With the vast amount of information on the web about Ajax, you might wonder why anyone would bother spending money on a book about this headline technology of web 2.0. I don't know if it's just me, or if other web developers share my paranoia, but the trouble with a great deal of the advice on the web is that I just don't trust it. In the words of Paul Buchheit, "Advice = limited life experience + overgeneralization".

When it comes to a key emerging technology like Ajax, which I may well be using in my work and placing under public scrutiny, I want a definitive view from a trusted source. I don't just want to know how to do something, I want to be sure that the way I'm being shown how to do it is the right way, which won't compromise my standards or leave me with more work in the long term.

When it comes to all things javascript, the man I trust above all others is Jeremy Keith. Having already consumed his marvellous DOM Scripting, this seemed like just the book to teach me how to use Ajax to enhance the web the right way.

As you may know, there are serious problems with many of the Ajax implementations on the web today, the most common being that they make little effort to be accessible, and they don't work if javascript is unavailable. Horray then for Hijax, the term Jeremy's coined for the progressive enhancement of websites using Ajax. The principles are simple - build sites using traditional techniques, depending on HTTP GET and POST, then enhance them with DOM scripting and Ajax.

The book provides a crash-course in javascript and the DOM, before going in to the nitty gritty of XMLHttpRequest, data formats and Hijax. The worked examples are straightforward and will give you a grounding in the basics of using links and forms as initiators of Ajax processes. They gave me enough confidence to produce my own independent examples in a short space of time.

The author is honest enough to admit that Hijax doesn't solve all of the problems associated with Ajax - it's still a pretty inaccessible technology for many users of assistive technologies like screenreaders. For these users the only real solution today is to give them the option to turn Ajax off on your site, although there's a lot of innovative work being done to overcome the problems and find ways to provide the feedback these users need from Ajax apps.

If you're considering using Ajax on a website, or already do so and want to learn more about how it should be done, don't take any chances - buy this book. For me there's nothing better online or in print.

Web Development Solutions: Ajax, APIs, Libraries, and Hosted Services Made Easy by Christian Heilmann and Mark Norman Francis left me with mixed feelings. The title lead me to believe there would be some more in-depth information related to the topics, but in reality the end of the title should have been Using Wordpress. The majority of this book focuses on Wordpress and how each of the topics relate to the blogging platform.

The reason I had mixed emotions is because on one hand, the authors made it seem as though web development is so easy your Grandma could do it, while on the other hand sliding in some disclaimers about needing more knowledge on different topics. I think that this book would give someone just enough material to be dangerous, but not enough to really understand web development as a whole. This book is geared to the beginner in web development, so I was hoping for some more solid material.

With that out of the way, lets take a closer look at the book and its contents:

The first chapter simply discusses the reason for starting up a website in the first place. There are many different reasons for many different people as to why they start a site. Some start for financial reasons (make money and advertising), while others start to share photos with family and friends. This chapter discussed several of these reasons for starting a website.

Chapter two was where the book really started to take off. This chapter discusses the Dilemma of “Rolling your Own” Solutions. We also get a brief crash course in several aspects related to web development.

The author gets you started by installing a local server on your machine with PHP and MySQL. After this is completed, the authors walk through an installation of Wordpress as we begin our journey. Basically every chapter after this will use Wordpress in one way or another.

This is where things get somewhat fuzzy. The chapters related to Ajax, APIs, and Libraries all revolve around Wordpress. The topics are not discussed in depth, but merely show you how to install an array of different plugins available to the Wordpress platform. Flickr, Youtube, Odeo, and Google Maps—all of which are presented as plugins for Wordpress.

The last few chapters involved some good discussions on promoting your content, navigation and layout, and finally—how to get help when you hit a roadblock. The last chapter really made this book worth the read, as it discussed the different ways to get help, the places to go, and how to ask for help in the different communities. There are some very helpful and important tips in this chapter as you seek help from your peers and colleagues.

Overall, the book was not a bad read—it just left me with mixed emotions due to the title of the book. The authors are very knowledgeable and that shows in each of the chapters. Though I felt the book made things look so easy, the authors were sure to point out that the solutions there were not in-depth, but enough to get you started. If you are just beginning your trek into web development, then this book would be a good read to get you up and running in no time flat. However—for long term involvement in the web, or a more in-depth discussion of the topics listed in the title, you may want to grab a few more books.