I wonder why people who did not buy the book but are allowed to review the book. This opens the door for many dishonest reviews.

I really enjoyed this book. Not only does it explain things thoroughly but the author also gives very intelligent, practical examples to help flesh out the theory. It's really good.

I purchased this book due to the abundance of positive reviews.
Unfortunately, the author/publisher fails to include in their description that the examples are based in C#. I was looking for VB.

While I have some experience in C#, trying to convert the examples became a nightmare! And, even when I did try running the examples in their native code, several failed.

During the first chapter the author provides some quick and dirty examples of Ajax as implemented by MS. In doing so, he gives you the code in fragments, but, leaves out some key points. Mainly, the fact that the JavaScript (your code) to be used with MS/Ajax MUST come AFTER the asp:ScriptManager declaration. Which means that you cannot include your .js code in the "header" section of a web page (as many experienced JavaScript programmers would do...). When MS compiles a page, it adds it's own .js code AFTER it encounters the asp:ScriptManager tag. This is a CRUCIAL point the author left out.

If you put any of your .js code prior to the asp:ScriptManager tag, it will blow up. If the author had mentioned this, I wouldn't have wasted an hour trying to figure out why his code "fragment" kept blowing up on me.


Note to ALL publishers of technical books:
Be VERY SPECIFIC in your Product Description as to what language your examples are based in. If you don't, then you are just pushing paper for the purpose of making a sale....

Ok for me its a must have book.
Why because I want to know all about what the micrsoft javascipt injection is actually doing, how I debug applications with it, how I make it leaner (versa using CSSQuery,JQuery and MooTools), how I wire up events and become articulate with this tecnology. You can use the MS Ajax framework on its own in say PHP.
So this book is really all about the client side of MS Ajax. If you are familiar with javascript libs like prototype.js you can absorbe this book easy. If you are a UI/Frontend developer then this is a must have.
If you are a PHP developer then why not use it to pick up a robust framework.
If you are a C# UI developer this will allow you to go beyond stuff that all the other can only drag and drop from the toolbar.
Worth while looking at writing control extenders in 3.5 as this would be the place to put the results of your ajax efforts (write one - use many).

Like many people who develop ASP.NET applications for a living, I was extremely interested in learning about ASP.NET AJAX. This is the only book I bought on the subject, and it has been extraordinary. I can't recommend it highly enough. Read this book and you'll be an expert.

This book was a great introduction to the ASP.NET Ajax Extensions and Control Toolkit! Extremely well written. I especially appreciated the practical, real-world samples that were given throughout the book that actually worked.

If you are after further exploration and like to know how things work underneath the hood a bit more, I recommend Dino Esposito's book as a companion.

I have been reading this book for a while. While at Border's or B&N, I used to grab other ASP.NET AJAX books and used to read them too. But, no other bookes close to this books CLARITY and Detailed and Simple explanation. It starts from the absolute basics and chapter by chapter it brings the developers skill set at par with the pro's. Most ASP.NET developer's client-side scripting needs some work. This book understands it and addresses them in a very simple and elegant verbals.
I had been debating for a while which book to buy. After a lot of work, I decided to go for this book. And I am happy I made the right decision.
It also has the sneak peek of the CTP Futures too.
5+ Stars. Definite YES.

Very well written. Great examples. In depth as well as plain spoken author. Much to learn and easy to learn. Recommended.

I haven't even finished reading the book, I am only on chapter 5 and will give this book 5 stars. Before starting this books I only knew how to use the ASP.NET AJAX controls and thought I knew something about AJAX. Come to find I knew very little. This book does an outstanding job cover the client centric development of AJAX rather than concentrating stricly on server centric AJAX development. I say if you are thinking about buying another AJAX book consider this one at the top of your list.

This is a real must have for anyone who wants to take their AJAX enabled web sites to the next level. It is written in such a way that even my wife (who is not a programmer) could understand...It really is a great book!

After receiving the book in the mail from Amazon, I tried to find the info in the book so I could download the source code. That's the most important thing for a book that *is* about code--right? And more than 50% of the book is source code listings. Ergo, for 45 dollars, the source code should be available to us purchasers from Amazon, right?

Wrong. These publishers are pathetic. They now want to allow Amazon to sell the books they publish, but if you actually want the source code, then 45 dollars, 50 dollars, and more just ISN'T ENOUGH!

They want you to order the whole book again, or order a special subscription just to access the code from the book you already spent enormous amounts of money on.

So, you've been warned. If you want to even try to enter the source code, be warned that the code is distributed throughout the chapters--there's no one overall shot of the code, so even if you WANT to spend a week or two typing in the code from the book, be prepared for omissions.

And shame on Scott Guthrie, who I admired, for printing a foreword promoting this book. I used to order from Wiley and Sons(another publisher that screws over engineers by charging 50 bucks for a book, then wants to charge 30+ dollars to access the source code).

Please boycott these publishers. It won't take much for them to fold and stop ripping off us book buyers.

And AMAXON! STOP SELLING BOOKS THAT DO NOT PROVIDE SOURCE CODE!

Well I am only a few chapters in, but so far so good. I find its a pretty easy read with good examples in code and thorough explanations. I like the fact that it gives a good and quick over view of Javascript and JSON especially if you are someone like me who learned Javascript on the job.

This book is really excellent.

It provides a detailed overview of how to write Ajax enabled OO javascript components using Ajax for ASP.Net.

What I like about this book is that it provides a detailed overview of the client and server model, and how they work together, in a very understandable and easy to read approach. It also provides a nice introduction to extenders and the control toolkit, as well as some CTP futures.

This is only one of two books out of my collection of 15 books that I have recently purchased in the last couple of years that I would consider excellent.

Comprehensive and helpful information for novice to experienced users - well worth the time to read.

I decided to purchase this book for two reasons.

1. Asp.net has it as highly recommended.
2. It was recommended to me by multiple colleagues.

To say the least, it's a great book. The writing style is easy to read and understand. The authors do not use the book as a vehicle to self promote their knowledge. The authors use the book to help teach you what they understand. I was really getting tired of purchasing books which were difficult to follow this book has won me back. If any of the authors read this review...Thank you.

Pete

An invaluable resource for serious web developers. After learning the concepts in ASP.NET AJAX In Action, AJAX technology will become part of your DNA. Working with Microsoft's ASP.NET AJAX and the AJAX Control Toolkit, there's no need for third-party tools like NETAdvantage and r.a.d Controls.

ASP.NET brought its own structure to the task of web development, formalizing some common practices and building a classical Visual/RAD development environment upon them. ASP.NET AJAX brings this into the realm of asynchronous communication, partial page updates, and client scripting. It's hardly the be-all, end-all of client-side development - but for the task of adding a faster, smoother, AJAX-style experience to an existing, postback-heavy ASP.NET site, it is well-developed set of tools.

This is not an AJAX book. It's a book on a framework, one which builds on another framework, and which uses AJAX techniques as a means to its ends. Frameworks change the game: as the name suggests, they're designed and used for the purpose of providing structure, but not necessarily easy access to a specific technology or techique. You will read this book to learn what that structure is, how to use it, and how to work around its limitations.

And you will learn it. This book is ruthless - everything an ASP.NET developer might need to know to move up to AJAX.NET gets pulled in, from a thorough Javascript chapter to basic authentication and cross-site-scripting security to the improvements coming in the forthcoming Orcas release, to common patters for use. I fully expected it to fall into the "tutorial-wrapped reference manual" trap that so many of these books do, but it never does. Nor does it spend too much time on any one topic. We get an introduction, discussion, example, further resources... and on to the next one.

The writing style is formal but not stiff, and relatively free of the sorts of scatter-shot proofing that seem all too common with first-edition technical books. Diagrams and code samples are clear, attractive, and plentiful.

I would recommend this book to anyone thinking about adopting ASP.NET AJAX for their site(s), and especially for anyone coming into a project already using it - I honestly cannot recommend a better resource for getting up to speed on the ins and outs of the framework quickly.

I had written off ASP.NET AJAX as bloated and for beginners until I bought this excellent book. While I have done AJAX by hand in the past, I'm now a convert to the advantages of leveraging this powerful library. I highly recommend this book both for beginners who want to start with ASP.NET AJAX and those professionals looking to either leverage this library, or to be convinced that they need to.

The book is full of practical examples that I was able to apply immediately to my code, as well as thorough explanations that enabled me to expand on and understand the code provided

I just completed reading the book ASP.NET Ajax In Action and thought I would share my opinion of the book. While I have read various blogs and articles on AJAX, I am just now starting to implement it into our main enterprise level application, and wanted a book to really get me started in the right direction.

Overall I feel the content of the book is very good and the topics are delivered in an easy to read format. I really like the layout of the book, and feel the chapters were organized very nicely. I did not feel like the authors jumped around from topic to topic too much, and the flow of the book felt very natural.

Full detailed review:
http://devauthority.com/blogs/whoiskb/archive/2007/09/26/Book_Review_ASPNET_AJAX_In_Action_.aspx

I don't normally give a rave review about books unless I was really satisfied with the book, but this book really is a great book.

First of all, apart from it being an ASP.NET AJAX book, one of things I consider when buying a book is the overall flow of the book - the flows between paragraphs and the flows between chapters. On that note, ASP.NET Ajax in Action has a great flow. Especially the transitions of the book and the divisions of the chapters were well put into the book, so it could feel like reading a novel in some cases.

On the technical side, I like technical books that have a lot of examples that make good sense. This book is full of examples, which is very imporant for understanding a new technology. Another thing I like about th book is the detailed examplanations of the ASP.NET Ajax foundations. For example, it doesn't talk about UpdatePanel until Chatper 6 and 7, which most of ASP.NET developers like to just use for quick development. However, this book does a good job of illustrating the overall architecure of the Ajax framework, and does not neglect that Javascript is also a big part in developing Ajax-enabled websites. Unlike other ASP.NET Ajax books, this book has a few chapters dedicated to client-centric ASP.NET Ajax development, which is necessary for building hard-core ajax sites and components.

To conclude, this book is a must-have for asp.net developers and you can use it as both a reference book and a learning material.

I do a lot of reading, and to the best of my knowledge my personal .NET book collection is bigger than anyone else's. The first thing I noticed about this book is the smooth and highly readable writing style - very rare to see in a technical book. As I read through the chapters it became clear to me that the content was no less stunning than the readability! The charts and tables are not merely a reprint of MSDN, and the authors dominated the subject without making it dry like a reference manual.

It was obviously their goal to ensure that readers already familiar with ASP.NET in general would become a subject expert on AJAX just by studying this book. The real world example code stands alone among the other books: this code works and it is highly relevant instead of being a bunch of contrived example snippets! There is no better book on ASP.NET AJAX.

I am looking for any other books from these authors - I'll order them without even thinking about it. There's a very short list of authors about whom I can make that statement. And I'll keep my eye on the Manning publishing company from now on. They know how to edit books well, and they selected the best authors available.