes quickly into describing how Ajax works (under the hood). I am a HUGE proponent of knowing how things work, even if there is a framework around it. As such, I really like this book's approach.

Building on the foundation of the basics, the book describes the frameworks for implementing Ajax. It focuses (obviously) on the ASP.NET implementations called "Atlas" (now simply referred to as Asp.Net Ajax). The book does cover other frameworks as well.

I recommend this book for learning about Ajax under the hood. It will be beneficial whether or not you work in .NET. The book is not very big and if you are looking for an understanding of the inner workings of client-side XML and JavaScript then this book is for you.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good starter September 27, 2007

By Marshal Dillon

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book did just what I needed it to. It got me caught up on Ajax and ASP.Net using C#. I typically develop backoffice code and have not kept up on a lot of web development. This brought me up to speed and gave me some further references to check out.