James Kirkup said
The title of the book implies that it is a supplement by the use of the word "Hacks" and should be rated as such. Perhaps the author could have given this indication more, however, it is clear it is not an exhausting introduction to Ajax. For those of us who have been around in this industry long enough and understand the underlying technologies this is a good book as an extra with many tips for the web developer. Of course most of this can be obtained off the web and through forums, but it is always handy to have a reference like this on the shelf. I weighed this up with Ajax for Dummies and knew I would get more out of this book. Because the basics of Ajax is so simple to learn (suggest looking at the tutorials on the web) this book has more value. I have given it a 5 because I feel that overall it is worth more than just 4. However, note that it was published in 2006 and there are many more books coming out on this subject.
Michael L. Griffin said
I found the spectrum of AJAX coverage very broad. If you are interested in finding out a little about a lot of areas of AJAX this book is alright. I found it's coverage too broad.
Preston L. Bannister said
O'Reilly offers some excellent books. This is not one of them.
Every example I looked at seemed ... not a good example of how to use Javascript. Paging through the book, there are many examples of poor practice in the code. I would be tempted use this book as a source text for bad examples. The ideas might be OK, but the code ... oh please, no.
Daniel McKinnon said
AJAX Hacks by Bruce Perry is a wonderful companion book for any and all AJAX programmers. AJAX has revolutionized the web programming world, enabling developers to write web pages that act more like real applications that we all know and love. AJAX is a simple technology that allows people to do amazing things, and now there is a book that will show you the ins and outs of creating cool code which is fast, efficient, and easy to use!! With over 400 pages and 80 hacks/tips/tricks, this book is perfect for users that are just learning AJAX and quickly want to accomplish a particular goal. Instead of painfully going through a 600 page book, get to the task you want to accomplish quickly with this excellent book!!
Major topics covered:
01. Ajax Basics
02. Web Forms
03. Validation
04. Power Hacks for Web Developers
05. Directing Web Remoting
06. Prototype and Rico Libraries
07. Ajax with Ruby
08. script.aculo.us
09. Options & Efficiencies
Great book, great writing, great deal!!!
***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
John R. Vacca said
Do you want to add extra interactivity to your web site? If you do, then this book is for you! Author Bruce Perry, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that collects not only dozens of easy-to-grasp, cutting-edge explorations of Ajax technology, such as Google/Yahoo! mapping mash-ups, drag-and-drop bookstores, and single-page web services apps, but a large number of hacks that represent practical advice for Ajax developers.
Perry, begins with a synopsis of the group of well-known technologies that make up Ajax. Then, the author shows how typical it is now to submit form data and to build form widgets such as select lists and checkbox groups using server data fetched in the background with XMLHttpRequest. Next, the author discusses how Ajax applications can cut down on server hits by validating the format of e-mail addresses, credit card numbers, zip codes, and other types of data that users enter into web forms before sending the data. The author then covers a mash-up of Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, and Yahoo! driving directions, as well as a software interaction involving Yahoo! Maps and a location-to-URL service called GeoURL. The author continues by discussing Ajax as it relates to developers who are immersed in both Java and JavaScript. He also discusses how to use Prototype, a cool open source JavaScript library that includes its own Ajax tools. Next, the author shows you how to get up and running with RoR; and then, moves on to several hacks that illustrate RoR's Ajax tools. Then, he covers script.aculo.us, which is another opensource JavaScript library built on Prototype. Finally, the author provides several tips for real-world Ajax developers.
This most excellent book introduces JavaScript newbies and aficionados alike to useful code libraries, including Prototype, Rico, and script.aculo.us. More importantly, web developers can adapt a number of this book's hacks, some of which are distributed as open source libraries, for their own applications.
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