ZK Developer's Guide: Developing responsive user interfaces for web applications using Ajax, XUL, and the open source ZK rich web client development framework

The ZK Framework is a very impressive framework that allows server side developers to deliver highly interactive and impactful user interfaces. In the beginning of 2010 ZK 5 was released which added a ton of new functionality and streamlined the developer's workflow.This book was a major disappointment, but I believe I should of expected as much. It is over a couple years old and obviously doesn't address the enhancements that were just released. I rate this book a tad lower solely on the fact that the index is horrible. I'm not sure how you can have a 2.5 page index on such an elaborate framework.I suggest keeping an eye out for a new edition or another ZK book focused on ZK 5.My 2

This book didn't meet my expectations. Its style is a bit unstructured. The interaction with a always required back-end has been insufficiently described. I was definitely disappointed this time, and would recommend to search for another ZK book.I am a seasoned Java programmer but had trouble getting things in place. I think the writers need a lot of rework setting up a real great case in their book, with working and downloadable examples, and attention to the integration with the back-end. The case itself (a media library) is fine, but it has not been clearly and readable elaborated.

ZK is a quite specialised development framework that assists with the making of web pages. It emphasises the use of XHTML pages, instead of plain HTML. Which is all to the good, as XHTML makes it easier to have pages that can be well formed and validated. In term, this eases the writing and maintenance.ZK also lets you write logic in Java, instead of JavaScript. For programmers who use both languages, this should be seen as a plus. Java gives you more raw programming ability, as well as access to a large set of libraries. By comparison, JavaScript is a specialised and far more restrictive coding.If you are already writing in Ajax, then ZK leverages the success of that approach. This combination of Java and Ajax abilities is a strong feature of ZK.The book is candid about ZK being for the client side construction. But it also shows how ZK can be used with server side approaches.

This book is from stone age. Wondering why there is no new one... Information in this book is so obsolete, only some chapters, where is some principles, are ok. This doesn't help at all for implementing by ZKoss.

The book is a good introduction to ZKoss.The examples in the book cover most of the areas someone starting with a new framework would need.The samples provided by the web site should have included the source, since the framework is itself open-source.

The purpose of an Ajax framework is to help the developers build an Ajax based application without the help of JavaScript. As today's demand for a brand new website increases by the second, developers doesn't have enough time to study the brand new framework.This contradicts the principle behind the framework. Instead of helping the developers build the application fast, they have to go back to their books and review.But as a book, ZK Developer's Guide is very intensive. Although it is only focused n CRUD based applications, the topics that were discussed covers almost any problem that the developers might face when using ZK Frameworks. People might be intimidated with the number of pages this book has, but the most parts of the book are actually coding that sometimes occupies more than one page.This book doesn't go around the bush in explaining some things that you might not encounter later on. It goes straight to the point and it uses a very simple yet very relevant example. Even though you are not familiar with ZK, this book will provide you with more than enough information which will help you, in the end, build your own Ajax based application using ZK Framework.Appendix offers very extensive information about configuration files. This part of the book is actually needed not only the end but right from the start. This appendix will help developers understand better the underlying principles in building this efficient application.