Experienced web developers looking to improve their understanding of Ajax, who need to gain a solid understanding of Ajax technologies and how they relate to their chosen technology stack.

To benefit from this Ajax course, you should have a solid understanding of web technologies, such as JavaScript and the HTTP protocol. If you have a passing familiarity with these tools, rather than a solid understanding of these technologies, you should attend SKM-2100 Ajax Primer:

JavaScript and DOM, the Ajax Building Blocks course, before attending this core Ajax course.

Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:

• Develop robust, user-friendly, secure Ajax solutions
• Decide when and why to use Ajax
• Use the technologies fundamental to Ajax
• Choose between a variety of Ajax frameworks
• Understand the broader implication of Ajax for your web application architecture
• Deliver Push with Ajax and Comet

Module 1 - Introduction to Ajax

• What is Ajax (where to use it, and why does it matter)?
• Synchronous and asynchronous interaction
• The XmlHTTPRequest object
• Retrieving data as text and as XML
• Using HTTP methods, headers and parameters
• Asynchronous callback handlers

Module 2 - Ajax Design Basics

• Retrieving content
• Retrieving executable scripts
• Retrieving data: text, XML, JSON
• Refactoring the XHR object

Module 3 - Prototype

• Extending the core language
• New coding idioms for JavaScript technology
• Ajax Helper classes
• HTML Form and DOM helpers

Module 4 - Scriptaculous

• Special effects for Ajax
• Drag and drop made easy
• UI components

Module 5 - Network Connectivity Frameworks

• Sarissa
  • Basic request wrappers
  • XML manipulation
• Prototype Ajax.Request
• Rico.AjaxEngine
  • Response types
  • Server-side implementation

Module 6 - Overview of Web Server Architectures

• Component Models: JSF, Tapestry, Atlas
• Exposing Server Objects: DWR, SAJAX
• Security concerns
  • Restricting access
  • Protecting data
  • Web 2.0 architecture: Services Integration and Mashups
• Consuming third-party services
  • RSS
  • Google maps
  • Web services
• Exposing a third-party API
  • SOAP
  • XML-RPC
  • REST
• Code base management
  • Profiling JavaScript Code
    • Venkman Profiler
    • Home-made profilers
    • Profiling network activity using HTTP debuggers
  • Testing Ajax applications
    • Unit testing JavaScript technology
    • End-to-end testing

Module 7 - Delivering Push with Ajax and Comet

• What are Push technologies?
• How do they relate to Ajax?
  • Use cases
    • Dashboards
    • Collaboration
  • How can you implement Push?
    • Pseudo-push techniques
    • HTTP Push with Comet
    • Raw sockets