Useful Books and Software

Ajax turns static web pages into interactive applications. Now you can deploy rich-client applications to clients without sacrificing the easy deployment of web applications. But to many folks, Ajax seems difficult. That's why we produced this book. As a Pragmatic guide, it strips away the mystery and shows you the easy way to make Ajax work for you.

We cover the the basics of DHTML, JavaScript, and the infamous XmlHttpRequest call. You'll see how to add Ajax to existing programs, and design new applications to exploit the power of Web 2.0. Learn the three layers of Ajax framework, and when (and how) to use each. See how to create rich clients, use visual effects, add client-side validation, and handle forms. Write applications that degrade gracefully if clients don't support JavaScript. And see how to integrate your Ajaxified clients into Java, .NET, and Ruby on Rails server frameworks.

With Pragmatic Ajax, you'll:

• Understand the breadth of the Ajax/Web 2.0 landscape, and go-indepth on how Ajax works
• Learn how JavaScript works with your server-side framework
• See how to easily apply Ajax techniques to an existing application--and when not to
• Know what's coming by looking at new features and frameworks currently in active development.

Writing dynamic applications isn't that hard. Folks are awed by Google Maps, but it isn't rocket science (apart from the satellite pictures). As a special bonus, see how to implement your own Google Maps-like application using DHTML.

New Price: $8.69 / Used Price: $7.10

With standards-driven design, keeping style separate from content is not just a possibility but a reality. You no longer use HTML and XHTML as design tools, but strictly as ways to define the meaning and structure of web content. And Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are no longer just something interesting to tinker with, but a reliable method for handling all matters of presentation, from fonts and colors to page layout. When you follow the standards, both the site's design and underlying code are much cleaner. But how do you keep all those HTML and XHTML tags and CSS values straight?

Jennifer Niederst-Robbins, the author of our definitive guide on standards-compliant design, Web Design in a Nutshell, offers you the perfect little guide when you need answers immediately: HTML and XHTML Pocket Reference. This revised and updated new edition takes the top 20% of vital reference information from her Nutshell book, augments it judiciously, cross-references everything, and organizes it according to the most common needs of web developers. The result is a handy book that offers the bare essentials on web standards in a small, concise format that you can use carry anywhere for quick reference. This guide will literally fit into your back pocket.

Inside HTML and XHTML Pocket Reference, you'll find instantly accessible alphabetical listings of every element and attribute in the HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0 Recommendations. This is an indispensable reference for any serious web designer, author, or programmer who needs a fast on-the-job resource when working with established web standards.

New Price: $7.05 / Used Price: $5.00

Learn from the newest, updated edition of the highly acclaimed introduction to HTML, Sams Teach Yourself HTML and CSS In 24 Hours. The seventh edition includes updates to introduce Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in concert with HTML to produce quality web pages. You'll be able to study revisions that refine examples, as well as provide an enhanced integration with your web pages. You'll also gain a comprehensive understanding with new examples that match the current state of HTML.

This carefully organized, well-written tutorial teaches beginning web page development skills, covering only those HTML and CSS tags that are likely to be used on creating a beginning web page. The 24 separate, one hour-long tutorials follow the process by which you should be creating your web page, building knowledge not only of how to create a web page, but building a general knowledge of how to use HTML and CSS in other projects as well.

Chapters include:

• Understanding HTML and XHTML
• Creating Your Own Web Page Graphics
• Using Tables to Organize and Lay Out Your Pages
• Using Style Sheets for Page Layout
• Dynamic Web Pages

New Price: $17.24 / Used Price: $7.50

HTML, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), and JavaScript are the three basic web programming languages that web programmers use to build functional, attractive, and interactive web sites. HTML creates the text, images, and other content on a web page; CSS formats and positions those elements; and JavaScript adds interactivity to websites by responding to user choices. The Web Programmer's Desk Reference is the only book to serve as a single point of reference to all three primary web programming languages. It begins with a web programming primer that gives beginning and intermediate programmers an understanding of the core elements of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, then moves on to a reference section that lists every element of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Each listing includes the latest syntax and functionality, compatibility with other elements, and cross-browser compatibility issues. Whether you are a professional web programmer, professional web designer, or a recreational webmaster with a dynamic web site, this will be the book that you use whenever you need to know how to use a particular HTML element, JavaScript object, or CSS style.

New Price: $12.89 / Used Price: $4.60

• This book will teach you everything you need to know to create professional CSS and HTML web sites
• Up to date &emdash; covering support of the newest standards in all the latest browsers, including IE 7 and Firefox 2
• Includes practical real world tutorials, essential reference sections, and case studies.

What you'll learn

• The basics of HTML and CSS web design
• How to implement effective layouts, tables, images, navigation, forms and typography on web sites
• How to deal with cross browser issues, including quirks, bugs, and hacks on IE 7 (and older versions,) Firefox, Safari, Opera, and all other major browsers.
• How to make sure your sites are both usable and accessible
• How to implement several different styles of web front-end, through several complete case studies, including a blog, a store front, and an online gallery
• Detailed References are also provided so you don't need to learn every little detail of CSS and HTML

New Price: $21.00 / Used Price: $21.50

There is a new emphasis on building rich, web-based applications. These applications can be difficult to build because they rely on JavaScript, which lacks the sophisticated object-oriented structures and static typing of Java, they are tricky to debug, and they require you to manage numerous browser inconsistencies.

In May of 2006 Google released the Google Web Toolkit (GWT). GWT enables developers to create Ajax applications in Java. With GWT, you can build your applications using a real object-oriented language and take advantage of Java tools like Eclipse that are already available. Instead of trying to bring tool support to Ajax, Google brought Ajax to a place where the tools already existed.

GWT in Action shows you how to take advantage of these exciting new tools. Readers will follow an example running throughout the book and quickly master the basics of GWT: widgets, panels, and event handling. The book covers the full development cycle, from setting up your development environment, to building the application, then deploying it to the web server. The entire core GWT library is discussed, with details and examples on how it can be extended.

GWT helps you make the most of Ajax in your web applications and GWT in Action helps you get more out of GWT. Readers can download Early Access Chapters of GWT in Action now and participate in the Author Forum by visiting at the Manning site.

Publisher: Manning Publications
Authors: Robert Hanson, Adam Tacy
Release Date: 2007-06-05
ISBN/EAN: 1933988231 / 9781933988238

New Price: $22.90 / Used Price: $18.96

New Price: $25.95 / Used Price: $30.66

For readers who want to design Web pages that load quickly, are easy to update, accessible to all, work on all browsers and can be quickly adapted to different media, this comprehensive guide represents the best way to go about it. By focusing on the ways the two languages--XHTML and CSS--complement each other, Web design pro PatrickGriffiths provides the fastest, most efficient way of accomplishing specific Web design tasks. With Web standards best practices at its heart, it outlines how to do things the right way from the outset, resulting in highly optimized web pages, in a quicker, easier, less painful way than users could hope for! Split into 10 easy-to-follow chapters such as Text, Images, Layout, Lists, and Forms, and coupled with handy quick-reference XHTML tag and CSS property appendixes, HTML Dog is the perfect guide and companion for anyone wanting to master these languages. Readers can also see the lessons in action with more than 70 online examples constructed especially for the book.

New Price: $26.94 / Used Price: $26.94

Sams Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML and CSS in One Hour a Dayis a new edition of the best-selling book that started the whole HTML/web publishing phenomenon. The entire book has been revised and refined to reflect current web publishing practices and technologies. It includes extensive coverage of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), which have become a staple in web development.

You'll have no problem learning from expert author Laura Lemay's clear and approachable writing style. Simple, step-by-step instructions with lots of practical, interesting examples of web pages will guide you as you master current web publishing technologies and practices.

New Price: $23.38 / Used Price: $10.00

Stop wasting time doing Internet searches only to find inaccurate, out-of-date, or incomplete information. CSS: The Ultimate Reference includes all the ins-and-outs you need to know including compatability information for all major browsers, lists of useful hacks, known bugs in CSS, and much more - all presented in a beautiful, full color layout that will have you coming back over and over again.

Coverage includes: