It’s quite unsubtle that nowadays the web application programming finds itself in a period of extremely fast-paced development. On the daily basis, we observe new techniques coming into programming world, and our task here is to constantly keep up with these modern tendencies. In this post, we have prepared for you 7 the best books on Ajax. Ajax is one of such relatively new comers to the programming world that has changed its standards to a dramatic scale. Therefore, let’s get down to figuring out what we should pick to learn how to create powerful web applications.

1. Table of contents

   • 1 Head First Ajax
   • 2 Professional Ajax, 2nd Edition
   • 3 Ajax: The Complete Reference 1st Edition
   • 4 Ajax For Dummies 1st Edition
   • 5 ASP.NET AJAX in Action
   • 6 Ajax: The Definitive Guide 1st Edition
   • 7 Foundations of Ajax (Books for Professionals by Professionals)
     • 7.1 Conclusion

   Head First Ajax

The first book we are going to talk about is Head First Ajax. We are sure that you have already heard of the authors and know what they are renowned for. However, let’s take a look what they provide us with to help us master AJAX.

In today’s programming industry, Ajax is gaining momentum to meet the requirements of contemporary website development. In fact, it’s has become a milestone for creating browser-based applications, and that is why is to be studied thoroughly. Taking into account its significance, the book provides you with relevant information only that will assist you in understanding the principal functions and features of the technique.

Actually, Head First has become popular due to its unique approach to deliver complex information in a rather simple and creative manner. Thus, you won’t get bored while reading the material since the book provides an engaging and interactive content. In the first chapters of Head First Ajax you will be able to get acquainted with its main characteristics. Then, the book focuses on AJAX components such as DOM, XML, JSON, JavaScript event mode, etc. And definitely you will be provided with a huge amount of sample applications as well as diverse exercises, so that you could right away apply the learnt material in practice.

Besides, for you to be get a deeper understanding of the technique, Head First Ajax touches upon server-side implications of creating AJAX apps.

To make a long story short, Head First Ajax is a powerful assistant for those developers who have been programming for quite a long time and have good background in scripting. However, if you are a PHP, Java or C# developer, and you are willing to learn more client-side, then this book might be a treasure for you as well.

Readers’ opinion:

Download / Buy Head First Ajax Book

2. Professional Ajax, 2nd Edition

Professional Ajax 2nd Edition will lead you to the exploration of the AJAX world, right from its beginning. The authors wanted to make sure you understand how and why it appeared in modern web application development since they believe it will simplify the studying process. At first, the book focuses on correlation among AJAX, JavaScript, cookies, XML, frames, etc, and explains to you how they work together. Having been introduced to the basic theory, you will be taken to the AJAX techniques implementation stage. For you to understand well the usage of hidden frames, XHR, dynamic frames, you will be provided with lots of practical examples which will help you get a handle on its appropriate application. However, in case you don’t know the functioning of HTTP requests and responses, there is nothing to get worried about, because Professional Ajax, 2nd Edition offers a general overview of this topic. When you finish with fundamentals, being able to distinguish different request types as well as their specific features, you will be taken to the interior world of Ajax. There, you will be able to learn how to apply Ajax techniques on a website and which of them would fit the best in a certain situation.

Apart from it, the book discusses different data transmission formats such as: HTML, XML, JSON and sheds light upon their pros and cons. As a web application developer, you should know what web services to use to be able to apply Ajax techniques. As the book progresses, the topics covered in its chapters gradually become more and more complicated. But since the book is written in plain English with a great deal of applications samples as well as different visuals, the studying process will not be that torturing as one might think.

In short, Professional Ajax 2nd Edition comprehensively covers Ajax, therefore you won’t have any problem with understanding its features.

If you are a web application developer who is willing to improve the usability of its website as well as web applications or you are an experienced JavaScript programmer who has some scripting background, this amazing book will give everything you need to improve your programming skills.

So, to be able to take a full advantage of the book, you are supposed to be already familiar with  XSLT, Web Services, PHP, XML or C#, HTML, CSS.

To provide you with a better coverage of the topic, the authors updated the 1st edition of the book, adding around 200 pages of absolutely new and detailed material on AJAX features.

Readers’ opinion:

Download / Buy Professional Ajax Book

3. Ajax: The Complete Reference 1st Edition

A Powerful Manual to Ajax Web Application Development

Would you like to become an outstanding web application developer who knows how to program according to the standards of Web 2.0? Then you will find this book extremely utile to make it happen.

Ajax: The Complete Reference is an amazing material to study since its author enjoys consideration of the developer community. In this book, he decently covers the available Ajax features as well as exemplifies them for us to show how it works in practice.

If you want to know how to apply XMLHttpRrequest object as well as different communication mechanisms of JavaScript in order to build and test Ajax-run Web applications, the book will provide with all necessary information to help you get a handle on Ajax. In fact, it offers a great deal of sample applications, touching upon the conventions of emerging user-interface and how a web application should be structured for it to tackle security problems. And since the book contains a powerful communication library, you will be able to create flexible Ajax applications. Besides, having read the book, you will get acquainted with all the most recent technologies applied in web application development: web services, Offline Access, Comet, client-side templates etc. Consequently, as you might have understood, Ajax: The Complete Reference 1st Edition will help you become a fantastic web-application developer. Don’t miss your chance to become one today.

Readers’ opinion:

Download / Buy Ajax: The Complete Reference Book

4. Ajax For Dummies 1st Edition

Ajax stands for “Asynchronous JavaScript+CSS+DOM+XMLHttpRequest.”

We are glad to present you Ajax for Dummies, a book which is capable of making you a highly-qualified web application developer by explaining to you complex things in a simple manner. Ajax for Dummies contains a great deal of visuals and sample applications as well as provides live websites on which you are able to see how Ajax apps function. The book will explain to you every single feature of Ajax and show you how you can get a full advantage out of it. We can assure you that when you read it, you will be able to accelerate your web applications and improve the user experience, by eliminating page refreshes and enhancing your website’s searcher abilities.

This powerful manual provides you with relevant information only, therefore you won’t have any problem with understanding how Ajax can applied nowadays. Besides, as we have already mentioned, it offers world-real examples, you will be able see how Yahoo! search has successfully applied the Ajax techniques to improve its user-experience.

Apart from it, you will learn fundamental features of JavaScript. The book covers the following topics:

So, in short, provided you want to learn the Ajax techniques, this book is what you are looking for, even if you have never had experience in applying it. You want to create user-friendly web applications that will improve the ranking of your website, go ahead for it, otherwise you should seek for other Ajax books.

However, we would like to mention that in case you buy the eBook version, unfortunately it does not include CD-ROM/DVD as well as some other additional materials.

Readers’ opinion:

Download / Buy Ajax For Dummies Book

5. ASP.NET AJAX in Action

We all remember the annoying page refreshes, intermittent interaction with websites, and other bottlenecks that impeded the interaction with a user. However, we can undoubtedly state that Ajax has made a huge contribution to the appearance of new web application era, offering its novelties to web developers. With its help, programmers are able to build rapid, user-friendly, powerful, and at the same time intuitive web applications.

So, before we continue talking about the book, let’s clarify what ASP.NET. AJAX is. As the matter of fact, it is a framework created by Microsoft, so that you could apply Ajax features without any difficulty. The framework, by the way, is also known as Atlas since it was its first given name, but then due to some circumstances, the company made up its mind to change it for ASP.NET.AJAX. When it comes to its potential, we cannot help mentioning the fact that it provides web developers with such a great tool which allows you to create interactive and customized web applications. Besides, you shouldn’t worry anymore about malfunctioning of your apps in different web browsers, because the technologie perfectly cooperates with the majority of all prominent ones.

By the way, the book was written by professional web application developers who took into account various pitfalls of Ajax as well as provided a great deal of real-world examples so that it would be way much easier to learn the material. Apart from it, you will get a handle on Ajax apps as well as ASP.NET. AJAX technology. Don’t get intimidated if you are a newcomer to the programming languages since the book delivers the principal features of AJAX in a clear manner. Besides, it is written in plain English, thus the terminology issue will not get to you. However, if you are an advanced developer, you will still find lots of utile information to become even better than you were yesterday.

Consequently, the book is an amazing source of example-based material, therefore you won’t find any difficulty with understanding the code samples because its authors explain to you every single aspect of the code written. Having read the ASP.NET. AJAX in Action, you will be able to utilize:

In short, the book will provide all the necessary theoretical as well as practical material so that the creation of Ajax new generation applications would not be a problematic task at all. You will be armed with the relevant information only.

To conclude the aforementioned things, we would like to say that if you are willing to transform your websites into user-friendly platforms as well as provide your clients with the opportunity to interact, then ASP.NET. Ajax in Action is what you have been looking for.

Note: In case you buy a printed version of the book, you will be offered to get PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook free of charge. Take a full advantage out of it.

Readers’ opinion:

Download / Buy ASP.NET AJAX in Action Book

6. Ajax: The Definitive Guide 1st Edition

So, we have already come up to the sixth representative of the best Ajax books, and we are quite sure that you are familiar with the authors since in other books of theirs they cover different programming languages as well. Anyway, why this book might come in handy? The answer is really simple. If you want to understand how to apply the technologies of Ajax to make your web applications meet the standards of contemporary Web 2.0, this is what you need.

It’s obvious that all of us would like to know how to create web applications which keep up with modern tendencies and, therefore, Ajax: The Definitive Guide provides a comprehensive explanation on how we can combine the power of JavaScript, CSS, XML, and HTML with relatively new XMLHtttpRequest object. Besides, it shares the best practices of professional web application developers, touching upon practical aspects of browser searching, mashups, web services, etc, thus you will find it way much easier to learn. Be modern, apply Ajax.

Ajax: The Definitive Guide covers the following topics:

Apart from the things mentioned above, you will be provided with the material on XML and XSLT, the most outstanding JavaScript Frameworks, Toolkits as well as Libraries, and a great variety of Web Services APIs. If you are ready to bring a new world of next generation web applications into your programming experience, then go for Ajax: The Definitive Guide.

Readers’ opinion:

Download / Buy  Ajax: The Definitive Guide

7. Foundations of Ajax (Books for Professionals by Professionals)

Finally, the last book we would like to talk about today is Foundations of Ajax. In fact, the book enjoys consideration of various web application developers, and moreover it has been one of New York Times best sellers. In case you are interested in mastering powerful techniques of Ajax to apply in modern web application programming, you will find this book rather relevant. Actually, it provides a decent explanation on fundamental features of Ajax as well as covers its principal functions. What it is also known for, is the amazing combination of practical and theoretical material, thus you are exposed to a fast studying environment.

Besides, it took into account the diversity of platforms which modern developers work on, therefore, every programmer will feel like “home” while reading the book.

However, if you still have doubts whether to study Ajax or not, we would like highlight the fact that it is currently of one the most demanded set of techniques to be applied in modern web application programming. A great deal of world-known corporations like Yahoo, Google, Amazon etc, have already started to incorporate its techniques. So, don’t hesitate, begin to master Ajax today.

You’ve got all the necessary tools for it.

Readers’ opinion:

Download / Buy Foundations of Ajax  Book

Conclusion

To conclude the aforementioned books description, we would like to say that the studying process becomes productive when you are motivated to learn. These books provide you with decent information on how to apply Ajax in our modern Web 2.0 to be able to create competitive web applications as well as web sites in general, but if you are not motivated enough to improve the competences of yours, then this post is not for you.

Each book is a great source of utile material which will assist you in mastering the techniques of Ajax.

So, if you have any question, we would be extremely glad to answer you.