Ajax Patterns and Best Practices [Paperback]

While this book does present useful topics that are particularly relevant to AJAX applications, my main problem with it is the poorly edited and structured way it is written.

The book is full of paragraphs like this one (found at the very beginning of the "Applicability section" of the "Decoupled Navigation Pattern"):

"The Decoupled Navigation pattern is used when content is navigated. The statement is obtuse and does not really say anything because HTML content is always navigated. However, because of the way Dynamic HTML is used, content navigation is sometimes used to generate an effect. When links are used to generate effects, the Decoupled Navigation pattern does not apply."

That's the whole paragraph beginning to end -- what the heck is this trying to say? Apparently aware of how non-sensical this is, the author starts the next paragraph with "To clarify this explanation..." and then goes on to present an example of a website in Swiss German (I think), with no translation given. Two pages of more examples and a summary rules-of-thumb later, and the only implied take-away is that the Pattern applies when decision-making and data processing are required, and the contents of the page change but not completely.

A few sections like this could be forgiven (and you could quibble as to why he had to write this example this way), but stuff like this prevails throughout every chapter. More often than not, ideas which with some thought could have been condensed into a few sentences, result in half a page of digressions and logical dead-ends.

Here's another one:

"The need to separate the resource from the representation has not been adequately explained, and some developers may wonder why it is necessary at all. After all, may websites work well and nobody has complained too loudly. The reason why many websites work well is because they have probably implemented the separation of resource from representation. And those that have not done so have received complaints."

Upon reading this, I feel some irreplaceable portion of my lifespan has just been wasted.

At least one good thing this book does is that it only focuses on Patterns that are particular to an AJAX environment (e.g. Persistent Communications, Decouple Navigation, etc.), without wasting time on stuff that is applicable to other more general software design settings (which plenty of other books already cover of course).

While the ideas in this book are interesting and potentially useful to somebody beginning to design an AJAX application, the writing style makes reading it a true chore. Surely there is better written stuff out there on AJAX software design.

...which is ironic, because the author himself mentions that the reason Ajax is becoming so popular is that people demand better fit and finish in their presentation.

This man DESPERATELY needs an editor (or a new/better one). Sentances run on and on, without ever getting directly to the point. Here's a great example of what's wrong with the book: in the first two chapters, he describes Ajax in painstaking (almost insulting) detail, but never really nails down WHAT "REST" is. Even after reading a section in the begining of Chapter 2, "Understanding REST Theory," I had to go to the Wikipedia page to learn just EXACTLY what it is.

This is a good resource for learning Ajax, but there are other good reasources out there, too -- ones that are better written and won't leave you fighting to understand what's going on through every page.

This is an excellent theory and strategy book for AJAX. For the uninitiated, AJAX stands for Asynchronous Javascript and XML. In short, it's the technology behind Web 2.0. New data is fetched from the server and/or presented dynamically through client side Javascript that calls server side sources, commonly XML. Instead of refreshing the entire page, individual elements are changed based on user input and new data pulled from the server. The level of interaction and sophistication involved in using AJAX makes it a force to be reckoned with. Because of that, it's essential to have a book that covers the underpinnings of this technology.

True to the title of this book, it is packed with good theoretical discussions of how AJAX works and good strategies for how to use AJAX. Knowing all of the tricks isn't worth much unless you can apply your knowledge in a meaningful way. An example of what I considered impressive was the material on caching strategies: AJAX has always struck me as being a high-transfer way to presenting information and instead this section makes AJAX into a means of saving traffic.

Unlike other books on AJAX, this book covers design patterns for the technology. How do you divide data for distribution? Answer: Use the Content Chunking Patterns. How do you effectively maintain state or at least the impression of maintenance? Answer: the persistent communications pattern. How do you make all of the potential data available at the user's fingertips? Answer: the infinite data pattern. In the nine patterns presented the author explores much of theory, and that helps you strategize when it comes time to code your own applications. Each pattern has a dedicated chapter that first presents the intent of the pattern, then the motivation for using it in the context of AJAX, a list of possible applications of the design pattern, and associated design patterns. Next, the design pattern's architecture is explained in the context of solving an actual problem. Finally, the implementation is shown via code and the user's interaction with various webpages. At the end of each pattern's chapter there are "highlights" of what has just been presented.

Up to now concrete examples of using AJAX were copious and usable theory has been hard to come by, making this book a welcome volume. I know how to write Javascript, I know what XML is. What I needed to know was how to bring it all together using design patterns that make sense for AJAX. This book accomplished that. My one criticism is that the introductory material in chapters one and two seems a bit rushed, so absolute beginners might benefit by reading "Head Rush Ajax" first, which is an excellent yet more introductory text.

I notice that Amazon does not show the table of contents, so I do that here:
CHAPTER 1 Introduction to Ajax 1
CHAPTER 2 The Nuts and Bolts of Ajax 19
CHAPTER 3 Content Chunking Pattern 53
CHAPTER 4 Cache Controller Pattern 79
CHAPTER 5 Permutations Pattern 111
CHAPTER 6 Decoupled Navigation Pattern 153
CHAPTER 7 Representation Morphing Pattern 197
CHAPTER 8 Persistent Communications Pattern 225
CHAPTER 9 State Navigation Pattern 265
CHAPTER 10 Infinite Data Pattern 303
CHAPTER 11 REST-Based Model View Controller Pattern 333

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