It's not just another book on Ajax. It's "Pragmatic Ajax": a concise, complete look at a new way of envisioning and implementing browser-based applications. Ajax turns static web pages into interactive applications. Now you can deploy rich-client applications to clients without sacrificing the easy deployment of web applications. But to many folks, Ajax seems difficult. That's why we produced this book. As a Pragmatic guide, it strips away the mystery and shows you the easy way to make Ajax work for you. We cover the basics of DHTML, JavaScript, and the infamous XmlHttpRequest call. You'll see how to add Ajax to existing programs, and design new applications to exploit the power of Web 2.0. Learn the three layers of Ajax framework, and when (and how) to use each. See how to create rich clients, use visual effects, add client-side validation, and handle forms. Write applications that degrade gracefully if clients don't support JavaScript. And see how to integrate your Ajaxified clients into Java, .NET, and Ruby on Rails server frameworks. With "Pragmatic Ajax", you'll: understand the breadth of the Ajax/Web 2.0 landscape, and go-indepth on how Ajax works; learn how JavaScript works with your server-side framework; see how to easily apply Ajax techniques to an existing application - and when not to; and know what's coming by looking at new features and frameworks currently in active development. Writing dynamic applications isn't that hard. Folks are awed by Google Maps, but it isn't rocket science (apart from the satellite pictures). As a special bonus, see how to implement your own Google Maps-like application using DHTML.
Justin Gehtland is a partner and co-founder of Relevance, a training and consulting com-pany located in the Research Triangle, North Carolina. He has been an application de-veloper since 1990, and a web application developer since 1995. His technology back-ground includes all the usual suspects. He is currently focused on lightweight develop-ment using Ruby, .NET and Java.
Ben Galbraith is a frequent technical speaker, occasional consultant, and author of several technology books. He is a co-founder of Ajaxian.com, was recently Chief Technical Of-ficer for Amirsys, and is presently a consultant specializing in enterprise architecture and Swing/Ajax development. Ben presides over the Utah Java User's Group, is active in the Java Community Process, and tinkers on various open-source projects from time to time. He has delivered over one hundred technical presentations in 2005 at venues including JavaOne, TheServerSide.com Java Symposium, and the No Fluff Just Stuff Java Sympo-siums.
Dion Almaer is the other founder of Ajaxian.com, the leading source of the Ajax community. Dion has been writing rich web applications from the beginning, and is a columnist on Enterprise Java topics at openxource.com, onjava.com, TheServerSide.com, and of course his blog at almaer.com/blog. He enjoys writing, and speaking at events such as JavaOne, JavaPolis, TheServerSide Symposium, and the No Fluff Just Stuff symposium tour. He also participates on the Java Community Process expert groups, and the open source community as a whole.
