Ajax, or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, exploded onto the scene in the spring of 2005 and remains the hottest story among web developers. With its rich combination of technologies, Ajax provides a strong foundation for creating interactive web applications with XML or JSON-based web services by using JavaScript in the browser to process the web server response.

Ajax Design Patterns shows you best practices that can dramatically improve your web development projects. It investigates how others have successfully dealt with conflicting design principles in the past and then relays that information directly to you.

The patterns outlined in the book fall into four categories:

• Foundational technology: Examines the raw technologies required for Ajax development

• Programming: Exposes techniques that developers have discovered to ensure their Ajax applications are maintainable

• Functionality and usability: Describes the types of user interfaces you'll come across in Ajax applications, as well as the new types of functionality that Ajax makes possible

• Development: Explains the process being used to monitor, debug, and test Ajax applications

Ajax Design Patterns will also get you up to speed with core Ajax technologies, such as XMLHttpRequest, the DOM, and JSON. Technical discussions are followed by code examples so you can see for yourself just what is-and isn't-possible with Ajax. This handy reference will help you to produce high-quality Ajax architectures, streamline web application performance, and improve the user experience.

Michael Mahemoff holds a PhD in Computer Science and Software Engineering from the University of Melbourne, where his thesis was "Design Reuse in Software Engineering and Human-Computer Interaction." He lives in London and consults on software development issues in banking, health care, and logistics.

"Michael Mahemoff's Ajax Design Patterns is a truly comprehensive compendium of web application design expertise, centred around but not limited to Ajax techniques. Polished nuggets of design wisdom are supported by tutorials and real-world code examples resulting in a book that serves not only as an intermediate to expert handbook but also as an extensive reference for building rich interactive web applications." --Brent Ashley, remote scripting pioneer

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 15 Ratings

A "must have" Ajax Resource for every Web 2.0 developer. - 2008-02-26
Reviewer Rating:
Let me get something straight here: Michael Mahemoff really knows how to teach, this book is one of the most appropriated books for those who want to learn about AJAX and in this review I'll tell you why I think so.
First of all, the book starts explaining all the basics of AJAX with its definitons, how it works, related technologies and more. But the best point is: the author always explains using real-life examples, which makes everything easier to understand. The following chapters cover the AJAX Design Patterns properly. You can think about these design patterns as specific solutions, for example "how to made an auto-complete box with ajax", which will give you a great variety of "what can I do with ajax" things. The book also covers some architectural patterns too.
I think the main goal of this book is not only the great diversity of solutions that you can apply in your projects, but how the author explains them. He always starts the explanation of a design pattern with a brief history of how this pattern can help you giving real examples on where these patterns have being applied. Don't forget that one of the main goals of Design Patterns is to create a "vocabulary" to make an easier reference about a specific subject, and this book completely achieves this goal by giving names for each one of those solutions represented as a Design Pattern.
That's why I believe this book is a "must have" for any AJAX professional or student.

too long... - 2008-02-09
Reviewer Rating:
Got this book in late 2006, and just about a month ago, I finished. I was involved in creating web forms using Rich Internet Applications (RIA) early last year, and I was hoping this book would give me some guidance.

Simply put, I did not see what I was hoping to get but there were so many duplicate use-cases, stories which resemble one after another (as some other reviewers did, I did not count how many), but overall the examples were too specific (as an example check this out from CodeExample: Yahoo!Mindset (on page 335)
...
OnClick = "setup('1505998205%3Ac26b16%3A105900fde%3Aff4', 'ajax");
...

I really don't think this statement belongs in a book. In the same story, there is even a mention of Hurricane Katrina. I mean, come on... let's cut the chase. Too many sets of the same "Real-World Examples" used in many different pattern makes the context blurry. It certainly lost me. Yes, it took about 10 months for me to read this book, but I had other projects and priorities.

Overall, the first chapters are well put, explaining what Ajax is etc. But it needs further tuning downstream. I give it 3 out of 5.

Good AJAX Cookbook - 2008-04-18
Reviewer Rating:
The title 'Ajax Design Patterns' is a little misleading because this is more like an AJAX cookbook or solutions book. Packed with ~650 pages of material spread over 19 chapters and 4 indexes, this is a good resource for anyone looking to work with and/or learn about what AJAX is and what it has to offer.

My only issue with this book is that the overall look and feel is like many of the other O'Reilly offerings that have a more 'nerdy' feel to it. The cover and layout looks like it is just going to be a pocket with published papers all put together into one package, but because of it's cookbook nature it's not the same niche of book. I would have chosen a different design and layout to make this book better represent the content contained within.

Having said all that, I think the book is a smashing success. Case studies such as slider bar creation, drag and drop, text editors are interspersed with the history of AJAX and why this buzzword is one that really DOESN'T get old (it's so powerful).

For all AJAX developers I easily recommend this book. It's full of yummy tidbits of information that you will no doubt fine useful and engaging.

**** RECOMMENDED

.NET Developer Group Coban - 2009-07-19
Reviewer Rating:
Para mi, AJAX y las herramientas que involucra es algo nuevo. Este libro me parece interesante porque muestra como disenar paso a paso la estructura AJAX de los sitios web y como implementar todo el entorno de desarrollo. Espero aprender mucho del libro.

By: Manuel Alejandro Garcia

Widgets or Design Patterns it's a great book - 2009-03-03
Reviewer Rating:
Michael Mahemoff's comprehensive book describes a large number of common web metaphors that mostly have Ajax in common.

The introduction is short, and provides a good introduction to Ajax and what it means for web interfaces. I especially like the advice in Ajaxifying a Web App: One Pattern at a Time. We're frequently asked to use Ajax on a page when all that's need is a small feature implemented with Ajax. He shows how to use Ajax to improve a simple application and then lists other patterns from the book that could be used to further improve the example. I think it's a great way to get people thinking about applying patterns to existing pages -- and we all mostly work on these.

The Foundational Technology Patterns in part two weren't all that informative for me. Anyone who's done a small amount of JavaScript can browse it quickly or just skip over it.

For me, the real value in the book comes in section 3, 4, and 5. Yes, some widgets are covered in chapters 14 (Widgets) and 15 (Page Architecture). But the rest of these sections provide a complete description of the patterns used to create a web-based user interface and connect it to a server.

Some patterns cover needed functionality that you don't usually find in a web development book. For example the Call Tracking and Submission Throttling patterns deal with different ways to stop users from flooding servers with unneeded request. You won't learn on the job until your users start complaining about server performance.

The book is substantial (over 600 pages) and not a quick read because there's a lot of useful information there. Despite this, I found it a LOT more readable than Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series). I especially liked the real world examples given with each pattern. You can look these up and try them out to really understand how the solution works.

I recommend this book as an important addition to the library of any web developer or web architect.

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