I found the spectrum of AJAX coverage very broad. If you are interested in finding out a little about a lot of areas of AJAX this book is alright. I found it's coverage too broad.

O'Reilly offers some excellent books. This is not one of them.

Every example I looked at seemed ... not a good example of how to use Javascript. Paging through the book, there are many examples of poor practice in the code. I would be tempted use this book as a source text for bad examples. The ideas might be OK, but the code ... oh please, no.

AJAX Hacks by Bruce Perry is a wonderful companion book for any and all AJAX programmers. AJAX has revolutionized the web programming world, enabling developers to write web pages that act more like real applications that we all know and love. AJAX is a simple technology that allows people to do amazing things, and now there is a book that will show you the ins and outs of creating cool code which is fast, efficient, and easy to use!! With over 400 pages and 80 hacks/tips/tricks, this book is perfect for users that are just learning AJAX and quickly want to accomplish a particular goal. Instead of painfully going through a 600 page book, get to the task you want to accomplish quickly with this excellent book!!

Major topics covered:

01. Ajax Basics
02. Web Forms
03. Validation
04. Power Hacks for Web Developers
05. Directing Web Remoting
06. Prototype and Rico Libraries
07. Ajax with Ruby
08. script.aculo.us
09. Options & Efficiencies

Great book, great writing, great deal!!!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Do you want to add extra interactivity to your web site? If you do, then this book is for you! Author Bruce Perry, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that collects not only dozens of easy-to-grasp, cutting-edge explorations of Ajax technology, such as Google/Yahoo! mapping mash-ups, drag-and-drop bookstores, and single-page web services apps, but a large number of hacks that represent practical advice for Ajax developers.

Perry, begins with a synopsis of the group of well-known technologies that make up Ajax. Then, the author shows how typical it is now to submit form data and to build form widgets such as select lists and checkbox groups using server data fetched in the background with XMLHttpRequest. Next, the author discusses how Ajax applications can cut down on server hits by validating the format of e-mail addresses, credit card numbers, zip codes, and other types of data that users enter into web forms before sending the data. The author then covers a mash-up of Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, and Yahoo! driving directions, as well as a software interaction involving Yahoo! Maps and a location-to-URL service called GeoURL. The author continues by discussing Ajax as it relates to developers who are immersed in both Java and JavaScript. He also discusses how to use Prototype, a cool open source JavaScript library that includes its own Ajax tools. Next, the author shows you how to get up and running with RoR; and then, moves on to several hacks that illustrate RoR's Ajax tools. Then, he covers script.aculo.us, which is another opensource JavaScript library built on Prototype. Finally, the author provides several tips for real-world Ajax developers.

This most excellent book introduces JavaScript newbies and aficionados alike to useful code libraries, including Prototype, Rico, and script.aculo.us. More importantly, web developers can adapt a number of this book's hacks, some of which are distributed as open source libraries, for their own applications.

Once you have the basics of Ajax down, you might be looking for some ideas of how to apply it to your own applications. Ajax Hacks by Bruce W. Perry fills that particular niche pretty well.

Contents: Ajax Basics; Web Forms; Validation; Power Hacks for Web Developers; Direct Web Remoting (DWR) for Java Jocks; Hack Ajax with the Prototype and Rico Libraries; Work with Ajax and Ruby on Rails; Savor the script.aculo.us JavaScript Library; Options and Efficiencies; Index

Perry collects 80 "hacks" in this volume, which is focused on different techniques for applying Ajax in various ways. The Basics section contains things that you probably will pick up in most Ajax books and tutorials, such as how to check for errors and how to detect which browser is being used. But the dynamic CSS generation ideas were pretty cool. From then on, you get a variety of hacks and code that show you how to do a number of things, such as populating dropdown lists, building mash-ups, and even how to do a drag-and-drop interface without round-tripping to the server with each action. This is one of those books that you probably won't buy with a particular need in mind, but after reading through the material you'll have some ideas that you want to explore further.

Similar to most Hacks titles, it's also not a book you'd buy to learn Ajax. But given the assumption that you know the basics, this book makes a nice addition to your bookshelf for practicality and application purposes...