CONTENTS
About the Cover Image Designer
Chapter 1 Introducing the Past, Present, and Future of the Web
The standard way of doing things
Every journey starts with a single step: the Web past
Then there were standards: the Web now
A crystal ball: the Web future
Building on standards for the modern Web
Chapter 2 Keeping a Project on Track
Stay away from waterfalls: the traditional approach
Web project management: the power of iteration
Achieving the goal: identifying doneness
"But the PMI covers nine areas; you've talked about only three!"
Being agile and standard: there's a good combination
Profiling professions: Jason Fried
Chapter 3 Planning and High-level Design
Goals and objectives discussion
User stories and user personas
Profiling Professions: Daniel Burka
Chapter 4 Writing Markup with HTML and XHTML
Where computer markup languages came from
The href attribute, URLs, and web page addresses
All together now: creating real pages
Chapter 5 Exploring Fundamental Concepts of CSS
The origins and evolution of Cascading Style Sheets
Applying styles to web page elements
More CSS selectors: targeting page elements with surgical precision
Combining multiple CSS selectors in a single rule
CSS inheritance: making the general case work in your favor
The CSS cascade and rules of specificity
Visual rendering: document flow and the CSS box model
Inline-level vs. block-level boxes
Changing CSS box properties: the CSS box model explained
Content area: defining the dimensions of content boxes
Padding area: giving backgrounds the floor
Border area: drawing borders and outlines
Margin area: defining whitespace and centering
Chapter 6 Developing CSS In Practice: From Design to Deployment
The visual source: understanding design documents
Diving into code: advanced CSS concepts applied
Typography: text colors, fonts, and font sizes
Implementing the header: images and backgrounds
The main navigation menu: absolute and relative CSS positioning
The four values of the position property
Skinning the navigation menu: styling lists with CSS
Adding interactivity: special styling for selected items and rollovers
The dynamic pseudo-classes: :hover, :active, and :focus
Styling links using the link pseudo-classes: :link and :visited
Making columns using floats and margins
The many layout effects of floated boxes
Styling the footer: clearing floats and adding borders
Dealing with nonstandard browsers
Browser-specific style sheets using conditional comments
Filtering CSS rules with CSS selectors
CSS hacks: exploiting one bug to resolve another
Fixing your spacing bugs in Internet Explorer 6 and 7
CSS media types and creating print style sheets
Designing for other media types and devices
Chapter 7 Creating Interactivity with Javascript
JavaScript basics: origin and background
What is the Document Object Model?
Linking code (separating form from function)
User interaction: alert, confirm, and prompt
Event handlers: executing code
Tools and practices to debug code
Safari and Firefox error consoles
Summary: a little JavaScript goes a long way
Chapter 8 Testing, Launching, and Maintaining
The web development life cycle
Security testing: how much is enough?
Accessibility recommendations: WCAG
Launching your site: the big milestone
Ongoing maintenance: beyond launch
Chapter 9 Web 2.0: Using Ajax and Social Software
The Web isn't application-like
Design characteristics of Web 2.0
Web 2.0 is more than just Ajax
Implications of social software
Building products based on products
Targeted and contextual advertising
Profiling Professions: Chris Messina
Chapter 10 Using Server-Side Technologies
The server side removes barriers
Web servers: dishing out hypertext
Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS)
A wide range of hosting options
The world outside relational databases
Structured Query Language (SQL)
Afterword The Business of the Web
Basic needs of the freelance web professional
Limited Liability Company (in the United States)
Making money: financial survival
Getting paid (aka accounts receivable)
Finding good resources: people
Hiring: finding the right skills and personality
Finding temporary help: subcontracting
Partnering with others to complement skill sets
Growing your practice and increasing capacity