Practical Javascript, DOM Scripting, and Ajax Projects

Practical Javascript, DOM Scripting, and Ajax Projects picks up where Beginning JavaScript with DOM Scripting and Ajax left off.

Frank Zammetti’s practical guide to real-world JavaScript and Ajax will have you developing actual client-side apps in no time. As more of a hacker than a theoretician, this kind of guide appeals to me. Usually when I start developing my own apps, some of the code used previously (in building sample apps) will be adapted and tweaked for my own purposes.

Some of the projects you’ll learn how to build in Practical Javascript:
* JSDigester - a library that simplifies (takes away the pain) of parsing XML on the client side
* Mashing up a list of hotels + a Yahoo Map for a user-entered zipcode
* Client-side persistence techniques
* A JavaScript validation framework
* Building widgets and working with UI widget frameworks
* Building a JavaScript mini-game (cool!)
* An Ajax-based client-server chat pplication

You can pick up a copy of Practical Javascript, DOM Scripting, and Ajax Projects at Amazon.com (avg. review score is 4.5 stars).

Beginning JavaScript with DOM Scripting and Ajax

Beginning JavaScript with DOM Scripting and Ajax will take you from knowing absolutely nothing about JavaScript to being able to manipulate the DOM, build basic Ajax applications and more.

Most of us who have been building websites since the pre-Ajax days learned JavaScript through a mish-mash of one-off scripts, validations, etc. If a book like this had been around, it surely would’ve offered a nice clean overview of the techniques available to the JavaScript programmer.

Luckily for the novice JavaScript programmer (or intermediate developer wishing to hone his craft), Beginning Javascript with DOM Scripting and Ajax does exist now and is the perfect way to learn the fundamentals from the ground up. The 2nd part of the book also focuses on Ajax and some of the interesting hacks one can use in that realm.

The author, Christian Heilmann, has a geeky sense of humor that keeps the reading light — for eaxmple Et Tu, Cache? (pg. 309):

Safari is the main offender as it caches the response status and does not trigger the changes (remember that the status returns the HTTP code 200, 304 or 404) any longer.

Adding this snippet tells the browser to test whether the data has changed since a certain date, i.e.:

request.setRequestHeader( ‘If-Modified-Since’, ‘Thu, 06 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMT’);
request.send( null );

A bit out of context here, but just one example of the kind of thing you’ll find in Beginning JavaScript with DOM Scripting and Ajax.

Review: Beginning Ajax with PHP

Beginning Ajax with PHP (by Lee Babin) is a good introduction to learning JavaScript client-server techniques on the PHP platform.

Some of the scenarios Lee walks you through:
* Sexy client-side Calendars (that can be built / communicate with the server)
* Auto-completion (a la GMail’s compose recipient, etc)
* Form validation (that leverages Ajax)
* Dynamic thumbnail generation
* etc

The book then walks one through creating a real-world Ajax-powered photo gallery app. Lee also touches on interacting with SOAP web services and the Google Maps API.

All in all, definitely worth a read if you are a PHP developer and are looking for a good primer on Ajax-based technologies.

Beginning Ajax with PHP (Amazon)

TypoTrawler : Find Bargains on eBay

You’re probably already aware of services such as Fat Fingers which find misspelled items on eBay. Misspelled items tend to have fewer people viewing them because if the listing is ‘New Latop’ and someone searches for ‘laptop’, the item wont be shown, thus less bids are made. Hence, by finding these items, you can grab a bargain.

TypoTrawler is different to Fat Fingers because instead of users having to enter the search term by hand (e.g. ‘laptop’), we continually search eBay for hundreds of thousands of different misspelled items. We them group them into the categories on our website so that users can easily view them. TypoTrawler uses Web 2.0 ideas to improve the experience for the user. Items are displayed using AJAX and user feedback dictates which typos are searched for in the future and which to blacklist.

Why Typos?
Many listings on eBay are misspelled. For example, the title may contain ‘latop’ instead of the intended ‘laptop’. This dramatically reduces the number of people who visit the auction for the ‘latop’ as everyone is searching for the correctly spelled ‘laptop’. With less people viewing the item, less bids are made, so the price remains low. Therefore, by searching for these misspelled items, TypoTrawler allows you to find bargains on eBay.

But this has been done before…
Yes it has. But TypoTrawler does it better. Services like our sister site TypoTracker are great if you’re looking for a specific item, but if you’re just looking for a great deal on whatever you can find, it’s not very effective. After about 15 minutes you’re out of ideas for things to search for… this is where TypoTrawler steps in. Our robot minions relentlessly trawl through eBay day and night picking out misspelled items. We then display them in a handy list so you can watch the bargains literally flow down the screen!