Ajax: The Definitive Guide

Ajax: The Definitive Guide

Part 1: Ajax Fundamentals
Chapter 1. Reinventing the Web
Chapter 2. From Web Sites to Web Applications
Chapter 3. Servers, Databases, and the Web
Chapter 4. Foundations: Scripting XML and JSON
Chapter 5. Manipulating the DOM
Chapter 6. Designing Ajax Interfaces

Part 2: Ajax Foundations
Chapter 7. Laying Out Site Navigation
Chapter 8. Fun with Tables and Lists
Chapter 9. Page Layout with Frames That Aren't
Chapter 10. Navigation Boxes and Windows
Chapter 11. Customizing the Client
Chapter 12. Errors: To Be (in Style) or Not to Be
Chapter 13. This Ain't Your Father's Animation
Chapter 14. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Form
Chapter 15. Data Validation: Client, Server, or Both

Part 3: Ajax in Applications
Chapter 16. Search: The New Frontier
Chapter 17. Introducing Web Services
Chapter 18. Web Services: The APIs
Chapter 19. Mashups
Chapter 20. For Your Business Communication Needs
Chapter 21. Internet Games Without Plug-ins

Part 4: Wrapping Up
Chapter 22. Modular Coding
Chapter 23. Optimizing Ajax Applications

Part 5: References
Appendix A. The XML and XSLT You Need to Know
Appendix B. JavaScript Framework, Toolkit, and Library References
Appendix C. Web Service API Catalog
Appendix D. Ajax Risk References

Is Ajax a new technology, or the same old stuff web developers have been using for years? Both, actually. This book demonstrates not only how tried-and-true web standards make Ajax possible, but how these older technologies allow you to give sites a decidedly modern Web 2.0 feel. Ajax: The Definitive Guide explains how to use standards like JavaScript, XML, CSS, nd XHTML, along with the XMLHttpRequest object, to build browser-based web applications that function like desktop programs. You get a complete background on what goes into today's web sites and applications, and learn to leverage these tools along with Ajax for advanced browser searching, web services, mashups, and more. You discover how to turn a web browser and web site into a true application, and why developing with Ajax is faster, easier and cheaper. The book also explains:

• How to connect server-side backend components to user interfaces in the browser
• Loading and manipulating XML documents, and how to replace XML with JSON
• Manipulating the Document Object Model (DOM)
• Designing Ajax interfaces for usability, functionality, visualization, and accessibility
• Site navigation layout, including issues with Ajax and the browser's back button
• Adding life to tables & lists, navigation boxes and windows
• Animation creation, interactive forms, and data validation
• Search, web services and mash-ups
• Applying Ajax to business communications, and creating Internet games without plug-ins
• The advantages of modular coding, ways to optimize Ajax applications, and more

This book also provides references to XML and XSLT, popular JavaScript Frameworks, Libraries, and Toolkits, and various Web Service APIs. By offering web developers a much broader set of tools and options, Ajax gives developers a new way to create content on the Web, while throwing off the constraints of the past. Ajax: The Definitive Guide describes the contents of this unique toolbox in exhaustive detail, and explains how to get the most out of it.