Codin' for the Web: A Designer's Guide to Developing Dynamic Web Sites [Paperback]

Charles Wyke-Smith (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0321429192 | ISBN-13: 978-0321429193 | Publication Date: November 20, 2006 | Edition: 1

EVEN THE MOST SKILLED WEB DESIGNERS can find the complexities of creating a full-functioned Web site to be a daunting task. Here to help designers create sites that not only work, but work well and are easy to update and maintain is an easy-to-read guide to Web programming basics from best-selling author Charles Wyke-Smith. Just as architects need to understand building materials and their properties, Web designers need to understand the code that serves as the foundation of their sites. Wyke-Smith ensures they do by teaching designers that all dynamic Web sites consist of essentially three components: a browser interface, Web server middleware, and a database. The guide covers everything from Web coding concepts and principles to building sites, designing visual interfaces, developing databases, developing middleware, ensuring a good user experience (through good code!), testing and debugging, and more.

• Create dynamic Web sites that provide real-time responses to user inputs

• Understand the basic structures of all coding languages, such as variables, functions, conditionals, loops, and objects

• Use the power of PHP to program the business rules of your site

• Learn techniques for validating forms to reject erroneous or malicious data

• Import and export data from other applications via at les

• Build and query database tables using SQL to manage the data generated by your site’s activity

• Develop a simple content management system

• Develop a password-protected members-only area of your Web site

• Build a template-based Web site with dynamic navigation

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Charles Wyke-Smith has been creating Web sites since 1994. Through his consulting company, BBd (www.bbd.com), he provides Web design and user experi-ence services to corporate, nonprofit, and e-commerce companies. An accomplished speaker and instructor, Wyke-Smith has also taught multimedia and interface design and spoken at many industry conferences. He wrote the best-selling Stylin’ with CSS: A Designer’s Guide.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: New Riders Press; 1 edition (November 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321429192
• ISBN-13: 978-0321429193
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #583,199 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I grew up in the North of England in Derbyshire and in the (Full Monty) city of Sheffield, across the border in Yorkshire. After school, I moved to London and worked for tech companies staging corporate events and rock shows, which got me on the road with bands including Pink Floyd, Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Santana. I was there when Led Zepplin first performed LZ3 at 2 a.m. to 200,000 ecstatic dancing fans at an outdoor festival at Sheppton Mallet - that's in Dorset, I think, (site of the original gallows pole : )...perhaps the most exciting night of my life...or was it the four Dark Side of Moon shows at the Earl's Court arena in London?....go to www.bbd.com to see me playing Nick Mason's drums after one of those shows - can't add URLs here...those were crazy, magical days. But it was staging the big corporate events that first brought me to California, and once I got here, it wasn't long before I sold my house in London and settled in San Francisco. I bought four Mac Plus computers (upgraded to 2 meg of RAM!) and a laser printer and started PRINTZ Electronic Design, which went from desktop publishing to CD-ROM design to web development in the course of 12 years. The 80s and 90s were a great time to be in South of Market - the area that became known as Multimedia Gulch.

Today, I live a slighly more normal life as the Director of Production of Nacio, a web hosting and development company in Marin. I write books about web development, and I am designing and coding what I hope will be a revolutionary new tool for learning to play music; check back at bbd.com for more on that in the coming weeks.

Most of all, I just enjoy being a part of my family and living the beautiful Napa Valley. Life is good, and I hope yours is too.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is THE best computer book I've ever purchased!, December 26, 2006

By 

TexanInWashington (Monroe, WA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Codin' for the Web: A Designer's Guide to Developing Dynamic Web Sites (Paperback)

Every time you buy a computer-related book, you hope that it is going to be THE one that ties it all together for you - answers all your questions, and leaves you thinking that with this book alone, I'm going to understand and be able to actually DO what I'm wanting to get done. Like me, if you are the frequent buyer of computer books, you know that we purchase each book with this eternal optimism, only to be let down every single time. Not any more: THIS BOOK TRULY IS WHAT YOU'RE HOPING TO BUY!
The author not only understands the subject, but more than any other author I've ever read, he truly seems to have the geek-free comprehension of what his audience is wanting to get from the book. This isn't even meat and potatoes - It's meat only! Other books will touch on every important issue, but always with the caveat of "a detailed discussion is beyond the scope of this book".

SO WHO'S THE PERFECT AUDIENCE FOR THIS BOOK, AND WHAT IS IT GOING TO CONVEY SO WELL?

This book is perfect for all of those readers who have a little bit of exposure to javascript, php, XHTML, and CSS, probably gained from a frustrated, partial reading of other books, all originally read because you want to truly understand what it takes to put up a high-quality, interactive web site from scratch. This book is going to show you (really!!) how to do that!

The chapters are:

1) Coding Principles
2) Processing Forms
3) Databases
4) Content Management
5) Cookies and Authentication
6) Building A Website With PHP
Two online bonus chapters are:
A) Unleashing the Geek Within
B) Coding the Interface

More than any other tech book I've ever read, with this book, it is as if the author sat down with you and said,

"Okay, I'm going to take the next few days to really show you, from scratch, what I do to get a client's business on the web. I'm not going to try to impress you or confuse you so that you'll think I'm smart. I'm going to show you what I do, step by step, from beginning to end. I'll be thorough, but we don't have any time to waste."

AFTER ALL, ISN'T THAT WHAT WE ALL WANT WHEN WE BUY A COMPUTER BOOK?!

I own an online educational site for professionals, and I have paid a professional PHP programmer about $8,000 this last year to bring it up to where it is at the rate of $100 per hour. I AM TRULY FEELING LIKE, AFTER READING THIS BOOK, THAT I COULD HAVE DONE VIRTUALLY ALL OF IT MYSELF!

What a masterpiece! I can't recommend it highly enough!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Arrived!!, December 6, 2006

By 

Laura Thomas "Amazon Junkie" (El Dorado Hills, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Codin' for the Web: A Designer's Guide to Developing Dynamic Web Sites (Paperback)

Woohoo! My copy of Codin' for the Web has arrived. As a huge fan of Stylin' with CSS, when I saw that Charles Wyke-Smith was coming out with a new book I promptly pre-ordered my copy from Amazon.

I have not been disappointed. Even as someone who has some basic knowledge of PHP and some experience with writing SQL queries, it is nice to have someone explain it to me clearly. He uses relevent examples - ones that you will want to incorporate into your own website (i.e.: developing a CMS, creating an authentication system, dynamic navigation, as well as coding/PHP basics).

The book is another slick publication by New Riders and has the same easy-to-read-in-bed style as the last book, complete with the useful sidebar comments for the code and downloadable code.

I would say this book is aimed at the Beginner+ web designer - one who is ready to move past static HTML sites and start building dynamic sites.

Thanks Charles! And keep 'em coming.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Coding Book, December 8, 2007

By 

Starry-Eyed - See all my reviews

This review is from: Codin' for the Web: A Designer's Guide to Developing Dynamic Web Sites (Paperback)

I've spent a lot of time looking for a resource I could use to teach myself php. The biggest problem I've ran into is the book/website either being 1) over my head, or 2) unbearable to read.

Luckily this item was neither of the above. Though I haven't made it though the entire book yet I have found this to be -extremely- helpful and well written. I don't come from a coding background at all so I had to find something that really started from the ground up. I found this to be easily understandable to someone who doesn't get coding. Additionally his website has two extra beginning chapters if you really need to go over the basics (which I did for the coding part).

The language is clear and concise and not confusing or dull. So I would highly, highly recommend this title to anyone from a design background looking to expand their talents. So far it's one of the best I've found.I will definitely look at this other books, the next time I'm in the market for another computer book.