Customer comments on this selection.
 Web Site Cookbook
Web Site Cookbook is a really good problem solving guide for beginner to intermediate web designers. This reference includes hundreds of common questions, how tos, and ways to increase efficiency in a standard problem, solution, discussion, and see also format. Each of these entries also uses snippets of text and often includes illustrations of the result whenever possible. Topics include everything from registering and site planning through formatting text and graphics to making forms and dealing with ecommerce issues.
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br /Web Site Cookbook is set up from simple to more complex concepts so that the reader need not have any previous experience creating a website in order to comprehend and make use of these instructions. Furthermore, the quick and easy access of the problem-solution format of the entries will be particularly helpful to web designers looking for particular solutions, wanting to upgrade their skills, or just wanting to learn a few new techniques to improve their site.
COOKING ON YOUR WEB SITE!!!
Are you a web developer and designer? If you are, then this book is for you! Author Doug Addison, has done an outstanding job of writing a book about building web sites that people will visit, use, bookmark, and revisit.
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br /Addison, begins by untangling the choices that confront web site builders during the process of getting a new web site off the ground. Then, the author discusses site planning and setup. Next, the author presented solutions that will help you balance aesthetics with usability. The author then focuses on the written content that, for the majority of sites, constitutes the meat and potatoes of their online offerings. He continues by covering a few of the most common issues surrounding the use of graphics on a web site, including how to choose the right ones and optimize them for a fast download. Then, the author looks at some techniques for using visual clues. He then goes over some of the little details that make a web site visit successful and enjoyable. Next, the author explains the trust-building techniques and fraud-avoidance maneuvers that help secure both sides in an online transaction. Finally, he discusses both the administrative tasks you should use to maintain your site, as well as the technical procedures you'll need to know to keep your site and your job trouble free.
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br /In this most excellent book you'll find solutions to everything from choosing, registering, and protecting a site's domain name to keep spammers from harvesting the addresses you display on its pages. More importantly, this book can lead the way in showing you how to publish a site that is not only a useful and attractive representation of the business, organization, or person behind it, but is also easy to build, maintain, and update.
Working on Web Sites in a Straight Forward Way
Doug Addison has produced a very useful and informative guide to working on Web sites. While many books look at the mechanics of HTML, or detailed coding, Web Site Cookbook rather follows the O'Reilly cookbook structure, looking at specific issues and needs and presenting answers. The book looks at the other aspects of good Web site work - colors, design and small tasks that are part of everyday Web sites now. Many of the recipes will make a more experienced Web site author go "duh," but I found myself flagging many of the entries if nothing else to do more research using some of the Web resources cited at the end of each recipe. Much of what is talked about is Web Design 101, but with so many WYSIWYG tools out there allowing anyone to produce a simple Web site, it's useful to have someone succinctly state the ideas behind complimentary colors to try and avoid those awful sites that just make your eyes burn. Nothing here is earth shattering or is something that you couldn't find on-line, but the value is Addison's organization and presentation, distilling Web speak into simple language, showing some examples and sending the reader off to other resources if he or she wants. The book is written with the idea that you are programming in PHP on top of an Apache Web server, which may not be relevant to all readers, but even those readers, like myself, who don't use PHP or Apache can carry away quick and valuable information, and have a flagged book to grab and look for information on a specific topic in the future. It's going to be a useful addition to my my desk.
 good reference
I skimmed through the book, and I know I will find it very useful. It points out many things that web developers will want or need to do at some point and provides easy information on how to make them happen.
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br /The one issue I have with the book is that it is about 70% PHP and Apache Server, which I don't use. This isn't a problem with the book, I just didn't quite realize this when I bought it. But, regardless of the language you use to program, even the PHP examples are useful as they show you the methodology to implement solutions in a clear, concise, and easy to understand way. It is also a good reference if you're considering using PHP or use it a little bit.
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br /I have purchased hundreds of technical books, but I never purchased an O'Reilly book before - they just seemed to be too sparse, where I was looking for more in-depth instruction. However, now I know why they are so popular. I think you can learn more from a good example...or a good solution to a problem...rather than reading many chapters of most other books.
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br /This book is definitely for people with some experience and again, I would just stress that it is mainly a PHP and Apache Server reference.
Highly Recommended
Excellent for beginners, but I would have liked to have gotten more detail. Perhaps that is the trade-off for so broad a subject. This book has answers to alot of questions that beginners (like me) might have. For instance, when I was shopping around for a hosting service for a personal website, features that were common to most hosting plans were cron (a scheduling utility) and ssi (server side includes). What are they? Why would they list them as a plus for hosting? Why would I care if they featured these or not? Well the Web Site Cookbook not only tells you what they are, but also gives you examples as to when, how, and why you might use them.
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br /Each topic (recipe) is broken down into 4 sections:
br /1. Problem: A one or two sentence description of what you need or want to do.
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br /2. Solution: A step by step solution.
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br /3. Discussion: A discussion of the applied solution.
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br /4. See Also: Additional information from other "recipes" in the book and/or outside resources.
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br /There are also sections on planning your site, organizing directories, creating color schemes, as well as tips on making URL's easy to find and remember. (just to name a few). This book will get you well on your way to putting together a well designed web site. Highly recommended.
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