Much of the early hype surrounding Ajax centered on its use by Internet powerhouses such as Google and Amazon. However, just because the initial forays into Ajax were pioneered by leading software development firms doesn’t mean your application wouldn’t also benefit from these techniques. You already know how to develop Web applications, so this book uses specific, focused examples to teach the Ajax tools and techniques you’ll need to bring your applications to life. Armed with this book and your existing development expertise, you too will be able to apply Ajax techniques to your application to enrich the end users experience.

An in-depth examination of the core concepts and general principles of Web application development. This book uses examples from specific technologies (e.g., servlet API or XSL), without promoting or endorsing particular platforms or APIs. Such knowledge is critical when designing and debugging complex systems. This conceptual understanding makes it easier to learn new APIs that arise in the rapidly changing Internet environment.

As one of today’s cloud computing services, Google App Engine does more than provide access to a large system of servers. It also offers you a simple model for building applications that scale automatically to accommodate millions of users. With Programming Google App Engine, you’ll get expert practical guidance that will help you make the best use of this powerful platform. Google engineer Dan Sanderson shows you how to design your applications for scalability, including ways to perform common development tasks using App Engine’s APIs and scalable services.

With this book, you can build exciting, scalable web applications quickly and confidently, using Google App Engine — even if you have little or no experience in programming or web development. Using Google App Engine provides an overview of the tools necessary to use Google App Engine, including Python, HTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and HTTP. You’ll also learn what’s required to deploy your applications to Google servers.

Is Ajax a new technology, or the same old stuff web developers have been using for years? Both, actually. This book demonstrates not only how tried-and-true web standards make Ajax possible, but how these older technologies allow you to give sites a decidedly modern Web 2.0 feel.

Head First Ajax gives you an up-to-date perspective that lets you see exactly what you can do — and has been done — with Ajax. Using the unique and highly effective visual format that makes Head First titles popular, this book offers a big picture overview to introduce Ajax, and then explores the use of individual Ajax components — including the JavaScript event model, DOM, XML, JSON, and more — as it progresses.