Javascript and AJAX book recommendations

Question

User-1762083248 posted

I have recently begun to throughly enjoy the web 2.0 javascript and ajax style features on various websites. Can anyone recommend a good javascript and ajax book to learn from?

Answer 1

User1735976268 posted

If you are looking for books about AJAX techniques in general I would recommend either Programmer to Programmer: Professional AJAX and of course Javascript: The Definitive Guide

However, if you want to learn more about the ASP.NET AJAX framework I HIGHLY recommend ASP.NET AJAX In Action

It's nice to understand how the AJAX works behind the scenes and getting a handle on AJAX design patterns is also great knowledge to have. But the ASP.NET AJAX framework makes it all so easy and abstracts most of the complexity away. Also offering built in support for calling web services from JavaScript which communicate via JSON, its a win-win solution. You'll never look at a postback the same way. One thing you'll definitely get out of reading ASP.NET AJAX In Action is an appreciation for how the UpdatePanel works and why its not the best solution to rely on in most cases. The UpdatePanel is an easy way of providing AJAX-like behavior, but don't be decieved. It is actually a really clunky solution and can wind up increasing the bandwidth your application uses and easily overwhelm your server with abundant amounts of requests.

Good luck!! 

Answer 2

User742805821 posted

A good book for Microsoft AJAX is "ASP.NET AJAX in Action", by Gallo, Barkol, and Vavilala published by Manning. especially pages 73-108, which covers javascript. This book is all about Microsoft's AJAX framework for ASP.NET don't get it unless you want to delve in deeply.  I'd give it a 90% score. The most annoying thing about it is the constant misuse of words such as architeching and especially leveraging.

Heh Microserfs - leveraging is not a verb. The correct verb to use is "to lever".  One does not "leverage" a particular technology - but I could probably agree that one might want to "lever" it.  That grates so much on me that I can hardly read those passages and am forced to deduct 10% from the book's score for abuse of the English language. Shoot the editor.

I'm not sure I've read too many 'good' Javascript books. Most of them are too OTT including Danny Goodman and Flannagan.  If you're prepared to root out 2nd-hand books there's a nice Wrox press book called Javascript Objects: http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Objects-Tom-Myers/dp/1861001894/  However Danny Goodman's "JavaScript Bible" or the OReilly "Definitive Guide to Javascript" are good reference books. The first and last word on DHTML is Danny Goodman's "Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference (Dynamic Html)".