XML, HTML, XHTML Magic

Rating:
Summary: For every plus, a minus
Review: -Buy and study this book if you want to construct low-key and conventional Web sites of today. The examples and illustrations are presented in a workmanlike fashion and are quite clear.

-Do not buy this book if you want to see current advanced techniques in action and learn the bread-winning skills of tomorrow.

The book is a collaboration of several authors, with content organized into various projects, such as 'Providing Online Customer Support' and 'Setting Up a Storefront.'

The authors get high marks for what they unanimously preached: Build your site upon validated HTML or XHTML; separate structure from presentation through the use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to control fonts, colors, and layout.

The authors get low marks for what they unanimously practiced: Design your site with nested tables for layout, mocking the spirit of W3C coding recommendations; build to the weaknesses of Netscape 4; use JavaScript to write HTML, vitiating the separation of structure from content; use CSS merely to "spice up" your site, not transform it into sleek, modern efficiency.

The quality of project content was mixed. Holzschlag's 'Managing a Weekly Publication' was a delight to read for its description of the sources of the many compromises one must make with site code. Unfortunately, her project also began the litany of 1-pixel gifs to buttress the shaky edifice of old-fashioned nested tables.

Kuhlman's 'Creating a Complex Community Site' was a strong contribution, with clear instructions for the beginner in setting up an Apache server and using PHP.

Schmitt's projects were less valuable and an exercise in self-aggrandizement. Attend: 'Showcasing a Corporate (his own) Identity' which managed to show how to make a logo in Photoshop without ever really showing it in a lavishly illustrated book; and 'Designing a Great Personal (his own) Site.'

And yes, the book is extremely well illustrated. The organization is a bit confusing since the Table of Contents does not list chapters and each section is a numbered project but the example code files in the book's Web site are named by (non-existing) chapter. One can only guess. Each "chapter's" code must be downloaded separately and is composed almost entirely of code snippets, not whole pages --so you cannot see the code in action-- and these snippets have no listing numbers in the illustrations, so once again, you must open many files to find the code you want.

The authors are acutely aware of the current technology/style discussions and debates. They provide links to the sharpest, most relevant documents and sites. If you are just beginning, the lessons in those links will have you in the thick of it in no time!

I gave this book a 4 rating since it is far better than the average book on WWW site construction and HTML. You may decide I was too generous - or not.

Rating:
Summary: Magically covers real-world Web design projects
Review: I've always wanted a book that had a little bit of everything for the Jane of all trades in me including HTML, XML, XHTML, PHP, ASP, CSS, etc. Impossible, I always thought -- it would be too much for such a book to exist. This book proved me wrong. It touches upon a little of everything using real-life projects from something simple as creating a personal Web site to a real challenge in using XML for the Wireless Web. Guess what? It's only two hundred something pages. Holzschlag and five other talented Web professionals have done a superb job showing how to do each project step-by-step to resolve the problem as identified at the beginning of each project chapter. Following the problem definition are the needed technical specs and the technologies or skills to complete the project. In general, this book is for those familiar with HTML, a text editor such as Notepad, and web graphics production. For some projects, it recommends a basic understanding of JavaScript and CSS. Wherever you are in your Web design knowledge, you can follow along with the book. Try out the projects in the book the help of the companion Web site loaded with graphics and code for downloading.

Rating:
Summary: Starting a Project? Take a look here...
Review: It took me about a week on and off to work my way through XML, HTML, XHTML magic and it was very easy going indeed.

Physically the book is an excellent size and shape, it lies open on the desk without the need for mobile phones and coffee cups to keep it from flapping shut and the layout and colour scheme make for relaxed reading and easy scanning.


The books starts with a chapter on mark-up; HTML, XHTML, XML and CSS. I've read quite a few mark-up books by now and the idea of yet another intro to these disciplines made me grit my teeth a bit, but in actual fact this one is very good - simple, clear and accompanied by a generous amount of code examples.

As with all the chapters this finishes with a section entitled 'More Magic' which lays out tips, guidelines and often further reading for those interested. These sections have some great links to explore.

The book then moves on to discuss the 11 real-world projects which make up the bulk of the content. Each gives: a Project Snapshot outlining the problem; Technical Specs which tell you the mark-up and skills you will be using; Structuring the Site which gives advice on how to lay out the project; and finally the code work itself.

As others have noticed here, it's nice to see Molly and Co pushing W3C standards-compliant work, the more the better. On the other hand it's also nice to see that they too have to break the rules occasionally to achieve a goal. There I was thinking it was just me :o)

The sites the various authors create in the book are visually pretty basic, but they are functional and seem to be excellent starting off points for a project, saving the reader hours and hours trawling around the web trying to find inspiration or coding examples to copy.

The areas I found most useful were the CSS and JavaScript tips - I found quite a few examples of code I'd not seen before but will certainly use in future.
The 'XML for the Wireless Web' project was also something new to me and looked very interesting (if not a bit too complicated to just dabble in).

Also provided is an Index of Techniques, which list (by discipline) the techniques used in the book. This is very useful when referring back to the book with a specific task in mind such as 'Creating Printer-Friendly Pages with CSS'.


One grumble though, which I think others have also noted, is to do with the web site that accompanies the book. There was some initial confusion as to how the files (organised by Chapter) related to the book (organised by Project). In the end I worked out Chapter 1 equates to the Introduction, Chapter 2 to Project 1 and so on. A small thing but confusing at the time when you're keen to push ahead. I raised this issue with Molly and she agreed that the support web site could be altered to make it a bit clearer. This should happen soon :o)

Other weak points were the occasional project which seemed to combine very simplistic work (such as basic work with Frames) and flashes of more advanced JavaScript. 'Showcasing a Corporate Identity' by Christopher Schmitt is one such chapter and I couldn't work out who they were aimed at. Still, this is a book for a wide range of abilities so I guess everyone will find some things too easy and some a challenge.


To sum up, this is a jolly good book covering a wide range of topics. If you wanted to complete only one of the tasks described within then you'd be better off buying a more topic-specific book, but as a book to have in your library to provide a starting point for a range of projects I think it's a worthwhile buy, especially for the less experienced.

Rating:
Summary: Good for today's designers seeking magic.
Review: The book XML, HTML, XHTML Magic by author Molly E. Holzschlag and contributing authors Martin L. De Vore, Steve Franklin, John Kuhlman, Christopher Schmitt and Jason Cranford Teague promises to deliver eleven examples of how to incorporate current markup languages in real-world projects.

Those projects range from managing news sites, weekly publications, community sites, wireless web applications and community sites to even personal home pages - always referring to the web designer who has to be somewhat familiar with at least HTML, some CSS and problems that serious designers cope with, like cross-platform compatibility.

Always trying to follow the guidelines of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the book succeeds in giving useful hints and tips that even the professional coder might appreciate.

Sitting on a plane back to Dusseldorf, I had enough time to review the eleven projects of the book. Most of the them I found extremely interesting to follow, while it was evident from the beginning that they represent the magic of mixing the different technologies and specifications existing today to get a better and reliable result in the final project. They are taken from real-life, are platform-balanced - it seems to me that half the contributors prefer the Macintosh platform while the other half uses Windows - and so they win a great amount of authenticity.

Every project starts with a short overview of what will happen in the chapter, followed by the technical specs and used technologies that the reader should be somewhat familiar with. Once again, this book is a real-life book for real-life designers. Dealing with hard-coded HTML and pure text editors when editing the code is not only a burden for the designer but more a way to control the results the best way possible - if this is what you think and most importantly if you already work that way, the book is for you, if you fully rely on WYSIWYG editors and think coding HTML by hand has become obsolete you should go elsewhere. That may be a harsh requirement that strikes out some possible readers of the book but in my eyes it is the only way to get a high-quality book like this.

A chapter ends with a More Magic section that gives you further things to explore if you found interest in the themes that were discussed. As of now I have used some of the ressources already and am satisfied.

The layout of the book is modern, easy to follow, planned and extremely awesome, concentrating on a b/w and orange color scheme with clear type, good source code listings as well as nice illustrations, quotes and images at the beginning of every chapter.

Finally, what you find in this book: 11 projects taken from real-life that should be considered examples to show what one is able to achieve in terms of mixing today's standards. A good impression of how to deal with problems that HTML, CSS, JavaScript as well as PHP and Perl bring up when put together. A good ressource for spicing up your own knowledge, confidence and work. And a bit of a lifestyle guide for the independent coder that seeks confidence in what he is doing. Magic.

What you will however not find in this book: A technical reference for each different markup language that is being talked about. A full reference of tags, attributes etc. that the specifications allow you to use. But to be honest, that never was the intention of Molly Holzschlag or her contributors writing this book.

Do I recommend this book? Yes, I do.

Rating:
Summary: Buy it used!
Review: There is a reason you can purchase this book here for around ... For that price you can't go wrong but if you pay more than that you will have wasted your money. If you are new at web design and need a basic understanding of css xml and xhtml it provides that but you could have found that one the web for free.
When I purchase Magic Books I want projects that after I complete I can use. I didn't find them here. This is basic, basic, basic and it doesn't come with a cd.