Bulletproof Ajax Book Review

Bulletproof Ajax is a book which provides you with a general introduction to the world of programming with Ajax, but emphasises on the importance of creating applications which work across different browsers and to create applications that degrade gracefully if the user does not have javascript enabled in their browser.

Bulletproof Ajax also puts great emphasis on creating ajax programs which are as indestructable as possible, by coding for every possible outcome or event, such as the server timing out or the server not responding or multiple ajax requests being sent to the server at the same time.

Bulletproof Ajax begins with an introduction to programming in javascript and the more specific areas of working with XML and Http requests in javascript. The following chapter then introduces you to the XMLHttpRequest object which is at the heart of programming ajax.

Then follows some really good chapters on demonstrating the use of ajax when performing form validation or making changes to data in the browser window without having to refesh the window such as reading XML and text data from the server upon request.

Bulletproof Ajax provides some useful areas to think about, including how to let the user know that something has changed on screen. The book provides you with some useful code for this, such as displaying busy graphics whilst the page is working or using fade up colour coded text backgrounds. There is also a section on how to deal with programming ajax when users have screen readers.

Bulletproof Ajax ends with a good chapter on putting all that you have learnt together by walking you through setting up a simple drag and drop shopping cart system and a book review system using CSS, HTML and Ajax.

Unlike other ajax programming books, Bulletproof Ajax will make you think about all areas of your ajax applications before you build them, such as error trapping, making ajax applications robust, using progressive enhancement to make sure your applications work for everyone, and when to use ajax and when not to.

Overall Bulletproof Ajax is not a lengthy book at just over two hundred pages, but it does teach you the basics of everything you need to know to create basic ajax applications. Bulletproof Ajax is also really easy to read and digest due to the great writing and layout styles of the book, the code examples are also really clear and easy to follow.