Building a Web Site with Ajax: Visual QuickProject Guide - Softcover

Ullman, Larry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0321524411 ISBN 13: 9780321524416

Publisher: Peachpit Press, 2007

Synopsis

Ajax is at the heart of the Web 2.0 revolution. It isn't a technology but, rather, is a technique that leverages other technologies and techniques, such as CSS, XML, DHTML, and XHTML. Many Web designers and programmers would like to incorporate Ajax in their projects because of the amazing functionality it can add to a Web site, but they can't because of the steep learning curve. That's where this book steps in. It makes learning Ajax fun and easy -- a great place to start! Visual QuickProject Guides focus on a single project. In this case the project is creating a business employee directory, like an address book. What's being created is a better, new kind of Web site.

About this title

From the Author

Ajax has been one of the most significant developments for the Web over the past decade. While almost everyone has heard of it by now, many are still confused by how one applies Ajax to a site. Well, how to apply it correctly, at least. The goal in this book is to provide a primer on what Ajax is, why you might use it, and how to implement it properly.

To achieve this goal, I took one example Web application, for managing employees in departments, and "Ajax-ified" it. Three Ajax features are covered: viewing employees in a department, adding new employees, and searching for employees. While you may not have the need to perform these specific tasks, the underlying theories--returning a large data set via Ajax, POSTing new data, form validation, and searching--are applicable to almost every project. By using these examples, the book is able to hit all the key aspects of what it means to perform Ajax today.

In terms of the code, the book begins by creating the non-Ajax version first, then adding an Ajax layer. There are two benefits to this approach. First, you can ensure that the non-Ajax version is working properly before getting into the more complicated version (Ajax is harder to debug). Second, the Ajax layer is applied so that it "degrades nicely", which is to say the example's core functionality will continue to work even if the user has JavaScript disabled.

For the JavaScript, which is at the heart of Ajax, I explain how to hand write your own code, as opposed to using a framework. While I'm a pretty big fan of jQuery (as a JavaScript framework example), it's worth knowing how to do things the direct way. Plus, you can't really use a JavaScript framework without a good understanding of JavaScript on its own.

The book does assume basic comfortability with HTML, PHP, and MySQL, but the JavaScript is explained in fairly approachable terms.

Thanks for your interest in the book. It is appreciated. And if you purchase it, I hope you like it and find it to be useful and informative.

From the Back Cover

If you want to modernize a Web site using Ajax but don't want to get bogged down in the details, then you need a Visual QuickProject Guide!

• You don't need to know every technique--you just want to know how to get your project done.
• Abundant illustrations show you how to perform each step of your project from start to finish.
• Low priced--why pay for more than you need?

Edition details

• Publisher: Peachpit Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0321524411
• ISBN 13: 9780321524416
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176