Informative, but very short.The first thing I noticed about this book is how short it is. It is only around 200 pages, and has been really lengthened by the fact that there is a 2 inch margin between the text and the edge of the page. I think that if it wasn't for the margin, there would only be around 130 pages. I read this book in the space of 2 hours. Contains a fair amount of background info such as the origin of the term AJAX.
This book has the usual Jeremy Keith style about it; a bit of waffle about Greek mythology followed by a very concise explanation of the actual mechanism, but well written. Fair play to the man.
It is informative, but if you are a programmer this book is a bit of a waste of time - you're better just looking at a couple of ajax articles. I don't think it's worth as much as £14.99 either because of how short it is. Nicely finished in colour, this book is web 2.0 throughout in style. If you are a web designer with absolutely no clue about server side scripting and strongly typed programming, then this is a good option for you.
Don't buy this book - I would have given it -10 starsThis book is total rubbish, I bought it to lean Ajax and make my websites look cool but you can't learn anything from this book. There are many code segments which mean nothing unless you can see all the code a - collection of functions is useless if you can't see how they work in html.
It talks about the advantages and disadvantages of XML, then looks at JSON telling us that it stands for "JavaScript Object Notation, and pronounced like the name Jason. Incidentally in Greek mythology, one of Jasons Argonauts was Telamon, father of Ajax"
Why not just say JavaScript Object Notation pronounced Jason - and
If I wanted a book on Greek mythology I would have bought one. I paid £24.99 for the book read it twice and leant nothing.
Supurb book - author should stand up and take a bowThis book won't teach you about "advanced AJAX". This is primarily because there is no such thing as advanced Ajax. The concept is pretty straightforward.
What however isn't obvious, is the pros and cons of implementing Ajax itself. This is where this book stands out.
The non-intrusive approach to Ajax championed by this book is exactly the solution I needed to all my Ajax worries. I read this in conjunction with more detailled Ajax books, and this book really came into its own once I had appreciated more fully what Ajax was all about using the other books "Ajax and PHP" was one notable titlte; loads of worked examples and a sea anemone on the front cover.
It took a second read of this book to fully appreciate the author's intentions, abd I am so glad that I did. My sites are much better for it.
Unmissable.
Excellent, rapid introduction, for those who already know HTML and a little JSI was a bit skeptical when I saw how slender this book was, and when the author started with a brush-up on JavaScript syntax, I began wondering whether there would be any 'meat'.
Pretty soon, though, I was well into the practicalities of Ajax, described clearly and succinctly, with even the warts (and all) mentioned in enough detail that I now feel confident enough to tackle multi-platform Ajax jobs. The various popular Ajax frameworks are discussed, and the most important pitfalls are negotiated on the basis of offering a wide range of solutions. At no time do you feel 'locked-in' to a particular framework or paradigm.
If you're a complete newcomer to web design, this book might be a bit of a challenge, but if you've been a bit around the houses, and know some HTML and Javascript already, this is THE Ajax book to buy. Why pay more for a few extra hundred 'baby's first website' pages you'll never read anyway?
Fantastic introduction to AJAXThis is going to be a quick review, but this is a great book.
I bought Jeremy Keith's first book DOM Scripting and couldn't wait to read this, the authors second book.
I am a designer but have a have medium ranged skills in PHP and Javascript and found this book slightly below my level, but the code examples were explained enough for the smart newbie.
It certainly wont take your skills up to an advanced level of AJAX but its a fantastic introduction and will not only teach how to build an intermediate AJAX system, but the why and why not.
I can't recommend this book enough for anyone looking to get a foothold of AJAX which is now popping up everywhere on the web.
Really looking forward to the authors third book, which i really hope is in production.
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