Head First Ajax: A Brain-Friendly Guide 1st Edition

Head First Ajax by Rebecca Riordan is by far the best introduction to AJAX I've yet to encounter--and possibly the most lucid web development book I have read thus far!Head First AJAX beautifully clarifies a lot of JavaScript concepts, like how to traverse the Dom, how to insert multiple event handlers, and how to validate forms in addition to providing insight on synchronous requests and (asynchronous) AJAX. The book uses a variety of sites, including word game sites, a movie review form submission page, and an image-reliant Yoga site.First, for newcomers to Web development, it is important to read the books in the following order before arriving at AJAX: 1. HTML5, 2. CSS3, 3. Javascript (John Pollock's beginner's Javascript book is the place to start), 4. JQuery, 5. PHP, 6. MySQl, and, finally, 7. AJAX. (Although JQuery, PHP, and MySQL are not vital to getting to know AJAX, knowing at least some PHP and MySQL can help advance the readers' understanding on the server side component of AJAX).Second, the strengths of Head First AJAX are far reaching, including a clear explanation of what it means for the Javascript to speak to the server in an asynchronous manner.For those new to this concept, to be asynchronous on a Website is to avoid both 1. the flicker of Websites each time a page reloads and 2. the wait for validation data to be returned from the server before the next form element, for example, can be filled out.Another great feature of asynchronous requests is that the Javascript can tell the server to update only a single part of the page rather than the entire page.Further to the strengths, Head First AJAX provides utility functions (which are functions that are used frequently throughout the scripts and separated into their own file) that work across browsers. For example, a utility function for adding event handlers in either Internet Explorer or DOM level 2 browsers, such as Firefox, is included.Also, a utility function for creating requests sent to the server (to update the page with, say, validation data or new content) is provided that works across both old and new Internet Explorer and Dom Level 2 browsers.Additional positives about the book include an extraordinary relay of what the Document Object Model (DOM) is and how to access it with Javascript. Previously, I had only a superficial knowledge of the DOM, but the Head First book breaks it down into diagrammatic trees, including discussions on text nodes and text node values. Accessing the DOM with Javascript is made crystal clear.A fantastic discussion of the benefits of XML and JSON for data transfers is presented in the book, although I was not clear on where exactly the XML and JSON data is stored and how it connects to the overall scripts. Likely this misgiving of mine is due to my lack of experience with XML and JSON, especially as it relates to the server. Nonetheless, Head First AJAX provides an excellent springboard for learning these technologies in further depth.One piece of advice for the reader to heed is to know that the PHP component of server communications is not discussed in any meaningful detail in the book. It is assumed that the reader will have someone take care of the PHP server communications.However, in reality, the reader will need to at least know some basic PHP for understanding what type of data can be sent back to the callback function (to clarify, a callback function is indicated in the Javascript code as the function to utilize the returned PHP data).I would recommend reading Larry Ullman's PHP series, starting with his PHP for the Web, followed by his PHP and MySQL, and topped with his MySQL. I haven't read the Head First PHP and MySQL book, but, after reading Head First AJAX, I certainly plan on doing so.Head First AJAX may be considered the most helpful book in the entire spectrum of Web development books I have read thus far. It consistently illuminates basic AJAX concepts with clear and fun explanations, and, in the process, makes crystal clear a lot of fundamental Javascript.

Yup this is my favorite book on Ajax. I love Head First books but this one far exceeded my expectations.Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I am a Java programmer with little bit of experience in web technologies. Before reading this book I had used JavaScript libraries such as [...] So Ajax was not a totally brand new technology for me.I bought this book because for upcoming project, I wanted a deeper understanding of Ajax. Also sometimes, while using Scriptaculous, debugging was not easy, because I didn't know what was really going on behind the scenes.After reading this book, I have better understanding of Ajax. This doesn't mean I am Ajax expert now and ready to write my own library. I will stick with existing libraries. But I feel this book has given me enough basic concepts of Ajax (and also some general web design concepts) that I can use Ajax libraries without breaking anything unintentionally.I don't think I will read another book on Ajax unless I am doing some custom Ajax coding.

This book is not for the person learning on their own, or not in a class. Yes, I agree, Head First presentation is humorous, easy to read, etc., but there are many errors in syntax and code in this book. One needs to set up a server on their computer to run the code. In chapter 1 it says there is info in the Appendix "i", "the top ten topics we didn't cover", but there are only five, and the missing five are not online. I thought the problems were with the server I set up, but other code ran fine. The problem was the code itself. I could fix the syntax and typo errors, but being the student, I am not able to correct the code. It took me two days to figure out the code was the problem. When I saw there were errors in the second chapter also, I quit, and went looking for a better text. Maybe it was rushed to press, and not type read, but after a year, you'd expect that at least the files one downloads for the lessons would have been corrected. Head First was Head Dropped on this one.

the head first style is great, in that it really takes the time explain the details. it never assumes you know anything, and as a result, you learn a lot. i think they did a really good job of this. with that said, the "head first style" grows old the further you go along in the book with a strong want for real code examples without all the goofy stuff. and with that, it's well documented at this point, the book has code errors.

I'm two chapters in and none of the examples work correctly. The teaching style is OK, I'm not crazy about it as it's a little too cluttered. Overall I'm very unhappy with this book and I regret buying it.

Excellent product. Head First is a different type of technical writing. If you are looking for books with a lot of code examples this is not the one. But if you are looking for a book that will help you learn the actually concept, how AJAX works, then this is the one. I own multiple titles. They helped me learn C# when I was having trouble. Excellent in teaching. There are code examples such not a ton like other publishers.

It is very discouraging to have a problem with the first code that doesn't work. In the first Chapter there is no information that you should create "script" folder in the downloaded "HeadFirstAjax_Ch01_Initial" and then place created "thumbnails.js" in it. For the html page to work you have to do this or change the script src to " script src="thumbnails.js".

While the concept of the book is good and appeals to the nerd/comic book lover in me, it was a bit overly complicated. It seemed like they tried to make everything easy with lots of pix, in point of fact the concepts are STILL very difficult and having the candy coating actually was more confusing to me.Maybe it was just me. But I got a lot more out of other references.

This book is arguably useful for people with some extremely basic HTML, no CSS and little or no Javascript. It covers the absolute basics, but concentrates mainly on XHTML markup & trivial Javascript. It contains no Ajax stuff that someone with a cursory grasp of these technologies couldn't get online from a 2-page how-to.The style of the book is incredibly irritating, jokey & content-lite - 2 pages of *every* chapter are taken up with a word search, unbelievably, as well as a huge number of trivial exercises. There are about 30 pages of information here. I know this is supposed to enhance cognition of the topics covered, but honestly - this is really stuff for children, and the content covered is so simple that it's not necessary for anyone with even a nodding acquaintance with web design.I want my money back!

Awesome book with a lot of code samples, covers everything you need to know to start up a ajax site or application.I'm used to the more classic technical books and I was pleased with the different style of Head First but it might not be appreciated by everyone.

I have ordered from amazon for the first time and overall exp was very good.and Regarding Headfirst , I love the way headfirst has presented the book and really innovative away of teaching.