- Uses the regular "Head First" training method that reinforces the material in multiple ways
- Recommends separating content, appearance, and behaviour
- Using innerHTML with XHTML doesn't work despite what the book claims
- Says XMLHttpRequest doesn't work in IE when it does work in IE7+
- Provides code for Ajax support in IE6 when IE doesn't even support XHTML
- Claims that you need to list the arguments in a function in order to use them
- Leaves it to what isn't covered to mention making sure the page works without JavaScript
- First Edition published August 2008
- 497 page paperback
- Published by O'Reilly Media Inc
- ISBN: 978-0-596-51578-2
- Author; Rebecca M Riordan
This could have been an excellent introduction to Ajax if the author actually understood properly all of the things that they cover in the book. As the book stands most of the presented code will not even work because the book contantly references XHTML while the JavaScript provided in the book is intended for HTML and will not work with XHTML at all. Obviously the scripts weren't tested with XHTML or the author would have realised this. IE8 and earlier do not even support XHTML and so the extra code mentioned in the book to get the scripts to work with IE would only be useful where you are using HTML and not XHTML.
The book also uses <a href="#"> tags throughout but leaves it until the "what's not covered" section at the end of the book to explain that you really ought to set those up as working links for those who have JavaScript disabled.
Apart from these few fundamental errors in just exactly how JavaScript and Ajax work and what the difference is between HTML and XHTML the book is actually a really good introduction to Ajax, Unfortunately the target market for the book will not be aware of the errors that the book contains and so will be misled into believing those untruths.
