Ajax: Creating Web Pages with Asynchronous JavaScript and XML

Chapter 1. Types of Web Pages While I was in college, sometime during the Pliocene, I took a science fiction class. The interesting thing about this class is that one student didn't realize until midterms that it wasn't...

Chapter 2. Introducing Ajax A little more than a year ago, an article by Jesse James Garrett was published describing an advanced web development technique that, even though individual components of it have existed for...

Chapter 3. HTML/XHTML If you've made it this far, you're now in the quot;road warriorquot; section of the book, where all the reference materials and bizarre ideas dwell. The origin of this section goes all the way back...

Chapter 4. JavaScript I would like to point out that JavaScript has nothing to do with the Java programming language itself. Many people unfamiliar with JavaScript have a real problem with this, thinking that the word J...

Chapter 5. Ajax Using HTML and JavaScript Human beings, as well as other life forms, are made up of chemicals such as iron, nitrogen, and water. However, simply mixing everything together in a cauldron and giving it a q...

Chapter 6. XML What can I say about XML that somebody before me hasn't already said? One little Google search is enough to learn that XML whitens whites and brightens brights. In short, name an ill that plagues today's...

Chapter 7. XMLHttpRequest Several years ago, I worked for a company that had a reputation for conceiving incredible ideas. Unfortunately, the company also had a reputation for being unable to either recognize the value...

Chapter 8. Ajax Using XML and XMLHttpRequest Unlike the previous chapter, which was sort of quot;mad scientist stuffquot; with training wheels, here the training wheels come off. We're free to either fly like the wind o...

Chapter 9. XPath Just what is XPath? Briefly stated, XPath is to XML what an SQL SELECT is to a relational database. This might at first sound like an oversimplification, but it is essentially true. XPath can be used to...

Chapter 10. XSLT The movie Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan introduced a device called the Genesis Torpedo that rearranged matter on a subatomic level to produce life-bearing planets. Talk about your mad scientist stuff! eX...

Chapter 11. Ajax Using XSLT quot;But wait, there's more ....quot; I do so feel like someone hawking my wares on a late-night infomercial, but hey, it's true. There is actually more to Ajax than what we've already cover...

Chapter 12. Better Living Through Code Reuse At one time in my career, I was a consultant, or, if you prefer, a hired gun. My job was to ride into town, clean up things, and then ride off into the sunset. It was like be...

Chapter 13. Traveling with Ruby on Rails Mention the subject of Ajax, and within five minutes somebody will bring up Ruby on Rails. Just as with Ajax, Ruby on Rails has become a winning phrase in corporate buzzword bing...

Chapter 14. Traveling Farther with Ruby If you're one of those developers who has never ventured outside the world of shrink-wrapped software, you've probably never heard of Ruby, the programming language I introduced i...

Chapter 15. The Essential Cross-Browser HTML DOM Whether or not the average web developer is aware of it, it is out there, unseen and unnoticed, but nevertheless out there. Allow me to explain before you decide that I'v...

Chapter 16. Other Items of Interest Although I do have a rather loose grip on reality, my grip isn't so loose that I think that the information contained within these pages is the be all and end all concerning asynchron...