Professional Ajax, 2nd Edition (Programmer to Programmer) [Paperback]

Nicholas C. Zakas (Author), Jeremy McPeak (Author), Joe Fawcett (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470109491 | ISBN-13: 978-0470109496 | Publication Date: March 12, 2007 | Edition: 2

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.

The last part of the book walks through the creation of two full-fledged Ajax web applications. The first, FooReader.NET, is an Ajax-powered RSS reader. The second, called AjaxMail, is an Ajax-enabled email system. Both of these applications incorporate many of the techniques discussed throughout the book.

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. This book is not aimed at beginners without a basic understanding of the aforementioned technologies. Also, a good understanding of JavaScript is vitally important to understanding this book. Those readers without such knowledge should instead refer to books such as Beginning JavaScript, Second Edition (Wrox, 2004, ISBN: 978-0-7645-5587-9) and Professional JavaScript for Web Developers (Wrox, 2005, ISBN: 978-0-7645-7908-0).

Professional Ajax 2nd edition adds nearly 200 pages of new and expanded coverage compared to the first edition. Some of the new topics covered here include:

• Ajax Libraries including the Yahoo! Connection Manager, Prototype, and jQuery
• Request Management with Priority Queues and the RequestManager Object
• Comet push-based web systems and HTTP streaming
• Maps and Mashups with Geocoding, Google Maps API and Yahoo! Maps API
• Ajax Debugging with FireBug and Microsoft Fiddler

  ASP.NET AJAX Extensions (formerly code-named "Atlas")

And of course the Second Edition retains and updates the core first edition content including:

• the range of request brokers (including the hidden frame technique, iframes, and XMLHttp) and explains when one should be used over another
• different Ajax techniques and patterns for executing client-server communication
• Ajax patterns including predictive fetch, page preloading, submission throttling, incremental field and form validation, periodic refresh, multi-stage download and more
• Syndication with RSS, Atom, and XParser
• JSON and creating an autosuggest textbox example
• web site widgets for a news ticker, weather information, web search, and site search
• Ajax Frameworks JSpan, DWR, and Ajax.NET Professional
• A Web-based RSS/Atom aggregator case study
• An AjaxMail case study

This book is also available as part of the 4-book JavaScript and Ajax Wrox Box (ISBN: 0470227818). This 4-book set includes:

• Professional JavaScript for Web Developers (ISBN: 0764579088)
• Professional Ajax 2nd edition (ISBN: 0470109491)
• Professional Web 2.0 Programming (ISBN: 0470087889)
• Professional Rich Internet Applications: Ajax and Beyond (ISBN: 0470082801)

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

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.

About the Author

Nicholas C. Zakas has a BS in Computer Science from Merrimack College and an MBA from Endicott College. He is the author of Professional JavaScript for Web Developers (Wiley 2005) as well as several online articles. Nicholas works for Yahoo! as a frontend engineer and has worked in web development for more than 6 years, during which time he has helped develop web solutions in use at some of the largest companies in the world. Nicholas can be reached through his web site at www.nczonline.net.

Jeremy McPeak began tinkering with web development as a hobby in 1998. Currently working in the IT department of a school district, Jeremy has experience developing web solutions with JavaScript, PHP, and C#. He has written several online articles covering topics such as XSLT, WebForms, and C#. He is also co-author of Beginning JavaScript, 3rd Edition (Wiley 2007). Jeremy can be reached through his web site at www.wdonline.com.

Joe Fawcett started programming in the 1970s and briefly worked in IT upon leaving full-time education. He then pursued a more checkered career before returning to software development in 1994. In 2003 he was awarded the title of Microsoft Most Valuable Professional in XML for community contributions and technical expertise. He currently works in London as a developer for FTC Kaplan, a leading international provider of accountancy and business training, where he specializes in systems integration.

Product Details

• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: Wrox; 2 edition (March 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470109491
• ISBN-13: 978-0470109496
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 1.3 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #112,569 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Languages & Tools > Ajax

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding platform-agnostic look at Ajax programming, February 17, 2006

By 

Jason A. Salas (Dededo, Guam Guam) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Professional Ajax (Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)

The book does a good job academically of showing how Ajax has evolved (itself a debatable topic) and how it is used in modern-day applications. The book doesn't marry the reader to any one particular web development framework, effectively citing examples in PHP, .NET, and JavaServer Pages. Practically, the authors exhibit a proper mix of (X)HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Dynamic HTML and XmlHttpRequests, showing how the technologies are blended for developing next-gen UIs.

There are great discussions of advanced concepts like JSON, REST, and SOAP-based web services and how Ajax is incorporated into them. Also, coding to allow cross-browser compatibility is stressed throughout the book, particularly in instantiating an XMLHTTP object across IE, Firefox, Mozilla and Safari. The authors' zXml and XParser are cited as two of several third-party libraries to seamlessly pull this off.

Some gems that I found within the book include Chapter 8 - "Web Site Widgets", which is very helpful, giving practical demonstrations and usable code for several Ajax-driven mini-applications we could all use in our web projects. Chapter 7's case study of a Google Suggest-style autocomplete text box was very elegant, using JSON as an alternative to XML's typically verbose payload. Chapter 2 - "Ajax Patterns" also abstracts many of the features common to apps using Ajax (i.e., polling, autosave, incremental updating). All are well done and greatly appreciated.

Syntactically, the authors' programming style is very clever. While not exhaustively described, the book shows how to feign object-oriented programming in client-side JavaScript, making liberal use of such time-saving coding tricks like faux classes, inline function definitions and prototypes.

In criticism, the one chapter I found to be a letdown was Chapter 5 - "RSS/Atom", mainly because I'm very involved with work in that space. A terse description of content syndication is presented, but then followed exclusively by an analysis the FooReader.NET web-based RSS aggregator app. It's nice, but doesn't take a more holistic view of how Ajax is being used elsewhere. I would have also liked to see examples in emerging platforms, specifically Ruby on Rails and the Ajax support built directly into that web framework.

But overall this is a very good introductory read for experienced programmers wanting to get up to speed on the next big thing in advanced web UI development. I'm a better, more aware, more prepared developer for having read it.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best code explanations ever, September 4, 2006

By 

L. Israel "Nerdy female" (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Professional Ajax (Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)

As a newcomer to Ajax, I cant comment on the coverage but it seemed reasonably comprehensive.

But the code walkthroughs were terrific - completely readable, easy to follow and sometimes even quite fun to read. I cant remember reading better code runthroughs ever.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ajax made fun, May 10, 2006

By 

M. Sanford (San Francisco, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Professional Ajax (Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)

I found this book to be extremely informative. It is written in a clear, engaging style that makes it a pleasure to read. The examples are well constructed, relevant to real world applications, and thoroughly explained. The essential bits of code are highlighted for quick reading. The most irritating thing about web development is cross-browser support, and authors do a great job to making this less intimidating and point readers to libraries to abstract away the differences. Also covered are related JavaScript XML, XPath, XSLT support, web services, RSS/Atom.

PHP is the primary server side language used, though they chose .NET/C# for creating a web service. Microsoft's .NET web service tools are excellent, but I would have liked it if the authors had rounded this out with giving the basics of creating a web service using open source solutions.

If you want to learn Ajax techniques and related technologies, this book is well worth your time and money.