Hey everyone,
We’re currently brainstorming topics for future SitePoint books and we’d be keen to hear your ideas.
What subjects would you be interested in reading a SitePoint book about?
I like the JS, RIA, accessibility, good parts angle. Something like a sequel to the new jQuery book which was excellent.
Though the concept of the single page site does really bug me. For a simple application, OK, sure a single page may be all you need. But when you start seeing apps with custom bookmarking you know the developers have lost touch with good application design. If you simply make those bookmarks, links to new pages, whether static or dynamic, you’ll have a much more sensible, user-friendly app.
That would need to be a number of books, its impossible to wrap up a whole range of subjects into one book and make it “easy” and if everything was easy then there would be no reason for the books.
How about Wtiting a book on comlete guide from a biginner not only can make his website easily but also promote it on internet very well…
How about a good feature full book on extending WordPress for use as a CMS & eCommerce site for a number of different industries
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I would like to see a beginner’s book on planning and organizing a website project through publishing and managing the site. Perhaps with only a brief section on html/css & web graphics with references where to learn more & what to avoid. There are a lot of design and html/css books out there already.
- information architecture
- absolute vs relative vs root relative references
- folder structure
- developing naming conventions
- developing style guides for both writing content and writing html/css
- planning for growth
- archiving content
- incorporating a cms
Managing the site:
Definitely a section on publishing on a shared server, which I believe is where most people start.
- What different control panels you may encounter with different hosts.
- How to avoid getting your site closed down because you did something stupid to make it vulnerable.
- The best way to write a help ticket to get you a relevant answer.
- .htaccess
- 404 pages
- password protection
- add-on domain, subdomains, domain forwarding
- indexing
I dont feel alone then 
Hi Stomme poes, while recently going through book reviews i noticed how there are those cookbooks, i can see the benefit of that and will look more closely at a few of those.
Realistically i know that there are not going to be books that magically instruct from start to finish exactly what someone has in mind and that the freedom of being able to use PHP and MySQL to build means that i need to be prepared to work it out for myself.
I agree with you and i would say that yes i am focusing so much on how i want to build my idea that im neglecting the fact that i will (whether i like it or not) have to go through a whole load of trying this n that until it sinks in then enabling me to make a start on my ideas.
There seems to be lots of beginner books, some expert (i want to feel elite) types of books but i feel theres a massive gap in between that.
I would love for more books to leave out explaining what 20 other books have explained already.
@Stomme poes, i guess im just going through the typical beginner feeling of PHP and MySQL of i want to build things now, i realise it will take time to learn and waiting for those “ah i got it” moments in the future.
[FONT=“Georgia”]Something more on the business and legal aspects of web and programming.
Advisable practices, example agreements, promoting yourself effectively, being a professional.
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Starbar: what you want is called a cookbook (O’Reilly publishes lots of those, with “cookbook” in the title). How do I do “x”? SitePoint’s Javascript Anthology is mostly a cookbook.
I see people getting into front end development who are too new and know exactly what they want to build. This gets in the way of their learning, unfortunately. If you want to learn to write a French novel, you HAVE to spend lots of time learning how to say “the cheese is old and moldy” and “where is the bathroom” in French, and the annoying differences between adding 6 silent letters to the end of a word and adding 10. Bleh. While you learn through doing projects, you must be able to set aside what you want to do in order to focus on the exercises in your [thing you want to learn] in order to learn enough to eventually do what you want.
And nobody’s said if this is going to be a cookbook, or a Get Started With… or a Learn the Basics of… newbie book, or what. Who is the audience of this book??
One that takes away that “where do i start” and teaches how to approach what you as the reader wants to do with PHP and MySQL for example and not what the authors thinks will be enough to sell another book.
I keep finding books and each ones claims to be a bit better and that it teaches how to build a login and a form blah blah blah and i reach the end of the book and im none the wiser.
I know exactly what i want to build, i mean literally exactly, but to get my head around putting the database together, yes there are books dedicated to MySQL, but ever tried reading a book on MySQL and one on PHP as separate books but needing them at the same time? Reading info on the forums too and trying to retain all of that? Im new to learning PHP and MySQL, it amazes me the amount of books that repeat what is mentioned in the manuals.
So many books listing the individiual parts of the language that still makes it no easier to actually build something.
You will tell me of the books that cover PHP and MySQL together of course, the ones that tell me how it all started, ive read now probably half dozen books that waste pages saying this is how it all started.
Provide a book that doesn’t frustrate readers, im frustrated and not through lack of trying to understand, dont put filler in it, dont give me a history of the internet or who were the mates of the creator of PHP or get snobby about certain things or biased towards something.
I and many others want books that dont try and confuse the reader further.
Its no good myself just saying gimme a book of PHP or jQuery or whatever.
Ever read the frustration on amazon? The reviews and how annoyed people are at forking out more money for junk that leaves then no more informed.
So my own request: PHP and MySQL that does what all other previous books fail to do so far.
Any new book should have a video in my opinion. Jefferey Way wrote new book “From Photoshop to HTML” that include video and since I’m a beginner it help me more then just printed one. Also Magento is walking big steps to become one of the best e-commerce app. but there is no good book on the market, maybe book about Magento?
Hm, yes. Last flash book I had was a Sams Learn Flash in 24 Seconds or whatever. A “Simply Javascript” of Flash/AS3 by SitePoint would be very cool.
Something that hadn’t already been done would be a good plan, many of the books released recently are just re-treading over existing ground. 
Already been done, though it’s too broad a topic to cover in one book. You just described the combination of Ian Lloyd’s, Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way Using HTML & CSS, 2nd Edition, and Kevin Yank’s Simply Javascript.
I think that’s way too much to cover in one book, and the results would be pretty disappointing. What you’re talking about is taking the sample chapters from some of their HTML / CSS books, some sample chapters from their PHP / SQL / Javascript books and then trying to write a massive book after that. I think the final step is where the real interest would be.
One of really BIG reasons I love Principles of Beautiful Web Design so much is that it exposes you to enough theory that you understand WHY you are doing what you’re doing, but otherwise it stays really grounded in the PROCESS of what it does. Beaird takes you step by step through Web Design, first do this and here are some of the different choices you can make (and why you’d choose one vs. the others), next you do this and here are some of the different choices you can make, etc. Books that follow that general model are much more useful because there are really no publishers except Sitepoint that stress not just learning technology, but teaching you the ins and outs of making it work for you.
:tup:
Sounds like a great idea. Rather than telling people what to do, they’re just giving people examples of what THEY do, giving the reader choice and improving their understanding of projects.
Originally Posted by w1nk5
How about a book that outlines real-world web projects completed by Sitepoint staff. Explaining how each writer tackles their project. Where do they start? What are the steps they follow? What are their thought processes? You know, providing as much detail as possible.
I think a book like this would be worth it’s weight in gold.
Maybe you can also have a book for beginners with the first few chapters devoted to some really simple real world web projects just using simple html and css, then a few chapters using html, css, php, mysql, simple javascript etc and finally some big real world world web projects as mentioned by w1nk5
CSS 3, HTML 5, WordPress plugin and theme development, the in’s and out’s of using different JavaScript libraries, maybe more when I think of it.
This is a great idea. :tup:
This is a great idea too. Maybe something aimed at designers, site owners, and less experienced developers? In other words, it could be a sort of intermediate book aimed at people that have used/are using production servers at the moment but aren’t quite up to the task of self-managing a dedi or or vps. Maybe how to set up, harden and maintain a dedi and a couple of the more popular VPS virtualization options?
And, here’s one that it seems that nobody has done or at least not very well…a vBulletin book. I’d specifically like to see one on modding/extending vB. Something that goes into the guts of it would be cool, rather than just how to set it up and use it.