Book Review: Microsoft AJAX Library Essentials

I heart asp.net
on August 15, 2007

Looks good, does it cover the Javascript enhancements in the AJAX client library (i.e., $get, string functions, etc.)

Milan Negovan
on August 15, 2007

Yes, this is covered throughout the book.

Kevin Blakeley
on August 15, 2007

I was curious how this book compares to Dino's new AJAX book, Introducing Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX , which I am not sure if you have read or not. If you have read Dino's book, would you say there is a lot of overlap, or are they complimentary? It seems like the Ajax library essentials really focuses more on the client side of things, while dino's book covers both server side (partial page updates, etc)and client side.

Milan Negovan
on August 16, 2007

I haven't read Dino's book, so I can't really compare. The funny thing is I can't even find its TOC on the web.

I owned a number of Dino's books in the past but they all merely sat on the shelf. They were thick volumes but covered too much in insufficient depth. I don't know if "Introducing Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX" is the same way.

The book I reviewed does focus more on the client side. That's why there's no mention of "AJAX Extensions" in the title.

Cristian Darie
on August 17, 2007

Hi,

I'm Cristian Darie, co-author of "Microsoft AJAX Library Essentials: JavaScript in ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 Explained". This is the correct book title; the "Microsoft AJAX C# Essentials" one is indeed an old proof.

Milan, thanks very much for your review! Including that full list of names in the book was indeed a bit silly :-)

Kevin, my book does indeed focus solely on the client-side of the framework. We designed this book to be complimentary to other ASP.NET AJAX books, paying careful attention to the often overlooked area of working with JavaScript in general, and the Microsoft AJAX Library in particular. Knowing how this library *really* works is important because, in practice, you'll find yourself hacking through it frequently.

To the typical ASP.NET developer, JavaScript first looks a very weird animal that requires different care than the typical C# or VB.NET code. Its implementation of objects and "classes" takes some time to get used to. The OOP extensions Microsoft AJAX Library builds on top of JavaScript also require some effort to learn, not necessarily because of the concepts (you know what an interface or a namespace means from your ASP.NET coding), but because of the way these are implemented by Microsoft AJAX Library.

And on top of this foundation, there's an entire hierarchy of classes and interfaces that assist with the various client-side operations. But I'm stopping before I get ahead of myself. You can read more about the book on its page on my website.

In case you decide to buy the book, I hope you'll like it! Feel free to contact me or my co-author, Bogdan, in case you have questions. Cheers.

Milan Negovan
on August 17, 2007

Cristian, I get an error from your mail server:
"550 < contact@cristiandarie.ro > No such user here"

Is there another email to reach you at?

Cristian Darie
on August 18, 2007

Oooops, that's very weird, thanks for letting me know. Please try cristian_darie@yahoo.com.