[woah]

I have no basis for saying this, but I feel like I wouldn't want to work on a app built by a developer who taught themselves frontend with this book.

The focus on "AJAX contact forms, AJAX file uploads, Avatar Cropping" in the blurb is odd. It sounds like you'll be getting a rundown on some handrolled jQuery stuff.

[msurguy]

Thanks for the tip. What's wrong with using jQuery? When you do the hiring are you looking for someone who takes up a couple months and rolls their own libraries or someone who can get the job done quickly by using existing open source projects? The AJAX file uploaders are super tricky, the one used in the book has a jQuery wrapper but can work without it, you'd only spend about 300% more time integrating it.

[delluminatus]

I think his point is more that it's typically easier and better to use preexisting contact form and file upload solutions, instead of writing your own (with jQuery or otherwise).

Personally I can see the benefit of banging out a form in jQuery instead of having to research and integrate another system, but something about the chapter summaries seem strange. It sounds like it's more about building custom front-end components than integrating different libraries (which is what I expected from the title).

[msurguy]

Thanks for the clarification. The chapter summaries on the maxoffsky.com/frontend page?

[delluminatus]

Yeah, in particular the lines:

* Creating AJAX contact form

* Building AJAX registration/login forms

Maybe it's just me, but that language kind of reminds me of the copy-paste era of Javascript development, where developers who don't understand JS semantics jump right into messing with login systems. Like 10 years ago it would have been "Building DHTML page counters". OFC I don't know if that impression reflects the actual material or not, though.

IMO if you're going to tell someone how to build AJAX contact forms, you would be better served writing a library to do it for them with a comprehensible API that makes it hard for people to fuck it up, or to start by explaining the basics of jQuery AJAX and selectors and event handlers and let people build the idea themselves from solid foundations. If someone really groks jQuery (or even vanilla JS), writing a contact form is a little tedious but not something that needs a tutorial or guide.

[msurguy]

Sure. I'll clarify about the material and progression so that it's clear.

First you build the HTML of the form (chapter 1 covers that). Then you learn how to work with visual feedback (spinners and alerts, chapters 2 & 3). Then creating AJAX contact form integrates the stuff from chapters 1-3 to create AJAX contact form and connect it with the backend. Chapter 5 goes a step further - building login and registration forms using stuff from chapters 1-4 plus inline validation, integrating all previous components and things you built.

The book isn't for noobs. The prerequisites section (https://leanpub.com/frontend/read#leanpub-auto-about-the-aut...) clearly explains that so the developers who don't understand JS semantics or don't know the basics of web applications should learn something else before they get back to this book.