Ajax: Your visual blueprint for creating rich Internet...

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 338 pages
• Published by: Visual July 31, 2006
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0470043067
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0470043066
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 1.5 pounds

Product Description
Welcome to the only guidebook series that takes a visual approach to professional-level computer topics. Open the book and you'll discover step-by-step screen shots that demonstrate over 150 key Ajax techniques, including:
* Downloading data from behind the scenes
* Enabling real-time live searches
* Playing games that use Ajax
* Populating pop-up menus
* Accessing Web pages from JavaScript
* Handling menus, colors, and backgrounds
* Creating interactive mouseovers
* Updating shopping carts
* Installing Ajax frameworks
* Validating XML from the server
* Enabling auto-completion of typed terms
* Downloading images behind the scenes

"I just purchased my third Visual book (my first two are dog-eared now!) and, once again, your product has surpassed my expectations. Keep up the wonderful work!"
-Tracey Moore (Memphis, TN)
* High-resolution screen shots demonstrate each task
* Succinct explanations walk you through step by step
* Two-page lessons break big topics into bite-sized modules
* "Apply It" and "Extra" sidebars highlight useful tips

Back Cover Copy
Welcome to the only guidebook series that takes a visual approach to professional-level computer topics. Open the book and you'll discover step-by-step screen shots that demonstrate over 150 key Ajax techniques, including:

• Downloading data from behind the scenes
• Enabling real-time live searches
• Playing games that use Ajax
• Populating pop-up menus
• Accessing Web pages from JavaScript
• Handling menus, colors, and backgrounds
• Creating interactive mouseovers
• Updating shopping carts
• Installing Ajax frameworks
• Validating XML from the server
• Enabling auto-completion of typed terms
• Downloading images behind the scenes

"I just purchased my third Visual book (my first two are dog-eared now!) and, once again, your product has surpassed my expectations. Keep up the wonderful work!"
-Tracey Moore (Memphis, TN)

• High-resolution screen shots demonstrate each task
• Succinct explanations walk you through step by step
• Two-page lessons break big topics into bite-sized modules
• "Apply It" and "Extra" sidebars highlight useful tips

Reader Reviews
I've just skimmed through the book, and there are two glaring problems: 1. The layout of the book is horrid. The book condences theory into talking points, to the extent of putting them in their own cute little boxes. Every idea that the author 'fleshes out' is compressed into a two-to-three paragraph blurb, and then code (hard to read as the screenshots are small) is presented, again in their own little boxes. The light blue decoration does not help matters, nor the blue semi-circle present on every righthand page. 2. The good stuff doesn't start until page 62. The introduction is a bit too fanboyish for my liking (Wow, AJAX is just AMAZING!), and the chapter on JavaScript is so laughable it should have been edited out. The author barely touches the basics, and relies on sloppy internal JavaScript to get his functions to work rather than using the cleaner, and perhaps even standard, approach of utilizing external JavaScript files without the use of any JavaScript within the HTML at all. I'll try to stick it out with this book, but so far the first impression is not favorable.