I'm trying to decide which of the two books on ASP.NET AJAX I should get. Professional ASP.NET AJAX seems to be what I'm leaning towards, since I've read enough about vanilla Ajax, but I'm worried that the differences with Microsoft's version of Ajax controls might be too big of a jump to consider myself a professional (the other book under consideration is Beginning ASP.NET AJAX, also from Wrox.)

Also, are the code examples in VB.NET or C#? I consider myself somewhat adept at translating from one to the other, but would prefer VB.NET code from the onset.

I think the code in both books is C#. I didn't check every example in both, but spot checking I did see C# code in both so that's no help in the decision.

I think if you already have some vanilla Ajax experience and you are an experienced ASP.NET developer, the Professional book is the one for you.

Jim Minatel
Acquisitions Director
Wiley Technology Publishing
WROX Press
Blog: http://wroxblog.typepad.com/

taser,

Professional ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX is great book. But, in my humble opinion, there is another book (it is out in about a month I hope) which definitely deserves your attention:

http://www.amazon.com/ASP-NET-AJAX-P.../dp/047010998X

Server-side code is in C# but I don't think it makes any significant difference for ASP.NET 2.0 Ajax book and there is as much JavaScript code as one can digest :).

Alexei

If you want a book which looks at many features of AJAX and considers things from a general web-coding point of view then "Profession AJAX, 2e" is very good. It can be read and used by someone using any server-side technology. There are 3 versions of the example source code: PHP, ASP.NET and (I think) JSP.

Alternatively, if you want a book which is very specific to Microsoft AJAX - you can get "ASP.NET AJAX in Action" by Gallo, Barkol + Vavilala, published by Manning; which is by far the best book for Microsoft only version of AJAX. The Microsoft AJAX framework is quite peculiar; so much of the stuff in the Gallo et al book is not applicable to anything apart from ASP.NET; but if you wanted to write server controls using Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX it would be indispensible!

Ooops I made a mistake - I'm in the wrong forum. When talking about the first book (above) I was not refering to "Pro ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX", ISBN: 978-0-470-10962-5 - which I have not read and can't comment on. I was refering to Professional AJAX 2e (ISBN: 978-0-470-10949-6) which I have read and can vouch for as a good general purpose AJAX book.

The Gallo book is still very good.

Code is C#, they should mention that. I am fairly new at this but found some mistakes. An easy read but not much that you can't find on any ajax site. I like the Wrox books but this one is a little weak.

This is not a book for beginners. The Gallo book is better for them, or the Wrox ASP.NET AJAX beginner book is probably also good.

This book has the best coverage on the client library and some advanced features that aren't even mentioned in most books.

Eric