Ajax on Rails

Ajax on Rails
by Scott Raymond

List Price: ~~$39.99~~
Our Price: $20.70
You Save: $19.29 (48%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $7.93 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Compare Prices for Ajax on Rails

Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Scott Raymond
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Format: Illustrated
Published: 2007-01-03
ISBN: 0596527446
Number of pages: 350
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.

Book Reviews of Ajax on Rails

Book Review: Outdated Code Makes this book a pain to learn from.
Summary: 4 Stars

I'm working through this book as I work to transition from PHP development to Rails with Ajax. I'm starting a new project from scratch and wanted to take on this "newish" methodology that is supposed to make my development more fun and way faster.

Well I bought the book a year ago when I was thinking the same thing. But I didn't find the time to invest in a new language until now.

Unfortunately Rails 2.0 has been out for a while and this book is written to 1.2 or something. Prototype is also in version 2.x and the book was written to something like 1.5

And that doesn't even mention that there are much different ways to get Ruby and Rails installed now.

So far I've spent a few days just making Rails work at all on my XP computer. It turns out that there is now a package called InstantRails that you just unzip and run in place. So I wasted those days trying to track down the components described in this book to no avail.

Now that I'm working with the code, I'm finding that the examples simply don't work in about half the cases due to the deprecated functions and new naming conventions and so on. It's like learning how it was done two years ago along with how it is done now. And it's really slowing me down.

Every time something doesn't work, instead of learning the lesson intended by the book, I spend a lot more time learning how to troubleshoot the problem until I find the new correct way of doing the same thing.

So I can't say that I'm not learning from this book. I'm learning a lot. It just that I'm learning by correcting errors on my own instead of by clear examples that work. It's kind of painful and slow.

The book seems to be good other than that. My only complaint is that some of the terms used aren't clearly explained early on. But I think most programmers can get past those and just keep reading and be fine.

I just don't recommend buying this book anymore. If there's an updated version to cover the current versions of the applications, that might be worth getting.

Write your own review

More Ajax on Rails reviews:
1 2 3 4

Summary of Ajax on Rails

Learn to build dynamic, interactive web applications using the two most important approaches to web development today: Ajax and the phenomenally efficient Ruby on Rails platform. This book teaches intermediate to advanced web developers how to use both Ajax and Rails to quickly build high-performance, scalable applications without being overwhelmed with thousands of lines of JavaScript code. More than just recipes, you also get a thorough, low-level understanding of what's happening under the hood.

Ajax on Rails includes three fully worked out Rails/Ajax applications, and quick reference sections for Prototype and script.aculo.us.
Testing lessons show you how to eliminate cross-browser JavaScript errors and DOM debugging nightmares using a combination of Firebug, and Venkman.
Advanced material explains the most current design practices for Ajax usability. You'll learn to avoid user experience mistakes with proven design patterns.

Beyond the how-to, Ajax on Rails helps you consider when Ajax is (and isn't) appropriate, and the trade-offs associated with it. For those new to Rails, this book provides a quick introduction, the big picture, a walk through the installation process, and some tips on getting started. If you've already started working with Rails and seek to deepen your skill set, you'll find dozens of examples drawn from real-world projects, exhaustive reference for every relevant feature, and expert advice on how to "Ajaxify" your applications.

General Books

Book Subjects

Most talked about in Ruby on Rails from lay person to expert

Ruby on Rails VTC Training CD
by Al Anderson
Virtual Training Company, Inc.; Published: 2006-09-22; CD-ROM; Book
Best price: $99.95

Ruby on Rails Power!: The Comprehensive Guide (Power!)
Course Technology PTR; Published: 2007-04-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.50
Price in other shops: ~~$34.99~~

Beginning Ruby on Rails (Wrox Beginning Guides)
by Steve, Ph.D. Holzner
Wrox; Published: 2006-11-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.27
Price in other shops: ~~$34.99~~

Rails Solutions: Ruby on Rails Made Easy (Solutions)
by Justin Williams
friends of ED; Published: 2007-01-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.06
Price in other shops: ~~$34.99~~

Beginning Rails: From Novice to Professional (Beginning from Novice to Professional)
by Jeffrey Allan Hardy, Cloves Carneiro Jr., Hampton Catlin
Apress; Published: 2007-07-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.83
Price in other shops: ~~$34.99~~

Prototype and Scriptaculous in Action [Ajax]
by Dave Crane, Bear Bibeault, Tom Locke
Manning Publications; Published: 2007-03-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $25.07
Price in other shops: ~~$44.99~~

Ruby for Rails: Ruby Techniques for Rails Developers
by David Black
Manning Publications; Published: 2006-05-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops: ~~$44.95~~

RailsSpace: Building a Social Networking Website with Ruby on Rails (Addison-Wesley Professional Ruby Series)
by Michael Hartl, Aurelius Prochazka
Addison-Wesley Professional; Published: 2007-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $24.32
Price in other shops: ~~$44.99~~

Rails Recipes (Pragmatic Programmers)
by Chad Fowler
Pragmatic Bookshelf; Published: 2006-06-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.75
Price in other shops: ~~$32.95~~

Ajax on Rails
by Scott Raymond
O'Reilly Media, Inc.; Published: 2007-01-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $21.50
Price in other shops: ~~$39.99~~

Similar Books and other products

Ruby for Rails: Ruby Techniques for Rails Developers
by David Black
Manning Publications; Published: 2006-05-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.50
Price in other shops: ~~$44.95~~

The Ruby Way, Second Edition: Solutions and Techniques in Ruby Programming (2nd Edition) (Addison-Wesley Professional Ruby Series)
by Hal Fulton
Addison-Wesley Professional; Published: 2006-11-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.99
Price in other shops: ~~$44.99~~

The Rails Way (Addison-Wesley Professional Ruby Series)
by Obie Fernandez
Addison-Wesley Professional; Published: 2007-11-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $27.87
Price in other shops: ~~$49.99~~

RESTful Web Services
by Leonard Richardson, Sam Ruby
O'Reilly Media, Inc.; Published: 2007-05-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.22
Price in other shops: ~~$39.99~~

Rails Recipes (Pragmatic Programmers)
by Chad Fowler
Pragmatic Bookshelf; Published: 2006-06-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.67
Price in other shops: ~~$32.95~~

Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide, Second Edition
by Dave Thomas, Chad Fowler, Andy Hunt
Pragmatic Bookshelf; Published: 2004-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $23.99
Price in other shops: ~~$44.95~~

Ruby Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly))
by Lucas Carlson, Leonard Richardson
O'Reilly Media, Inc.; Published: 2006-07-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.97
Price in other shops: ~~$49.99~~

Rails Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly))
by Rob Orsini
O'Reilly Media, Inc.; Published: 2007-01-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.60
Price in other shops: ~~$39.99~~

Agile Web Development with Rails, 2nd Edition
by Dave Thomas, David Hansson, Leon Breedt, Mike Clark, James Duncan Davidson, Justin Gehtland, Andreas Schwarz
Pragmatic Bookshelf; Published: 2006-12-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.99
Price in other shops: ~~$39.95~~