Assuming a basic knowledge of PHP, XML, JavaScript and MySQL, this book will help you understand how the heart of AJAX beats and how the constituent technologies work together. After teaching the foundations, the book will walk you through numerous real-world case studies covering tasks you’ll be likely to need for your own applications:

Server-enabled form-validation page
Online chat collaboration tool
Customized type-ahead text entry solution
Real-time charting using SVG
Database-enabled, editable and customizable data grid
RSS aggregator application
A server-managed sortable list with drag&drop support using the script.aculo.us JavaScript toolkit

The appendices guide you through installing your working environment, using powerful tools that enable debugging, improving, and profiling your code, working with XSLT and XPath.