Ajax: The Definitive Guide: Interactive Applications for the Web

by III Anthony T. Holdener

Overview

Is Ajax a new technology, or the same old stuff web developers have been using for years? Both, actually. This book demonstrates not only how tried-and-true web standards make Ajax possible, but how these older technologies allow you to give sites a decidedly modern Web 2.0 feel.

Ajax: The Definitive Guide explains how to use standards like JavaScript, XML, CSS, and XHTML, along with the XMLHttpRequest object, to build browser-based web applications that function like desktop programs. You get a complete background on what goes into today's web sites and applications, and learn to leverage these tools along with Ajax for advanced browser searching, web services, mashups, and more. You discover how to turn a web browser and web site into a true application, and why developing with Ajax is faster, easier and cheaper.

The book also explains:

• How to connect server-side backend components to user interfaces in the browser
• Loading and manipulating XML documents, and how to replace XML with JSON
• Manipulating the Document Object Model (DOM)
• Designing Ajax interfaces for usability, functionality, visualization, and accessibility
• Site navigation layout, including issues with Ajax and the browser's back button
• Adding life to tables & lists, navigation boxes and windows
• Animation creation, interactive forms, and data validation
• Search, web services and mash-ups
• Applying Ajax to business communications, and creating Internet games without plug-ins
• The advantages of modular coding, ways to optimize Ajax applications, and more

This book also provides references to XML and XSLT, popular JavaScript Frameworks, Libraries, and Toolkits, and various Web Service APIs. By offering web developers a much broader set of tools and options, Ajax gives developers a new way to create content on the Web, while throwing off the constraints of the past. Ajax: The Definitive Guide describes the contents of this unique toolbox in exhaustive detail, and explains how to get the most out of it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780596554972
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	01/25/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	982
File size:	16 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Anthony T. Holdener III currently builds GIS web applications utilizing Esri ArcGIS JavaScript API, Google Maps JavaScript API, and/or Bing Maps API. He has worked with the web in one form or another since 1997 when he helped open an Internet cafe in Fairview Heights, Illinois. A graduate of St. Louis Universitywith a degree in Computer Science, Anthony has worked as a web architect, developer, manager, or adjunct teacher for almost fifteen years in the St. Louis area. He is also the author of “Ajax: The Definitive Guide” (O’Reilly). He resides in the village of Shiloh, Illinois, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, with his wife and twins.

Table of Contents

Preface     xiii
Ajax Fundamentals
Reinventing the Web     3
Web Page Components     3
Modern Web Standards     9
Browsers     17
Standards Compliance     19
Welcome to Web 2.0     20
From Web Sites to Web Applications     22
The Transition     22
Basic Web and Ajax Design Patterns     28
Application Environments     31
The Developer     33
What Ajax Is Not     34
Servers, Databases, and the Web     35
The Web Server     36
Server-Side Scripting     39
Databases     44
Getting Data Into and Out of Relational Databases     48
Interfacing the Interface     54
Frameworks and Languages     57
What Good Are Frameworks?     63
Foundations: Scripting XML and JSON     68
XML     68
JSON     86
Choosing a Data Exchange Format     92
A Quick Introduction to Client Frameworks     94
Simplifying Development     97
Manipulating the DOM     103
Understanding the DOM     103
We've Already Met     105
Manipulating DOM Elements, Attributes, and Objects     106
Change That Style     117
Events in the DOM     129
DOM Stuff for Tables     135
Is innerHTML Evil?     138
Designing Ajax Interfaces     141
Usability     141
Functionality     153
Visualization     158
Accessibility     167
The Ajax Interface     171
Ajax Foundations
Laying Out Site Navigation     175
Menus     175
Tabs     212
Navigation Aids     221
Problems with Ajax Navigation     243
General Layout     246
Fun with Tables and Lists     247
Layout Without Tables     247
Accessible Tables     252
Sorting Tables     264
Tables with Style     280
Table Pagination     283
Lists 2.0     291
Lists for All Seasons     292
Page Layout with Frames That Aren't     316
Using Frames     316
XHTML and Frames     321
The Magic of Ajax and a DIV     323
Page Layout     329
Navigation Boxes and Windows     335
The Alert Box     335
Integrating the Window     335
Navigation Windows     347
Tool Tips     355
The Necessary Pop Up     360
Customizing the Client     363
Browser Customizations     363
Stylesheet Switching     368
Switching Different Customizations     381
Easy Font-Size Switching     386
Creating Color Themes     392
Throwing Ajax into the Mix     397
Changing Site Language with Ajax     400
Repositioning Objects and Keeping Those Positions     403
Storing It All in the Database     407
Errors: To Be (in Style) or Not to Be     408
Error Handling on the Web     408
Should I React to That Error?     413
Handling an Error with Care     417
Integrating the User Error     420
This Ain't Your Father's Animation     434
Animation on the Web     434
What Is Wrong with GIF?     437
Building Animation with the PNG Format     439
Ajax Animations     453
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Form     482
XHTML Forms      482
Using JavaScript     490
Fancier Forms     498
The Basics of Ajax and Forms     519
Accepting Ajax-Delivered Data     524
Server Responses     531
Data Validation: Client, Server, or Both     534
Data Validation Is Important     534
Validation with JavaScript     536
CSS Notification of Errors     552
Validation on the Server     555
Ajax Client/Server Validation     558
Ajax in Applications
Search: The New Frontier     565
Types of Site Searches     565
Dynamic Searching with Ajax     577
Googling a Site     581
Introducing Web Services     594
What Is a Web Service?     594
Web Service Architectures     594
Ajax and Web Services     606
Web Feeds     613
Web Service APIs     618
Web Services: The APIs     619
Publicly Available Web Services     619
Ajax and the API     657
The Next Step with Services     658
Mashups     659
Mashups in Web 2.0 Applications     659
What Are Mashups?     659
Mashups As Applications      661
Data Sources     665
Application Portlets     668
Building a Mashup     668
Mashups and Business     671
For Your Business Communication Needs     672
Businesses and Ajax     672
Real-Time Communication     674
File Sharing     691
Whiteboards     703
Combining Applications     720
Internet Games Without Plug-ins     721
Gaming on the Web     721
Internet Requirements     732
Animating a Character     735
Basic Collisions     753
User Input     764
The Basics of Event Handling     767
Putting It All Together     776
Wrapping Up
Modular Coding     789
What Is Modular Coding?     789
The Client Side     791
The Server Side     804
Optimizing Ajax Applications     807
Site Optimization Factors     807
HTTP     809
Packets     815
Client-Side Optimizations     818
Server-Side Optimizations     830
Ajax Optimization     838
References
The XML and XSLT You Need to Know     843
JavaScript Framework, Toolkit, and Library References     863
Web Service API Catalog     892
Ajax Risk References     916
Index     925