Foundations of Ajax

• Introducing Ajax
• Using the XMLHttpRequest Object
• Communicating with the Server: Sending Requests and Processing Responses
• Implementing Basic Ajax Techniques
• Building the Ultimate Ajax Developer's Toolbox
• Testing JavaScript with JsUnit
• Exploring JavaScript Debugging Tools and Techniques
• Putting It All Together
• APPENDIX A Developing Cross-Browser JavaScript
• APPENDIX B Introducing Ajax Frameworks

• Introducing Ajax
  • A Short History of Web Applications
  • Browser History
  • The Evolution of Web Applications
    • CGI
    • Applets
    • JavaScript
    • Servlets and ASPs and PHP
    • Flash
    • The DHTML Revolution
    • The XML Derivatives
    • The Fundamental Problem
    • Ajax
  • The Usability Question
  • The Skill Set
  • Usage
  • Design Considerations
  • Summary
• Using the XMLHttpRequest Object
  • Overview of the XMLHttpRequest Object
  • Methods and Properties
  • An Example Interaction
  • GET vs. POST
  • Remote Scripting
    • Overview of Remote Scripting
    • A Remote Scripting Example
  • How to Send a Simple Request
    • A Simple Request Example
    • A Word About Security
  • DOM Level 3 Load and Save
  • The DOM
  • Summary
• Communicating with the Server: Sending Requests and Processing Responses
  • Processing the Server Response
    • Using the innerHTML Property to Create Dynamic Content
    • Parsing the Response As XML
    • Dynamically Editing Page Content with the W3C DOM
  • Sending Request Parameters
    • Sending Request Parameters As XML
    • Sending Data to the Server Using JSON
  • Summary
• Implementing Basic Ajax Techniques
  • Performing Validation
  • Reading Response Headers
  • Dynamically Loading List Boxes
  • Creating an Autorefreshing Page
  • Displaying a Progress Bar
  • Creating Tooltips
  • Dynamically Updating a Web Page
  • Accessing Web Services
  • Providing Autocomplete
  • Summary
• Building the Ultimate Ajax Developer's Toolbox
  • Documenting JavaScript Code with JSDoc
    • Installation
    • Usage
  • Validating HTML Content with Firefox Extensions
    • HTML Validator
    • Checky
  • Searching for Nodes Using DOM Inspector
  • Performing JavaScript Syntax Checking with JSLint
  • Performing JavaScript Compression and Obfuscation
  • Using the Web Developer Extension for Firefox
  • Implementing Advanced JavaScript Techniques
    • Object-Oriented JavaScript via the prototype Property
    • Private Properties and Information Hiding with JavaScript
    • Classical Inheritance in JavaScript
    • Putting It All Together
  • Summary
• Testing JavaScript with JsUnit
  • Rising to the JavaScript Challenge
    • Introducing the Test-First Approach
    • Introducing JUnit
  • Exploring JsUnit
    • Getting Started
    • Writing Tests
    • Running Tests
    • Using Standard and Custom Query Strings
    • Working with JsUnit Server
    • Getting Help
    • What Else Can You Use?
  • Summary
• Exploring JavaScript Debugging Tools and Techniques
  • Debugging Ajax Requests with Greasemonkey
    • Introducing Greasemonkey
    • Using an XMLHttpRequest Debugging User Script for Greasemonkey
    • Inspecting Ajax Requests and Responses with the XMLHttpRequest Debugging User Script
  • Debugging JavaScript
    • Using Firefox JavaScript Console
    • Using Microsoft Script Debugger
    • Using Venkman
  • Summary
• Putting It All Together
  • Introducing Patterns
    • Implementing the Fade Anything Technique (FAT)
    • Implementing Auto Refresh
    • Implementing a Partial Page Paint
    • Implementing a Draggable DOM
  • Avoiding Common Gotchas
  • Learning Where to Go for More
  • Using a Framework
  • Introducing Taconite
    • The Theory of Taconite
    • The Solution
    • What Does Taconite Do with the Content?
  • Introducing Dashboard Applications
  • Building the Ajax Dashboard with Taconite
    • Introducing the General Features
    • Introducing the Design Features
    • Analyzing the Code
    • Analyzing the Weather Forecast Component
    • Analyzing the Headline News Component
    • How Does the Automatic Refreshing Work?
    • Building a Better Autocomplete
  • Summary
• APPENDIX A Developing Cross-Browser JavaScript
  • Appending Rows to a Table
  • Setting an Element's Style via JavaScript
  • Setting an Element's class Attribute
  • Creating Input Elements
  • Adding Event Handlers to Input Elements
  • Creating Radio Buttons
  • Summary
• APPENDIX B Introducing Ajax Frameworks
  • Browser-Side Frameworks
    • Dojo
    • Rico
    • qooxdoo
    • TIBET
    • Flash/JavaScript Integration Kit
    • Google AJAXSLT
    • libXmlRequest
    • RSLite
    • SACK
    • sarrisa
    • XHConn
  • Server-Side Frameworks
    • CPAINT
    • Sajax
    • JSON/JSON-RPC
    • Direct Web Remoting
    • SWATO
    • Java BluePrints
    • Ajax.Net
    • Microsoft's Project Atlas
    • Ruby on Rails