- Lots of scripts and libraries, but not too many.
- An interesting example using Amazon ecommerce and a chess game.
- Some coverage of accessibility and progressive enhancement.
- Good use of standards-based XHTML, DOM, and CSS.
- The quick overview feels almost too quick.
- The intro implies it's more basic than it really is.
- Chapter 1 introduces Ajax and gives an overview of the tech involved.
- Chapter 2 dives straight into "basic" XMLHttpRequest.
- Chapter 3 starts looking at how the asynchronous functions work.
- Chapter 4 gets into the really hard stuff, where you send and receive a lot of data.
- Chapter 5 helps you learn to create a more application-like Web program.
- Chapter 6 discusses REST and SOAP and builds an application to connect to Amazon.
- Chapter 7 helps deal with the problem of a non-functional Back button in Ajax applications.
- Chapter 8 creates an entire chess game in Ajax. Pretty sweet.
This is a pretty good book. I'm so used to reviewing beginner books, that it was surprising to pick up a book that jumped right into complex code samples right away (Chapter 2). And he called it "Basic". Well, it is basic to Ajax, but compared to beginning JavaScript, it was a bit complex.
What I Like About This Book
The thing I liked the most about this book was the examples. Most Ajax books seem to think that all I really want to do is set up my own version of Gmail or Flickr. But those already exist - why should I build my own?
What I'd Improve in This Book
Ajax is still very new, and the introduction to Ajax (Chapter 1) seemed too short. It also indicated that Ajax is an acronym, which Jesse James Garret, the inventor of the term, has stated is not true. This is a minor point, however.
My real gripe is that it tries to cover too much too quickly. It covers some of the problems we had before the Ajax was around, what Ajax is, why it's asynchronous, an overview of some of the Ajax technologies, and then tries to pull all this together.
I didn't feel like the chapter had enough really simple examples (along the lines of "Hello World") to help the genuine newbie understand what this book is about.
But When It's All Said and Done
I did like this book. I found it easy to read and I really enjoyed the examples. Now I want a chess game on my site. Now he just needs to put a "Settlers of Cataan" game in his next book.
