Book Review : Instant jqGrid

Introduction

• Today I am going to Review a Book which has been published by Packt Publishing
• The Book is Instant jqGrid
• The Author of this book is Gabriel Manricks

Table of Contents

Who this book is written for ?

• This book is aimed at people who have some knowledge of HTML and JavaScript
• Knowledge of PHP and SQL would also prove to be beneficial
• No prior knowledge of jqGrid is expected

Pros

• I have read this book within a day.Before reading this book I didn't have any prior experience about jqGrid. But this book gave me all the necessary knowledge which it requires for work with jqGrid for my next App development.
• This is a very concise book (only 58 pages), where directly targeted to the most needed materials about the jqGrid.
• On Installation section it clearly explains how to configure the environment needed for the use of jqGrid with nice screenshots.
• After that On Quick Start section it starts with very simple example about jqGrid and explains all the default configurations of jqGrid.
• I have seen usage of JSON Data generation Tool for generate test data on our data templates,  which it requires for test our sample jqGrid on this section.It's really nice addition for this section.
• When You walk through to the next section,You will feel some kind of advance usage of the jqGrid.
• Author named This section as "Top 7 features you need to know about".
• On this section you will learn  about Formatting data,Adding controls,Editing data,Communicating with jqGrid,Editing data server-side,Searching in jqGrid and Interfacing the API.
• Even though those areas are advance usage of jqGrid,Author explains the theory well with the sample code and final output of those examples with nice screenshots.
• Since the sub section of "Communicating with jqGrid",Author has mainly targeted the jqGid usage for PHP developers.
• When you follow this book, you can collect lots of very useful URLs for get more knowledge about jqGrid world.Other than that You'll have whole chapter reserved for this purpose which named as "People and places you should get to know".
• Source code has been provided with this book also includes a nice read me file which explains how to use codes.I have tested all codes (except PHP Codes) and working fine.

      

Cons

• I personally don't like the cover image of this book.It's totally not matching with the Title of the book.Why because the cover image must implies the Title of the book in some way.When we consider this book, it's very easy choice to pick image of nice jqGrid as a cover page image.Author Must think about these things also.
• I would like If Author has included a chapter or subsection for the usage of jqGrid for ASP.net MVC developers as well.Then this book will serve for both worlds (PHP and ASP.net).
• I am not happy with the formatting of the Code blocks.Currently it's on Black and White (mono) way. It should be required as color syntax code for better reading experiences.
• On e-Book we cannot access some of the URLs directly by clicking the links.I have found that the problem is when URL goes for the 2nd line of the page,it doesn't work.Need to consider this issue also.
• It's better If Author has provided more Screenshots on "Editing data" Section. Currently It's having lot of text explanation without sufficient screenshots.So it'll lead bit boring for continues reading.

Errata

• Below mentioned errors came, when I was generating below templates by using JSON Generator Tool
• I have seen below mentioned error on sample code under "Quick start" section

          Error Code

         [
            '{{repeat(50)}}',
             {
                   name: '{{firstName}} {{lastName}}',
                   phone: '{{phone}}'
             }
        ] 

         Correct Code

         [

             '{{repeat(50)}}',

              {

                   name: '{{firstName}} {{surname}}',

                   phone: '{{phone}}'

              }

         ]

• I have seen below mentioned error on sample code under "Formatting data" section

         Error Code

        [

           '{{repeat(10)}}',

           {

               name: '{{firstName}} {{lastName}}',

               timestamp: '{{numeric(1104559200, 1357020000)}}',

               verified: '{{bool}}',

               website: 'http://{{firstName}}{{lastName}}.com'

           }

       ]

       Correct Code

        [

           '{{repeat(10)}}',

            {

                 name: '{{firstName}} {{surname}}',

                 timestamp: '{{numeric(1104559200, 1357020000)}}',

                 verified: '{{bool}}',

                 website: 'http://{{firstName}}{{surname}}.com'

           }

       ]

References

• Packt Publishing - Instant jqGrid

• Amazon - Instant jqGrid

Conclusion

• I would like to recommend this book for all the Novice and Intermediate PHP Developers, Who are willing to learn jqGrid.
• I have to put special thanks for Packt Publishers,who gave me this opportunity to review this book.This is my first book review and I hope to do more in future as well.Packt Publishers are doing great job for Software Developers world by publishing this kind of Up-To-Date books in very specific areas.Keep up the Good work.
• I have thoroughly enjoyed the reading of this book and I hope same will feel for you as well.
• Thanks for the Author Gabriel as well for writing this kind of Instant category book.Keep up the Good work.