Web Accessibility:Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance

By Jim Thatcher, Michael R. Burks, Patrick H. Lauke, Christian Heilmann, Andrew Kirkpatrick, Bruce Lawson, Shawn Lawton Henry, Bob Regan, Richard Rutter, Mark Urban, Cynthia Waddell
Paperback 696 Pages
Published: 24th July 2006
ISBN:1590596382
Reviewer: Robert Baker

What comes to mind when one thinks of accessibility? Many persons would think of handicap parking spaces, ramps for wheelchairs, and handrails. These are only part of the accessibility picture. The latest book by a consortium of experts, Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance, elevates accessibility to a new level of awareness for developers who produce web products for the government and commercial interests. The authors state that if your company operates in the developed world, there is a legal obligation not to discriminate against people with disabilities if you provide some kind of goods or services on your site. Not only there may be a legal obligation, but a marketing reason as well. People with disabilities account up to 15% of the population. (read full review)

Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide

(Paperback) by Eric Meyer
Paperback: 528 pages
Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 2 edition (January 1, 2004)
ISBN: 0596005253
Reviewer: Debbie Walton

Review:  CSS is rules, rules, rules. What are the rules and how closely do the browsers obey them? This is what this book is about. With only a little CSS experience under my belt, this book has been my first introduction into many of the ideas and terms used in this essential area of design. I learned backwards, (and I suspect many others do, also). First, how to write simple rules (ah, the magic of CSS!) and the rest of the time since has been spent in trying (through endless experimentation) to make sense of how the browsers interpret them.

more »This book defines the list of styling terms and provides an in depth explanation of the variables. While the discussion is comprehensive, and the explanations are presented in clean, digestible nuggets, I feel it tested my attention span at every sitting. I did appreciate the level of detail Eric covered (I now know that the "pound sign" is properly called an "octothorpe"!) But it is not a subject easily tamed.

While examples are given to emphasize nearly every point, it does not visually explore the many variations that result when combining styles except in limited servings. I would recommend this book to someone wanting to really understand the assortment of choices available to the designer and how they are treated in the browser.

So, while I find this book a solid reference of CSS education, it is not for the casual grazer looking to learn by thumbing through a cookbook of handy, predesigned recipes for layouts or presentation. Exploring more of the many possibilities and variations of style after reading this guide and understanding more of how it works has been my reward for the hard work in reading it.

Flash Remoting: The Definitive Guide

by Tom Muck
ILLUSTRATED, Paperback, 612 pages
Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (August 30, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN: 059600401X
Reviewer: Nikki Kuhns

Review: Flash has proven it can deliver the WOW factor that will keep your web audience transfixed and coming back again and again. So what more could we want, right ? WRONG. Now we have Flash Remoting, a completely new technology that delivers a web experience NOT possible with a browser or even a Flash Player when limited by HTTP (as Flash 5 was).

So, exactly how did Macromedia get beyond HTTP limitations, add the ability to deliver complex Objects more quickly AND give every ActionScript Programmer the ability to deliver remote web services with the greatest of ease?

more » Well, the complete answer to that question can be found in Flash Remoting: The Defiinitive Guide, by Tom Muck, the only reference you will need to get "Remoting" quickly.

This guide includes Installation information for every application server supported, lists new features and most importantly – outlines just how Macromedia did it. Muck’s explanation of Flash Remoting Internals will make you a believer as it did me – that Flash Remoting is not just another pretty interface – but rather the best delivery mechanism for full featured web applications that serve up database content.

Among the techniques Macromedia used to create this powerful technology  - they instituted a new Protocol (AMF - Action Message Format) that transmits objects in binary packets (binary is more compact and thus quicker than XML), they added a new Flash Component - the Flash Remoting Gateway that sits on the server to serialize/deserialize objects for transmission and they tasked the Gateway with Session Management – relieving the server of this burdensome task as well as the application programmer from complex Session Management coding. And, Flash Remoting is an event based GUI that provides for a clear separation of interaction that facilitates specialization and division of coding tasks.

Muck includes contributions from Macromedia Community Managers – so you really do get the whole scoop on how to Dominate the web with this new technology. I was able to create a Flash Movie that served up a Cold Fusion database after reading the first 3 chapters. Prior to reading this book, I had done very little Flash or ActionScript, and certainly did NOT have a clue what "Remoting" was.

For me, there is no turning back.  Flash Remoting is revolutionary and the use of a Flash Movie interface gets your content on all devices  .. PCs, MACs, iPods, and SmartPhones.  Don’t limit yourself – buy this book and really get connected.

Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML

by Elisabeth Freeman, Eric Freeman
ILLUSTRATED, Paperback, 658 pages
Publisher: O'Reilly Media (December 1, 2005)
ISBN: 059610197X
Reviewer: Debbie Walton

Review: Without a doubt ths has been the sweetest HTML beginner guide I've ever found! Someone out there designed a tasty little treat specifically for the right brainer's fussy appetite. The style of delivery is casual and yet very effective, with a rich visual presentation. The ideas are nicely organized, well presented, and on target. Open any page of this book to see for yourself...the Information inside will have no trouble finding its way to the brain with so many signs, arrows, and colors to point out the way. (read full review)

Foundation Flash 8 Video

by Jordan L Chilcott, Tom Green
Paperback: 360 pages
Publisher: friends of ED (June 19, 2006)
ISBN: 159059651X
Reviewer: Roynell Woodard

Review: Foundation Flash 8 Video is exactly that; a foundation. I am a new Flash user and didn’t really have an understanding of Flash and how to use it. I had been doing video editing for sometime and wanted to get into working with flash. Personally, I’ve always been a person that needs to have hands on to get a true understanding and this book helped me do that. The writers of this book put it in a format that made it very easy to understand Flash and how it relates to video. I really enjoyed the fact that they gave you downloadable working material for each chapter (read full review)

Bulletproof Web Design: Improving flexibility and protecting against worst-case scenarios with XHTML and CSS

by Dan Cederholm
Paperback: 280 pages
Publisher: New Riders Press (July 28, 2005)
ISBN: 0321346939
Reviewer: Debbie Walton

Ever designed a nice looking site only to discover later on another sreen that looks different, and sometimes scary. Browsers, screen resultion settings and user preferences can be combined in so many different ways that it only makes sense to design flexibility right into the recipe.

This book uses examples of common approaches to design issues and how they can be better handled with css. They use actual webpages from sites you may have already seen, and study the designer's method for handling a particular issue. They discuss problems that may be encountered by using this method and then present a more flexible solution, providing all the code so you can more easily follow the logic and learn how it works.

The first chapter is all about text sizing: why it is important to be flexible and how to make it that way, an essential and often troublesome area. Next they go over scalable navigation and what i learned I put to use on our user group's own website. With creative floating, fluid layouts and more, they take you a long way towards making your own designs "bulletproof", or at least, 'more rugged'.

Nikki won a copy of this book from AAMUG and then loaned it to me. I bought my own copy and let Caryn borrow it, who then bought her own copy immediately afterwards. We all agreed it was very helpful and easy to follow and belonged in our own reference libraries.

Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 with ASP, ColdFusion, and PHP: Training from the Source

(Paperback)
by Jeffrey Bardzell
Paperback: 528 pages
Publisher: Macromedia Press; Bk&CD-Rom edition (November 11, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN: 0321336259
Reviewer: Earl Kious

The first thing that caught my eye about this book, which I now refer to as DW8, is the title. It succinctly describes the contents. The title led me to believe, correctly, that the book contained something of interest to me. My experience involved, almost exclusively, ASP and MS Access but nothing about ColdFusion or PHP, and I wanted to learn about them.

Often, when picking up a technical book for the first time, I have a little ritual I go through.

1. I look at the Table of Contents (ToC) to see how the book is organized. If the ToC is too brief, it is difficult to get a feel for how comprehensive the book is. DW8's ToC provides a good picture of the topics covered
2. I look at the index to see how extensive it is. DW8's index is adequate enough for readers to be able find items of interest. In general, the more extensive the index, the easier it will be to use the book as a reference
3. I quickly flip through the pages to look at presentation. Things like different font sizes, diagrams, tables, pictures, and judicious use of bolding can be a pretty good indication of a book's readability. DW8's readability is excellent! As the saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words," and DW8 is full of screen shots.

DW8 is written as a series of lessons. The lessons progress in a logical order and each one begins with a brief description of what it intends to accomplish. At the end of the lesson, there is a re-cap of what the reader ought to have learned.

For the most part, every lesson is quite well-written and easy to follow. There are, however, a few places (only a few) where I think clarity could be improved by different wording.

What I especially like about DW8 is the use of "side-by-side" examples. In accomplishing a particular task, Bardzell shows examples in ASP, ColdFusion, and PHP. That, alone, makes the book worth owning.

Overall, DW8 does a fine job of accomplishing its goal of teaching how to use Dreamweaver for building dynamic web sites. And learning some of the differences between ASP, ColdFusion, and PHP is an added bonus.

Another bonus is the CD that accompanies the book. It contains all of the examples for each lesson. Those of us too busy (or too lazy) to build the example pages manually, can just copy them from the CD.

The only serious criticism I have is really not about the book. Rather, it is about the database (on the CD, under Lesson 7). Whether it was done for expediency, or from lack of experience, Bardzell has committed what I consider to be a major error in database design. He chose Autonumber as the data type of key fields in his tables. In my experience I have seen more people get into more trouble that way than I care to enumerate. Since this is not the place to go into it in detail, suffice it to say that it is rarely a good idea to use Autonumber for key fields.

In summary, I believe DW8 is a good tool for learning, and a good reference. I recommend it.