Head First Ajax: A Brain-Friendly Guide

Head First Series

by Rebecca M. Riordan

Ajax is no longer an experimental approach to website development, but the key to building browser-based applications that form the cornerstone of Web 2.0. Head First Ajax gives you an up-to-date perspective that lets you see exactly what you can doâ??and has been doneâ??with Ajax. With it, you get a highly practical, in-depth, and mature view of what is now a mature development approach.

Using the unique and highly effective visual format that has turned Head First titles into runaway bestsellers, this book offers a big picture overview to introduce Ajax, and then explores the use of individual Ajax componentsâ??including the JavaScript event model, DOM, XML, JSON, and moreâ??as it progresses. You'll find plenty of sample applications that illustrate the concepts, along with exercises, quizzes, and other interactive features to help you retain what you've learned. Head First Ajax The book also discusses the server-side implications of building Ajax applications, and uses a "black box" approach to server-side components. Head First Ajax is the ideal guide for experienced web developers comfortable with scriptingâ??particularly those who have completed the exercises in Head First JavaScript â??and for experienced programmers in Java, PHP, and C# who want to learn client-side programming.

Genres: Programming, Technical, Technology, Web, Computers, Software

527 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Dhuaine · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is old (2008) and it shows. The most jarring thing is that AJAX itself, as in asynchronous request, constitutes only a small part of this book. The rest is just normal JavaScript - there's even a chapter on form validation. Of course, the author argues that to her AJAX is more than just requesting stuff from the server without refresh - it's a whole philosophy of making pages more usable and friendly and great.

That brings me to my second complaint about this book - the lack of best practices as we know them today and no recognition of other disciplines, such as SEO and, most of all, accessibility. This a book that:
1) includes an example of creating a whole website as one page that loads content with AJAX, resulting in a JS version of frames or Flash movie with no states - all without mentioning the huge drawbacks of such a solution;
2) actually recommends disabling submit button in HTML (!!) and sending form with pure JavaScript;
3) creates button rollovers with JS (maybe due to higher IE6 usage in 2008, but still no CSS alternative is mentioned)...
... and much more. I'm far from being a JS expert, so I can't comment on the quality of code itself, but considering the amount of mistakes in other fields, it's hard to give this book benefit of doubt.

There's also zero focus on server-side code. The book is purely about client-side JS. I expected at least one chapter with an example how to prepare data for AJAX and some good advice, but got nothing except url where to download JSON libraries for PHP. Very disappointing, especially when the book chooses to ramble about completely non-AJAX stuff like form validation.

Given that 1/4 of the code is spent on inconsistencies between browsers (author mentions JS frameworks, but is against using them) and there's no mention of life-saving JS consoles in i.e. Firebug, using alert function to debug instead (2008), I'd say this book is obsolete. Time wasn't kind to it and those looking to learn AJAX would be better off reading something else.

[Casey · Rating 1 out of 5]

The format is great, as most Head First books are, but this book has numerous typos, errors, and at some points the author does not seem to grasp JavaScript very well (for example, recommending an eval() to call a variable method without mentioning Javascript's bracket notation. It requires enough knowledge of best practices in JavaScript if you are to use this book effectively.

[Dbettes · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is great for anyone that wants to learn the basis behind Ajax and some common techniques to get you started. There should be a bigger warning but you really need to either know PHP to use the examples or have the ability to write server-side code. Overall, I have really learned a lot from this book.

[Pete Aven · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is a great complement to Head First Javascript. Its also just brilliant in that it doesn't focus on just ajax, but the holistic approach required to create successful web apps. You'll learn a lot more than just making asynchronous requests here.

[Marcotuts Morales · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book wasn't nearly as interesting as the Javascript one, but I guess I can't see how else they would have slowly introduced AJAX using the head first model. still worth reading

[Topilno]

Creating Web Pages for Dummies

[Timothy Culp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay. I bought it because of the red head on the cover.

[Aman Parnami]

Easy to learn Ajax concepts presented in a fun way.