Ajax on Rails

AJAX on Rails

Chapter 1. Introduction
Section 1.1. Who This Book Is For
Section 1.2. What Ajax Is
Section 1.3. What Rails Is
Section 1.4. 'You Got Your Ajax in My Rails!'
Section 1.5. Getting Up to Speed
Section 1.6. Summary

Chapter 2. Getting Our Feet Wet
Section 2.1. The Old-Fashioned Way
Section 2.2. JavaScript Libraries and Prototype
Section 2.3. Bringing Rails into the Picture
Section 2.4. Summary

Chapter 3. Introducing Prototype
Section 3.1. Setting the Stage
Section 3.2. Ajax Links
Section 3.3. Forms
Section 3.4. Ajax Forms
Section 3.5. Buttons
Section 3.6. Form Observers
Section 3.7. Summary

Chapter 4. Introducing script.aculo.us
Section 4.1. Visual Effects
Section 4.2. Drag and Drop
Section 4.3. Summary

Chapter 5. RJS
Section 5.1. Instructions Instead of Data
Section 5.2. Putting the R in RJS
Section 5.3. A Real-World Example
Section 5.4. Summary

Chapter 6. Ajax Usability
Section 6.1. Principles of Usability
Section 6.2. The Context of the Web
Section 6.3. Usability on the Web
Section 6.4. Cross-Platform Development
Section 6.5. Summary

Chapter 7. Testing and Debugging
Section 7.1. Debugging
Section 7.2. Testing
Section 7.3. Summary

Chapter 8. Security
Section 8.1. Healthy Skepticism: Don't Trust User Input
Section 8.2. Hashing Passwords
Section 8.3. Silencing Logs
Section 8.4. The Same-Origin Policy
Section 8.5. The Use and Abuse of HTTP Methods
Section 8.6. Encryption and Secure Certificates
Section 8.7. The Rails Security Mailing List
Section 8.8. Summary

Chapter 9. Performance
Section 9.1. Development and Production Environments
Section 9.2. Session Stores
Section 9.3. Output Caching
Section 9.4. Asset Packaging
Section 9.5. Dealing with Long-Running Tasks
Section 9.6. Summary

Chapter 10. Prototype Reference
Section 10.1. Ajax Support
Section 10.2. DOM Manipulation
Section 10.3. Core Extensions

Chapter 11. script.aculo.us Reference
Section 11.1. Visual Effects
Section 11.2. Drag and Drop
Section 11.3. Controls
Section 11.4. Element Extensions
Section 11.5. DOM Builder
Section 11.6. JavaScript Unit Testing
Section 11.7. Utility Methods

Chapter 12. Review Quiz

Chapter 13. Photo Gallery

Chapter 14. Intranet Workgroup Collaboration

Learn to build dynamic, interactive web applications using the two most important approaches to web development today: Ajax and the phenomenally efficient Ruby on Rails platform. This book teaches intermediate to advanced web developers how to use both Ajax and Rails to quickly build high-performance, scalable applications without being overwhelmed with thousands of lines of JavaScript code. More than just recipes, you also get a thorough, low-level understanding of what's happening under the hood.

• Ajax on Rails includes three fully worked out Rails/Ajax applications, and quick reference
  Sections for Prototype and script.aculo.us.
• Testing lessons show you how to eliminate cross-browser JavaScript errors and DOM debugging nightmares using a combination of Firebug, and Venkman.
• Advanced material explains the most current design practices for Ajax usability. You'll learn to avoid user experience mistakes with proven design patterns.

Beyond the how-to, Ajax on Rails helps you consider when Ajax is (and isn't) appropriate, and the trade-offs associated with it. For those new to Rails, this book provides a quick introduction, the big picture, a walk through the installation process, and some tips on getting started. If you've already started working with Rails and seek to deepen your skill set, you'll find dozens of examples drawn from real-world projects, exhaustive reference for every relevant feature, and expert advice on how to "Ajaxify" your applications.