Val's Blog A tremendously useful field guide specifically written for developers down in the trenches...waiting for the killer solution...

Web users are getting tired of the traditional web experience. They get frustrated losing their scroll position; they get annoyed waiting for refresh; they struggle to reorient themselves on every new page. And the list goes on. With asynchronous JavaScript and XML, known as Ajax, you can give them a better experience. Once users have experienced an Ajax interface, they hate to go back. Ajax is new way of thinking that can result in a flowing and intuitive interaction with the user.

Ajax in Action helps you implement that thinking--it explains how to distribute the application between the client and the server (hint: use a nested MVC design) while retaining the integrity of the system. You will learn how to ensure your app is flexible and maintainable, and how good, structured design can help avoid problems like browser incompatibilities. Along the way it helps you unlearn many old coding habits. Above all, it opens your mind to the many advantages gained by placing much of the processing in the browser. If you are a web developer who has prior experience with web technologies, this book is for you.

This guide is designed for professional enterprise developers, creative professionals in web design, desktop application developers retraining for the web, and system administrators putting together web-based management tools. It introduces Ajax tools, describes core techniques that make an Ajax application work, and builds on these techniques to discuss what is needed to go from proof of concept to production-ready software. Five Ajax projects walk readers through tasks step by step. The authors are computer professionals. The book is distributed in the US and Canada by O'Reilly.
Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

This guide is designed for professional enterprise developers, creative professionals in web design, desktop application developers retraining for the web, and system administrators putting together web-based management tools. It introduces Ajax tools, describes core techniques that make an Ajax application work, and builds on these techniques to discuss what is needed to go from proof of concept to production-ready software. Five Ajax projects walk readers through tasks step by step. The authors are computer professionals. The book is distributed in the US and Canada by O'Reilly. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Ajax exploded onto the scene in the Spring of 2005 when a Web site defined the term. Then, Google released Google Maps and GMail, powerful examples of what Ajax can do. This book explains the big picture and how to unlearn many old coding habits. It explains the design patterns and best practices to create a live interface for the user, not get in his way.

Ajax exploded on the scene in the Spring of 2005 when a web site defined the term and Google released Google Maps and GMail, powerful examples of what Ajax can do. Ajax uses familiar web technologies-DHTML, CSS, DOM, and JavaScript-in radically different ways resulting in a much richer user experience. The key to success lies in knowing how to orchestrate them as a coherent whole, splitting off parts of what is normally done by the server and putting it into the browser for instantaneous response to user input. Ajax allows a new breed of web applications with the rich expressiveness of desktop applications.

This book helps developers realize that promise-it explains the big picture and how to unlearn many old coding habits. It explains the design patterns and best practices to create a live interface for the user, not get in his way. It also discusses important Ajax issues: how to make good use of network bandwidth, and how to identify, and avoid, common Ajax pitfalls. The book is aimed at all web developers with prior experience in web technologies, independent of the server technologies used. Examples of server code in the book are in Java and .NET.