Ebook: Ajax For Dummies

Nothing makes me happier than when I pick up a title for full price and it successfully demystifies a topic before I reach the end of the first chapter. I'm sure I'm not alone when I admit that although AJAX has been around for a decade now, up until recently I've never had a web development task that would benefit from it. But when I did, boy did I, and I found myself needing to get up to speed with at least the basics very quickly. I've never been a huge fan of the For Dummies series, but this author succeeded in presenting the material in a concise and rapid manner with a writing style that isn't to "cutsie" and doesn't try to complicate or put excessive importance on the subject. I appreciated greatly that once the topic was explained and understood (seriously, first chapter), the remainder of the book whet on to demonstrating usage of AJAX in a practical / production environment showing interactions with web services, XML, server-sent JavaScript, as well as plain text responses.

Although prefect for those that have zero info on AJAX, a decent foundation in HTML and [fill in your favorite web server platform here] is required. Pleasantly enough, server-side development isn't a prerequisite for this book, although later chapters do utilize PHP. Experience with JavaScript is also a must, even though Chapter 2 provides a light tutorial on the subject.

My only caution is that if you are looking to introduce yourself to AJAX for ASP.NET, look elsewhere. Like many other things Microsoft, same name, different critter. Other titles dedicate themselves to AJAX for .NET for a good reason.