Reviews for Beginning Ajax with PHP

1. Less a reference than a book of code

   Rated 2 out of 5 stars, April 12th, 2008

   I wouldn't recommend this book. Ajax itself is not a massively complex subject and there are plenty of broader javascript and php references which cover both Ajax and other topics. Therefore the book strays off Ajax and into a whole number of other topics which seem only to be included because of the slight relevance to the example being shown
   
   Also the book comprises large chunks of code which go on for pages and pages. I think this is quite indicative of the lack of instructional quality of the book. In other books such sections would be consigned to an online reference, where, in my opinion, they should be.
   
   Definitely not a "must have".

2. Not bad but definately not a reference book

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, August 12nd, 2007

   This is a good book or learning Ajax but should definetely not be used as a reference book.
   
   The style basically takes you through leading by example so they have a chapter for a calendar application, a chapter for uploading files etc but the book does not really go into much detail on what the code is doing meaning that unless you're already savvy with PHP and Javascript, it would be quite difficult to learn from this book.
   
   If you have some knowledge of PHP and Javascript, then this book is not a bad buy and isn't very expensive and could turn out to be useful and a great learning tool.
   
   If you're not that familiar with PHP and/or Javascript, I'd suggest something else first and then maybe revisit this book later on.
   
   All in all, not a bad book but I believe the 'example' approach will only work for half the readers, not all.

3. Don't fear the script tags!

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, November 12rd, 2006

   The book itself is pretty short and I can't really blame them. AJAX is simple and once you have a good javascript function for calling your server side code there isn't really much else left to talk about. The book tends to veer away from the AJAX and into other areas like web services. However I still recommend this book because the code is well explained and some of the functions are amazingly useful even if you don't use them with AJAX.
   The file uploading section alone makes it worth buying!
   I know the book is suppose to be just the beginning but even a bit more depth into the code that goes along side ajax (multi file uploading for instance) would have made this book a five star.
   It makes a good start for javascript beginners and AJAX is a perfect example of why we shouldn't fear those script tags.