Let me start off by saying that Ajax is a very challenging language. I was working out of the Head First Ajax book and in my opinion the organization of the code leaves a lot to be desired. One of the things that really threw me off was the “var url” which I am guessing is for a reference to a link for JavaScript. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how the var url works. I tried to do a web search and come up with very little. I could not find different variations of the var url code. Usually you can find sample code on the web and then tweak it to fit your application. That is how I learn what to code does.
The chapter 1 practice out of Head First has a lot of problems right off the bat. I spent many hours re-typing the code just to make sure that I did not make an error but still no luck in getting Rob’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Memorabilia web site to fully function. I can get the picture to show up in the detail area but no item description. It is my belief that there is an error with the code. Well after nearing the point of taking a baseball bat to my computer I decided to dig a little further and see if anyone else was having trouble with the code from chapter 1. I came across the Head First forum for the Ajax book and there is quite a thread on people having trouble with the code. Wow….I am not crazy after all.
Chapter 1 code trouble
I don’t mind learning Ajax but why doesn’t the publisher of this book make it more user-friendly for people who don’t have a lot of experience with coding? To make matters worse there is not a de-bugger for Ajax!!
If you have not guessed already programming is not my favorite thing to do….if you get one line of code wrong the whole program will not run correctly. When I took C# it made me want to pull my hair out……and now two years later Ajax makes me want to do the same thing. Programming go away!!!!
It sounds like you ran into something that John and I ran into. We realized that we have to put your entire folder on people.emich.edu for the description to work. This is because it needs the server for a piece of code to actually work. That is what I got out of it. I hope this helps!
ReplyDeleteJeremy, I have the same feeling. I hate programming. I changed my major to get away from it. Well I thought I was getting away from it. But I can't even get past the first part, my pictures won't even show up. I might try what Steve said and hopefully that'll help. But just from this forst lab, I can definitely tell thatthis class is going to be my hardest! :(
ReplyDeleteJeremy I had issues with the first lab. Whenever i clicked on a picture it did nothing. I agree that the book should be more user friendly. I feel like the book is missing some key points that the authors assumes I already know.
ReplyDeleteI finally got chapter 1 working. I spelled description wrong in the inventory.html file. I wish Ajax had a compiler to show you the errors.
ReplyDeleteI think that the forum issues alone represent the quality of the book. This is supposed to be an easy-to-understand utility that will teach use the general formatting of the code necessary to implement these features. If the book isn't capable of teaching this subject - as dumbed down as it is - then we are really in trouble.
ReplyDeleteJust keep trying :)
What i feel is that the exercises in this book are not make you learn how to do programming but actualy make you understand how ajax work in the web applications....It is an advanced level class...so we really need to revise how javascript works and then it would become easier. :-)
ReplyDelete