Pro Ajax and the .Net 2.0 Platform

by Daniel Woolston

This book follows on from Apress' extremely successful Foundations of Ajax title. It takes the reader on a detailed journey through the Ajax technology and shows them how to integrate Ajax with Microsoft's popular .NET 2.0 Framework to produce their own implementations of the functionality they're beginning to see on the web. The keystone of the book is practicality. We show people how to put theory into practice and bring Ajax to their web applications...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590596706
• ISBN13: 9781590596708
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: Apress
• Length: 488 Pages
• Weight: 1.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.5" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Right book for me at the right time.

I had done some little test applications utilizing Ajax and/or Atlas prior to reading this book, and I wanted this book to really give a solid base from which to move forward with. Mr. Woolston's writing style is personable but not too over the top. One thing I did not like about the writing style is the manner in which code is laid out at times. For instance, with many of the sample applications, Mr. Woolston will dump about 5-6 pages of code into the book and then work towards restating it in part afterwards with some explanation. I can see where it would be useful if not in front of the sample code/a PC, but in reality this book will not be useful if not in front of a computer working on the examples. There are other times where some of the content is not really useful in furthering education about Ajax and certain examples it feels are stretched to make the chapters longer. I think there was likely a challenge in filling out a reasonable sized book because simply put - the fundamental elements of Ajax aren't that complex. I found myself done with the book in a period of less than a week. Those things said, after reading the book I can certainly say the overall content has an excellent "perspective of the landscape". From a history of Ajax to a little primer on Javascript, CSS/DOM, and the XmlHttpRequest, he moves forward to examples of Ajax demonstrating the technology with an Ajax framework named Anthem. The main meat of the book are really these examples, where practice implements the ideas from the prior chapters. Lastly, the book closes with a few chapters covering security, testing, usability, performance, and a token chapter on Atlas. One other element that I appreciated in this book was the identification of a few free tools out there to aid in Ajax development. Those tools in their own right would have definitely contributed to some time savings a week or two ago when I was struggling with a couple DOM/CSS issues prior to reading this book! In summary, perhaps a book stretched to fit it's cover but nevertheless a very useful read to me and I would certainly recommend it.

Best Ajax Book I've Read

Pro Ajax and the .NET 2.0 Platform gets high marks from me because it is concise, informative and easy to follow. After reading the first three chapters I had a clear understanding of what Ajax really is. Author Dan Woolston has extensive experience with AJAX and he seemed to share it all here without overwhelming this reader. Woolston did not waste my time in getting me up to speed. In the first three chapters I learned how to write my own reusable (cross browser) JavaScript functions that will work together to execute an Ajax call. Of course I might rely on one of the various existing frameworks to do this for me. However, now I know what's going on under the covers and I can make an informed decision about what Ajax to use and when. I know exactly what is happening when Ajax is implemented and why.The book also does a nice job of covering CSS and the DOM (document object model). As you know (or will know after reading), these combine with JavaScript to create the foundation of Ajax! Once you understand how they work together you'll know more about Ajax than 90% of your developer friends. Excellent Feature #1: The overview of JavaScript, CSS and the DOM is fantastic. I really appreciated the fact that it was concise and dead-on accurate in addressing the specific elements that a .NET developer needs to understand in order to code Ajax. Continuing on, after the book had me up to speed with Ajax, it went into n-tier design. This is important because, in theory, a programmer can go hog wild on Ajax and break tons of rules regarding sound application architecture. So I was impressed that Woolston transitioned directly into best-practices for how and when to use Ajax. The first third of the book covers Ajax theory and best-practices. With Ajax, one size does not fit all. Therefore, chapter seven includes overviews of many popular Ajax frameworks including non .NET frameworks such as Ruby on Rails, WebORB, xajax (PHP) and Direct Web Remoting (Java). It also covers .NET frameworks including Ajax.NET, Anthem and Atlas. The other two thirds of the book are devoted to Ajax programming concepts. The author uses the Anthem framework for most of this coding. Anthem is an open-source, .NET framework in C# that is compatible with ASP.NET 1.1 and 2.0. It is extremely lightweight, requiring only one class file for core functionality. Excellent Feature #2: The book's code walkthroughs are based on a fully functional n-tier sample application that you can download free. The sample application uses the AdventureWorks database which is also a free download from Microsoft if you don't already have access to it. You might think that some .NET features and topics lend themselves to Ajax technology and therefore should be covered in more detail. You'd be right. Woolston sets aside complete chapters on Web services, Custom Controls, ASP.NET Security and Web Parts. Excellent Feature #3: When you're done learning how to build your own Ajax, there are two chap

AJAX .NET 2.0 - Highly Informative

Pro Ajax and the .NET 2.0 Platform is a great read. In the first section of the book I found more information than I was anticipating. The in-depth look at the AJAX history and how JavaScript (that has been around for a long time) is used in a new technology. The authors review of the different AJAX libraries was the most in-depth I have seen. The selection of an AJAX library to use is a very important step. I would recommend this book to any .NET programmer who is interested in best practices.

Readable and complete

I've read a number of Ajax books, but what sets this one apart is that it is written in a very "readable" way and that it includes some real-world examples that you can get up and running right away. Especially if you are approaching Ajax from a Microsoft/.Net platform - this is the best book I have seen. One other gem I found in the book is the chapter on performance. It is sometimes hard to trace and debug Ajax calls between the browser and the server because they do happen a bit "behind the scenes". The tools and methods mentioned in the book have been put to immediate use - it really helps to unpack the information that is being sent and received back from the server. The only thing "missing" from the book is the typical 100 pages of methods, parameters, and interface documentation for the different libraries. I actually appreciate this omission because that takes up as much as half of other books and is outdated as soon as the library is updated. This tyep of documentation is all online and comes with the libraries - or you can search for it easy enough. Hopefully this is a trend among books of this type.