Head Rush Ajax

Sick of creating web sites that reload every time a user moves the mouse? Tired of servers that wait around to respond to users' requests for movie tickets? It sounds like you need a little (or maybe a lot of) Ajax in your life. Asynchronous programming lets you turn your own web sites into smooth, slick, responsive applications that make your users feel like they're back on the information superhighway, not stuck on a dial-up backroad.

But who wants to take on next-generation web programming with the last generation's instruction book? You need a learning experience that's as compelling and cutting-edge as the sites you want to design. That's where we come in. With Head Rush Ajax, in no time you'll be writing JavaScript code that fires off asynchronous requests to web servers...and having fun doing it. By the time you've taken your dynamic HTML, XML, JSON, and DOM skills up a few notches, you'll have solved tons of puzzles, figured out how well snowboards sell in Vail, and even watched a boxing match. Sound interesting? Then what are you waiting for? Pick up Head Rush Ajax and learn Ajax and asynchronous programming the right way--the way that sticks.

If you've ever read a Head First book, you know what to expect: a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works. Head Rush ramps up the intensity with an even faster look and feel. Have your first working app before you finish Chapter 1, meet up with the nefarious PROJECT: CHAOS stealth team, and even settle the question of the Top 5 Blues CDs of all time. Leave boring, clunky web sites behind with 8-tracks and hot pants--and get going with next-generation web programming.

"If you thought Ajax was rocket science, this book is for you. Head Rush Ajax puts dynamic, compelling experiences within reach for every web developer." -- Jesse James Garrett, Adaptive Path

"A 'technology-meets-reality' book for web pioneers on the cutting edge." -- Valentin Crettaz, CTO, Condris Technologies

Customer Reviews:

Another cracker from the HF stable
You may, like me, be wondering what the 'Head Rush' appelation is all about compared to the 'Head First' series. This is a slimmer book than the 'Head First' series, coming in at 400 pages (compared to 700-800 for the HF series). Also, it's focussed on a smaller topic. Apart from that, though, it's exactly the same format as the HF books, with some old HF characters popping up. HF stalwarts may be surprised to find that Frowning Woman In Denim is absent from this book, though.

As a prerequisite, you need to know HTML and CSS. You should also know a bit of Javascript. Nothing too fancy, just enough syntax to follow variable definitions, loops, conditionals and subroutines. If you don't know JS at all, I think you'll have trouble keeping up. The server side code is all in PHP. I don't know PHP, but it was close enough to Perl that I had no difficulty following it.

You also probably don't want to know too much about Ajax already. In fact, if you've done a lot of Javascript before, you may find the chapter on DOM a bit slow going. You'll find the pace just right if you're someone who's taking their first step in scripting on the browser side.

Brett McLaughlin proves he can do the HF style in this book. No worries there at all. In the first chapter, you could perhaps argue that some of the diagrams are over-annotated and have just too many arrows in them. In previous HF books, it was normally obvious what the flow of the diagrams were. Not so here, in a few places. However, from chapter 2 onwards, things are fine. In fact, the whole thing is a delight, as usual.

HR Ajax covers the basics very well and entertainingly so: what makes Ajax different from standard HTML requests, asynchrony, manipulating the DOM, and using XML versus JSON. Plus it mentions some browser-specific gotchas (including Opera and Safari), and provides very brief introductions to JS libraries like Rico and Prototype. Hardcore JS GUI-masters, this is not the book for you. Newcomers to Ajax, start here. You'll be glad you did.
--2006-12-12

Wow, for me it was much better than some of the others
I have read or started to read different books on Ajax. This is the first one I have completed. I have been programming javascript,PHP,ASP, database interfaces for over six years. Have been using the DOM model in programming for some time.

No, this does not completely cover DOM, XML, javascript by any means, but it is a good book that shows you how to better utilize them and tie them all together.

But after reading and working through this book I feel I have a much better understanding of what I can do and with my experience and the knowledge I gained from this book, feel that I have a better idea of when to employ it's use. I highly recommend this book for intermediate PHP html javascript programmers. Beginners may like this book and I wouldn't steer them away, but it might be a little above their heads. Experts, what the heck are you looking for a book for anyway. This isn't a reference.

Some of the plusses for me were:
This book used W3C standard compliant code. [ I never want to program browser specific code again ]

I use PHP 4.x. I read one book was coded using PHP 5.x, I started recoding the examples so they would run on PHP 4.x and got tired of that. Then installed a server with PHP 5.x. That helped but my head was still getting around PHP 5.x and what I could use on the servers at work which are still PHP 4.x.

[...] This was more browser independent and gave me some hints on browsers which I don't use all of the time, like Opera and safari.

Warning to others, yes you will need a server which runs PHP to run the code examples. But if I were to choose one scripting language over another I would choose PHP, because people can get the server software to run PHP for free. There are also some sites which have PHP webhosting for a very small amount.

I did at times get tired of the jokes. But I did like some of the different ways he presented information so that I knew I wasn't just reading it, my head was actually thinking about the different uses. It took me a couple of chapters to get in sync with the author, but after I became more comfortable with the format things progressed pretty fast. I finished the book in a weekend. Started Friday night on the first chapter. Did chapters 2,3 part of 4 in 5 hours on Saturday and finished the rest in 6 hours on Sunday. So roughly 14 hours on the whole book.

--2006-11-13

Great introductory book
Head Rush Ajax is a great book covering the introductory topics of AJAX, however if you already know the basics of AJAX and want to expand your knowledge to more advanced topics this book is not for you.
--2006-11-04

Great "dummies" book ...
If you are a complete beginner with respect to many of the skills needed for Ajax: HTML, CSS, DOM, JavaScript, then this book might be for you. All of the O'reilly Head First/Head Rush series are excellent teaching books and do a wonderful job at teaching skills in small bite-size chunks. Lots of pictures, exercises and games. This is about as fun as a book can get.

But once you've read the book, you'll realize that you really didn't cover much ground at all. 400 pages of Head Rush Ajax is about the same amount of Ajax technical material as 40 pages of Ajax in Action. All those fun pictures and games take up a lot of pages! Only the most basic topics of Ajax are covered. Much of the book is wasted explaining web-development 101 level subjects...

So it wasn't possible for me to give the book 2 different ratings. As a pure beginner's book - this is a 4 or 5 star book. But if you already know HTML, HTTP, DOM, and CSS -- then this book becomes a 2 star Ajax book because it teaches so little about Ajax.

--2006-10-20

HEAD RUSH AJAX--APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE APPLICATION!! HEAD RUSH AJAX--APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE APPLICATION!! ....
Do you want to learn , understand, and remember Ajax, with a goal of developing more responsive web applications. If you do, then this book is for you. Author Brett McLaughlin, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that in no time will allow you to write JavaScript code that fires off asynchronous requests to web servers.

McLaughlin, begins with an overview of how to use Ajax. Then, the author shows you how to send requests on different browsers, master ready states and status codes, and even pick up a few extra dynamic HTML tricks along the way. Next, he shows you how to send your users' requests to a server, and let your users keep on working while they're waiting on a response. The author continues by taking you on a stroll through the Webville Tree Farm. He also shows you how to write a nifty DOM-based application. Then, he shows you how to post data. Next, the author delves into a discussion about XML. Finally, he provides an extensive overview of XML and JSON.

This most excellent book is designed to show you how to learn Ajax and asynchronous programming the right way. More importantly, this book provides a visually rich format that is designed for the way your brain works.
--2006-10-18

- O'Reilly Media