Bulletproof Web Design: Improving flexibility and protecting against worst-case scenarios with...

Bulletproof Web Design: Improving flexibility and protecting against worst-case scenarios with XHTML and CSS ... | Dan Cederholm | Great Book!

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Bulletproof Web De...

	Bulletproof Web Design: Improving flexibility and protecting against worst-case scenarios with XHTML and CSS ... Dan Cederholm New Riders Press, 2007 - 312 pages average customer review:based on 103 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A must for any web developers library!

Bulletproof Web Design does an incredible job of teaching, step-by-step, how to make your website `Bulletproof.' The author introduced the book by defining what it means to have a bulletproof website. He used the example of a police officer wearing a bulletproof vest. No, it is not 100% protection against a bullet - but it decreases the chances and is extra protection. When applied to a website, this means that your website can handle the `bullets' being thrown at it. These are things like text resizing, use of assistive devices, no CSS, no images, and a few other examples.

The thing I liked most about this book is that it wasn't preaching web standards - It was simply walking you through each chapter - with each chapter building on the last - and showing you techniques that WORK. The book itself does an incredible job of keeping your attention through the use of images, highlighting, and full code listing. For those who can't quite grasp CSS (especially positioning and the like), this book is extremely helpful through its thorough explanations and visuals. Screenshots are provided each step of the way to let you see your progress.

Each chapter introduces you to new ways of handling things like text display, link display, navigation, list elements, layouts, floating, positioning, and a few others. Each chapter first take an example of a website (or aspect of a website) that is NOT bulletproof, then re-constructs that example with semantic XHTML and CSS to show you the results. The last chapter of the book brings it all together and shows you how it could be used in a production environment, with each piece of the puzzle being put together. The author doesn't dwell on the array of hacks and filters - but simply lists the ones that he uses and how they get the job done (and why they are needed).

Using proper XHTML and CSS is sometimes misunderstood. This is where many will start with a bad case of classitis and divitis and start going crazy adding extra markup. The author does a great job of creating very lean, structured, semantic XHTML. This is the XHTML that is friendly to browsers and other devices alike, as well as rich in meaning. Using proper elements to get the job done is vitally important to the meaning of the website itself. He focuses on this aspect, and with each chapter discusses the importance of the structure and not adding unnecessary presentational markup to your pages. It is this separation of presentation and content that ultimately makes using proper CSS a wise choice.

Quite frankly, this is one of the best CSS books I have read - and would recommend it to both the beginner and advanced CSS developer. This review doesn't even do the book justice - mainly because you need to buy it and read it to really enjoy the context as a whole. There are many things I could explain in more detail, and there are many different things that I learned through reading this book (some of which were things that were needed immediately). This is a no-fluff CSS book that brings everything together nicely, and a must have for any web developers bookshelf!

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Great Book!

This is my first time buying a CSS book. I was just using basic CSS before, but with this book I can definitely design much better. I would recommend this book to anyone who is trying to learn CSS. The writer makes learning CSS very easy.

Good book but suffers from a MAJOR problem

This is quite a good book with a tremendous amount of good advice for those creating web sites, but the book suffers from one major problem.

The entire crux of the book centers around using keyword sizes for text. The author claims that visually impaired people must be able to increase font size in the browser and your web design must be built around this one need. It's a good thought but I wonder how many people do this.

People who are visually impaired will usually choose an audible screen reader or a screen magnifier - rendering keyword sizing unimportant. Users can use their own stylesheets to control font sizes.

In order to accomplish a reasonable design using keyword-sized text, the author relies upon one of two CSS browser hacks. The problem with this is that it is neither bulletproof, nor standards complient and very likely to break with the next round of browsers released.

The reality is that many sites use pixel based font sizing not just to control the look and feel of the site, but to make sure information is displayed correctly. I am all for separating presentation from semantics, but there is an overlp between font size, color, and placement and semantics. NO matter what some of the standards Nazis will have you believe - deign carries meaning.

That being said, the book is not without it's merits. Web developers should be moving towards more accessible, semantically marked up html and correct CSS. The real problem with web standards is that they aren't standard. As a developer I choose to stay away from hacks.

You can learn a lot from this book, and probably implement it for smaller, less data-intense web sites.

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Pretty Good

This book is great for those of you who have been learning and teaching yourself XHTML and CSS through experimentation and trial and error. It opens you eyes to concepts that many web developers ignore and clients don't even realize exist.
It's sad how people just take websites for their face value and don't consider visitors who need to "modify" these websites (eg. make the text larger).
This book shows you how to try your best to make the site functional for all types of users. However, it doesn't dive in the advanced territory. Andy Budd's CSS Mastery book would be a great next-book after this one.

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Handles CSS risks - But not deep enough

I liked this book which helped me to understand the issues around rendering with stylesheets and XHTML. This is not helpful enough as the CSS and XHTML are rendered through JSPs and ASPs. The book falls short on explaining them and how these issues can be resolved at the web application level. If you are a JSP or J2EE developer involved with Web development, then you need to read "Core Security Patterns by Christopher Steel" that narrates the tricks, techniques and strategies for designing secure web applications.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, page 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

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