Web 2.0 Reading List

If you're looking for a Web 2.0 reading list, this blog is for you. I've decided to collect and review the most useful and popular books covering different aspects of the Web 2.0 initiative, including design, programming, security, and basic concepts.

I hope you find this list of reading books useful. If you have any reviews that you would like to include, please drop me a note.

Ajax in Action

Ajax in Action is definately a good read on Ajax, a fundamental concept used in Web 2.0 applications. This book explains how to distribute the application between the client and the server using an MVC design while retaining the integrity of the system. By reading this book, you will learn how to ensure your application is flexible and maintainable, and how good, structured design can help avoid problems like browser incompatibilities. Along the way it helps you unlearn many old coding habits. If you are a web developer thinking of launching a Web 2.0 website, this book is for you.

Agile Web Development with Rails (2nd edition)

This is by far the best and most popular book on Ruby On Rails development. I strongly recommend it for any one who wants to start their Web 2.0 application using Rails.

With this book, you'll learn how to use Rails Active Record to connect business objects and database tables. No more painful object-relational mapping. Just create your business objects and let Rails do the rest. You'll learn how to use the Action Pack framework to route incoming requests and render pages using easy-to-write templates and components. See how to exploit the Rails service frameworks to send emails, talk to web services, and interact dynamically with JavaScript applications running in the browser (the "Ajax" architecture).

The second edition of this book explores Rails 1.2 features.

The Definitive Guide to Django: Web Development Done Right

Django, the Python-based equivalent to the Ruby on Rails web development framework, is presently one of the hottest topics in web development today. In The Definitive Guide to Django: Web Development Done Right, Adrian Holovaty, one of Django's creators, and Django lead developer Jacob Kaplan-Moss show you how they use this framework to create several web sites. Over the course of three parts, they guide you through the creation of a web application reminiscent of chicagocrime.org.

The first part of the book introduces Django fundamentals like installation and configuration. You'll learn about creating the components that power a Django-driven web site. The second part delves into the more sophisticated features of Django, like outputting non-HTML content (such as RSS feeds and PDFs), plus caching and user management. The third part serves as a detailed reference to Django's many configuration options and commands. The book even includes seven appendixes for looking up configurations options and commands. In all, this book provides the ultimate tutorial and reference to the popular Django framework.

Professional Web 2.0 Programming

The book, Professional Web 2.0 Programming, looks in-depth into XHTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), JavaScript, and Ajax. It also discusses protocols and formats that enable the exchange of information between web clients and servers, and elaborates on techniques for server-side programming.

Most readers expected more from the book, specially since it is published by Wrox, however I must say that it is worth reading if you are a beginner in Web 2.0 programming

From the authors, "What you will learn from this book":

• How Web 2.0 applications are developed
• New ways to get the major client-side technologies to work together
• The new class of emerging tools
• All about HTTP and URIs, XML, syndication, microformats, and Web Services
• Techniques for implementing and maintaining your URI space
• How to serve XML over HTTP
• Steps for building mashups to aggregate information from multiple sources
• Methods for enhancing security in your applications

Web ReDesign 2.0: Workflow that Works

The way you design your web application or website is very crucial to its success and usability.
This great book is a high-level, phased approach to web design. It describes the key tasks, deliverables and roles that need to be choreographed to successfully develop, implement and maintain a web site.

This book offers an essential step by step process of designing a web site project. It helps readers to understand how to get the clients perspective and how to deliver above and beyond what is expected in a professional and efficient manner.

How do you get content from the client? How do you budget for site tasks versus site team? How do you know a good client from a bad client? How do you understand your target audience? "Web Redesign Work Flow That Works" answers them all.

The main design topics covered in this book are:

• Step 1--Defining the Core Process: discovery, planning, and clarification;
• Step 2--Developing site structure: content-view, site-view, and page-view;
• Step 3--Visual design and testing: creating, confirming, and handing off;
• Step 4--Production and QA: prepping, building, and testing;
• Step 5--Launch and beyond: delivery, launch, and maintenance.

Unleashing Web 2.0: From Concepts to Creativity

This book is an excellent book on Web 2.0 technologies and how they can be used to provide value to users in a Web 2.0 world. The book is a light on technical (programming), but rich on concepts and the business side of Web 2.0. What makes this book useful is the fact that it reintroduces common concepts such as blogs in a way that an executive can understand and take advantage of. The first chapter discusses a brief history of the web. The second chapter goes into explaining what web technologies such as CSS and XML are and what a web service can do for a business. There are a few other very useful chapters in this book, but by no means you should stop your Web 2.0 quest with this book. This book's a great way to start your Web 2.0 journey and it even puts forth the notion of semantic web. But, once you figure out what area you want to concentrate on, I recommend getting a more comprehensive book on that specific topic.

Hacking Exposed Web 2.0: Web 2.0 Security Secrets and Solutions

Any Web 2.0 startup must consider security risks from the start. This interesting book, Hacking Exposed Web 2.0, mainly identifies the types of attacks which are faced daily by Web 2.0 sites, the authors give advice on how to identify and mitigate these threats.

The book shows how hackers perform reconnaissance, choose their entry point, and attack Web 2.0-based services, and reveals detailed countermeasures and defense techniques. You'll learn how to avoid injection and buffer overflow attacks, fix browser and plug-in flaws, and secure AJAX, Flash, and XML-driven applications. Real-world case studies illustrate social networking site weaknesses, cross-site attack methods, migration vulnerabilities, and IE7 shortcomings.

A must for any Web 2.0 startup :-)