XML is the lingua franca of the Web. All designers and developers working in a web environment need a sound understanding of XML and its role in application development. Many software packages and organizations allow for the exchange of data using an XML format. Web services and RSS feeds are now commonplace.

For those working with Flash and Flex, a thorough understanding of XML is particularly important. XML documents are one option for the data provided to SWF applications. Flash and Flex can load, display, and modify XML content. These applications can also send XML content to other applications for updating or for use in different situations.

ActionScript 3.0 introduced some fundamental changes to the way in which Flash and Flex applications work with XML. One significant change is that XML is now a native data type. ActionScript 3.0 also introduced new classes and a different framework for working with external documents. These changes are based on the E4X ECMAScript standard, and they streamline and simplify the process for working with XML in Flash and Flex.

In Foundation XML and E4X for Flash and Flex, Sas Jacobs gives you an introduction to XML and E4X. She explores the XML and XMLList classes and explains E4X expressions, providing examples for both Flash and Flex. In addition to explaining how to incorporate XML documents in Shockwave Flashapplications, Sas shows you approaches specific to Flash and Flex and explores real-world usage. The book finishes with two case studies. In the first, you will learn how to consume and display information and images from Flickr using Flash. In the second, you will work with Adobe Kuler in Flex.

Whether you are a designer or developer, this book will help you work with XML and make the transition from ActionScript 2.0 to ActionScript 3.0. It will also provide you with an excellent grounding if you are new to Flash and Flex.

All of Java's Input/Output (I/O) facilities are based on streams, which provide simple ways to read and write data of different types. Java provides many different kinds of streams, each with its own application. The universe of streams is divided into four large categories: input streams and output streams, for reading and writing binary data; and readers and writers, for reading and writing textual (character) data. You're almost certainly familiar with the basic kinds of streams--but did you know that there's a CipherInputStream for reading encrypted data? And a ZipOutputStream for automatically compressing data? Do you know how to use buffered streams effectively to make your I/O operations more efficient? Java I/O, 2nd Edition has been updated for Java 5.0 APIs and tells you all you ever need to know about streams--and probably more. A discussion of I/O wouldn't be complete without treatment of character sets and formatting. Java supports the Unicode standard, which provides definitions for the character sets of most written languages. Consequently, Java is the first programming language that lets you do I/O in virtually any language. Java also provides a sophisticated model for formatting textual and numeric data. Java I/O, 2nd Edition shows you how to control number formatting, use characters aside from the standard (but outdated) ASCII character set, and get a head start on writing truly multilingual software. Java I/O, 2nd Edition includes: * Coverage of all I/O classes and related classes * In-depth coverage of Java's number formatting facilities and its support for international character sets

Silverlight is a lightweight browser plugin that frees your code from the traditional confines of the browser. It's a ruleschanging, groundbreaking technology that allows you to run rich client applications right inside the browser. Even more impressively, it's able to host true .NET applications in nonMicrosoft browsers (like Firefox) and on nonMicrosoft platforms (like Mac OS X). Silverlight is still new and evolving fast, and you need a reliable guidebook to make sense of it.

With fourcolor graphics and screenshots throughout, Pro Silverlight 2 in VB 2008 is the perfect reference: you'll learn about the features that put Silverlight in direct competition with Adobe Flash, such as rich support for 2D drawing, animations, and media playback, and best of all, you'll experience the plumbing of .NET and the design model of Windows Presentation Foundation through Silverlightall of the same .NET technology that developers use to design nextgeneration Windows applications. Author Matthew MacDonald provides an expertly crafted tutorial written from professional developer to professional developer. You'll learn to create rich media applications using Silverlight in the environment you're most productive inno matter what the target platform. What you'll learn Develop rich media applications using Silverlight and Visual Basic across browsers and platforms. Create a project, set up a layout, and use controls. Handle 2D drawing, animation, and media playback through Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). Integrate web services support. Use Silverlight in conjunction with ASP.NET and its interactions with HTML. Who this book is for

Visual Basic 2005 and 2008 developers encountering Silverlight for the first time. No prior knowledge of WPF or ASP.NET is assumed.

If you've been asked to maintain large and complex Hadoop clusters, this book is a must. Demand for operations-specific material has skyrocketed now that Hadoop is becoming the de facto standard for truly large-scale data processing in the data center. Eric Sammer, Principal Solution Architect at Cloudera, shows you the particulars of running Hadoop in production, from planning, installing, and configuring the system to providing ongoing maintenance.

Rather than run through all possible scenarios, this pragmatic operations guide calls out what works, as demonstrated in critical deployments.Get a high-level overview of HDFS and MapReduce: why they exist and how they workPlan a Hadoop deployment, from hardware and OS selection to network requirementsLearn setup and configuration details with a list of critical propertiesManage resources by sharing a cluster across multiple groupsGet a runbook of the most common cluster maintenance tasksMonitor Hadoop clusters--and learn troubleshooting with the help of real-world war storiesUse basic tools and techniques to handle backup and catastrophic failure

Flex has revolutionized the development of rich Internet applications, giving developers the framework necessary to easily create ever more powerful applications. Components form an essential part of this framework, and once you understand how to fully use them, your productivity and creativity will be taken to a whole new level. Flex 3 Component Solutions will show just what you can achieve with components and exactly how to achieve it.

You'll see just how simple it is to use components to create amazing interfaces for your applications be they media players, data visualizations, 3D graphicsthe list is long. Finally, there'll be times when you'll want to or have no alternative but to create your own components. This book will show you how to do this for your own ends, or so you can contribute to the Flex component community by distributing them.

Flex 3 Component Solutions is a tour de force of components, and all of these components are demonstrated using real-world Flex code that you can use as starting points for your own applications. Take what you learn for this book, and then go out and create your own amazing interfaces quickly and easily: reuse, re-purpose, redesign, and do it all faster and with greater quality control than you ever thought possible.

nd The 2 WorkshoponEmergingWeb ServicesTechnology(WEWST'07) wasco- th catedwiththe5 EuropeanConferenceonWebServices(ECOWS'07)whichtook place in November 2007 in Halle (Saale),Germany. WEWST focuses on research contributions advancing the state of the art in Web Services technologies. The main goal of the WEWST workshop is to serve as a forum for providing early exposure and much needed feedback to grow and establish original and emerging ideas within the Web Services community. The wide variety of tools,techniques and technologicalsolutions presentedin WEWST shareone common feature:they advance the currentWeb Servicesresearchin new directions by introducing new, sometimes controversial, ideas into the ?eld. As such, WEWST is the natural extension to the main ECOWS conference. Asitcanbeseenfromtheworkshopprogram,thespectrumofresearchtopics related to such emergent technologies includes: the challenge of adopting RESTful Web Services and Resource Oriented Architectures; Dynamic Web Service D- covery, Selection and Composition; extensions to the standard Business Process Execution Language; the management of composite Web Services; the delivery of well de?ned Quality of Service guarantees; the performance evaluation of Web Services. These are all still among the hot topics in Web Services research since no satisfactory solution has been found yet.

Now installed on more than 20 million Internet domains around the world, PHP is an undisputed leader in web programming languages. Database connectivity, powerful extensions, and rich object-orientation are all reasons for its popularity, but nearly everyone would agree that, above all, PHP is one of the easiest languages to learn and use for developing dynamic web applications. The ease of development and simplicity of PHP, combined with a large community and expansive repository of open source PHP libraries, make it a favorite of web designers and developers worldwide. PHP in a Nutshell is a complete reference to the core of the language as well as the most popular PHP extensions. This book doesn't try to compete with or replace the widely available online documentation. Instead, it is designed to provide depth and breadth that can't be found elsewhere. PHP in a Nutshell provides the maximum information density on PHP, without all the fluff and extras that get in the way. The topic grouping, tips, and examples in this book complement the online guide and make this an essential reference for every PHP programmer. This book focuses on the functions commonly used by a majority of developers, so you can look up the information you need quickly. Topics include: * Object-oriented PHP * Networking * String manipulation * Working with files * Database interaction * XML * Multimedia creation * Mathematics Whether you're just getting started or have years of experience in PHP development, PHP in a Nutshell is a valuable addition to your desk library.

Although the number of commercial Java games is still small compared to those written in C or C++, the market is expanding rapidly. Recent updates to Java make it faster and easier to create powerful gaming applications-particularly Java 3D-is fueling an explosive growth in Java games. Java games like Puzzle Pirates, Chrome, Star Wars Galaxies, Runescape, Alien Flux, Kingdom of Wars, Law and Order II, Roboforge, Tom Clancy's Politika, and scores of others have earned awards and become bestsellers.

Java developers new to graphics and game programming, as well as game developers new to Java 3D, will find "Killer Game Programming in Java" invaluable. This new book is a practical introduction to the latest Java graphics and game programming technologies and techniques. It is the first book to thoroughly cover Java's 3D capabilities for all types of graphics and game development projects.

"Killer Game Programming in Java" is a comprehensive guide to everything you need to know to program cool, testosterone-drenched Java games. It will give you reusable techniques to create everything from fast, full-screen action games to multiplayer 3D games. In addition to the most thorough coverage of Java 3D available, "Killer Game Programming in Java" also clearly details the older, better-known 2D APIs, 3D sprites, animated 3D sprites, first-person shooter programming, sound, fractals, and networked games. "Killer Game Programming in Java" is a must-have for anyone who wants to create adrenaline-fueled games in Java.

JavaScript Absolute Beginner's Guideserves as an easy-to-understand tutorial on both scripting basics and JavaScript itself. The book is written in a clear and very personable style with an extensive use of practical, complete examples. The book is filled with large, full-color illustrations and all the programming code is displayed in color to help the beginner understand the key components and structure of the language.

Flex is a very powerful and versatile technology for creating web application front-ends. But what every good web application needs is a robust data source, be it XML, or a database. Flex is very adaptable in terms of connecting to data sources, and that is the main focus of this book.

In Foundation Flex for Developers, author Sas Jacobs assumes that you've got the basics of Flex down already, and explores in detail how to create professional data-centric Flex 2 and Flex 3 applications. In the first half of the book, she starts off with a brief exploration of Flex and ActionScript 3.0, before looking at application essentials in detailcreating custom components, user and web browser interactions, binding, formatting, and validating data, debugging, and more.

In the second half of the book, the focus is on connecting Flex to data sources, and covers XML, LiveCycle Data Services, PHP, ASP.NET, and ColdFusion in detail, via a series of step-by-step case studies.Covers Flex application basics Covers connecting Flex 2 and Flex 3 to a variety of Data Sources Includes several complete case studies What you'll learn How to create custom components How to handle user and web browser interactions How to debug Flex 2 applications How to bind, format, and validate data How to load and write external content The essentials of XML, and working with it in Flex 2, including E4X The essentials of Flex Data Services How to build up data-driven Flex 2 applications with PHP, ASP.NET, and ColdFusion backends Who this book is for

This book is for any Flex developer who knows the basics of building Flex user interfaces, and wants to learn how to connect their applications to data sources.

Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product. Get up and running on the latest JavaScript standard using this fully updated beginner's guide This hands-on, fast-paced guide shows, from start to finish, how to create dynamic Web pages complete with special effects using JavaScript. This edition contains updates for all major new features and the latest Web development techniques and practices. You will discover how to extend JavaScript's capabilities to the server side using Node.js. JavaScript: A Beginner's Guide, Fifth Edition begins by clearly explaining the fundamentals, including variables, functions, operators, event handlers, objects, arrays, strings, and forms. From there, the book moves on to more advanced techniques, such as debugging, accessibility, and security. Throughout, "Ask the Expert," "Try This," notes, tips, and self tests highlight salient points and aid in learning. *Teaches, step by step, how to get started developing Web applications*Features detailed examples and downloadable project files*Written by an experienced Web developer and JavaScript expert

Learn the basics of using the micro: bit, an open source hardware ARM-based embedded system used to teach computer programming, to build a series of 10 different gadgets from scratch! You'll use the micro: bit to make: a scrolling name tag, animated LED displays a high-tech compass. a handheld tilting game with a buzzer and saved high score a carnival-like strength tester a powered cooling fan helmet an electronic musical instrument a security system that sends alerts to your computer when someone enters the room. a wheeled robot an alert to water your plants You will learn how simple electrical devices like speakers, motors, buzzers and fans work. You'll understand electronic components like resistors, force resistors, photoresistors, LEDs, and Op Amps, as well as Infrared distance sensors and soil moisture sensors. You'll also get a beginner's look at micropython, one of the fastest-growing computer languages. In this book you will combine multiple disciplines -- electronics, programming, and engineering -- to build a series of successful gadgets. Everything is explained with lots and lots of full-color line drawings. No prior experience is necessary. You'll have fun while you learn a ton!

If you're using PHP 4, then chances are good that an upgrade to PHP 5 is in your future. The more you've heard about the exciting new features in PHP 5, the sooner that upgrade is probably going to be. Although an in-depth, soup-to-nuts reference guide to the language is good to have on hand, it's not the book an experienced PHP programmer needs to get started with the latest release. What you need is a lean and focused guide that answers your most pressing questions: what's new with the technology, what's different, and how do I make the best use of it? In other words, you need a copy of "Upgrading to PHP 5.

This book is targeted toward PHP developers who are already familiar with PHP 4. Rather than serve as a definitive guide to the entire language, the book zeroes in on PHP 5's new features, and covers these features definitively. You'll find a concise appraisal of the differences between PHP 4 and PHP 5, a detailed look at what's new in this latest version, and you'll see how PHP 5 improves on PHP 4 code. See PHP 4 and PHP 5 code side-by-side, to learn how the new features make it easier to solve common PHP problems. Each new feature is shown in code, helping you understand why it's there, when to use it, and how it's better than PHP 4. Short, sample programs are included throughout the book.

Topics covered in "Upgrading to PHP 5 include:

The new set of robust object-oriented programming features

An improved MySQL extension, supporting MySQL 4.1, prepared statements, and bound parameters

Completely rewritten support for XML: DOM, XSLT, SAX, and SimpleXML

Easy web services with SOAP

SQLite, an embedded database library bundled with PHP 5

Cleaner errorhandling with exceptions

Other new language features, such as iterators, streams, and more.

"Upgrading to PHP 5 won't make you wade through information you've covered before. Written by Adam Trachtenberg, coauthor of the popular "PHP Cookbook, this book will take you straight into the heart of all that's new in PHP 5. By the time you've finished, you'll know PHP 5 in practice as well as in theory.

Distilling many years of Perl experience--including an insiders look at Perl development (the authors are members of the Perl 6 core development team)--"Perl 6 and Parrot Essentials," 2nd Edition is an unparalleled preview of major changes in the widely-anticipated Perl 6. This sneak peek of what's coming in Perl includes succinct but thorough coverage of groundbreaking new developments in Parrot--the language-independent interpreter engine that will execute code written in the new Perl 6 language. Designed to be language independent, Parrot can be used to interpret other dynamic languages such as Python, Tcl, Ruby, and even Java.

"Perl 6 and Parrot Essentials" also uncovers the most revolutionary change in the language itself--Apocalypse 12 on objects. The Apocalypse design documents (in the sense of "revealing," not "end-of-the-world") explain significant changes in new Perl 6 features, numbered according to the chapters in O'Reilly's landmark Camel book, "Programming Perl,"

Apocalypse 12 is the result of cutting-edge research in object-oriented languages and is guaranteed to grab the attention of any serious Perl programmer. "Perl 6 and Parrot Essentials" also includes expanded coverage of Apocalypse 5 (regular expressions) and Apocalypse 6 (subroutines).

"Perl 6 and Parrot Essentials" is the only book available to chart the course of the long but fruitful voyage of Perl 6. It reveals all the ingenious developments that will make Perl 6 more powerful and easier to use.

Perl gurus and programmers alike will rely on this slim but essential book for both a clear view of the Perl horizon and to ensure they hit the ground running once this important new version of Perl isreleased.

Sometimes the simplest answer is the best. Many Enterprise Java developers, accustomed to dealing with Java's spiraling complexity, have fallen into the habit of choosing overly complicated solutions to problems when simpler options are available. Building server applications with "heavyweight" Java-based architectures, such as WebLogic, JBoss, and WebSphere, can be costly and cumbersome. When you've reached the point where you spend more time writing code to support your chosen framework than to solve your actual problems, it's time to think in terms of simplicity.

In "Better, Faster, Lighter Java," authors Bruce Tate and Justin Gehtland argue that the old heavyweight architectures are unwieldy, complicated, and contribute to slow and buggy application code. As an alternative means for building better applications, the authors present two "lightweight" open source architectures: Hibernate--a persistence framework that does its job with a minimal API and gets out of the way, and Spring--a container that's not invasive, heavy or complicated.

Hibernate and Spring are designed to be fairly simple to learn and use, and place reasonable demands on system resources. "Better, Faster, Lighter Java" shows you how they can help you create enterprise applications that are easier to maintain, write, and debug, and are ultimately much faster.

Written for intermediate to advanced Java developers, "Better, Faster, Lighter Java," offers fresh ideas--often unorthodox--to help you rethink the way you work, and techniques and principles you'll use to build simpler applications. You'll learn to spend more time on what's important. When you're finished with this book, you'll find that your Java is better, faster, and lighter than ever before.

In Microsoft's Office 2003, users experience the merger of the power of the classic Office suite of applications with the fluidity of data exchange inherent in XML. With XML at its heart, the new version of Microsoft's desktop suite liberates the information stored in millions of documents created with Office software over the past fifteen years, making it available to a wide variety of programs.

"Office 2003 XML" offers an in-depth exploration of the relationship between XML and Office 2003, examining how the various products in the Office suite both produce and consume XML. Developers will learn how they can connect Microsoft Office to others systems, while power users will learn to create and analyze XML documents using familiar Office tools.

The book begins with an overview of the XML features included in the various Office 2003 components, and explores in detail how Word, Excel, and Access interact with XML. This book covers both the user interface side, creating interfaces so that users can comfortably (and even unknowingly) work with XML, and the back end, exposing Office information to other processes. It also looks at Microsoft's new InfoPath application and how it fits with the rest of Office. Finally, the book's appendices introduce various XML technologies that may be useful in working with Office, including XSLT, W3C XML Schema, RELAX NG, and SOAP.

"Office 2003 XML" provides quick and clear guidance to a anyone who needs to import or export information from Office documents into other systems. Both XML programmers and Office power will learn how to get the most from this powerful new intersection between Office 2003 and XML.

Java programmers know how finicky Java can be to work with. An omitted semi-colon or the slightest typo will cause the Java command-line compiler to spew pages of annoying error messages across your screen. And it doesn't fix them--that's up to you: fix them, compile again, and hope that nothing goes wrong this time.

Eclipse, the popular Java integrated development environment (IDE) provides an elegant and powerful remedy for this common, frustrating scenario. It doesn't just catch your errors before you compile, it also suggests solutions. All you need to do is point and click. And it's free--what could be better? Still, if you're like most programmers, mastering a new technology--no matter how productive it will make you in the long run--is going to take a chunk out of your productivity now. You want to get up to speed quickly without sacrificing efficiency.

O'Reilly's new guide to the technology, "Eclipse," provides exactly what you're looking for: a fast-track approach to mastery of Eclipse. This insightful, hands-on book delivers clear and concise coverage, with no fluff, that gets down to business immediately. The book is tightly focused, covering all aspects of Eclipse: the menus, preferences, views, perspectives, editors, team and debugging techniques, and how they're used every day by thousands of developers. Development of practical skills is emphasized with dozens of examples presented throughout the book.

From cover-to-cover, the book is pure Eclipse, covering hundreds of techniques beginning with the most basic Java development through creating your own plug-in editors for the Eclipse environment. Some of the topics you'll learn about include:

Using Eclipseto develop Java code

Testing and debugging

Working in teams using CVS

Building Eclipse projects using Ant

The Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT)

Web development

Developing Struts applications with Eclipse

From basics to advanced topics, "Eclipse" takes you through the fundamentals of Eclipse and more. You may be an Eclipse novice when you pick up the book, but you'll be a pro by the time you've finished.

Java has quickly become one of the most important languages in programming, particularly for professional and enterprise-level projects. From its infancy as a language primarily used for web applets to its maturity through servlets, Enterprise JavaBeans, and database access, Java has become a complex and robust tool for today's developer.

"Hardcore Java" takes this language and breaks it apart, piece by piece, revealing the important secrets and tricks that will take you from a junior-level programmer to a seasoned and expert developer. You'll fly through the fundamentals and quickly find yourself learning about advanced memory management techniques, optimization and bytecode-level enhancements, and the techniques required to build lightning-fast GUIs. Throughout the book, you'll also master the art of writing and maintaining bulletproof and error-proof code, all while grasping the intricacies of the Java language.

"Hardcore Java" covers:

Use of the final keyword to optimize and protect your Java classes.

Complete and thorough coverage of all types of nested classes, including how to optimize anonymous and inner classes.

Detailed discussion of immutable objects, including unique tips on when to use them (and when not to).

Elimination of bugs through exception-handling management.

In-depth studies of constants, including their impact on the Java memory model.

The most thorough discussion of reflection in print, moving far beyond other books' "Hello World" coverage.

Construction and use of dynamic proxies, in both Java Standard and Enterprise editions.

Expansive coverage of weak references, including usage patterns and their role in garbage collection andmemory management.

"Hardcore Java" is an invaluable addition to every programmer's library, and even the most advanced developers will find themselves moving beyond their own conceptions into truly advanced applications of the language. Thousands of lines of code, heavily commented and easily runnable, illustrate each concept in the book.

The author of the best-selling "Java in a Nutshell" has created an entire book of real-world Java programming examples that you can learn from. If you learn best "by example," this is the book for you.

This third edition covers Java 1.4 and contains 193 complete, practical examples: over 21,900 lines of densely commented, professionally written Java code, covering 20 distinct client-side and server-side APIs. It includes new chapters on the Java Sound API and the New I/O API. The chapters on XML and servlets have been rewritten to cover the latest versions of the specifications and to demonstrate best practices for Java 1.4. New and updated examples throughout the book demonstrate many other new Java features and APIs.

"Java Examples in a Nutshell" is a companion volume to "Java in a Nutshell," "Java Foundation Classes in a Nutshell," and "Java Enterprise in a Nutshell," It picks up where those quick references leave off, providing a wealth of examples for both novices and experts. This book doesn't hold your hand; it simply delivers well-commented working examples with succinct explanations to help you learn and explore Java and its APIs.

"Java Examples in a Nutshell" contains examples that demonstrate:

Core APIs, including I/O, New I/O, threads, networking, security, serialization, and reflection

Desktop APIs, highlighting Swing GUIs, Java 2D graphics, preferences, printing, drag-and-drop, JavaBeans, applets, and sound

Enterprise APIs, including JDBC (database access), JAXP (XML parsing and transformation), Servlets 2.4, JSP 2.0 (JavaServer Pages), and RMI

The book begins with introductory examples demonstrating structured and object-oriented programmingtechniques for new Java programmers. A special index at the end of the book makes it easy to look up examples that use a particular Java class or accomplish a desired task. In between, each chapter includes exercises that challenge readers and suggest further avenues for exploration.

Among the many different approaches to "templating" with Perl--such as Embperl, Mason, HTML:: Template, and hundreds of other lesser known systems--the Template Toolkit is widely recognized as one of the most versatile. Like other templating systems, the Template Toolkit allows programmers to embed Perl code and custom macros into HTML documents in order to create customized documents on the fly. But unlike the others, the Template Toolkit is as facile at producing HTML as it is at producing XML, PDF, or any other output format. And because it has its own simple templating language, templates can be written and edited by people who don't know Perl. In short, the Template Toolkit combines the best features of its competitors, with ease-of-use and flexibility, resulting in a technology that's fast, powerful and extensible, and ideally suited to the production and maintenance of web content and other dynamic document systems.

In "Perl Template Toolkit" you'll find detailed coverage of this increasingly popular technology. Written by core members of the technology's development team, the book guides you through the entire process of installing, configuring, using, and extending the Template Toolkit. It begins with a fast-paced but thorough tutorial on building web content with the Template Toolkit, and then walks you through generating and using data files, particularly with XML. It also provides detailed information on the Template Toolkit's modules, libraries, and tools in addition to a complete reference manual.

Topics in the book include:

Getting started with the template toolkit

The Template language

Template directives

Filters

Plugins

Extending the TemplateToolkit

Accessing databases

XML

Advanced static web page techniques

Dynamic web content and web applications

The only book to cover this important tool, "Perl Template Toolkit" is essential reading for any Perl programmer who wants to create dynamic web content that is remarkably easy to maintain. This book is your surefire guide to implementing this fast, flexible, and powerful templating system.

"Pro CSS Techniques" is the ultimate CSS book for the modern web developer. If you've already got web design and development basics under your belt, but want to take your knowledge to the next level and unleash the full power of CSS in your web sites, then this is the book for you. It is a collection of proven CSS techniques that you can use daily to get the most out of the time you spend on your projects, from start to finish.

Every topic is presented in an informative tutorial style, with each point backed up by several real-world examples and case studies. The authors cover all the essential areas of CSS development, like browser support (including IE7), hacks and filters, code management, advanced layouts and styling, typography, and much more. CSS levels 1, 2, and 3 are given a full treatment. The book also includes several reference sections that allow you to look up details quickly and easily.

The book aims to help you in four areas: maintainability, compatibility, reusability, and practicality. You'll be able to keep your code organized and easy to maintain, avoiding browser issues before they crop up (or hacking around them when absolutely necessary). You'll learn to get the most out of your styles with inheritance, and by using techniques you can build on. And you'll learn to use what works in the real world, without getting too caught up in ideals, because you can always optimize later.

Crawford and Kaplan's J2EE Design Patterns approaches the subject in a unique, highly practical and pragmatic way. Rather than simply present another catalog of design patterns, the authors broaden the scope by discussing ways to choose design patterns when building an enterprise application from scratch, looking closely at the real world tradeoffs that Java developers must weigh when architecting their applications. Then they go on to show how to apply the patterns when writing realworld software. They also extend design patterns into areas not covered in other books, presenting original patterns for data modeling, transaction / process modeling, and interoperability.

The first edition of this book has been praised as "the best reference book available on the subject." This new edition, Programming ColdFusion MX, 2nd Edition, goes even further, documenting new techniques for using ColdFusion MX 6.1 to develop and serve dynamic web page content. This exhaustive guide covers everything from the basics to advanced topics, with numerous examples that you can use for your own applications.

Brimming with over 100 "recipes" for getting down to business and actually doing XP, the Java Extreme Programming Cookbook doesn't try to "sell" you on XP; it succinctly documents the most important features of popular open source tools for XP in Java-- including Ant, Junit, HttpUnit, Cactus, Tomcat, XDoclet-- and then digs right in, providing recipes for implementing the tools in real-world environments.

The JDBC Pocket Reference offers quick look-ups for all methods of the standard JDBC classes. These include concise reviews of the procedures for common JDBC tasks such as connecting to a database, executing stored procedures, executing DDL and the like. You'll find documentation of the connect string formats for the most common databases, including Oracle, SQL-Server, and PostgreSQL. You'll even find information on working with large objects, and on using SQL99 user defined datatypes to work with object-relational data. Searching for this sort of material through large tutorials is frustrating and a waste of time, but this pocket-sized book is easy to take anywhere and makes finding the information you need a snap.