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Web Site Cookbook: Solutions & Examples for Building and Administering Your Web Site
Web Site Cookbook: Solutions & Examples for Building and Administering Your Web Site
5 Comments
Tags: Administering, Building, Cookbook, Examples, Site, SolutionsPosted 29 Jul 2010 in General
This book is an ideal reference for non-technical Product Managers who work closely with software and web developers. The Web Site Cookbook provides enough context for those who make their living crafting functional requirements and translating user needs into specifications to “talk the talk” and get outstanding results from their developers. This book should be required reading for Product Managers who want to understand how to get the best results from their team. Rating: 5 / 5
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.
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.
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. Rating: 5 / 5
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.
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. Rating: 5 / 5
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.
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.
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.
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. Rating: 4 / 5
When you run a web site, there’s always “one more thing” you have to take care of. Web Site Cookbook by Doug Addison can help you figure out what some of those things are, as well as how to fix them.
Contents: Web Server Startup; Site Planning and Setup; Page Design and Navigation; Formatting Text and Code; Formatting Graphics; Displaying and Delivering Information; Interacting with Visitors; Promotion and E-Commerce; Maintenance and Troubleshooting; Index
This is an O’Reilly “Cookbook” title, so it follows the standard format for the series. You get a Problem, a Solution, a Discussion of the solution, as well as a See Also section if there’s a source for additional information. The pros and cons of books like this are that not all of the problems will apply to you, and you may feel like you didn’t get your full money’s worth. For instance, if you already have a domain name and a site, the recipe for Registering A Domain Name doesn’t help you out at all. However, if you run a PHP site and you want to incorporate the use of captchas to foil automated bots, then the recipe for Using A Graphical Character String For Form Authentication might be all that you need to make this book worth buying. It’s really hard to predict whether any given person will value the material. On the other hand, all the recipes in the book *are* well written and do what is intended by the author.
So, I like the book, but I’m aware that there might be differing opinions on how good it is. Basically it comes down to what you’re looking for. If you get a chance to scan the book before purchasing, it might help you make your decision… Rating: 4 / 5