Review Overview

• Book Summary
• Who is this book for?
• Subject Matter
• Notable content/features
• Final Thoughts

Book Summary

The main focus of AJAX and PHP: Building Modern Web Apps is to get you up and running using raw Javascript and php to build practical and useful applications. I was happy to see the book mentions Javascript libraries, but really teaches the reader how to do things with plain old Javacript while accounting for all browsers. It was actually fun learning how to create your own AJAX cross browse compatible objects, which is something I never though I'd say.

To quote the books description and give you a better idea of the subject matter:

This book is a step-by-step, example-driven AJAX tutorial, featuring complete case studies. Each chapter contains a friendly mix of theory and practice, so that your journey through the book will be pleasant, yet efficient. You’ll be coding your first AJAX application at the end of the first chapter, and with each new chapter you’ll develop increasingly complex AJAX applications featuring advanced techniques and coding patterns.

Who is this book for?

In my opinion this book is great for beginners to web development, intermediate web developers looking to polish their AJAX and php skills, or advanced users who may have not had much experience using raw Javascript in web applications.

Anyone wanting to learn how php and Javascript can integrate asynchronosuly together will probably find this book behooving.

Subject Matter

I can't reveal all the details, but there are some seriously awesome applications and tutorials used in this book.

You are first introduced and walked through the basics of everything you'll need to get started, there is also a great primer on Javascript and even OOP style of Javascript, which is a nice bonus.

After that, you jump right in to building example AJAX applications, taking advantage of different web services and API.

Both XML and JSON formats are covered, which is essential.

Notable Content/Features

The section dealing with JSON vs XML is just awesome no matter which side of the fence you happen to stand on. Truth is, both data formats are in wide use, so it's helpful to know how to use them both when it relate to AJAX and PHP.

Another feature of the book I really enjoyed was the bonus on "Design Patterns" where common JS and PHP design patterns are evaluated and explained, it's very helpful for anyone trying to improve their application workflow.

Lastly, I'm very happy with how thorough of a job the authors did when it came to handling and dealing with cross browser issues. This isn't the most fun thing in the world, but any developer knows it's vital that their app work seamlessly across all common browsers.

Final Thoughts

As with nearly every single book from Packt, AJAX and PHP: Building Modern Web Applications is absolutely worth the price. It's a book to keep on your shelf when you're done reading to resort back to anytime you want to get your hands dirty with AJAX, and want things explained in a clear and precise manner.

As Always...

As always, I like to show all of you that I do in fact read all of these books I talk about and review, so here is my wonderfully extremely good looking self rocking the book:

Drew approves; he needs a haircut too!

Get It Now!

You can pick up the book directly from PacktPubs website and get started with AJAX and PHP today

UPDATE!

As of January 14, 2010 I will be picking and emailing the random winners and ensuring those who won are eligible to receive the prize. Please check your inbox and make sure no messages get caught in your spam filter over the next few days. More updates shortly!

The Giveaway Items/Products

We have 11 amazing items and products to giveaway to our readers, they are as follows.

PHP Reference Book (Print Edition)

Courtesy of Mario Lurig - Author

A collection of over 250 PHP functions with clear explanations in language anyone can understand, followed with as many examples as it takes to understand what the function does and how it works. One of the best PHP books to keep around as a PHP reference.
This PHP reference includes numerous additional tips, the basics of PHP, MySQL query examples, regular expressions syntax, and two indexes to help you find information faster: a common language index and a function index.

2 Spotify Invites for the Free to Use Version!

Courtesy of BeCreativeMagazine

Millions of songs - instant and simple
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Not available in all countries

$25 Amazon Giftcard

Courtesy of BeCreativeMagazine

BeCreative Magazine is an online design/social media magazine. It´s also a blog for people who want to learn how to design, code and write online. Whether you need to know how to design a website from scratch, start developing themes or maybe even want to learn how to write properly for the web we´ve got it.

FREE PSD to XHTML Conversion ($123 value)

Courtesy of HiddenPearls

HiddenPearls is offering a free PSD to HTML conversion for one homepage and one contact page, a $123 value, absolutely free to one lucky winner! Be sure to follow him on Twitter!

FREE 3 Month TUTS+ Subscription

Courtesy of Envato

From graphics to web development, audio to video and more, get the skills you want from our family of tutorial and resource sites. Need more? We also offer a Plus program where you can access source files and bonus tutorials.

$50 Credit to any one of the Envato Marketplace

Courtesy of ActiveDen, AudioJungle, ThemeForest, VideoHive, GraphicRiver, 3dOcean, and/or CodeCanyon.

The Envato Marketplaces allow anyone to buy or sell digital goods like WordPress themes, stock audio, After Effects project files, Flash templates and much more. The marketplaces are home to a thriving community of over 300,000 users, authors and buyers and everyday hundreds of new files are added.

AJAX and PHP: Building Modern Web Applications 2nd Edition (paperback)

Courtesy of PacktPub

This book is a step-by-step, example-driven AJAX tutorial, featuring complete case studies. Each chapter contains a friendly mix of theory and practice, so that your journey through the book will be pleasant, yet efficient. You’ll be coding your first AJAX application at the end of the first chapter, and with each new chapter you’ll develop increasingly complex AJAX applications featuring advanced techniques and coding patterns.

Digging Into WordPress the Book (pdf)

Courtesy of DigWP

Written by WordPress veterans Chris Coyier and Jeff Starr, Digging into WordPress is 400+ jam-packed pages of everything you need to get the most out of WordPress. WordPress is great right out of the box, but unless you want an ordinary vanilla blog, it is essential to understand the full potential of WordPress and have the right tools to get the job done.

One Standard Premium Account for Are My Sites Up?

Courtesy of Chris Coyier

Your clients and/or customers don’t care that a hamster chewed through a network cable somewhere in Northern California. They want their website up. You need to find out before they do so you can react fast!

Beginning Zend Framework (print edition)

Courtesy of Apress Publishing

The Zend Framework is one of today’s most popular PHP–based web application development frameworks. Beginning Zend Framework is a beginner’s guide to learning and using the Zend Framework. It covers everything from the installation to the various features of the framework to get the reader up and running quickly.

Beginning Python From Novice To Professional, Second Edition (pdf)

Courtesy of Apress Publishing

Gain a fundamental understanding of Python’s syntax and features with the second edition of Beginning Python, an up–to–date introduction and practical reference. Covering a wide array of Python–related programming topics, including addressing language internals, database integration, network programming, and web services, you’ll be guided by sound development principles. Ten accompanying projects will ensure you can get your hands dirty in no time.

Updated to reflect the latest in Python programming paradigms and several of the most crucial features found in the forthcoming Python 3.0 (otherwise known as Python 3000), advanced topics, such as extending Python and packaging/distributing Python applications, are also covered.

How Do I Enter?

Simple and takes merely seconds! Follow these steps:

1. Tweet about this post on twitter using any text you like. Nothing fancy. Here is a link you may use http://bit.ly/6kzEwQ
2. Leave a comment below about which items you would like to win. Please list at least three (please add more if you can!) in case your desired item is already taken if you win.
3. That's it, I told you it was simple!

As the comments grow larger, you will want to consider requesting choices that haven't been requested as much, to improve your chance of getting your first choice if you win.

How are the winners determined?

Random. All Random. We will choose random winners when the contest is over and try to give them their first item choice, if available. There will be 11 total winners, so be sure to follow the above steps to enter!

Please Support Our Sponsors!

This contest just would not have been possible without some amazing and very generous people and companies. Please take a minute of your time to give one of them a browse when you have the chance. Special thanks to:

• Mario Lurig
• BeCreativeMagazine
• HiddenPearls
• Envato
• PacktPub
• DigWP
• Chris Coyier
• Are My Sites Up?
• Apress Publishing

Once again, please join me in saying a huge "thank you!" to our sponsors!

Support Dev-Tips

We've grown a lot in one year, and we're hoping to continue to see that trend in the year 2010. If Dev-Tips has helped you out in anyway in the past year, I ask you to please consider making a small donation to help us offset the cost of hosting and running the site. Any and all donations are very much appreciated.

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Enter now!

Read through the contest steps above, and enter your comment now for a chance to win one of the 11 items!

When Will the Winners be Picked?

We will be picking a winner around January 13th. We may extend this a bit to give everyone a fair chance to enter.