Reviews for Sams Teach Yourself AJAX in 10 Minutes

1. Excellent, gets the job done quickl, awsome value for money

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, November 12th, 2009

   
   I bought this book to try and find out the basic principles of AJAX quickly and easily, which it did very well. I am a Web Developer with a background in a number of 'C' style languages, specifically Java, PHP and Javascript. I'm experienced in server side scripting, but wanted to know how AJAX worked so I could implement a more interactive experience to my web applications.
   
   I really can't fault this book, it cuts through the waffle and shows you quickly how to use the XMLHttpRequest object to interact with a server and then update a web page. If you have little background knowledge of programming and / or web development you might not get what you want out of this book, in which case you might want to look at something else.
   
   For me the book is excellent value for money, and has a permanent place on my work desk.
   
   

2. A simple introduction to Ajax for the complete beginner

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, May 12th, 2007

   This is definitely not a book for the Ajax expert. However, I didn't even know what AJAX stood for when I started reading this book, and it was definitely the book for me!
   
   I wanted to add some basic "Web 2.0" features to a website I'd just created, and I didn't have much time to learn, so this book seemed a good choice when I saw it in a library.
   
   Basically, it does exactly what it says on the tin. It gives brief, but not too brief, introductions to the technologies which make up Ajax, and gives you exactly what you need to know to get started. It's presented in bite-size chunks (which for me were a bit more than ten minutes, but maybe I'm slow!) which are pretty self-contained, and take you through Ajax in a logical progression.
   
   By the end of Lesson 11, I knew enough to be writing my own small Ajax features for my website, and had them working fine in all the major browsers.
   
   This is a small book, an unintimidating 200 pages in a nice portable format, which makes it easy to carry around with you. It's definitely aimed at Ajax beginners like me, and won't give enough depth for the advanced reader, nor go into subjects like the Google Web Toolkit, etc., but then it doesn't promise to.
   
   What it does do is give an accurate and useful introduction to Ajax, including details on all the basic technologies, e.g. Javascript and XML and the way Ajax uses them. then carries on to give a taste of more advanced topics, including SOAP and REST.
   
   For the low price, this is an excellent introduction to Ajax for people who know enough to develop simple websites but want to explore the use of simple Ajax features to improve the user experience.

3. Decent introduction.

   Rated 2 out of 5 stars, June 12th, 2006

   This book serves no other purpose than to give an insight into the AJAX technology. I have just finished the book and I am now looking for a more detailed book on the subject. If you want an introduction then this is quite an easy read, however if you want to be developing AJAX sites by the end of the read then this is definately not the book for you.
   
   One very annoying issue is that the provided code in the book needs some tinkering before it works, also the books online site allows for the download of all sample code which differs to what is in the book and again needs tinkering to get it working.
   
   To summarize I would advise against buying this book, AJAX is something which doesnt suit the 10 minute approach. However with that said other editions of this series has been very useful to me but not this one.