By Ryan Asleson and Nathaniel T. Schutta
Review by: Alex
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AJAX is a relatively new language on the website development circuit, its history seeps into the depths of JavaScript, CSS and HTML and its only limits are that of the internet itself. When asking the question... why use AJAX you have to take a lot of things into account. The first of these is that AJAX is not the most complicated of languages, however because it uses several technologies you need to think if your users are likely to have things such as JavaScript enabled. Secondly there are questionable usability and accessibility issues which come into account with AJAX. Some programmers have coded their AJAX so sloppily that the browsers back button has been damaged as a result; however with all programming languages comes the same piece of advice... the code is only as bad as the person who coded it. AJAX is a powerful developer’s tool which if coded correctly will bring added interactivity with your website without needing to refresh the page. Any issues which have been presented to AJAX development in terms of accessibility and usability therefore can be overcome with a little know-how. So... on to the important question, why this book? “Foundations of AJAX” is an entry level guide to learning the language of AJAX and how to work with JavaScript in a way to build your own AJAX toolkits. The advantage of this book is it takes you from the ground up and enables you to get the fundamental knowledge which is needed to be able to learn AJAX development. One of the books highlights is that it offers you a great level of tips for getting the language up and running however its downfall is that it ONLY teaches you the basics. If you wish to do more then the general stuff you may want to pick up a book such as Professional AJAX which extends where the book leaves off and takes you into the bowels of experienced coding methods.
The chapters of this book include the following... Chapter 1 introduces the concepts of AJAX while explaining the history of the language and the reasons for its usage. Chapter 2 explains the XMLHTTPRequest object and how to get started using it in your website designs through simple requests. Chapter 3 details how to send requests and process responses through server communication. Chapter 4 shows you how to implement basic AJAX techniques and how to create your very first basic AJAX script. Chapter 5 tells you how to create an AJAX developers toolkit of your very own which you can use in your website designs. Chapter 6 follows the previous chapter by explaining how to test JavaScript with JsUnit (it also explains what JsUnit actually is and why you should use this). Chapter 7 goes a bit off topic (from general AJAX development) to techniques and tools to debug your JavaScript code, though this is an important thing to know to make sure your AJAX is as bug free as possible. Chapter 8 then shows you how to put everything from the previous chapters together and the two appendixes at the back of the book introduce the various AJAX frameworks and cross browser JavaScript routines which are available.
This book is suitable for the following types of people interested in website development:
- Website developers who have a fundamental knowledge of JavaScript who wish to learn AJAX.
- People who are new to website development but wish to get the low-down on AJAX development.
- Anyone working in website development who wishes to learn another scripting language.