Useful Books and Software

In "PHP Hacks," author Jack Herrington wrings out his 20 years of code generation experience to deliver hands-on tools ranging from basic PHP and PEAR installation and scripting to advanced multimedia and database optimizing tricks.

On the practical side of things, "PHP Hacks" helps you develop more robust PHP applications by explaining how to improve your database design, automate application testing, and employ design patterns in your PHP scripts and classes. In the category of "cool," Herrington explains how to upgrade your Web interface through the creation of tabs, stickies, popups, and calendars. He even examines how to leverage maps and graphics in PHP. There's also a bounty of image and application hacks, including those that show you how to:

Integrate web sites with Google maps and satellite imaging

Dynamically display iPhoto libraries online

Add IRC, SMS, and Instant Messaging capabilities to your Web applications

Drop the latest Wikipedia dictionary onto your Sony PSP

Render graphics and user interfaces with SVG, DHTML, and Ajax

Whether you're a newcomer or an expert, you'll find great value in "PHPHacks," the only PHP guide that offers something useful and fun for everyone.

Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Author: Jack Herrington
Release Date: 2005-12-12
ISBN/EAN: 0596101392 / 9780596101398

New Price: $6.00 / Used Price: $5.00

If you are a Perl programmer looking to explore Perl's XML capabilities or an XML developer with a basic understanding of Perl, this book will provide you with all the tools required for XML processing with Perl. XML and Perl teaches you to create portable, powerful, and extensible applications when you use XML and Perl together. You'll also learn to customize your XML processing facilities to accomplish unique tasks.

Authors Mark Riehl and Ilya Sterin, who have written Perl XML modules and administer the official Perl XML web site (www.perlxml.net), have filled this book with practical code samples and exercises that will help you test drive your new knowledge. With this book, you'll quickly see the advantages of using XML and Perl together, and you'll be able to perform even complicated tasks more easily with powerful Perl XML modules.

New Price: $5.00 / Used Price: $4.50

The opening chapter--entitled "What is XML?"--is one of the best overviews of XML you'll find. It covers the history and the promise of the language and answers many of the basic questions new XML coders will undoubtedly have.

Author Alex Homer gives clear examples of the use of XML and covers what features IE 5 supports. This introduction is followed by a chapter that defines the XML document structure and shows how all of the various components, such as DTDs (Document Type Definitions), XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language), XPL (Extensible Pointer Language), and XLL (Extensible Linking Language) all fit together.

Next the author presents the details of how DTDs and XML schemas can be used to frame the data your XML documents will work with. He also provides good coverage of the Xlink and Xpointer languages for connecting XML documents and the information they access. The book explains the XML Document Object Model (DOM) with plenty of short code snippets to illustrate syntax. Appendices offer reference to the IE 5 DOM, XML constructs, and cascading style sheet properties. This title is great for learning XML, but it will serve you just as well down the road as a handy reference. --Stephen W. Plain

Publisher: Peer Information Inc.
Author: Alex Homer
Release Date: 1999-06
ISBN/EAN: 1861001576 / 9781861001573

New Price: $3.93 / Used Price: $0.01

New Price: $15.81 / Used Price: $5.17

New Price: $4.15 / Used Price: $4.18

“Ryan clearly understands the GWT value proposition and how GWT integrates into a diverse web technology stack–and not just in a theoretical way. With the popularity of gpokr.com and kdice.com, Ryan can speak with the authority of concrete success.�

–Bruce Johnson, creator of Google Web Toolkit

“This book distinguishes itself from other books on GWT in that it walks through the entire process of building several nontrivial GWT applications, not the toy applications that most books present.�

–R. Mark Volkmann, Object Computing, Inc.

“Google™ Web Toolkit Applications is an excellent resource for any GWT developer. Solutions to challenges commonly encountered in GWT are presented through the design and development of actual applications. The applications developed throughout the text demonstrate best practices from simple UI design all the way to custom code generation, and are presented with little pretext about the amount of Java knowledge a given developer may have. Advanced concepts are not withheld but are presented in a way that will be understood by both novice and seasoned developers alike. Good application development practices and proper Model View Controller design is reinforced throughout the book, nearly guaranteeing that the reader will come away a better programmer. “

–Jason Essington, Senior Web/Java Engineer, Green River Computing

“Dewsbury’s Google™ Web Toolkit Applications is a book for both experts and beginner programmers who want to discover this open source Java software development framework, as well as write Ajax applications. A very detailed book!�

–Massimo Nardone, Advisory IT Security Architect

Accelerate and Simplify Ajax Development with Google Web Toolkit

Get the edge you need to deliver exceptional user experiences with Google™ Web Toolkit Applications, a guidebook that provides web developers with core information and instructions for creating rich web applications. Whether you’re a developer who needs to build a high-performance front end for Java, PHP, or Ruby applications, or to integrate with external web services, this resource from expert Google Web Toolkit (GWT) developer Ryan Dewsbury delivers the in-depth coverage you’ll need.

In this valuable book, insider Ryan Dewsbury provides instructions for using the robust tool set and gets you on your way to creating first-class web applications by providing a comprehensive overview of GWT technology. In addition, he shares his “in-the-trenches� insights on

• Building elegant and responsive user interfaces with Cascading Style Sheets and GWT’s Widgets and Panels

• Creating seamless user experiences through asynchronous communication with HTTP, REST, JSON/JSONP, and RPC Interoperating with web standards–such as XML, RSS, and Atom–and web services–such as Google Maps, Amazon Books, Yahoo! Search, Flickr, and Blogger

• Overcoming browser security restrictions, such as HTTP’s two-connection limit and the Same-Origin policy

• Accelerating development, using software engineering, code generation, internationalization, application patterns, and Java tools

• Deploying for optimal performance with resource compression and caching

• Building five non-trivial applications: a gadget application with a rich drag-and-drop interface, a multi-search application that makes requests to many search engines, a blog editor application for managing entries across multiple blogs, a web-based instant messenger, and a database manager for a traditional web page

This practical guide to GWT introduces you to the technology; provides techniques, tips, and examples; and puts you on the road to delivering top-notch user experiences for your web applications.

New Price: $40.74 / Used Price: $41.20

New Price: $6.29 / Used Price: $1.03

milestone -- one that is expected to lead to widespread enterprise adoption of

the already extremely popular MySQL database. If you are serious about

building the web-based database applications of the future, you need to

get up to speed quickly on how stored procedures work -- and how to

build them the right way. This book, destined to be the bible of stored

procedure development, is a resource that no real MySQL programmer can

afford to do without.

In the decade since MySQL burst on the scene, it has become the

dominant open source database, with capabilities and performance

rivaling those of commercial RDBMS offerings like Oracle and SQL

Server. Along with Linux and PHP, MySQL is at the heart of millions of

applications. And now, with support for stored procedures, functions,

and triggers in MySQL 5.0, MySQL offers the programming power needed

for true enterprise use.

MySQL's new procedural language has a straightforward syntax, making it

easy to write simple programs. But it's not so easy to write secure,

easily maintained, high-performance, and bug-free programs. Few in the

MySQL world have substantial experience yet with stored procedures, but

Guy Harrison and Steven Feuerstein have decades of combined expertise.

In "MySQL Stored Procedure Programming," they put

that hard-won experience to good use. Packed with code examples and covering

everything from language basics to application building to advanced

tuning and best practices, this highly readable book is the one-stop

guide to MySQL development. It consists of four majorsections:

MySQL stored programming fundamentals -- tutorial, basic

statements, SQL in stored programs, and error handling

Building MySQL stored programs -- transaction handling,

built-in functions, stored functions, and triggers

MySQL stored programs in applications -- using stored

programs with PHP, Java, Perl, Python, and .NET (C# and VB.NET)

Optimizing MySQL stored programs -- security, basic and

advanced SQL tuning, optimizing stored program code, and programming

best practices

A companion web site contains many thousands of lines of code, that you

can put to use immediately.

Guy Harrison is Chief Architect of Database Solutions at Quest Software

and a frequent speaker and writer on MySQL topics. Steven Feuerstein is

the author of "Oracle PL/SQL Programming," the classic reference for Oracle stored programming for more than ten years. Both have decades of experience as database developers, and between them they have authored a dozen books.

Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Authors: Guy Harrison, Steven Feuerstein
Release Date: 2006-03-28
ISBN/EAN: 0596100892 / 9780596100896

New Price: $25.00 / Used Price: $21.00

The total number of web pages today has been estimated at over 3 billion, spanning millions of individual websites. Not surprisingly, there is tremendous pressure on web developers and designers to remain current with the latest technologies.

The Web Site Cookbook from O'Reilly covers all the essential skills that you need to create engaging, visitor-friendly websites. It helps you with the practical issues surrounding their inception, design, and maintenance. With recipes that teach both routine and advanced setup tasks, the book includes clear and professional instruction on a host of topics, including:

• registering domains
• ensuring that hostnames work
• managing the directory
• maintaining and troubleshooting a website
• site promotion
• visitor tracking
• implementing e-commerce systems
• linking with sales sites

This handy guide also tackles the various elements of page design. It explains how to control a reader's eye flow, how to choose a template system, how to set up a color scheme, and more.

Typical of O'Reilly's "Cookbook" series, the Web Site Cookbook is written in a straightforward format, featuring recipes that contain problem statements and solutions. A detailed explanation then follows each recipe to show you how and why the solution works. This question-solution-discussion format is a proven teaching method, as any fan of the "Cookbook" series can attest to.

Regardless of your strong suit or your role in the creation and life of a website, you can benefit from the teachings found in the Web Site Cookbook. It's a must-have tool for advancing your skills and making better sites.

New Price: $11.60 / Used Price: $5.49

New Price: $10.99 / Used Price: $9.33