Every now and then a book comes along that actually makes a difference in your life. The difference could be minute, and it could be vast too, depending on what kind of a topic of scope the book focuses on. WordPress & Ajax, by Ronald Huereca, is such an online book, and it makes a difference in your online WordPress life.
Ronald is the creator of the world famous Ajax Edit Comments, and thus he also applies his full knowledge of WordPress and plugins into the book for your benefit. This is a review of the WordPress & Ajax book. Keep reading to find out how you can get this book for $10 cheaper than anywhere else!.
What is it?
WordPress & Ajax is a 250 page book over 15-chapters that focuses on and goes through the step-by-step process of learning how to do wonderful things in WordPress using Ajax. The book goes through the concepts and actual examples and pictures of how you can use JavaScript to build quality Ajax experiences and functionality into your WordPress powered websites and applications for both yourself and your website readers.
Who is it for?
The book clearly states that it is for people who at least have some familiarity with either how WordPress or WordPress Plugins work, or how the jQuery library works. While Ronald is quite strict in this aspect of a requirement, he is also a bit wise to specify this requirement: many people simply jump into something without understanding what it is about, only to hate and abandon that something later on.
My recommendation? It is for everyone! It is a great book for beginners who like learning by picking up actual examples. I like learning things through direct examples and by learning what is going on. I prefer learning a language, like French or German, by actually speaking it with someone who knows the language or by putting it into practice from day 1, instead of taking introductory classes for 3 years before opening my mouth. If you can understand the idea of what is going on without knowing how it works, you can start deciphering the different parts in the book to understand how everything works.
In my view, the only requirement needed to buy this book is your willingness to use Ajax with WordPress. Because of the actual codes and examples included in the book, and everything important highlighted, you can actually see how things work in order to understand why they work that way.
What does it cover?
The book covers a lot of things, since it is basically a full-fledged book for your computer that may have very well been found at your nearby bookstore. The following are some of the many topics that the book covers. Remember, each topic includes examples!
- What is Ajax? A detailed explanation of what Ajax is, and what it can do for you and your website. Sorry, this book does not cover how to use the Ajax Cleanser to clean dishes and your laptop screen! That is probably the biggest shortcoming of this book.
- Best Practices for Ajax. Some recommendations on what Ronald thinks you should use Ajax for, and what things you should avoid using Ajax with.
- How to write scripts properly for WordPress. Detailed information on how to add your own coding to WordPress to expand and customize it for your own needs, and how to do it properly and easily.
- The (in)famous Localization of Scripts explained. JavaScript & other scripts run into this issue, and Ronald helps you navigate the localization of your and any other plugins with ease in a whole chapter dedicated to the issue and the awesomely well defined solutions with examples.
- Sending out Ajax requests. Probably the most important first step for many. A whole chapter with examples on how to actually talk with WordPress & get the information you want. Using Ajax, of course!
- Many chapters on Server-Side Ajax processing! Ronald believes that Ajax should be a transparent experience for the user, and so do I. Thus, Ronald teaches you how to use the server, where your or any WordPress website of any kind is located, to process and display the Ajax results you want to yourself and your readers.
- Dozens & dozens of examples! The best part about this book, specially for people like me, is the availability of examples to actually see how things work in order to understand them. The big practical examples range from adding smilies to your WordPress site to using PayPal to sell items & use coupons, among others. All with actual codes and result snapshots so you can see what to do and what to expect.
- Optimize your JavaScript use & size. Not only do you get to learn Ajax through WordPress & JavaScript, you also get to learn how to improve your own coding and JavaScript usage in order to reduce download and file sizes, and your own coding techniques too.
What the Future Holds
Ronald has already received a lot of nice feedback from the WordPress community and will be incorporating this feedback (as well as additional examples) into future versions of the book. The cool thing? You will receive these updates for free with your book purchase.
Should you buy WordPress & Ajax? Absolutely!
If you’re looking to make your own plugins, to customize WordPress, or to add functionality to WordPress, then you should definitely go ahead and buy this book. Buy this book now! Available now at its introductory price of only $14! That is $10 LESS than the normal price of $24! You get unlimited updates & corrections via e-mail for life after that.
So go ahead, Buy WordPress & Ajax with $10 OFF, and go improve your WordPress & Ajax’ed website!
This looks like a must-read for every wordpress developer. I think it’s worth buying.