Ajax And Php: Building Responsive Web Applications 2006-03

Cristian Darie, Bogdan Brinzarea, Filip Chereches-Tosa , Mihai Bucica

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AJAX and PHP: Building Responsive Web Applications
By Cristian Darie, Bogdan Brinzarea, Filip Chereches-Tosa, Mihai Bucica

• Publisher:   Packt Publishing
• Number Of Pages:   284
• Publication Date:   2006-03-10
• ISBN-10 / ASIN:   1904811825
• ISBN-13 / EAN:   9781904811824

Product Description:

Enhance the user experience of your PHP website using AJAX with this practical tutorial featuring detailed case studies

There is a newer edition of this title available. Search for: Building Modern Web Applications 2nd Edition

• Build a solid foundation for your next generation of web applications
• Use better JavaScript code to enable powerful web features
• Leverage the power of PHP and MySQL to create powerful back-end functionality and make it work in harmony with the smart AJAX client
• Go through numerous case studies that demonstrate how to implement AJAX-enabled features in your site such as: real-time form validation, online chat, suggest & autocomplete, whiteboard, SVG realtime charting, whiteboard, web data grid, RSS reader, drag & drop

In Detail

Assuming a basic knowledge of PHP, XML, JavaScript and MySQL, this book will help you understand how the heart of AJAX beats and how the constituent technologies work together. After teaching the foundations, the book will walk you through numerous real-world case studies covering tasks you'll be likely to need for your own applications:

• Server-enabled form-validation page
• Online chat collaboration tool
• Customized type-ahead text entry solution
• Real-time charting using SVG
• Database-enabled, editable and customizable data grid
• RSS aggregator application
• A server-managed sortable list with drag&drop support using the script.aculo.us JavaScript toolkit

The appendices guide you through installing your working environment, using powerful tools that enable debugging, improving, and profiling your code, working with XSLT and XPath.

What you will learn from this book?

AJAX and PHP: Building Responsive Web Applications is the most practical and efficient resource a reader can get to enter the exciting world of AJAX. This book will teach you how to create faster, lighter, better web applications by using the AJAX ingredients technologies to their full potential.

Who this book is written for?

This book is for web developers willing to build better web applications. A basic knowledge of PHP, XML, JavaScript and MySQL, or a strong will to learn-as-you-type, is assumed.

Summary: good primer but not much meat
Rating: 2

It was easy to follow the first few chapters then they expect you to already know several other subjects before you can even understand the rest. I used [...] tutorials to get through the stuff that wasn't covered. Even after that it really didn't dig deep enough into fancy effects associated with AJAX.

Summary: Great Introduction
Rating: 5

AJAX and PHP by Cristian Darie, a book that takes us on a journey through a now MUST when you develop web applications. If you are developing anything on the web platform page refreshes are a thing of the past, integrating AJAX is now a standard. This book will help give you the basics on the interaction between AJAX and PHP. This book covers the nitty gritty of JavaScript and their implementations, not using a JS Framework like Prototype.

This book will give you a great background in how AJAX functions work in most of the popular frameworks and allow you to build great Web 2.0 application without the need for them. The last chapter however does talk about Drag and Drop using script.aculo.us which is built on Prototype.

Some things that can be helpful in this book however include, using the Document Object Model, DOM and CSS, Charting using SVG, and AJAX RSS Readers. Good book overall if you are looking to build apps without frameworks.

Summary: Straight forward and to the point!
Rating: 5

This book on AJAX and PHP address a wide range target group that allow the reader to skip sections that you're familiar with, and dig down into topics you need to read up on.
Furthermore, you're guided through some fun examples that really take you into the world of AJAX, and leave you hungry for more with a nice toolbox of reusable applications... Thank you Christian!

Summary: not worth the price
Rating: 2

This book does offer good insights into php and ajax. It however tends to not teach as much as redirect. It points to a lot of free resources on the web to explain things it should have had as it's own chapter.

I also spends way to many pages showing duplicate code. For example in the 2nd chapter it spends significant time creating a function called createXmlHttpRequestObject. This function is about 1/2 a printed page. then in every later chapter this same function is printed at least twice per chapter. This isn't the only example and in ends up that you have 10-15 pages of code for each section most of which is duplicate from previous sections. You could easily cut 50-100 pages from the book by removing the duplication.

The book also doesn't spend any time on security. Specifically it doesn't show how to create a secure login or to validate that the javascript on the client is authorized to get the data that it is requesting. Everything is free and open with only basic validation that data is in the correct form.

That being said it does provide a broad range of ways to use ajax. I would happily spend $10 on it again. Unfortunately i spent over double that :(

Summary: Ideal book for those who currently have some PHP, XML, JavaScript and MySQL already under their belt.
Rating: 5

AJAX and PHP: Building Responsive Web Applications is the ideal book for those who currently have some PHP, XML, JavaScript and MySQL already under their belt. Little time is spent on the basics of these technologies other than a brief history of the Web and predictions for future Web applications making this book a great segue for those looking to take their basic skills to the next level. The code is well documented and commented so if you are the type of person who prefers to jump right in and work with code, then this book is for you.

The biggest strength of this book is that is provides practical code examples that teaches the reader how to combine and use these technologies together. Some of the most handy examples are server-enabled form validation, an online chat tool and an RSS feed reader. Even if you only need to know one of these items, though there are plenty more, it's well worth it to pick up this book. No only will you be able to create these applications yourself, but you'll learn best practices and understand the why and how of each program as well. Additionally, the book's companion website is quite good and allows you to download all of the code. This can be especially helpful if you find yourself getting stuck somewhere and want to do a side-by-side comparison of the your code and the book code. There are even five free additional PDF chapters for download including an updated version of Chapter 5 - AJAX Chat - which uses JSON instead of XML.

However, if you're the type of person that is looking for a very concise, step-by-step book, you may find yourself frustrated. Just as its strengths are in letting you jump right into the code, if you're not at the stage where you're comfortable with any of the included technologies, you'll quickly find yourself overwhelmed with a lack of direction and an abundance of code. Additionally, while the use of bold type clearly indicates emphasis on specific code lines, if anything could improve this book, just for readability's sake, it would color-indicated code.

In conclusion, if you've already gotten your feet wet with PHP, XML, JavaScript and MySQL then AJAX and PHP: Building Responsive Web Applications will help you get to the next level with real-world code examples and projects. You'll not just "copy code" but gain an understanding as to the "why and how" of creating AJAX Web applications.

* Online chat collaboration tool
* Customized type-ahead text entry solution
* Real-time charting using SVG
* Database-enabled, editable and customizable data grid
* RSS aggregator application
* A server-managed sortable list with drag&drop support using the script.aculo.us

JavaScript toolkit
The appendices guide you through installing your working environment, using powerful tools that enable debugging, improving, and profiling your code, working with XSLT and XPath.
Chapter 1: AJAX and The Future Of Web Applications is an initial incursion into the world of AJAX and the vast possibilities it opens up for web developers and companies, to offer a better experience to their users. In this chapter you'll also build your first AJAX-enabled web page, which will give you a first look of the component technologies.
Chapter 2: Client-Side Techniques with Smarter JavaScript will guide you through the technologies you'll use to build AJAX web clients, using JavaScript, DOM, the XMLHttpRequest object, and XML. While not being a complete tutorial for these technologies, you'll be taken to the right track of using them together to build a solid foundation for your future applications.
Chapter 3: Server-Side Techniques with PHP and MySQL completes the theory foundation by presenting how to create smart servers to interact with your AJAX client. You'll learn various techniques for implementing common tasks, including handling security and error handling problems.
Chapter 4: AJAX Form Validation guides you through creating a responsive, modern form with real-time validation based on server data.
Chapter 5: AJAX Chat presents a simple online chat that works exclusively using AJAX code, without Java applets, Flash code, or other specialized library, as most chat applications work these days.
Chapter 6: AJAX Suggest and Autocomplete builds a Google-suggest like feature, that helps you find PHP functions, and forward you to the official help page for the chosen function.
Chapter 7: SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) is a text-based graphics language that can be used to draw shapes and text. (SVG is supported natively by Firefox 1.5, and requires a SVG plugin with other browsers). In this case study you learn how to implement a realtime charting solution with AJAX and SVG.
Chapter 8: AJAX Grid teaches you how to build powerful updatable data grid. You'll learn how to parse XML documents using XSLT to generate the looks of your grid.
Chapter 9: AJAX RSS Reader uses the SimpleXML PHP library, XML and XSLT, to build a simple RSS aggregator.
Chapter 10: AJAX Drag and Drop is a demonstration of using the script.aculo.us framework to build a simple list of elements with drag&drop functionality.
Appendix A: Configuring Your Working Environment teaches you how to install and configure the required software: Apache, PHP, MySQL, phpMyAdmin.

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