Microsoft® ASP.NET and AJAX: Architecting Web Applications
, by Dino Esposito.
I found this book about the same time I found Dino’s other “Architecting book” – which I reviewed a few months ago (Book Review: Architecting Applications for the Enterprise). Since I liked the idea and view point of his other ‘architecting’ book, I thought I would like this one too … and I was not disappointed.
This book was written for experienced Asp.Net developers who find themselves at least a few years into developing web applications and now want to know the state of designing or architecting web applications with AJAX in the picture. If you are a beginner web developer, you would get something out of this book – but I think your money would be better spent on more detailed books to learn AJAX, jQuery, etc.
The book content is divided into two sections.
In the first section Dino starts off walking you through why people use AJAX and what architecture concerns it brings into your application. Then he gets into a few of the options you have to add AJAX to your applications while taking into account the different level of effort required with the options. The section ends with a look at AJAX architecture patterns.
The second section begins discussing some of the different javascript libraries and the types of functionality that they typically provide. After discussing the javascript, he then gets to the AJAX design patterns. After the general design patterns are described, there is a complete chapter on “Client-Side Data Binding” and the two types of patterns available to solve this problem (with reference implementations. The last chapter focuses on RIA and/or Silverlight.
While reading this book from cover to cover, I was able to use the material in a practical manner in my day to day job. I’ve been using Asp.Net Ajax and jQuery on a project for awhile, but have only dug into it deep enough to get the needed implementation – reading this book really helped me take a step back and re-evaluate some of the design points of our implementation … especially around what is maintainable and what isn’t. Dino does a great job of enumerating the options for solving specific problems and providing some of the pros and cons for the different choices.
In summary, if you are an Asp.Net web developer and are using Ajax or plan to use Ajax in your applications – you really should check this book out. Reading this book will help you evaluate your options in using Ajax in your application and give you some insight into things you may not think of.
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