I have programmed in PHP, and done a lot of work with HTML and CSS (seeing as they go together well with PHP) - but have been really curious about this new Ajax stuff. I have poked at JavaScript before, but mostly just copying and pasting code from code snippet sites. I understand the concept of XML, but not too much about it.

So, I sent for this book to see what the hub-bub was about, and now I have a good understanding on how to use this programming language, if you want to call it that, for more impressive websites!

The book does not give you extensive background on PHP, but rather a brief intro, and the code you need to put on your web server to interact with the rest of the system. JavaScript is explained a bit more, as this is the heart of Ajax, and XML is explained pretty well too. You are not going to master any of these languages from this book, but rather learn enough about them to get you started and building some working Ajax programs.

Ajax is not really a language, but is a method of using JavaScript and a Server-Side language like PHP with the possibility to use XML for more database type data, if you need it, and constructing dynamic content for your web page to load. Without having to load a new page, and have PHP build all the changes.

This book guides you through building a clock that is updates when you click a button, an RSS news reader, and a few other simple programs that might not seem like a huge accomplishment, but are meant to give you an understanding of how it works so you can make something out of it. It hands you a wrench, and shows you how to bolt and unbolt things, but it is up to you as to what you go build, or destroy.

The book is not meant to be finished in it's entirety in 10 minutes. It is broken up into sections meant to take only about 10 minutes to read. Instead of having to dedicate a good hour or two to reading, I could easily read parts of this book here and there, between tasks at work, and in those times where I have a bit of time free, but not enough to do anything major. That was really a benefit for me. Learning, cut up into smaller bits, for people on the go!

I found this book to be exactly what I needed to step into the world of Ajax, and if you have experience with some PHP, and some JavaScript, and want to ad a little pizazz to your web pages, then I would really recommend this book to get you started!

I went through the first 10 chapters pretty quickly, there are some errors in the code listings here and there. Couldn't get the responseXML thingie in CH. 10 to work, googled it elsewhere and got it working.
Anyway, decided to buy "Beginning Ajax with PHP: From Novice to Professional" and "Ajax For Dummies" instead. (I have a library copy of this book - the only one on AJAX at the local branch. Small town...)

Hope this helps.

If you've never designed an interactive website before, this book would be a helpful introduction. It will help you become familiar with terminology and some very basic programming. However, I think it's too general to really teach you anything practical. It quickly covers web history, browsers, server language, HTML, XML and JavaScript in about 70 pages. Obviously, you won't get much out of that (the book doesn't pretend to give you in-depth knowledge. It says it's just highlighting things).

The AJAX part, the meat of the book, was pretty general as well. Again, it's good for someone completely new to developing websites, but it's really not enough to get you started on a real application. It's barely enough to say you know what AJAX is and what is involved.

If you're looking for practical knowledge and have some experience with websites and programming languages in general, you will literally get through this book in 10 minutes or less and gain very little from it.

I'm not exactly an expert web developer, but I've had some website design/development courses so I do have some background. The reason I'm saying this is since this book is setup for lessons that take 10 minutes long they aren't that detailed. They contain some great basics and refresher tips for html coding, css, and so on but they don't really teach you all you need to know.

Overall this is a great book for more advanced web developers looking to get into the whole Ajax craze. If you don't have a solid background in HTML, JavaScript, PHP and XML you may be left behind but if you're like me and you want to soak up all the knowledge you can this book may be a good opening for these technologies and a great source later when you learn more.

This book has a decent structure to it. It gives you a good underlying foundation for understanding what AJAX is exactly, and how you will go about writing it. It has a few good project examples and talks about web services later in the book.

Unfortunately, this book is loaded with syntax errors in both the javascript and in the PHP. You simply can't have a coding book with syntax errors. I spent a full week on the first AJAX chapter confused out of my mind because of some errors in the AJAX code that are passed around. Therefore, I wouldn't recommend this book. Two stars.