With C# Cookbook, 2nd Edition, you’ll be able to learn and improve your mastery of both the C# language and the .NET platform. This updated bestseller has been completely revised to account for C# 2.0, the latest version of this popular object-oriented programming language. It also includes more than 100 new code solutions (over 300 overall) to common problems and tasks that you’re sure to face as a C# programmer. Nearly every solution, or “recipe,” contains a complete, documented code sample showing you how to solve the specific problem, as well as a detailed discussion of how and why the underling technology works. This question-solution-discussion format is a proven teaching method, as any fan of O’Reilly’s “Cookbook” series can attest to. In fact, no other source offers a learn-as-you-go format quite like this.

C# Cookbook, 2nd Edition is organized into 20 chapters, each of which focuses on a particular topic in creating C# solutions. Here are just some of what’s covered:

• Numeric data types
• Strings and characters
• Classes and structures
• Generics
• Exception handling
• Delegates, events, and anonymous methods
• Filesystem interactions
• Web site access
• XML usage (including XPath and XSLT)
• Networking
• Threading
• Unsafe code

Best of all, you don’t have to be an experienced C# or .NET developer to use C# Cookbook, 2nd Edition. You just have to be someone who wants to solve a problem now, without having to learn all the related theory first.

The programming language C# was built with the future of application development in mind. Pursuing that vision, C#’s designers succeeded in creating a safe, simple, component-based, high-performance language that works effectively with Microsoft’s .NET Framework. Now the favored language among those programming for the Microsoft platform, C# continues to grow in popularity as more developers discover its strength and flexibility. And, from the start, C# developers have relied on Programming C# both as an introduction to the language and a means of further building their skills.

The fourth edition of Programming C#–the top-selling C# book on the market–has been updated to the C# ISO standard as well as changes to Microsoft’s implementation of the language. It also provides notes and warnings on C# 1.1 and C# 2.0.

Aimed at experienced programmers and web developers, Programming C#, 4th Edition, doesn’t waste too much time on the basics. Rather, it focuses on the features and programming patterns unique to the C# language. New C# 2005 features covered in-depth include:

• Visual Studio 2005
• Generics
• Collection interfaces and iterators
• Anonymous methods
• New ADO.NET data controls
• Fundamentals of Object-Oriented Programming

Author Jesse Liberty, an acclaimed web programming expert and entrepreneur, teaches C# in a way that experienced programmers will appreciate by grounding its applications firmly in the context of Microsoft’s .NET platform and the development of desktop and Internet applications.

Liberty also incorporates reader suggestions from previous editions to help create the most consumer-friendly guide possible.

When it comes to creating dynamic web sites, the open source PHP language is red-hot property: used on more than 20 million web sites today, PHP is now more popular than Microsoft’s ASP.NET technology. With our Cookbook’s unique format, you can learn how to build dynamic web applications that work on any web browser. This revised new edition makes it easy to find specific solutions for programming challenges.

PHP Cookbook has a wealth of solutions for problems that you’ll face regularly. With topics that range from beginner questions to advanced web programming techniques, this guide contains practical examples — or “recipes” — for anyone who uses this scripting language to generate dynamic web content. Updated for PHP 5, this book provides solutions that explain how to use the new language features in detail, including the vastly improved object-oriented capabilities and the new PDO data access extension. New sections on classes and objects are included, along with new material on processing XML, building web services with PHP, and working with SOAP/REST architectures. With each recipe, the authors include a discussion that explains the logic and concepts underlying the solution.

“Ajax is short for “Asynchronous JavaScript+CSS+DOM+XMLHttpRequest.”

Even if you weren’t intimidated before, that tidbit is probably enough to make you reach for the Excedrin. Just reach for Ajax For Dummies instead. With screen shots, actual code and explanations, and live Web sites where you can see Ajax applications doing their thing, it will have you using Ajax to create Web applications that look an act like desktop applications in no time. With Ajax, you can speed up and clean up your Web applications. Shoppers at your online store can fill their carts without waiting for multiple page refreshes. Searchers on your sites can get instant results on the same page.

This guide takes you on a tour of how Ajax is used today, complete with examples of Ajax applications in action, such as an Ajax-enabled Yahoo! search or an Ajax-based chat application. Then it gives you basics on using JavaScript. After that you dive in and get info on:

* Writing some Ajax, interactive mouseovers using Ajax, passing data to the server with GET or POST, and more
* Connecting to Google for a live search
* Using free Ajax frameworks so you don’t have to start from scratch, including Ajax Gold (written specifically for this book), AJAXLib, and grabbing XML with libXmlRequest
* All kinds of Ajax techniques, such as using Ajax for drag-and-drop operations, pop-up menus, downloading images behind the scenes, and more
* Using SACK (simple AJAX code kit), decoding XML with Sarissa, and creating visual effects with Rico
* Handling XML int Ajax Applications
* Working with cascading style sheets (CCS) in Ajax, including setting up the styles, displaying a menu, styling text, handling colors and backgrounds, and more
* Working with Ajax and PHP

Complete with a companion Web site, free Ajax frameworks, and sample code you can use, Ajax for Dummies is your friendly guide to creating truly user-friendly Web sites!

This practical guide shows you how to make your Java web applications more responsive and dynamic by incorporating new Ajaxian features, including suggestion lists, drag-and-drop, and more. Java developers can choose between many different ways of incorporating Ajax, from building JavaScript into your applications “by hand” to using the new Google Web Toolkit (GWT).

Ajax on Java starts with an introduction to Ajax, showing you how to write some basic applications that use client-side JavaScript to request information from a Java servlet and display it without doing a full page reload. It also presents several strategies for communicating between the client and the server, including sending raw data, and using XML or JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) for sending more complex collections of data.

The book then branches out into different approaches for incorporating Ajax, which include:

• The Prototype and script.aculo.us Javascript libraries, the Dojo and Rico libraries, and DWR
• Integrating Ajax into Java ServerPages (JSP) applications
• Using Ajax with Struts
• Integrating Ajax into Java ServerFaces (JSF) applications
• Using Google’s GWT, which offers a pure Java approach to developing web applications: your client-side components are written in Java, and compiled into HTML and JavaScript

Ajax gives web developers the ability to build applications that are more interactive, more dynamic, more exciting and enjoyable for your users. If you’re a Java developer and haven’t tried Ajax, but would like to get started, this book is essential. Your users will be grateful.

Learn to build dynamic, interactive web applications using the two most important approaches to web development today: Ajax and the phenomenally efficient Ruby on Rails platform. This book teaches intermediate to advanced web developers how to use both Ajax and Rails to quickly build high-performance, scalable applications without being overwhelmed with thousands of lines of JavaScript code. More than just recipes, you also get a thorough, low-level understanding of what’s happening under the hood.

• Ajax on Rails includes three fully worked out Rails/Ajax applications, and quick reference sections for Prototype and script.aculo.us.
• Testing lessons show you how to eliminate cross-browser JavaScript errors and DOM debugging nightmares using a combination of Firebug, and Venkman.
• Advanced material explains the most current design practices for Ajax usability. You’ll learn to avoid user experience mistakes with proven design patterns.

Beyond the how-to, Ajax on Rails helps you consider when Ajax is (and isn’t) appropriate, and the trade-offs associated with it. For those new to Rails, this book provides a quick introduction, the big picture, a walk through the installation process, and some tips on getting started. If you’ve already started working with Rails and seek to deepen your skill set, you’ll find dozens of examples drawn from real-world projects, exhaustive reference for every relevant feature, and expert advice on how to “Ajaxify” your applications.

Professional Ajax 2nd Edition provides a developer-level tutorial of Ajax techniques, patterns, and use cases. The book begins by exploring the roots of Ajax, covering how the evolution of the web and new technologies directly led to the development of Ajax techniques. A detailed discussion of how frames, JavaScript, cookies, XML, and XMLHttp requests (XHR) related to Ajax is included. After this introduction, the book moves on to cover the implementation of specific Ajax techniques. Request brokers such as hidden frames, dynamic iframes, and XHR are compared and contrasted, explaining when one method should be used over another. To make this discussion clearer, a brief overview of HTTP requests and responses is included. Once a basic understanding of the various request types is discussed, the book moves on to provide in-depth examples of how and when to use Ajax in a web site or web application. Different data transmission formats, including plain text, HTML, XML, and JSON are discussed for their advantages and disadvantages. Also included is a discussion on web services and how they may be used to perform Ajax techniques. Next, more complex topics are covered. A chapter introducing a request management framework explores how to manage all of the requests inside of an Ajax application. Ajax debugging techniques are also discussed.

The last part of the book walks through the creation of two full-fledged Ajax web applications. The first, FooReader.NET, is an Ajax-powered RSS reader. The second, called AjaxMail, is an Ajax-enabled email system. Both of these applications incorporate many of the techniques discussed throughout the book.

Professional Ajax 2nd edition is written for Web application developers looking to enhance the usability of their web sites and web applications and intermediate JavaScript developers looking to further understand the language. Readers should have familiarity with XML, XSLT, Web Services, PHP or C#, HTML, CSS. This book is not aimed at beginners without a basic understanding of the aforementioned technologies. Also, a good understanding of JavaScript is vitally important to understanding this book. Those readers without such knowledge should instead refer to books such as Beginning JavaScript, Second Edition (Wrox, 2004, ISBN: 978-0-7645-5587-9) and Professional JavaScript for Web Developers (Wrox, 2005, ISBN: 978-0-7645-7908-0).

Professional Ajax 2nd edition adds nearly 200 pages of new and expanded coverage compared to the first edition. Some of the new topics covered here include:

• Ajax Libraries including the Yahoo! Connection Manager, Prototype, and jQuery
• Request Management with Priority Queues and the RequestManager Object
• Comet push-based web systems and HTTP streaming
• Maps and Mashups with Geocoding, Google Maps API and Yahoo! Maps API
• Ajax Debugging with FireBug and Microsoft Fiddler ASP.NET AJAX Extensions (formerly code-named “Atlas”)

And of course the Second Edition retains and updates the core first edition content including:

• the range of request brokers (including the hidden frame technique, iframes, and XMLHttp) and explains when one should be used over another
• different Ajax techniques and patterns for executing client-server communication
• Ajax patterns including predictive fetch, page preloading, submission throttling, incremental field and form validation, periodic refresh, multi-stage download and more
• Syndication with RSS, Atom, and XParser
• JSON and creating an autosuggest textbox example
• web site widgets for a news ticker, weather information, web search, and site search
• Ajax Frameworks JSpan, DWR, and Ajax.NET Professional
• A Web-based RSS/Atom aggregator case study
• An AjaxMail case study

Interested in becoming a master of the PHP language and MySQL database but don’t know where to begin? This best-selling book ranks among the most thorough and practical guides in print, covering all of the key concepts and features, and showing you how to effectively integrate PHP and MySQL to build powerful web sites.

The book begins with a vast overview of PHP’s capabilities, starting with a survey of the installation and configuration process on both the Windows and Linux platforms. Next, several chapters are devoted to basic PHP concepts, including variables, datatypes, arrays, functions, string manipulation, and processing user input. Other key PHP topics are also covered, including PEAR, session handling, LDAP integration, the Smarty templating engine, Web services, and PDO.

Next up is a presentation of MySQL’s key features. You’re first guided through MySQL’s installation and configuration process, and are presented with an introduction to its storage engines, datatypes, administration utilities, security features, and data import/export facilities. New MySQL 5–specific chapters have been added in this edition, covering triggers, stored procedures, and views. Along the way, you’ll gain insight into PHP’s assortment of MySQL functions (using both the mysql and mysqli extensions), and learn how to create and execute queries, perform searches, and carry out key database tasks from within your Web application.

What You Will Learn from This Book

• Install and configure Apache, PHP, and MySQL on both Windows and Linux.
• Accept and process information submitted via HTML forms.
• Authenticate users and track user preferences and data using PHP’s session-handling capabilities.
• Process web-based file uploads using the HTTP_Upload PEAR package.
• Create your own RSS aggregator using Magpie, and process XML files in amazingly efficient fashion using SimpleXML.
• Use both command-line and graphical MySQL clients to effectively manage your data.
• Secure the MySQL server, creating roles and restricting access even at very granular levels.
• Effectively integrate PHP and MySQL to create dynamic, data-driven web applications.

Are you ready to build more responsive web applications with richer UI elements? This detailed guide to the Microsoft AJAX Library shows you how to bring together ASP.NET 2.0 with an object-oriented approach to JavaScript development using this new framework from Microsoft. You’ll gain an in-depth understanding of the ASP.NET AJAX architecture, including the server controls, client-side JavaScript library, and runtime environment. By following the numerous examples, you’ll see how much your users benefit from this new class of web applications that manipulate the browser’s DOM and communicate with the server to update the user’s view of a page without waiting for the entire page to be refreshed.

Written by Microsoft’s lead ASP.NET AJAX developer together with an in-the-field Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional), this book guides you through the core of the Microsoft AJAX Library and the controls you will use to leverage AJAX. It provides you with code samples to take advantage of some of the popular shared-source ASP.NET AJAX Toolkit controls and extensions. And you’ll work through debugging functionality in Visual Studio® and the browser as well as methods for effective testing.

What you will learn from this book

• How to create a better user experience by adding more dynamic UIs
• Steps for accessing ASP.NET profile and authentication services
• Ways to simplify programming tasks using the Microsoft AJAX Library
• Strategies for testing web applications to achieve optimal performance
• Methods for developing custom AJAX controls

Get Professional ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX

If you are familiar with creating HTML web pages but aren’t familiar with creating dynamic, data driven web applications, you should consider learning ASP. And Sams Teach Yourself ASP.NET 2.0 in 24 Hours, Complete Starter Kit is the perfect learning tool. The Starter Kit provides the unbeatable combination of programmer/author Scott Mitchell and the step-by-step learning method of the best-selling Sams Teach Yourself series. The accompanying CD includes Visual Web Developer 2005 Express, a lightweight, easy-to-use and easy-to-learn web development tool, and all projects developed in the book’s examples.