Web Development Must-Read Books

In the last decade the number of web sites has increased at an unprecedented rate. More and more people are join the eBusiness revolution made possible by the technological advances of the world wide network, the Internet.

As more people are joining the revolution, a number of issues are rising - all dealing with the numerous web presence entities. Those issues range from presentation of a web site to the security performance of a web site.

As a result of those rising issues, we are obligated to find solutions - if we are to survive online. Luckily, a group of devoted people are monitoring things closely and are providing solutions to every single issue.

If you own, design or develop web sites, then the following books are must-reads for you. They deal with the three major components of an online presence; presentation, security and performance of a web site.

Users nowadays want information and they want it fast. They want their transactions to be processed in fractions of seconds - in the worst case. The failure to meet their demands can lead to loss in sales, traffic, referrals, etc. It therefore becomes crucial to have a web site that performs extremely well. By performance we are referring the load time of a web application. A number of factors can affect the load time of a web site, including the server, application/code optimization, Cascading Style Sheet size, image sizes, etc. Your web site may look nice/professional and be very secure, but if it loads slowly that discourages visitors.

If you are looking for a great resource on how load time can be improved, then the book Even Fast Web Sites: Performance Best Practices for Web Developers by Steve Souders is for you. In that book, Steve outlines and details out a number of methods to enhance the performance of web sites - with the focus on client-side factors. He touches on some of the most commonly and widely practices used to improve web site load times - such as AJAX, CSS, etc. Besides detailing the various factors of web site performance, he talks about the best performance analysis tools to help site owners, designers and developers efficient tune their site performance.

The opening chapter of the book details out key trade-offs and principles of application optimization - as that relates to the use of JavaScript, which is a core component of RIAs.

The author continues the discussion of JavaScript performance in subsequent chapters, discussing code organization, code reference flow and dependency. Practical examples of ineffective use of JavaScript are given - using production web sites. Cross-browser references are also discussed in details - as they relate to the use of JavaScript. Example code is provided - as necessary to better illustrate or guide users.

The remaining chapters talk about performance - as it relates to the network/server and design elements such as images, CSS and the like. From the comparison of the popular image format to the simplification of CSS selectors, the author provides invaluable insights and tips that even the most experienced designers/developers may not have used before.

This book is the definite guideline for anyone who wants to apply the ubiquitous touch of RIA to their web sites. Who said your web site could not be faster? This book provides you with just the right tools to get more out of the load time of your web site.