Web Development - Specific Tools and Technologies

In this section the books that concentrate on a specific tool or technology are under consideration, apart from those on HTML and CSS which we covered in the previous Programmer's Bookshelf.

Front-End Web Development 

Authors: Chris Aquino and Todd Gandee
Publisher: Big Nerd Ranch Guides
Pages: 478
ISBN: 9780134433943

Giving this book a four star rating, Ian Elliot said the problem of front-end software development is that you need to know what is going on at the back-end to interact successfully with it, but that this book focuses on the art of front-end development and takes the back end as mostly someone else's problem. Ian said the book is an odd mix of the very simple introduction and very complex examples. 

 In conclusion, Ian said:

"The most important thing to know is that this book is light on explanation and heavy on example.  It really is learning by doing and for me this is inefficient, slow and tiresome, but if you want to learn n this way then this is a good example of the method. As a result I can't recommend this book but I have given it a reasonably high rating as a good example of learning by doing."

Modern Web Development 

Author: Dino Esposito
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Pages: 448 
ISBN: 9781509300013

This book assumes that you are familiar with some version of Microsoft's web stack - web forms or JavaScript - and deals with the ASP.NET MVC framework. Awarding it 5 stars, Mike James said that while the best advice might be "get away from Microsoft web technologies", Esposito does his best to make those technologies sound appealing. Given the ASP.NET MVC framework is a way of doing server-side programming in C#, and in the time since the book was published in 2016 has been widely used, there is an argument for learning ASP.NET MVC

Mike's conclusion was that if there is any point in using Microsoft web technologies, then this book is recommended.

Advanced DOM Scripting 

Author: Jeffrey Sambells with Aaron Gustafson
Publisher: Friends of ED
Pages: 570
ISBN: 9781590598566

This is an old book, but Dave Wheeler gave it a 5 star rating and said he liked this book - a lot. Dave explained that

"Writing good client-side JavaScript is non-trivial, and Sambells takes the trouble to explain how to do it in detail... throughout the book you get the feeling that you are building on what has been presented before."

Dave said that the book is technically very detailed, although comfortingly the explanations are clear and well written. Non-programmers might struggle a little, but anyone with basic coding skills should be able to follow along easily enough.

Dave's conclusion was that

"if you want to really know how to crank out client-side script, then I would highly recommend this book."

Learning React, 2nd Ed 

Author: Kirupa Chinnathambi
Publisher: Addison Wesley
Pages: 304
ISBN: 9780134843551

Ian Elliot said this book is very definitely aimed at beginners in React, describing its ideal reader as an HTML/CSS expert who knows some JavaScript. But be warned, this is not for you if you don't know any JavaScript at all because React is a JavaScript framework. Ian awarded the book 4.5 stars, warning that the author has a quirky sense of humour and occasionally you might be irritated by some of the things that are included just to be "cute".

Ian's conclusion:

"If you are struggling to get into React, or any client side framework for that matter, then this is highly recommended with the warning that you still might find it slow at first. If you are familiar with any other framework, or are confident in JavaScript/ HTML/ CSS, then you might not find it at the right level for you - you probably don't need a getting started book at all!"

Using Drupal 

Author: Angela Byron, Addison Berry, Nathan Haug, and Jeff Eaton
Publisher: O'Reillly,
Pages: 496
ISBN: 9780596515805

Getting started with Drupal is difficult and working out how to implement some website feature using it confusing. This book will give you the start you need, said David Conrad, giving the book 4 stars. The first two chapters give you an overview and help you set up a basic Drupal site. From here the rest of the book tackles a range of types of sites as case studies.

There's been an updated second edition since our review was published focusing on Drupal 7. David's conclusion was:

"This is the missing user manual for Drupal and if you are a beginner then you will save a lot of time if you buy it."

Joomla! Explained 

Author: Stephen Burge
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
Pages: 448
ISBN: 9780321703781

Ian Elliot explained that the full title of this book is: Joomla! Explained: Your Step-by-Step Guide and it does have elements of a step-by-step approach. Ian thought it would be a better book if it abandoned the step-by-step idea and concentrated on the "Explained" part of the title, saying:

"Of Joomla! books this one is very good of its type, but with some small changes it could be even better"

Since then there have been new editions covering the more recent versions of Joomla! - the one reviewed was about Joomla! 1.6. Ian's conclusion was that:

"The final verdict is that this is one of the best introductory books on Joomla! I have encountered. It is suitable for the complete beginner to intermediate user. If you are planning to build a Joomla! web site and don't want to dig into the internals of how it all works then this book is a very good place to start as it will get the bigger picture of how Joomla! operates into your head. Not perfect but pretty good.

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