Books for/about - dhtml

Dreamweaver 8: The Missing Manual (Missing Manual)

Publisher: Pogue Press
Authors: David McFarland

ISBN: 0596100566
List Price: $44.95
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Summary: Excellent Choice!
This book was recommended when I signed up for a Dreaweaver workshop. I knew I could get a better price through Amazon, and I did--it was almost half the price! It was also very worth it. I especially like the fact that it contains tutorials so that I can see how to do the things described in the various chapters. I think it covers just about everything I need to know and maybe then some. I highly recommend this book.

Summary: Find this manual!!!
I admit, I am a techno-junkie. As a technical writer and web designer I buy all the latest software and try and keep up with all the latest languages and hardware to support my techno-habits. Whenever I purchase new software I also purchase 3-4 books on the subject as I am mostly self-taught when it comes to trying the latest things. I use Dreamweaver moderately for work and the last source of training I used was for version 4. I also took a Dreamweaver MX course at a local community college to get up to speed quickly on the newest features Dreamweaver had to offer, the course pretty much taught me what I already knew. To be fair I understand the ciriculum is pretty much pre-determined but I needed more than the basics or what I could easliy find in the help system.
After attending a seminar by David McFarland, I did what I usually do and ran out to purchase his book on Dreamweaver 8 as many of the Dreamweaver 8 books had yet to have hit the shelves. To my surprise this time I would not need 3-4 books in order to fully utilize all Dreamweaver has to offer. This book was so clear, concise, and downright READABLE, I found tips and techniques I had never used before, nor read about in any of the other manuals or bibles.
By the first chapter I had already resolved an issue I could find no information on anywhere else. I passed this book around at work and we now have 4 copies. Each of my co-workers have thanked me profusely for suggesting the book and use it frequently when working with Dreamweaver.
Beginners will be walked through every detail of Dreamweavers interface and be up to speed and desiging quickly and efficiently in no time. Advanced user will also benefit in learning new features, tips, tricks and techniques and gain an in-depth knowledge of all that Dreamweaver has to offer.
Mr. McFarland is obviously highly knowledgeable in his subject and such a pleasure to read that as you go through the contents of the book I can only describe it as having your own personal tutor standing beside your desk advising you each step of the way. I have not run into a question or issue yet that could not be solved by referencing the Missing Manual.
I strongly encourage all users, beginner and advanced alike to purchase this book. If you have a question about Dreamweaver, it's in there.

Summary: Heavy on detail, heavy on examples, and just... heavy!
This is a really heavy book, and it's loaded with great examples, explanations, and illustrations. Unlike most Dreamweaver books, which stick either to basic, static web design or to advanced, dynamic pages, this book runs the gamut, not skimping on either (but certainly concentrating on the former). The chapters are organized logically, the chunks are reasonably small, and many of the chapters end with a very illustrative hands-on example to demonstrate the topics covered. Supplemented with on-line materials only available to owners of the book (for example, five chapters on PHP and SQL), the book covers almost everything, although a couple of topics (animation and frames) are available only as freely downloadable chapters from the prior (2004) edition of the book.

The style is less formal than many other books, but the material is covered in depth and accurately, for the most part. Like almost every technical book, the book's first printing does contain a reasonable number of minor errors, so be sure to refer to the author's website and take note of the errata before digging in. The book is printed in black and white with no color plates, but this does not affect its usability at all.

Despite the book's title, this really isn't a "manual" for Dreamweaver -- it's more of a primer. If you're an advanced user looking for a reference volume to provide a quick reference into every picayune detail of Dreamweaver, this isn't your book. This also isn't your book if you're looking for anything other than a first-pass introduction to ASP, PHP, or one of the other server models. But if you're a novice to HTML or a seasoned web designer making the jump from manual coding to the advanced WYSIWYG features of Dreamweaver and need a gentle immersion into the broad power of Dreamweaver 8, this is a great book to use.

For this reason, this is easily my favorite Dreamweaver book.

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Head Rush Ajax

Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Authors: Brett McLaughlin

ISBN: 0596102259
List Price: $39.99
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Summary: I really like HeadFirst and HeadRush series. and particularly this book .
It's very interesting,funny, concise and comprehensive. I really enjoyed reading it.

Summary: The best Ajax book
Easily the best Ajax book at the moment. The material is both entertaining and infomative. The asynchronous and client/server aspects of Ajax can make it tougher to understand, and the author does a good job of working through those issues in a way that makes it easy to understand.

The book also covers the DOM and DHTML issues that you need to get the most out of the browser environment.

Summary: Beginners Bible
HI this is good for Beginners. not for experts.
Lot of things repeated 3,4 times. Which is not there in other headfirst books?

Good for who wants to know Some Javascript/HTML basics + Good AJAX

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	Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference (2nd Edition) Publisher: O'Reilly Media Authors: Danny Goodman
ISBN: 0596003161 List Price: $59.95 Amazon Price: $37.77 Usually ships in 24 hours Buy this book from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk	Avg Cusomer Rating: 5 Reviews: Summary: O'Reilly Dynamic HTML An indespensible reference for everything client-side web development. Consise and handy; this book should sit beside the keyboard of any serious web developer. Summary: The authoritative reference This hefty volume is not for the beginner, but for the working professional who needs to know exactly what features are available to them and what browser versions they will work with. It's the only book of its kind with this version information. It also includes the exact official specification of HTML, the DOM, and Javascript -- uncovering just how poor a lot of browser support is for much of these technologies (especially CSS declarations for audio, for example). I recommend this book to my upper level web development students as the last word on web development usage. The only real flaws are logistical -- the difficulty of managing a traditionally bound 1500 page book, getting it to stay open, spines splitting, that sort of thing. But the information is unparalleled. With CSS3 on the way, I anticipate another revision in the near future, and I'll be the first in line to buy another one. Summary: Great, single source reference I use this book as my first point of reference for all those technical details regarding HTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), JavaScript, and the Document Object Model (DOM). What I really like about this reference tome (1000+ pages) is how every element, tag, attribute, etc. clearly denotes which browser/browser version supports the item. It's nice to be able to carry around a single book that can answer so many questions. Highly recommended. Summary:

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JavaScript: The Definitive Guide

Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Authors: David Flanagan

ISBN: 0596101996
List Price: $49.99
Amazon Price: $31.49
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Summary: A programmer's JavaScript reference
If you've been in web programming for a while, you're undoubtedly familiar with JavaScript, but may have dismissed it as a "toy language" for flashy graphics effects without much substance. Although JavaScript is certainly the web professional's tool of choice for flashy graphics effects without much substance, the language itself is surprisingly substantial. I had been meaning to learn more about it for years and tried off and on by looking at example scripts and reading online documentation here and there. I finally decided to break down and buy a book on JavaScript, and I'm glad that it was this one. I can't recommend it highly enough - it's especially targeted at people with programming experience. This book doesn't waste your time with basic constructs or meaningless metaphors; it gets to the point, describes JavaScript, and lets you get on about your business.

As the book itself clarifies, JavaScript itself is just a programming language and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with web browsers per se. However, since virtually all JavaScript programming is done for the purpose of controlling web pages, the author specifically dedicates one third of the book to the core JavaScript language, and another third to a thorough description of the bindings between JavaScript and the browser. (The final third is a well-indexed reference that you'll find indispensable).

Since you're probably most interested in the JavaScript-browser bindings (the core language is fairly well documented online), let me say that this books coverage of it is excellent. It covers the entire history of JavaScript, detailing compatibility issues between Netscape, IE, and Mozilla (all the way back to the very first release of Netscape) and detailing exactly the sorts of uses that JavaScript is typically being put to these days. An example in the section on event handling shows how to implement drag and drop on a web page in JavaScript (bet you didn't know you could do that!) and there's even a lengthy section on the relationship between JavaScript and CSS.

I couldn't be happier with the book - it lived entirely up to my expectations and was well worth the money I spent on it.

Summary: Better than a reference
JavaScript the definitive guide is not only the reference, it is built following a logical pattern, is full of useful tips, warnings and recommendations ; it is made by somebody who is well aware of JS strengths and weakenesses, someone used to programming languages able to find out what is behind this interpreted code.

Unfortunately, JavaScript is not like C++ or Java, its implementation depends on the browser, and this book enhances differences between implementations - reading the book help preventing headaches due to the differences between browsers.

The "icing on the cake" is the 45 pages intuitive index.
A must-have.

Summary: Way out-dated; new edition coming out Aug 2006
This 4th edition of Javascript was published in 2001 and is by now way out-dated. Granted, a lot has *not* changed with Javascript, but new techniques and formats have become available. Luckily, a new edition (5th ed.) of this book will be available in August 2006. Better hold off your purchase until the new edition. Then this book will deserve 4 stars.

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The JavaScript Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks

Publisher: SitePoint
Authors: Cameron Adams James Edwards

ISBN: 0975240269
List Price: $39.95
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Summary: I like it, I like it, I like it....
OK... this book is going under lock and key at my work desk... The JavaScript Anthology : 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks by James Edwards and Cameron Adams.

Contents: Getting Started with JavaScript; Working with Numbers; Working with Strings; Working with Arrays; Navigating the Document Object Model; Processing and Validating Forms; Working with Windows and Frames; Working with Cookies; Working with Dates and Times; Working with Images; Detecting Browser Differences; Using JavaScript with CSS; Basic Dynamic HTML; Time and Motion; DHTML Menus and Navigation; JavaScript and Accessibility; Using JavaScript with Flash; Building Web Applications with JavaScript; Object Orientation in JavaScript; Keeping up the Pace; Index

The book is made up just like the title indicates... 101 tips and tricks related to JavaScript usage on your web pages. If you have read any of the "Recipe"-type books, you'll recognize the format right away. Each tip is titled appropriately, followed by a solution and discussion. There's also a number of sidebar entries that expand a bit on the concept or explain a "gotcha" that might bite you if you're unaware. The writing style is conversational and direct, with *loads* of examples to look at. It's one of those books that you find yourself spending more time with than you expect, because it's tempting to read the tip that follows the one you were interested in...

One of the reasons I probably like this book so much is my weakness for coding samples I can "appropriate". If I'm not completely comfortable with a language (like JavaScript), I often need a quick hint or example that I can see in order to formulate my particular solution. Just reading the raw documentation usually isn't as helpful as seeing something that is close to what I need, and that *works*! As I was going through this book, I saw some tips that immediately addressed a couple of applications I'm working on. I also saw some menuing code that will likely make an appearance in a few more applications.

Bottom line is that I like this book a lot. It's going into my backpack right now for transportation into work, and this one may end up in my drawer rather than my shelf. I want to keep tabs on it...

Summary: VERY VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
Are you involved or interested in building web sites or web applications? If you are, then this book is for you! Authors Cameron Adams and James Edwards, have done an outstanding job of writing a practical book for webmasters who are looking for a copy-and-paste solutions to everyday needs. Adams and James Edwards, begin by providing an overview of JavaScript's capabilities and limitations, and introduce some core best practices that they'll be using through the rest of the book. Then, the authors look at techniques for using and processing numbers in JavaScript. They continue by looking at ways of manipulating strings to find information, storing data, and preparing test for output; as well as, including a thorough introduction to regular expressions in JavaScript. Next, the authors introduce you to one of the most powerful data-storage structures in JavaScript: the array. Then, the authors introduce and explore DOM, and look at how to create and read the data from elements, attributes, and text. Then, they look at reading and writing data from different kinds of form widget, address the tasks of validating and processing form data, and discuss techniques for improving the usability of form-based interfaces. They also take a cautious look at manipulating windows and scripting across frames. Next, the authors introduce cookies and show you how to use them effectively. Then, they show you how to get the date and time in JavaScript, how to compare and process dates and times, and how to output the final data in different formats and conventions. They continue by exploring the basic techniques involved in scripting for images. Next, the authors outline techniques for dealing with different browsers and rendering modes. Then, they look at how to read and write the styles from a single element or group of elements, how to read and write CSS rules to an existing or created style sheet, and how to build a style sheet switcher. The authors also cover event-handling in all its flavors, detecting the position and size of an object, tracking the mouse, and making elements appear and disappear. Next, they look at more complex forms of scripting that use motion and animation. Then, the authors include solutions for the problem of menus overlapping select elements in Windows IE 5 and IE 6. They also provide an overview of the current state of play regarding JavaScript and accessibility. The authors continue by showing you how to detect whether a user has the Flash plugin, and mastering communications between JavaScript and Flash. Next, they delve into the exciting area of online application design, including data retrieved using XMLHttpRequest, as well as the older technique of using iframes. Then, the authors introduce OOP, exploring its core concepts and benefits. Finally, the authors look at everyday techniques for writing faster, more efficient code that's shorter and uses less memory. In this most excellent book, you'll find scripts and discussions that sit on the bleeding edge of current practice. More importantly, you'll find this book a useful and inspirational resource for modern, best practice scripting.

Summary: Well-written, great cookbook
The book contains well-written code, with good explanations. You will use the recipes in your code, particularly the div-based error message dialog, and the menus. Worth the price.

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	HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS Publisher: SitePoint Authors: Rachel Andrew Daniel Shafer
ISBN: 0975240277 List Price: $39.95 Amazon Price: $25.17 Usually ships in 24 hours Buy this book from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk	Avg Cusomer Rating: 4 Reviews: Summary: Wonderful CSS Guide Being a web software engineer, I have probably more experience with net and database related books than any others that I review. With this solid background, I can quickly tell if a web-related book is a good one or not and sitepoint puts out a lot of SOLID books. 'HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS 2nd Edition' by Rachel Andrew is a wonderful CSS reference that is a great guide for any and all web developers that use CSS in their daily jobs. With over 450 pages of material, the book is broken down into the following parts: 01. Basics 02. CSS 101 03. CSS Code 04. Validation & Backward Compatibility 05. Color 06. Fonts 07. Text Effects 08. Simple CSS Layouts 09. Three-Column Layouts 10. Fixed-Width Layouts A. CSS Miscellaneous B. CSS Color Reference C. CSS Property Reference If you want to determine how to produce a professional looking web site that doesn't rely on tables throughout to get the design working as you would like, you really owe it to yourself to pick up this guide. The writing is easy to follow and the layout within is easy on the eyes and a pleasure to open up. My only complaint with this book is the complete lack of color contained within. You would figure that a book that talks about design would have color pages to drive home points. Appendix B is an oxymoron in itself, titling itself COLOR but then only using the NAMES of colors to explain what they are. When comparing this text to the Pogue Press Missing Manual series, it's incredible that a book which is MORE expensive than those books has no color within while those books are absolutely drenched with pigments. All in all, a nice effort but the field goal is way way wide right as it concerns the decision (no doubt to save a few bucks on production) to include no color pages. **** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED Summary: Nice combination of walkthrough and reference I think this is an ideal book for designers looking to get into CSS. The core of the book shows example sites and how they are developed with CSS. Where it goes into CSS theory the content is a bit thin. The CSS reference at the end of the book is appreciated, but doesn't compare what's provided in O'Reilly's "Dynamic HTML". Summary: Get the 2nd Edition I reviewed the first edition of this book and found it terrible: the author (Dan Shafer) didn't bother providing a tutorial and his writing style was hard to endure. Now here's the second edition, written by Rachel Andrews, a much better writer and someone who clearly knows the purpose of this book. She fixed most of Shafer's blunders, and her clear writing style makes the material much more accessible. Dan Shafer is still given credit as a co-author, but since he hasn't been asked to write any more books for Sitepoint, I think it's a credit in name only and we can give all the real credit to Andrews, whose other Sitepoint books are equally good. Had Sitepoint completely purged the book of Shafer's contributions and let Andrews write it over again from scratch, I'd give the book 5 stars. As it is, there's enough legacy material from the first edition to keep the rating down to 4 stars. Bob McLain Summary:

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Building Scalable Web Sites: Building, Scaling, and Optimizing the Next Generation of Web Applications

Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Authors: Cal Henderson

ISBN: 0596102356
List Price: $39.99
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Summary: An alternative to the J2EE/.NET world view
Finally a book that expresses how scalable sites are developed using open source tools like Perl, PHP or Python. And it not only covers the technical aspects of writing scalable sites, but also some of the process elements like source control and revision tracking.

This is an excellent book. It's well writtent and treats the reader with respect. It imparts ideas without going through every miniscule detail of implementation. I highly recommend this book.

Summary: Get this book if you're a developer or engineer considering doing a Web startup
Though it's nothing like a step-by-step guide (and it doesn't claim to be one), this book appears to be the closest thing available to a nuts and bolts look at managing the technical side of doing a Web-based startup. There's lots of code inside, but the book isn't built around a single, extremely contrived, case study like an online wine store. The chapters follow a general pattern: a topic (like bottlenecks in your application and platform, scaling, or monitoring) is addressed and some rules of thumb that describe the way that the author feels things should be done are set forth and explained, with numerous very specific hints and factoids mixed in along the way.

The table of contents doesn't seem to have been posted here, but you can find it (and a sample chapter, "Data Integrity and Security") by searching for "oreilly catalog scalable web sites" on Google.

Summary: Starts out off-topic, and then WHAM...
...it's all there.

Maybe it's my background, but I found the first seven chapters to be....dull, and not directly about scalability. To be honest, I almost set the book aside and considered it money NOT well-spent. Then things started to heat up in Chapter 8, and in Chapter 9 it all comes together. That one chapter (9) is the highest density of useful information about website scaling that I've ever seen. There are literally gems on every page.

Make no mistake. This book is more of an overview of the landscape, with brief asides that are clearly brain-dumps from his Flickr experience. The author manages to touch on every topic area that matters, and provide simple overviews of the options available and when they should be applied. In that sense it's more like an informal design patterns book (lots of "yeah, I knew that" and "Ah! I had a feeling there was a pattern there" moments), with just enough detail to let me do intelligent googling for deeper insights on analysis, design, and construction of scalable systems.

Chapters 8, 9, and 10 make the book worth every penny.

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Ajax Design Patterns

Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Authors: Michael Mahemoff

ISBN: 0596101805
List Price: $44.99
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Summary: The Best Ajax Book!
If you think you know anything about Ajax, you're wrong. After you read this book you'll realize how little you knew. Michael Mahemoff has a PhD in Computer Science, but it might as well be on Ajax since I've never read a book with so much useful information about it. There are about 8 or 9 Ajax books on the market right now and none of them come close to giving the useful information this one does and that is only after reading the first 150 pages. This book really is the complete tutorial and reference to learning and using Ajax properly.

The first 2 chapters go over the basic components of Ajax and some basic code examples different techniques Ajax is used to enhance functionality and usability: live search, progress indicators and the one-second spot highlight. The end of chapter 2 is a kind of teaser of what is to come in explaining some of the patterns that will be discussed with website examples to illustrate how they are done: data grids, suggestion, popup, virtual workspace, browser-side cache, fat client, drag-and-drop, image slideshow, web services, etc.

Chapter 3 focuses on the basics of an ideal Ajax application and some the design principles that programmers should follow such as following web standards, accessibility, bandwidth issues, latency, and graceful degradation, among others. He sets you in the right direction in thinking how you should code your application with all these ideas in mind since proper patterns will give you smoother working applications with fewer problems when it is released into production. It is a very interesting chapter that does not go into much code but is more of a background on the issues that need to be thought about before developing your architecture. Some of these things you may have already read about in various blogs but is put together wonderfully in this early chapter.

Many of the chapters to follow go through various solutions and Michael goes through various techniques ion how to solve it giving the advantages and negatives starting in chapter 4. The first solution is an Ajax App that helps user enter data quickly with instant validation, integrated searches, and dynamic form field updates. Then he asks questions in order to create this application by first giving a background on how standard web apps (flash, java, desktop, etc) have done this in the past and how Ajax can do this now.

This is done throughout the book in covering different patterns with code illustrations, code snippets and web site examples. This is not a book that you can quickly breeze through mid you. It will take some time for you to read and understand everything the author is trying to get across, but you will have a greater understanding of how to use Ajax effectively and you probably will go back to this book time and time again after you finally finish it. I've never encountered a book quite so informative, but I'm so glad I did especially on such a topic such as Ajax that will be around for many years to come.

The end of the book has a great appendix on the many Ajax libraries and frameworks (Backbase, Dojo, Mochikit, OpenRico, Script.aculo.us, Moo.fx, JSON, SAJAX, Atlas.NET,, etc) that are out now.

Very well done.

Summary: Analytical look at Ajax implementations
Very nicely done. The author spends time analyzing the problems various Ajax implementations are trying to solve and abstracts the concepts into a "pattern". I appreciated the author's attempt to allocate an "established use" value to each pattern described, which ranges from "widespread usage" to "purely speculative".

The book is very nicely put together; the analysis and explanations are well thought through. As it is a book on design patterns for Ajax, it is appropriately geared more toward the explanations than code snippets, but there is still plenty of example code and (as expected) plenty to download or view online.

For each of the approximately 70 patterns described, there is a discussion of the factors for why the pattern exists as well as descriptions of solutions and a real-world example or two (or more). While I think calling some of the solutions in the book "design patterns" is a bit generous, it is definately a worthwhile book to pick up if you're looking to understand how to solve a variety of web site issues using Ajax.

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