Head First Ajax: A Brain-Friendly Guide

Ajax is no longer an experimental approach to website development, but the key to building browser-based applications that form the cornerstone of Web 2.0. Head First Ajax gives you an up-to-date perspective that lets you see exactly what you can do—and has been done—with Ajax. With it, you get a highly practical, in-depth, and mature view of what is now a mature development approach.

Using the unique and highly effective visual format that has turned Head First titles into runaway bestsellers, this book offers a big picture overview to introduce Ajax, and then explores the use of individual Ajax components—including the JavaScript event model, DOM, XML, JSON, and more—as it progresses. You'll find plenty of sample applications that illustrate the concepts, along with exercises, quizzes, and other interactive features to help you retain what you've learned.

Head First Ajax covers:

• The JavaScript event model
• Making Ajax requests with XMLHTTPREQUEST objects
• The asynchronous application model
• The Document Object Model (DOM)
• Manipulating the DOM in JavaScript
• Controlling the browser with the Browser Object Model
• XHTML Forms
• POST Requests
• XML Syntax and the XML DOM tree
• XML Requests & Responses
• JSON -- an alternative to XML
• Ajax architecture & patterns
• The Prototype Library

The book also discusses the server-side implications of building Ajax applications, and uses a "black box" approach to server-side components.

Head First Ajax is the ideal guide for experienced web developers comfortable with scripting—particularly those who have completed the exercises in Head First JavaScript—and for experienced programmers in Java, PHP, and C# who want to learn client-side programming.