Flexible Rails: Flex 3 on Rails 2 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Flexible Rails: Flex 3 on Rails 2? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Flexible Rails: Flex 3 on Rails 2. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Flexible Rails: Flex 3 on Rails 2 ReviewI started reading this book back in its beta form, continuing with it until its current release. Flexible Rails evolved into a great book.
I came across Flexible Rails when I was evaluating using Flex for my company's flagship application GUI. Rails was already the back-end of choice, but I wasn't quite sure about the complexity of integrating that with a Flex client. This book helped show me that Flex and Rails could be developed together effectively.
Some of the highlights of Flexible Rails for me are:
- The book provides a non-trivial example application to build upon throughout the book.
- The book highlights real software development life-cycle steps to pull together the examples.
- The book puts all of the examples in context.
- The book covers REST.
- The book covers using RubyAMF.
- The book covers using the Cairngorm micro-architecture.
- The book covers the basics of turning the example application into an Adobe AIR application.
- The book has useful explanations of using FlexBuilder, Subversion, and other software development tools.
Overall, the book has an entertaining and very readable style. Flexible Rails created a standard to which I hold other technical books. You definitely get your money's worth.Flexible Rails: Flex 3 on Rails 2 Overview

Want to learn more information about Flexible Rails: Flex 3 on Rails 2?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

The Definitive Guide To The ColdBox Platform: Version 2.6.3 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy The Definitive Guide To The ColdBox Platform: Version 2.6.3? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Definitive Guide To The ColdBox Platform: Version 2.6.3. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

The Definitive Guide To The ColdBox Platform: Version 2.6.3 ReviewThe ColdBox framework is amazing. No matter what you want to accomplish with ColdFusion, this book will help you do it. The ColdBox framework is truly an OOP framework for ColdFusion that will take your programming to the highest level. There is nothing you can't do with ColdBox. This is required reading for all of my ColdFusion programmers and contractors.The Definitive Guide To The ColdBox Platform: Version 2.6.3 Overview

Want to learn more information about The Definitive Guide To The ColdBox Platform: Version 2.6.3?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model ReviewThis book is directed toward scripters at the beginning and intermediate level. This is also a very good book for the veteran scripter who wants to re-tool as DOM-based techniques take hold.
I think Jeremy Keith takes the best road when he launches directly into DOM methods and objects, only mentioning the older ways for completeness. Most often, JavaScript books do the opposite -- mentioning DOM scripting only as an advanced art. But why learn the older ways when you must unlearn them later?
The author focuses on teaching correct methods and approaches, often taking the long way around to make it easier to see the larger picture. This requires a lot of forethought and organization on the part of an author and here the material excels. I don't think anyone will trip up following this guide through the Web script jungle.
The author also avoids the unbearable humor and cutesy language encountered so often in tech books. Thank you Mr. Keith! This is good, clear writing to go with good, clean scripting.
Quibbles: I think the author should have been more concerned with compatibility issues, esp. with IE6, the decrepit but still dominant browser. For instance, on pp 200-01, he recommends using the setAttribute() method to set a class but does not mention that IE improperly demands "className" as a parameter. His snippet would fail in IE. The chapter on CSS scripting was good but barely scratched the surface, not mentioning a bunch of cool scriptable objects.
Overall, this book is a worthy tool that should be welcomed by the target audience.DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model Overview

Want to learn more information about DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

J2EE Platform Web Services Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy J2EE Platform Web Services? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on J2EE Platform Web Services. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

J2EE Platform Web Services ReviewThis is clearly not a how-to book for the programmer tasked with the creation of a simple web service that needs to be up within a couple days. There are no long pages of code reprints or on-liner "Hello-world". No, this book is better seen as a concentrate of experience from people involved in designing large scale enterprise class services. Reading this book is akin to peeking into their notes at the end of the project: business cases, use cases, technology overviews and systems diagrams are the type of material the author has assembled.
The book covers Web Services from the perspective of Sun's architecture, tools and technologies in a vendor neutral fashion. Considering the title, this should not be a surprise for anyone. After a review of the notion of services as well as the enabling technologies (XML, UDDI, SOAP, WSDL, ebXML, Service Registries), the author describes some best practices and reference designs that were successful on some large scale projects mixing services, legacy systems and the internet.
The book will particularly appeal to the managers who want to understand why web services should be on their radar screens, and the architects who will design the solutions. I particularly enjoyed the diagrams which give a very good high level view of the problems at hand, as well as list of references at the end of each section. These are usually a good addition to the book's content for people wanting to dig deeper. Altogether this is the type of book I like, where the author clearly exposes the forces and risks of each proposed solution.J2EE Platform Web Services Overview

Want to learn more information about J2EE Platform Web Services?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Web Component Development with Zope 3 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Web Component Development with Zope 3? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Web Component Development with Zope 3. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Web Component Development with Zope 3 ReviewEven now with Zope 3 riding into the sunset and newer efforts like Grok and Bluebream taking hold this book mostly remains relevant. Plone, an already well established system for content management, uses many of the ideas explained in this book in its core. The book covers the foundation of the ZCA (Zope Component Architecture) which are essentially a system of patterns developers use. In short, any developer writing an app using a framework in the Zope ecosystem should consider this book.Web Component Development with Zope 3 Overview

Want to learn more information about Web Component Development with Zope 3?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

The Definitive Guide to Plone Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy The Definitive Guide to Plone? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Definitive Guide to Plone. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

The Definitive Guide to Plone ReviewEarlier this year I was evaluating a couple of content management systems (e.g., Bricolage, Typo3, Plone) for a project. Every system had compelling features, but Plone provided the best overall feature set (e.g., search, templating, workflow, user management) in a single package. Plone runs on top of Zope, a popular Python-based open source web application server. Many consider Zope to be Python's killer-app, similarly Plone may be one of Zope's killer-apps. After my initial experimentation with Plone, I was really impressed with its ease of use and the power and flexibility of its page templating system. Strengths aside, Plone's online documentation did not adequately address advanced topics. I often found myself sifting through bits of online howtos and other people's examples to understand how to do certain things. Not only was this time consuming but also hit-or-miss.
Enter The Definitive Guide to Plone by Andy McKay. This book provides a series of task-driven chapters with practical information necessary for you to develop great web applications in Plone. The reader is assumed to be knowledgeable about HTML, CSS, the Web, and Python (for advanced features of Plone). Each chapter begins with an overview of what will be covered and uses examples to clarify concepts. A novice user can read cover to cover and come away with a working knowledge of Plone and be able to create relatively sophisticated web sites. A more advanced user can skim the chapter outline, pick and choose topics of interest and quickly find answers.
Who is the author? Andy McKay is a core developer of the Plone CMS project and an active contributor to a variety of Python-based open source projects. McKay also maintains ZopeZen.org, a web site dedicated to Zope applications and extensions. All the examples in this text were reviewed by well-known Zope authority Michel Pelletier, co-author of the Zope book.
McKay aims for the novice user in the first four chapters. Beginning with a high-level introduction to the benefits of content management, then on to installing Plone, and finally how to do basic content editing and customizations. Those of you getting started with Plone will find the chapter on customizations to be most helpful. It shows you everything from changing a folder's default page to altering navigational tabs, further demonstrating Plone's flexibility. You'll notice that some of the text in this section is fairly self-explanatory (i.e., form field descriptions). You should be able to get going with a moderate Plone site after reading this section.
The next six chapters (5-10) go under the hood of Plone, and aims for administrators and developers. Templating is one of the first stumbling blocks when learning to use Plone, remarks McKay. To that end, McKay provides an excellent introduction to the building blocks of Plone's templating machinery, Template Attribute Language (TAL) and Macro Expansion TAL (METAL). McKay goes on to show you how to develop Script (Python) objects and web forms. Next, McKay breaks down Plone's concept of "skins" - images and styles surrounding the content, using the NASA Mars Rover website as an example. McKay moves on to discuss content workflow, one of the more complex features in Plone. Although he manages to explain individual concepts (e.g., states, transitions) well, he could have used some tougher (more real-world) examples to help readers tie in these concepts. Finally, the last two chapters in this section explain how to setup site permissions and users, and also integrate Plone with other systems (e.g., Apache, LDAP). Users looking to customize an existing Plone site should pay special attention here. Be sure to try out the examples, they will help you understand the concepts faster.
The last four chapters tackle advanced topics such as developing custom content types with Python code and Archetypes, indexing, and scalability. McKay provides an in-depth comparison of two approaches for creating new content types. First, using Python code to define content attributes, and second using Archetypes - a schema-based framework. McKay points out that Archetypes is the preferred way for development of products and content types by the Plone team. You can even use UML tools to model your content type, then generate a schema using ArchGenXML. From caching policies to Zope Enterprise Objects, the final chapter presents several techniques for improving your Plone site's performance.
The Definitive Guide to Plone fills the gap between the inadequacy of online howtos and the need to read through someone's example to find out how a particular thing is done. Users of all experience levels will benefit from the authoritative knowledge of the author. The writing style is clear, to the point and neutral. If you want to improve your productivity with Plone, look no further.The Definitive Guide to Plone Overview

Want to learn more information about The Definitive Guide to Plone?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Ruby on Rails Web Mashup Projects: A step-by-step tutorial to building web mashups Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Ruby on Rails Web Mashup Projects: A step-by-step tutorial to building web mashups? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Ruby on Rails Web Mashup Projects: A step-by-step tutorial to building web mashups. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Ruby on Rails Web Mashup Projects: A step-by-step tutorial to building web mashups ReviewProviding a whistlestop tour through building a range of Ruby on Rails applications on the back of other services, Ruby on Rails Web Mashup Projects is aimed at those who are already comfortable building rails applications and want some sense of how they can be enhanced using a variety of other visualisation, data and processing providers.
Aside: The term `mashup' is one of those tech terms that's almost impossible to pin down. I should note that the way it used in this book (seemingly any application that draws on a third-party services) is not a way I'd choose to use it, but I'd rather focus on the book itself than on titling semantics.
The book hits all the usual suspects--google maps, flickr, technorati, wikipedia--and also covers the basics of building a facebook application, using paypal for payment processing, and sending faxes and SMS messages through a third party gateway. For those who want a quick overview of all of those options it'll give you enough to get started, though as a result of the pace only the very basics of each service is covered and anyone wanting to build a sophisticated app will have quite a bit of work in front of them learning the nuances of their chosen service providers.
Along with providing little detail of each service, the book suffers from not really digging into a number of topics that would make it a much more useful companion. Big challenges when building applications dependent on other peoples' servers include effective testing, caching, surviving third-party service outages, and good ways of integrating your interface code into your application.
Lip service is paid to the need to be prepared for a third-party service outage, but no examples of how to survive are offered. It wouldn't have been hard to illustrate ways of falling back to local databases or to secondary services, but none is offered. There's no mention of writing tests, so no opportunity to offer ways to use mocks to test the local code or to discuss how you might automate your testing of the integration itself, and caching is similarly overlooked except in the case of amazon e-commerce services where it is used to preserve historical data that amazon doesn't make accessible.
The absence of testing really shows through in some of the code offered. Much of the code demonstrated in the book is overly complex and procedural, with little in the way of modular, reusable components. Similarly there's little by way of discussion of where such code fits into your rails application, with some classes that are clearly models (albeit non-ActiveRecord models) dropped into the lib folder, and numerous very fat controllers.
Rather than covering seven separate projects, this box would have been much stronger had it focussed on two or three, but worked through them in significantly more detail. Possibly there wouldn't have been a chance to touch on as many services, but by building up one of the more diverse systems like the ticketing application in detail, covering failover, testing, clean integration with a rails app, and other such topics this could have been a much richer book with appeal for a far wider range of developers. As is, it's worth skimming through if you're looking for advice on sending faxes or SMS, but won't help much with the real challenges of building a robust application that's dependent on third-party services.
Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of this book for review by the publisher.Ruby on Rails Web Mashup Projects: A step-by-step tutorial to building web mashups Overview

Want to learn more information about Ruby on Rails Web Mashup Projects: A step-by-step tutorial to building web mashups?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

DevOps: High-impact Strategies - What You Need to Know: Definitions, Adoptions, Impact, Benefits, Maturity, Vendors Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy DevOps: High-impact Strategies - What You Need to Know: Definitions, Adoptions, Impact, Benefits, Maturity, Vendors? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on DevOps: High-impact Strategies - What You Need to Know: Definitions, Adoptions, Impact, Benefits, Maturity, Vendors. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

DevOps: High-impact Strategies - What You Need to Know: Definitions, Adoptions, Impact, Benefits, Maturity, Vendors ReviewThis "book" is really just a bunch of copy-and-pasted articles from Wikipedia strung together, complete with the original pictures, references, 'see also's, etc. I don't mean that they followed the Wikipedia text, I mean it's a *literal* copy and paste. Look up the chapter titles, and then search those phrases on Wikipedia. I've just saved you the purchase price.
Calling this a bad book is insulting to people that actually take the time out of their day to write poorly. This book is a copyright violation, a tragedy to literature, and somehow, a human rights offense.DevOps: High-impact Strategies - What You Need to Know: Definitions, Adoptions, Impact, Benefits, Maturity, Vendors Overview

Want to learn more information about DevOps: High-impact Strategies - What You Need to Know: Definitions, Adoptions, Impact, Benefits, Maturity, Vendors?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

PHP Black Book: Comprehensive Problem Solver (Black Book (Paraglyph Press)) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy PHP Black Book: Comprehensive Problem Solver (Black Book (Paraglyph Press))? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on PHP Black Book: Comprehensive Problem Solver (Black Book (Paraglyph Press)). Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

PHP Black Book: Comprehensive Problem Solver (Black Book (Paraglyph Press)) ReviewI read one of the authors articles about PHP and decided
to use PHP instead of ASP. I also decided to buy any book he wrote as the articles are so good. A few chapters on
HTML from another book were enough to start building web pages then I started reading the PHP Black Book. Each chapter seems to be complete so I can pick my way through the chapters I need and skip the ones I do not need. You only need about 5 of the 20 chapters to build a web site with a database and forms.
Windows is covered so I do not need to learn Unix.
MySQL is a useful database that has a whole chapter. I did not know you could use open source software like MySQL on Windows until I read that chapter. The database does what I want so I will skip the chapter on other databases.
Everybody says I need this and that for my web site. All the thises and thats are in the book. He explains SQL, XML, LDAP, IMAP, and and how to draw graphics straight from a web page script. I will use that to make my database results in to pictures.PHP Black Book: Comprehensive Problem Solver (Black Book (Paraglyph Press)) Overview

Want to learn more information about PHP Black Book: Comprehensive Problem Solver (Black Book (Paraglyph Press))?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Django 1.2 e-commerce Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Django 1.2 e-commerce? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Django 1.2 e-commerce. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Django 1.2 e-commerce Review"Django 1.2 E-Commerce" starts with a very ambitious goal: design, develop and deploy a functionam ecommerce web site for the fictional [...] company. Sounds great, doesn't it?
I started flipping through the usual introductory pages explaining what Django is and why use it for a project like this. It was all fairly brief which already led me to believe that knowledge of Django's inner works and basic setup and configuration was required to follow along.
Well, the instructions are not as streamlined as other programming books I've read and it could be fairly tricky to follow the examples and logic if you're not already familiar with how Django works. There are several typos in the example code as well, mostly due to missing spaces between the commands and arguments. Adding to the confusion is the style the author chose to deliver his explanation of specific code changes, displaying snippets of code that will leave the reader wondering what specific file is being discussed.
Now, if none of these things sound scary to you, you'll be happy to know that the project itself is fairly well designed and worth your time. It was also the first time I saw an example of integrating Django with Google Checkout to set up a "shopping cart" mechanism, and by the time you're done with the second chapter, you will have a very basic but functional ecommerce web site.
The subsequent chapters were a blur, talking about adding external modules and services to enhance your site's searching capabilities as well as exposing the data from your "store" via APIs and generating reports with ReportLab. The author also talks about making use of javascript to add that AJAX-y feeling that we've come to expect of most modern sites and how to take advantage of S3 storage to sell your product.
The last chapter finally walks you through a few different ways you can deploy your final project to the world out there. I thought it was interesting to see Fabric being mentioned as a driver for deployment, as I have been playing with it at work to help me perform a series of tests on several different hosts for QAing purposes. Come to think of it, this may have been the first time I've seen it mentioned in a book, so I'm glad that this project seems to be picking up steam.
Overall, even with the issues of poor proof checking of the source code and the "everything and the kitchen sink" approach to the first chapters, if you're not new to Django and need to get some ideas on how to design and develop an ecommerce website, you may want to check out this book. I give it 3 out of 5 stars.bout+making+use+of+javasDjango 1.2 e-commerce Overview

Want to learn more information about Django 1.2 e-commerce?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Web Content Management Systems (WCMS): High-impact Strategies - What You Need to Know: Definitions, Adoptions, Impact, Benefits, Maturity, Vendors Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Web Content Management Systems (WCMS): High-impact Strategies - What You Need to Know: Definitions, Adoptions, Impact, Benefits, Maturity, Vendors? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Web Content Management Systems (WCMS): High-impact Strategies - What You Need to Know: Definitions, Adoptions, Impact, Benefits, Maturity, Vendors. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Web Content Management Systems (WCMS): High-impact Strategies - What You Need to Know: Definitions, Adoptions, Impact, Benefits, Maturity, Vendors ReviewThe opening chapter is a verbatim copy of the main Wikipedia page on "web content management systems". Verbatim as in identical, down to the same formatting.
The rest of the book follows suit, including the tables that list different management systems. All direct from Wikipedia.
The book itself says as much on its very first page:
"Topic relevant selected content from the highest rated entries, typeset, printed and shipped.
Combine the advantages of up-to-date and in-depth knowledge with the convenience of printed books.
...
The content within this book was generated collaboratively by volunteers. Please be advised that nothing found here has necessarily been reviewed by people with the expertise required to provide you with complete, accurate, or reliable information. Some information in this book may be misleading or simply wrong. The publisher does not guarantee the validity of information found here."
There you have it, straight from the horse's mouth so-to-speak.
Now I see value in the idea of taking up-to-date information (Wikipedia), slapping it into a typesetting program and printing it out for people. Some like the tactile feel of flipping the pages--I get that.
My beef with this book is that the disclaimer I have copied for you does not appear anywhere in their description on Amazon. I think this is tremendously misleading. If I knew upfront that the book is just a Wikipedia re-print I would have never purchased it.
For example, here is a snippet of the book description on Amazon:
"This book explains in-depth the real drivers and workings of Web Content Management Systems (WCMS). It reduces the risk of your technology, time and resources investment decisions by enabling you to compare your understanding of Web Content Management Systems (WCMS) with the objectivity of experienced professionals."
Experienced professionals?? Where??!
"Some information in this book may be misleading or simply wrong. The publisher does not guarantee the validity of information found here."
How do I reconcile these two quotes? If I can't trust the content in the book, how does it reduce my risk? Quite the opposite.
If you like your Wikipedia in print format, you might consider buying this book. Otherwise, continue your search. These are not the droids you're looking for.Web Content Management Systems (WCMS): High-impact Strategies - What You Need to Know: Definitions, Adoptions, Impact, Benefits, Maturity, Vendors Overview

Want to learn more information about Web Content Management Systems (WCMS): High-impact Strategies - What You Need to Know: Definitions, Adoptions, Impact, Benefits, Maturity, Vendors?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers))? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)). Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) ReviewAlthough it tends to follow that books that will cram loads of information between their covers also then tend to truncate important information in that process of trying to be "all things to all people," the this book provides useful and informative text for each of its proffered parts to the Adobe web collection for the CS3. It's laid out so that anyone can at first navigate to whatever portion of the suite they wish to learn about and ultimately use, but such a layout for the book makes it rather like a phonebook, or encyclopaedia, in that there's no need to physically bookmark one's recent or past findings, because it's right there where you left it, if you need to reference it again. I would therefore classify this book as a great addition to any reference library for one's Adobe products, and recommend it to anyone wanting to become both familiar and versed in all things Adobe CS3.Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) Overview

Want to learn more information about Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers))?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

HTML 4 For Dummies, 5th Edition Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy HTML 4 For Dummies, 5th Edition? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on HTML 4 For Dummies, 5th Edition. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

HTML 4 For Dummies, 5th Edition ReviewAs the title says, this book is for people with very little knowledge of HTML - but knowledge of how to use a computer at an intermediate level. It covers most basic HTML tags, up to and including tables and a limited amount of framesets, as well as providing a large reference section aimed at the beginning HTML coder, becoming a decent reference manual even after the Tutorial section is finished.
It's not the be-all and end-all of coding references, but it's perfect for someone that is comfortable with a computer, and wants to being creating simple web pages. This can take an individual with little knowledge and give them enough information to where they can understand the more complex online references and puzzle out the rest, or to a level where they can successfully invest their time in learning more about CSS, JavaScript, and DHTML to move to more complex sites.HTML 4 For Dummies, 5th Edition Overview

Want to learn more information about HTML 4 For Dummies, 5th Edition?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Google Apps Deciphered: Compute in the Cloud to Streamline Your Desktop Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Google Apps Deciphered: Compute in the Cloud to Streamline Your Desktop? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Google Apps Deciphered: Compute in the Cloud to Streamline Your Desktop. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Google Apps Deciphered: Compute in the Cloud to Streamline Your Desktop ReviewI needed to set up Google Calendar, Docs, Mail and Groups for a small NGO, then train the principals in their use. Because many of the services are free, Google Apps provides a very cost effective alternative to commercial programs if you can live with the idea of someone else storing all of your data.
I had a copy of Google Apps for Dummies to work from, which was pretty good but I always like to reference from a couple of sources. So I got this book. I really like how each program is covered in good depth, with excellent instructions. Common gotchas are pointed out and work arounds are given.
The book even offers some ways of using your existing desktop programs in conjunction with Google Apps, some of which hadn't occurred to me. Coverage is also given to backing up your online data, which probably too few people bother with. Google is good but not infallible.
I have only one small problem with the book and that's because the question of whether or not to even use Google Apps for sensitive information is a good idea or not isn't really addressed. If you're dealing with trade secrets of other sensitive information an online or cloud computing service may not be the best choice.Google Apps Deciphered: Compute in the Cloud to Streamline Your Desktop Overview

Want to learn more information about Google Apps Deciphered: Compute in the Cloud to Streamline Your Desktop?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Adobe ColdFusion Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Adobe ColdFusion? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Adobe ColdFusion. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Adobe ColdFusion ReviewThe book's title says it all: what you'll find in this anthology is a well-organized and compelling compendium of top contributions from over 30 authors on some of the latest and greatest developments as well as classic fundamentals in ColdFusion. The chapters appeared first as articles in the FusionAuthority Quarterly Update (FAQU), a high-quality journal that some readers here will know has served the CF community both in print (until recently) and always online by subscription.
** Not just a rehash, and updated for CF9:
"The Anthology" (as I suspect it may come to be known) offers a great cross-section of FAQU articles, edited and re-purposed for book format and presented in well-organized sections (more on the valuable editing later). Of course the book form will be great for reaching those who maybe never knew of the magazine.
But even though I'd read most of the articles in their original journal issues, it's still a compelling reprisal of so many great ones. More important, many have been updated to reflect changes in CF since their original writing.
Indeed, from the first chapter on you'll find that many of the articles refer to recent development in ColdFusion 9, and of course many refer to CF 8 (which some are still only now moving to). Still, many topics in CF are foundational, such that what's true a couple (or even a few) years ago is just as valuable now.
** A broad range of intermediate/advanced topics:
A quick scan by prospective readers of the Amazon preview of the complete Table of Contents will show that this is far from a beginner book. While it does start with fundamentals, it's *not* "how to do CFOUTPUT/CFQUERY", nor how to define datasources, etc. Far from it! Such bare essentials of CF are *assumed*.
Instead the first several chapters focus on effective use of CFC features (and a later section covers OOP). This is not "the idiot's guide to CF"!
Still, CF is a rich language and platform, and even those with years of experience can get bogged down leveraging only a subset of its functionality. This book can help change that. The remaining chapters range from easy-to-understand things like the compelling features to create PDFs, images, etc to subsequent sections on broader/deeper topics related to tuning, integration, frameworks, user interface, and all-important development tools.
Any CF developer who's gotten past the bare essentials would do very well to soak up the vast array of tips and traps shared by so many developers here.
** Presented from many perspectives, but with a unifying hand:
Indeed, it's great to have such a variety of knowledge and experience presented here, since In the CF world there are many ways to achieve a goal and certainly different opinions as well.
That said, many such anthologies often suffer precisely *because* of having so many authors. That should be less of an issue here. I can attest to this as one of the contributors (as well as a regular back-page columnist in the FAQU journal.)
All the writing here (and in the journal) has been edited under the firm but gentle guiding hand of editor Judith Dinowitz as well as her husband Michael and their team of technical editors (and those of the publisher). This book seems a fitting capstone to all they've done under the guise of FusionAuthority, helping advance the skills of so many CFers. You can learn more about all the contributors to and editors of the book in bios offered after the table of contents, again viewable in the preview here. (And in the interest of disclosure, the contributors have no financial share in sales of this book, so I offer my review here sincerely and to help readers.)
I recommend the Anthology to any CFer interested in advancing their skills in many ways.Adobe ColdFusion Overview

Want to learn more information about Adobe ColdFusion?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

PHP Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy PHP Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on PHP Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

PHP Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition ReviewThe most serious problem with this book is that there's no index. If you want to remind yourself of what arguments a particular function needs, you have to work out which category the function falls in and hunt through the appropriate chapter.
It's useful as a reference if you can't get at the online PHP manual, but I've found that I rarely use it now. Maybe it's simply that the annotated online manual is so good, the book is redundant.
Having said that, some of the example code provided is extremely useful, though the code layout suffers from the small size of the pages.PHP Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition Overview

Want to learn more information about PHP Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance ReviewReading Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance is like attending a five-day conference on web accessibility, featuring almost every master of the subject now writing in English. The authors include a passionate user advocate who helps the W3C craft its internationally recognized accessibility standards; a web developer who guided Macromedia in its efforts to bring accessibility to Flash; and the accessibility expert who lent her name to the leading web service that tests for accessible site development.
The book is deep and vast. It covers aspects of accessibility you might not even have known were possible. There's big-picture stuff, and hands-on, dirty code. There are smart, insightful tips on working with users, and there is detailed information about complying with accessibility laws. It's a concept book and a code book, a book filled with detailed guidelines, and also one that encourages you to think for yourself as you interpret those guidelines.
I bought the first edition of this book and have given it to clients and colleagues. The new edition is even more useful. If you want your site to be accessible, you need this book.Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance Overview

Want to learn more information about Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Ruby Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Ruby Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly))? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Ruby Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)). Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Ruby Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) ReviewI have a confession to make. Over more than twenty years as a programmer I'd never really had my head around object-oriented programming. I started out using C and then tried PHP and Perl and treated both as purely procedural languages (indeed, one Perl guru looked at my code and said "you were a C programmer weren't you"; humbling). Java, JavaScript, C++ and even Objective C had their turn at getting me to convert but none took (though I do code JavaScript under sufferance) until Ruby. A few month ago I started using Rails and became hooked on it and the underlying language. My Rails and Ruby skills have progressed in leaps and bounds. I've already had a good read of "Programming Ruby" and "Agile Web Development with Rails" and enjoyed and learnt from both.
I also have to admit to loving the O'Reilly "Cookbook" series. Several, particularly the "Perl Cookbook", have pride of place on the bookshelf closest to my computer. So the "Ruby Cookbook" by Lucas Carlson and Leonard Richardson was eagerly awaited. The "Cookbook" series are designed to provide you with a plethora of code examples to guide you in writing your own code. I'm definitely a hands-on style of learner and the Cookbook series suits my style - I can start getting my hands dirty with complex problems knowing I have help to code my way of out of the tight spots. This one covers a wide range of tasks from simple, such as walking a directory tree or manipulating text and numbers, through to more complex such as working with AJAX in Ruby on Rails. If you have't previously come across a book in this style then each chapter is broken up into a number of 'recipes' with a problem, a solution and then discussion of the solution.
This sort of book lives and dies by two criteria - the quality of the code and the usefulness of the recipe selection. "Ruby Cookbook" wins on both. The topics covered are wide and leave little, if any, part of the language unexplained. They start with data and structures such as strings and hashes before moving on to code blocks, objects, classes and modules. There is then an intriguing chapter on reflection and metaprogramming that I am still puzzling through before the book moves on to more internet based topics such as XML, HTML, web and internet services and, of course, Rails. The book then proceeds with chapters on the necessary housekeeping of development such as testing, packaging and automating tasks with Rake before finishing with extending Ruby with other languages and system administration tasks. The code is well written; clear and well commented, easily understandable by a virtual newb like me. The discussion is fairly clear, seemingly concise while allowing you to understand the code and how it might be changed for particular purposes.
I'm not going to go into more details as to the contents but instead point you to the book's page at O'Reilly which includes a link to the contents, listnig all the recipes in the book, and two example chapters; Chapter 7 on code blocks and iteration and Chapter 15 devoted to Rails. Together they will give you a good feel for the style and contents of the book.
The book is well written and well edited. I've already tried over a dozen of the recipes and haven't found a single code error, so my faith in the other 300 or so has risen considerably. The discussion that accompanies each recipe is a marvelous way of learning just that little bit more about the language. I found them quite good, though the odd one could do with further explanation if the book is to stand on its own - for example the discussion accompanying the recipe to iterate over a hash was not perfectly clear on the difference between Hash#each and Hash#each_pair.
At more than 800 pages this is a large and extensive volume, though the price may make you wince. Usually programming books this large have at least part of their size dedicated to something I refer to as pseudo-padding, some sort of reference or simple language explanation - this one has neither, all of it is devoted to the recipes.
With Ruby use, thanks in no part to the popularity of Rails, growing by leaps and bounds I'm sure this volume will be a well deserved bestseller. I give it four stars and recommend it to all but the most expert Ruby programmers. For beginners who, like me, appreciate hands on learning it is a must.Ruby Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) Overview

Want to learn more information about Ruby Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly))?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL, 2nd Edition Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL, 2nd Edition? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL, 2nd Edition. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL, 2nd Edition ReviewI have just started learning some PHP & MySQL development using "PHP & MySQL Web Development" published by Sams and "Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL" from O'Reilly. Prospective readers might be wondering the difference between the two in deciding which one to buy, so I hope to shed some light on the issue.
Sams: The Welling and Thomson book is more "hands-on" in that it takes the reader step-by-step in developing an e-commerce website. The chapters are organized in a goal-oriented manner: PHP, MySQL, the basics of e-commerce, security, and design of the site.
O'Reilly: The Williams and Lane book is structured in a similar way by showing readers PHP and then MySQL. Examples to reinforce concepts are also provided. While the O'Reilly book also tries to take the reader in developing an e-commerce site, it is a bit more theoretical. Also, there are some differences in focus: the O'Reilly book has a section on using JavaScript while the Sams book has a final chapter on creating PDF files using PHP.
If I had to choose just one book, I would go with the Sams book due to its more gentle learning curve. However, I believe that the O'Reilly book is no slouch, and I will probably come to appreciate it more once I gain more experience in PHP and MySQL development.
One last word about my programming background: I knew a bit of Perl, Java, HTML, and JavaScript before tackling PHP and MySQL. I consider myself to be an "advanced beginner" (an oxymoron, of course). To get the most out of these two books, you should know HTML well enough to read it (you should at least recognize some tags) and it would definitely be helpful if you have some programming experience. You could very well make PHP your first programming language, but I would advise against it. Start with something like Perl (whose syntax is very similar to PHP's).
I highly recommend both books to prospective PHP and MySQL developers who are willing to spend some time and effort.Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL, 2nd Edition Overview

Want to learn more information about Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL, 2nd Edition?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

RESTful Web Services Cookbook: Solutions for Improving Scalability and Simplicity Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy RESTful Web Services Cookbook: Solutions for Improving Scalability and Simplicity? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on RESTful Web Services Cookbook: Solutions for Improving Scalability and Simplicity. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

RESTful Web Services Cookbook: Solutions for Improving Scalability and Simplicity ReviewAs is common with O'Reilly's Cookbooks, the style of this book is very terse and to the point. There is not much handholding. The intended audience seems to be system architects who already know what they are doing, but who need to know what they should be aiming for when they want to be RESTful. The "recipes" in this Cookbook are more like Best Practices, since figuring out how to implement them is left as an excercise for the reader.
Compared to my previous readings on REST, this book strongly emphasizes the use of consistent XML formats. For me, this was the most important lesson in the book. It is not enough to just use PUT and DELETE: in order to really think in terms of "representations," you need to design meaningful XML. Along these lines, Allamaraju's discussion of the Atom protocol is particularly interesting.RESTful Web Services Cookbook: Solutions for Improving Scalability and Simplicity Overview

Want to learn more information about RESTful Web Services Cookbook: Solutions for Improving Scalability and Simplicity?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...