Good starter
This book did just what I needed it to. It got me caught up on Ajax and ASP.Net using C#. I typically develop backoffice code and have not kept up on a lot of web development. This brought me up to speed and gave me some further references to check out.
Get Under the Hood or Jump Right In
Wrox continues to produce pragmatic books. This book is very traditional in its approach. It starts with a history of Ajax and goes quickly into describing how Ajax works (under the hood). I am a HUGE proponent of knowing how things work, even if there is a framework around it. As such, I really like this book's approach.
Building on the foundation of the basics, the book describes the frameworks for implementing Ajax. It focuses (obviously) on the ASP.NET implementations called "Atlas" (now simply referred to as Asp.Net Ajax). The book does cover other frameworks as well.
I recommend this book for learning about Ajax under the hood. It will be beneficial whether or not you work in .NET. The book is not very big and if you are looking for an understanding of the inner workings of client-side XML and JavaScript then this book is for you.
This is a great AJAX starter book.
GREAT INTRODUCTION to implementing custom AJAX solutions.
Starts with a detailed review of some of the technologies used in AJAX; CSS and Javascript in particular. The intro alone is likely to increase your coding efficiency for these technologies.
The book then goes on to give the nuts and bolts for creating roll-your-own AJAX scripts that are not locked into a specific vendor tool. By understanding these basics you can realize what some of the vendors are providing in way of RAD tools. While the design tools offer a developer great productivity gains, old-school developers will appreciate knowing the under the hood mechanics.
AWESOME.
Best AJAX book, period!
Not only have I learned lots of AJAX but also many other aspects of ASP.NET programming. This is a readable book unlike many tech books. Very well done with very good language.
I say it is readable, but it has also served me well for reference back to various subjects around JavaScript and other ASP.NET aspects which I felt were well explained here.
What I also like are the "Try it now" sections where you can get some immediate instruction in an instant. The website behind the book is also a good resource... with the code they talk to.
The book is well structured and explains 200-300 level material in 100 level terms yet with a conciseness that eludes more authors. I mean to say that I see presentations constantly at local Users Groups that do the same - well done - but they go past the 2hr mark - where Wally can put the knowledge in your brain in a short short instead of a long wind.
I mean lots of stuff you may not get in the 10000 page reference books which only skim the surface. This book gets to the nitty gritty and in a very well laid out way, easy to "get".
"Get more Wally" is what I say!
Dan
Feels like it was thrown together
This book feels like it was thrown together quickly to cash in on the Ajax craze. The various chapters don't really flow together that well. It seems like they were written independently and then they threw in "For more information on see chapter ". Some of the chapters were pretty good for getting started, like the stuff about XMLHttpRequest. But others lacked enough information to be useful on their own (like the one on XPATH and XSLT). The book may be useful to get a survey of a bunch of the technologies behind Ajax and how to use Asp.net, but I don't think this book will stand the test of time.
