Understanding AJAX - Using JavaScript To Create Rich Internet Applications (2006)

Organization of the Book

This book is divided into two main parts and three appendixes. The first part, which encompasses Chapters 17, covers the basics of AJAX and how it fits into the rest of the Web development world. It includes introductions to the basic technology (such as XMLHttpRequest), facts about how to get the most out of AJAX, and tips regarding usability. Chapter 7 covers debugging, because bugs are bound to happen in any development environment, and AJAX affects how you implement many current Web-development debugging techniques.

The second part, which encompasses Chapters 812, contains three use cases. These use cases show how you can use AJAX to solve usability problems and improve performance on your current Web sites. The final use case also shows what is involved in building a JavaScript-powered application.

Finally, the appendixes summarize a large number of open source libraries. These include AJAX libraries and various JavaScript support libraries. I know that everyone requires different features from an AJAX library; these features range from specific server-side language support to DHTML features such as visual effects and drag-and-drop support. However, it's impossible for me to give detailed coverage of all the libraries, so I've chosen to focus only on those that I use on a regular basis. These libraries may not meet your needs, especially if you're using a server-side language other than PHP and you want complete server-side integration. To help with the process of picking a different library, the appendixes give you a starting point for picking a library to use if the ones covered in detail in this book don't meet your needs.
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