The idea of the books in this series is to introduce you to the basics of a subject through step by step instructions for a simple project. This volume takes you through the process building a simple AJAX-enabled application starting from creating the database to viewing records, adding records and creating a search page.

The book jacket lists it as a beginner level book. It says: “Familiarity with HTML, JavaScript, PHP and CSS would be helpful but is not required.” It’s true that the project doesn’t involve anything terribly complicated in any of these areas. Still, if ALL of these are unfamiliar to you, I’d guess it would be quite difficult to follow what is going on simply because there are so many components interacting. (Actually there are a few more involved as well: MySQL, SQL and XML).

Every step of the project is explained at a level that assumes you might not have seen that type of code before. But the exact syntax of each line of code isn’t always explained so you may have to follow up with more reading and research if you want to adapt what you’ve learned to your own project later. That said, this would be a great book for someone who has a little experience with some of the technologies involved, has heard of AJAX, and wants to figure out what it’s good for.

Several things I thought were particularly good about this book. One: given that browsers do a good part of the processing with AJAX through JavaScript, and given that you can’t count on consistent behavior across browsers—or even on JavaScript being enabled, I was pleased to find that the project was designed to create a non-AJAX version first and then to add the AJAX layer on top of that.

Two: there was a good amount of error-checking built in to the application even though it is a fairly simple one. That’s something as a not-so-proficient programmer I often find myself overlooking.

And three: tips on debugging in PHP and in JavaScript are included. Although they are pretty basic tips, if you are a beginner, they will be helpful.

If you are someone who likes to learn by doing and is comfortable learning on their own, I’d say this book can give you as much for your investment of time as many a day-long workshop would and at much lower cost.