EVEN THE MOST SKILLED WEB DESIGNERS can find the complexities of creating a full-functioned Web site to be a daunting task. Here to help designers create sites that not only work, but work well and are easy to update and maintain is an easy-to-read guide to Web programming basics from best-selling author Charles Wyke-Smith. Just as architects need to understand building materials and their properties, Web designers need to understand the code that serves as the foundation of their sites. Wyke-Smith ensures they do by teaching designers that all dynamic Web sites consist of essentially three components: a browser interface, Web server middleware, and a database. The guide covers everything from Web coding concepts and principles to building sites, designing visual interfaces, developing databases, developing middleware, ensuring a good user experience (through good code!), testing and debugging, and more.

Create dynamic Web sites that provide real-time responses to user inputs

Understand the basic structures of all coding languages, such as variables, functions, conditionals, loops, and objects

Use the power of PHP to program the business rules of your site

Learn techniques for validating forms to reject erroneous or malicious data

Import and export data from other applications via at les

Build and query database tables using SQL to manage the data generated by your site’s activity

Develop a simple content management system

Develop a password-protected members-only area of your Web site

Build a template-based Web site with dynamic navigation