This whole book idea started as a bet I had with my editor that we couldn't pick two random techie topics and tie them together in a book. Two darts flew through the air and the topics "Ajax" and "live CDs" ended up being the result. This book could've just as easily been about Blu-ray on Rails or iPod design patterns. So it's just dumb luck that you're picking up a book on Ajax and live CDs.
And if you believe that, maybe I can interest you in helping fund this startup company I've been thinking about launching! The truth is, Ajax and live CDs are surprisingly good bedfellows in that live CDs provide the perfect environment for building and testing Ajax applications. The whole idea of a "live CD" is that it includes a complete operating system on a single CD. Along with a complete operating system, you get to include any applications you want, such as a Web server that can serve up Ajax applications.
One thing that is unique about Ajax applications as compared to purely client-side applications developed solely in JavaScript is that they require something to happen on the server. In other words, the very premise of Ajax is communication between a client and a server. This means you not only need a server, but you need a server that you have a bit of control over. At the very least, you need the ability to quickly install and test server-side scripts that will handle the server-side processing for your Ajax applications. Live CDs fit the bill nicely in terms of giving you an unbelievably customizable platform for building, testing, and hosting Ajax applications.
As cool as live CDs can be, I have to be honest and say that this book is 95% about Ajax. The live CD facet of this book is primarily a convenience due to the fact that Ajax applications are more demanding of their environment than pure client applications.
OK, so the book is primarily about Ajax, but what does that really mean? It means that in a relatively few number of pages you learn how to do the following things with Ajax:
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Dynamically load e-book chapters for a Web-based book reader (Chapter 3)
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Instantly select and view live stock quotes (Chapter 4)
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Turn any Web page into a news aggregator that understands RSS news feeds (Chapter 5)
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Add auto-complete functionality to your Web site (Chapter 6)
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Validate form data and look up location data in real time (Chapter 7)
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Create a "Web 2.0" image viewer to modernize the way your pages handle images (Chapter 8)
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Use informational popup windows to dynamically display small nuggets of content (Chapter 9)
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Add a live weather condition popup window to any link (Chapter 10)
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Calculate shipping charges on the fly with a U.S. Postal Service Ajax request (Chapter 11)
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Incorporate an animated five-star rating system into your Web pages (Chapter 12)
These are the kinds of dynamic applications that Ajax makes possible. More importantly, this book uses a construction kit approach to guiding you through adding these features to Ajax applications. Although you will ultimately learn a lot about Ajax as you explore the many examples presented throughout this book, the focus of the book is not on teaching you Ajax. The focus is on showing you how to do cool things with Ajax. Sometimes this requires you to learn something entirely new; other times it simply requires cutting and pasting code. The point is that this book is about doing things.
In my opinion, doing is learning, so you'll ultimately leave this book with a much more thorough understanding of Ajax than when you started. But more importantly, you'll leave it with your own set of Ajax building blocks that you can take with you and apply to your own projects.