People who want to start learning a web programming language, as well as people who search for the best solutions to their problems, benefit from many resources. The manuals that come with the web editors offer only brief notions. Therefore, programmers who wish to use the web development techniques at their full power must examine more detailed documentation. Many websites offer tutorials and explanations of various functions. On the other hand, programmers can use books that describe most of the secrets of web designing.

These books have their advantages, too. They are widely available, as they can be bought from book stores and from on—line stores, such as Amazon.com. The web development books are targeted either on a specific web programming language or on web editors and design manners.

    One of the most important web development techniques that is used nowadays is named AJAX. The acronym stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. By combining these two languages, next generation web applications can be made. People who are new to this topic are recommended to read “Beginning Ajax with PHP: From Novice to Professional” by Lee Babin. The author believes that out of the server-side programming languages that can work with AJAX, PHP is the best. As stated in the title, this book is suitable for beginners, but it can offer valuable tips even to experienced programmers. Google Maps is among the best-known web applications based on AJAX. The author shows how to integrate the application programming interface of Google Maps in your own website. In addition, the book provides solutions to problems related to file upload monitoring, web services and cross-platforms. By knowing the possible security holes, people are able to secure their web applications.

    Another book about AJAX and PHP is “AJAX and PHP: Building Responsive Web Applications” by Cristian Darie and Bogdan Brinzarea. This book helps its readers to optimize the web applications that are created with AJAX. The goal of the authors is to ease the improvement of these applications. Unlike the first book, this one does not offer basic notions of PHP, XML and JavaScript. In conclusion, this book is not appropriate for beginners. However, the authors describe 8 situations that people are most likely to encounter. After reading this book, people will be able to create a form-validation page, an online chat room, a multisession cards game, a web application for sketching, a RSS aggregator application and a modifiable data grid that is connected to a database. 

    As mentioned before, some of the books are dealing with web design rather than with web programming. “Web Design in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference” by Jennifer Niederst Robbins is such a book. The experience of the author guarantees the quality of this book. One of the most important problems that is treated in this book is the browser compatibility issue. Furthermore, the author teaches how to optimize the website for fast loading and how to make the website compatible for all the platforms. One of the chapters includes CSS writing methods. Readers must not neglect the “Graphics” chapter, in which the author shows how to use the various types of images and explains which format is appropriate for a certain situation. After reading the chapter named “Multimedia and Interactivity”, people will be able to add audio, video and even Flash movies to their websites. The appendix has six tables that contain the HTML tags, along with other helpful support.  The fact that web design is presented as a multilayer concept helps the people to learn easier.