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If you believe in a better, faster and friendlier web, you have certainly jumped onto the Ajax bandwagon or at least considered doing it at some point. For over a year now, web evangelists have published countless articles, tutorials and books about Ajax (and by-products thereof). You have certainly bookmarked a host of websites and pages talking about this new approach to developing web applications. You also have probably piled up an ever growing stack of various items, such as frameworks, scripts, patterns, effects, that you have yet to check out and try. Given the rate at which new Ajax libraries and frameworks are born and the pace at which they mature, you find yourself wondering where to start your quest, if at all.
"Ajax Hacks" by Bruce Perry can considerably help you lift the weight off your shoulders. By means of not less than eighty hacks, Perry shows you well-chosen points of interest in the Ajax landscape whose purpose is to help you create your own unique path to the Ajax heaven. The book first shows you the basics of Ajax interactions. Then, it explains how to play around with web forms and validate user input efficiently. After demonstrating how to get advantage from using the Google and Yahoo Maps APIs, it introduces a couple frameworks and libraries, such as Rico, Prototype, script.aculo.us and DWR and explains how to take advantage of the features they provide in an efficient way. A couple hacks also detail how to handle the browser history, how to use bookmarklets, how to build client-side caches and storage system. The author also introduces the Ajax support provided by the Ruby on Rails framework, and finishes the book with a dozen hacks showing advanced uses of Ajax, such as using RSH, fixing the back button, calling web services from JavaScript, creating an autocomplete text field and much more...
Whether a novice or an expert, if you consider adopting Ajax or if you are willing to consolidate your current Ajax knowledge with new tricks, "Ajax Hacks" is definitely a book for you. Easy to read and comprehend, simple to browse, accessible to anyone... a must have!!
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