Web Programming: Building Internet Applications [Paperback]

Chris Bates (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 24, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0471496693 | ISBN-13: 978-0471496694 | Edition: 1

Demonstrating not only how to use commonly available tools to create dynamic webpages, this book also covers server side technologies. The aim is to show by example how to employ technologies to good effect. Features of HTML, DHTML and Javascript which produce exciting and interactive webpages are highlighted and explained.
XML enables data to be handled by many different applications so that information from spreadsheets, reports, databases and CAD applications can be utilized on the Web. Bates shows ways in which the power of XML can be added to a website.
Recognising that the Web is not just an environment for display and presentation, but is also used extensively for gathering information - and in a world on the brink of embracing e-commerce - for conducting transactions, technologies which send information from browser to server form an important ingredient to the book. Perl, CGI and Active Server Pages are covered and exercises and examples provided to help learn how to implement features
Features:
* Well selected and up-to-date content for newly emerging course
* Multi-tool coverage avoids necessity of recommending a book per application
* Practical and hands-on guidance is always backed up by example
* Paced for students with some, but not extensive, programming experience
* Examples are plentiful, practical and well illustrated
* Website provides more examples and links to useful online resources

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It is clear from the outset that Bates has alot of experience in teaching web courses and he uses it to great effect in the book as a whole." (LTSN--ICS Book Review, 18 September 2001)

From the Back Cover

The World Wide Web is rapidly evolving new technologies such as XML, and new applications such as e-commerce. This book introduces the most important web technologies and shows how they can be used on todays websites. From client development using HTML and Javascript, through to full server side applications writtten in ASP and Perl, the complete web system is shown. Concentrating on immediately useful code rather than theory, this is a how-to book for programmers who need quick answers.

Find your introduction to new and established web technologies here and see how they relate to one another:

Dynamic HTML

XHTML

XML

Perl 5

Perl CGI Scripts

JavaScript

ASP

Java Servlets


Visit the booksite http://ducati.cms.shu.ac.uk/~cmscb where you will find:

- working instances of the pages from the book including DHTML using Javascript

- sample pages to demonstrate XML processing on the Web

- an interactive DHTML/XML recipe book

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 492 pages
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons; 1 edition (October 24, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471496693
• ISBN-13: 978-0471496694
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,222,540 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars truly awful, December 18, 2001

By 

R. Truscott "rptrus" (Aust) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Web Programming: Building Internet Applications (Paperback)

I used this book for a web development course at university. I soon began to form quite a rile hatred of this book. It became obvious to me that what I was reading should never have made it past the manuscript stage. It really is that bad. There are many reasons that this book is a real stiker, and I will outline some of the points below.

1) The author injects himself too much into the book, which soon becomes irratating. He makes silly un-worthhwhile remarks in the footnotes, which aren't used to expand on a point, but rather as a method for the author to insert gleeful comments, ultimately wasting the readers time.

2) inconsistency in code written. In some sections, the author will have written a script (for instance) <javascript=something> in some places and <javascript="something"> in others.

3) Non-sensical code examples. The code examples shown look purely academic and have no resemblence to any real world use. They are also hard to follow at times. They are certainly not inyuitive at all. This is the case with almost all the Javascript examples.

4) The code that is written can seem a little intimidating, and very messy. Often the author will try and boast by showing us (as he even states) useless code examples. WHY???

5) Code examples contain errors, which is very frustrating. On page 137, he refers to builtin javascript variable with code example doucment.bgcolor. It should be doument.bgColor
On page 258, he outdoes himself by making two FATAL programming errors. This is the case where an assignment statement (=) is incorrectly used where a comparison (eq) operator should be used.
The other involved an incorrect use of the open() statement.
This program of course did not compile, and dents the confidence one has when relying on the book for code examples.

6) Errors in formatting. On page 222, the user is greeted with formatting codes (looks like LaTex) which have somehow slipped past the author and made it's way into the book.

On the upside, the HTML section was fairly good, but then again, there isn't too much room for error when explaining this simple language.
My advice, find another book. Avoid this one like the plague!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Do not use!, November 10, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Web Programming: Building Internet Applications (Paperback)

This book provides horrible code examples, the author does not explain the syntax of code at nearly the empirical level required for a novice web developer. He omits blocks of code from larger program examples if he feels he has "explained" it already, which makes the larger code blocks even more difficult to comprehend given his lack of explanations. This book is not suitable as a tool to teach oneself from scratch.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poor Javascript section, March 21, 2002

By 

Chuckee - See all my reviews

This review is from: Web Programming: Building Internet Applications, 2nd Editon (Paperback)

I was given this book as part of a graduate IT course. As I had an excellent understanding of HTML already I skipped to the Javascript section and was sorely disappointed. As another reviewer has pointed out, there were several blatant errors in the code that were quite unbelievable. Surely the assignment operator (=) and the equality operator ( == or eq) should not get mixed up in a published book, yet in this case they were. I tried to read on but kept on encountering poor editing and what seemed to be a lack of understanding on part of the author. Needless to say I quit the course and bought the Definite Guide to Javascript.