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If you need standard documentation then look for this book.

It is boring to read this book.

Rating: 2 / 5

Are you looking for a enterprise asp.net ajax book? This book at 1500 pages provides more explanation for asp.net client side programming model than any other book!!!! This book is a must for any silverlight developer

No other book goes deeper than this book for asp.net ajax…..

If you are looking for a simpler book go someplace else

this book is for enterprise developers…..
Rating: 5 / 5

Asp.Net Ajax Programmers Reference weighs in at a hefty 1500+ pages. Most other books I’ve read on Microsoft’s Asp.Net Ajax weigh in at between 300 and 500 pages. So are all the extra pages just filler or is the content actually worth it?

This book definitely is not for the light hearted or beginners. You need to have a very good grasp of Javascript to get anywhere with this book.

After a brief introduction on what Ajax is and the methods and thought processes behind Ajax the book jumps straight in with how Microsoft have extended Javascript to give it a .Net Framework style of programming so those used to Asp.Net code behind and the .Net Framework will be more at home. Dr Khosravi doesn’t just give you brief explanations as to how Microsoft have extended Javascript but also gives you an in-depth explanation with code as to how Microsoft actually done it. Basically he takes apart the Javascript that Microsoft has used and explains step by step what they have done. This is where a lot of the extra 1000+ pages come from. Most programmers, whilst they might be interested in the actual internals, won’t actually need this in-depth an explanation of each of the features and therefore you could argue that a lot of this is just filler in the book. Some programmers however will eat this up as it shows not only how Microsoft has extended Javascript but also gives you a base as to how you can extend it too using the best practices that Microsoft has employed.

The reading also is not lightweight and is something more like what you would find in a university classroom than a normal textbook, however Dr Khosravi does get the pertinent points across and with the sheer level of detail that he goes into, you’d be hard pressed to find another book of this magnitude.

The book is up to date covering Asp.Net Ajax as released in it’s original form as an add-on to the .Net framework and also the newer .Net 3.5 integrated Asp.Net Ajax (there were some enhancements made although it is backwards compatible). The book also covers everything you would need from the extensions Microsoft has made to the base Javascript types, to communicating with Web Services, using the out of the box Update Panel control to developing your own custom client controls with Ajax. Basically everything you would need to know about Asp.Net Ajax is covered in this book and covered in detail.

So given that this book is basically a one stop shop for Asp.Net Ajax, why not give it a 5 out of 5 rating? The reasons for this I’ve outlined above. It is not the easiest book in the world to read and for a lot of programmers there is no real need to dissect every extension Microsoft has made to Javascript with the actual code that they have used. There is this feeling that this will be an excellent book to have at your computer beside you when you’re actually coding however to start learning Asp.Net Ajax you’d also want to pick up another book that quite go into the detail of this book and one that is slightly easier to read. That said, if you already know Asp.Net Ajax and want to know more or are looking for a good book to have handy when you’re coding your project, then this is the book to have.

Rating: 4 / 5