Head Rush Ajax (Head First) | Brett McLaughlin | Wow, for me it was much better than some of the...

Head Rush Ajax (Head First) | Brett McLaughlin | Great introductory book

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Head Rush Ajax (He...

	Head Rush Ajax (Head First) Brett McLaughlin O'Reilly Media, Inc., 2006 - 446 pages average customer review:based on 55 reviews view larger image
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Wow, for me it was much better than some of the others

I have read or started to read different books on Ajax. This is the first one I have completed. I have been programming javascript,PHP,ASP, database interfaces for over six years. Have been using the DOM model in programming for some time.

No, this does not completely cover DOM, XML, javascript by any means, but it is a good book that shows you how to better utilize them and tie them all together.

But after reading and working through this book I feel I have a much better understanding of what I can do and with my experience and the knowledge I gained from this book, feel that I have a better idea of when to employ it's use. I highly recommend this book for intermediate PHP html javascript programmers. Beginners may like this book and I wouldn't steer them away, but it might be a little above their heads. Experts, what the heck are you looking for a book for anyway. This isn't a reference.

Some of the plusses for me were:
This book used W3C standard compliant code. [ I never want to program browser specific code again ]

I use PHP 4.x. I read one book was coded using PHP 5.x, I started recoding the examples so they would run on PHP 4.x and got tired of that. Then installed a server with PHP 5.x. That helped but my head was still getting around PHP 5.x and what I could use on the servers at work which are still PHP 4.x.

[...] This was more browser independent and gave me some hints on browsers which I don't use all of the time, like Opera and safari.

Warning to others, yes you will need a server which runs PHP to run the code examples. But if I were to choose one scripting language over another I would choose PHP, because people can get the server software to run PHP for free. There are also some sites which have PHP webhosting for a very small amount.

I did at times get tired of the jokes. But I did like some of the different ways he presented information so that I knew I wasn't just reading it, my head was actually thinking about the different uses. It took me a couple of chapters to get in sync with the author, but after I became more comfortable with the format things progressed pretty fast. I finished the book in a weekend. Started Friday night on the first chapter. Did chapters 2,3 part of 4 in 5 hours on Saturday and finished the rest in 6 hours on Sunday. So roughly 14 hours on the whole book.

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Great introductory book

Head Rush Ajax is a great book covering the introductory topics of AJAX, however if you already know the basics of AJAX and want to expand your knowledge to more advanced topics this book is not for you.

HEAD RUSH AJAX--APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE APPLICATION!! HEAD RUSH AJAX--APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE APPLICATION!! ....

Do you want to learn , understand, and remember Ajax, with a goal of developing more responsive web applications. If you do, then this book is for you. Author Brett McLaughlin, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that in no time will allow you to write JavaScript code that fires off asynchronous requests to web servers.

McLaughlin, begins with an overview of how to use Ajax. Then, the author shows you how to send requests on different browsers, master ready states and status codes, and even pick up a few extra dynamic HTML tricks along the way. Next, he shows you how to send your users' requests to a server, and let your users keep on working while they're waiting on a response. The author continues by taking you on a stroll through the Webville Tree Farm. He also shows you how to write a nifty DOM-based application. Then, he shows you how to post data. Next, the author delves into a discussion about XML. Finally, he provides an extensive overview of XML and JSON.

This most excellent book is designed to show you how to learn Ajax and asynchronous programming the right way. More importantly, this book provides a visually rich format that is designed for the way your brain works.

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