Wow! eBook – Blog

Book Description

Software Systems Architecture is a practitioner-oriented guide to designing and implementing effective architectures for information systems. It is both a readily accessible introduction to software architecture and an invaluable handbook of well-established best practices. It shows why the role of the architect is central to any successful information-systems development project, and, by presenting a set of architectural viewpoints and perspectives, provides specific direction for improving your own and your organization’s approach to software systems architecture.

With this book you will learn how to

• Design an architecture that reflects and balances the different needs of its stakeholders
• Communicate the architecture to stakeholders and demonstrate that it has met their requirements
• Focus on architecturally significant aspects of design, including frequently overlooked areas such as performance, resilience, and location
• Use scenarios and patterns to drive the creation and validation of your architecture
• Document your architecture as a set of related views
• Use perspectives to ensure that your architecture exhibits important qualities such as performance, scalability, and security Download Now »

Book Description

Step-by-step guide reveals best practices for enhancing Web sites with Ajax

• A step-by-step guide to enhancing Web sites with Ajax.
• Uses progressive enhancement techniques to ensure graceful degradation (which makes sites usable in all browsers).
• Shows readers how to write their own Ajax scripts instead of relying on third-party libraries.

Web site designers love the idea of Ajax–of creating Web pages in which information can be updated without refreshing the entire page. But for those who aren’t hard-core programmers, enhancing pages using Ajax can be a challenge. Even more of a challenge is making sure those pages work for all users. In Bulletproof Ajax, author Jeremy Keith demonstrates how developers comfortable with CSS and (X)HTML can build Ajax functionality without frameworks, using the ideas of graceful degradation and progressive enhancement to ensure that the pages work for all users. Throughout this step-by-step guide, his emphasis is on best practices with an approach to building Ajax pages called Hijax, which improves flexibility and avoids worst-case scenarios.

About the Author
Working with the Web consultancy firm, Clearleft, Jeremy Keith creates elegant, usable Web sites using the troika of Web standards: CSS, (X)HTML, and the Document Object Model. He is a member of the Web Standards Project and joint lead of the DOM Scripting Task Force. Download Now »

Book Description

Your web site is a business—design it like one.

Billions of dollars in spending decisions are influenced by web sites. So why aren’t businesses laser-focused on designing their sites to maximize their Return on Investment (ROI)?

Web design can do more than make a site look good—it can be a powerful strategic weapon that enhances financial returns and creates competitive advantage.

It’s time to make web sites accountable. It’s time to make design decisions based on metrics and business goals. It’s time for Web Design for ROI.

In this book you’ll learn:

• Why so many organizations think about web design the wrong way
• How small design changes can have a big impact on your bottom line
• Simple tips  to increase web sales/leads by 10% – 50% (or more)
• Concrete design guidelines for:
• Landing pages
• Home pages
• Category pages Download Now »

Book Description

What is XML? XML, or eXtensible Markup Language, is a specification for storing information. It is also a specification for describing the structure of that information. And while XML is a markup language (just like HTML), XML has no tags of its own. It allows the person writing the XML to create whatever tags they need. The only condition is that these newly created tags adhere to the rules of the XML specification.

In the seven years since the first edition of “XML: Visual QuickStart Guide” was published, XML has taken its place next to HTML as a foundational language on the Internet. XML has become a very popular method for storing data and the most popular method for transmitting data between all sorts of systems and applications. The reason being, where HTML was designed to display information, XML was designed to manage it.

This book begins by showing you the basics of the XML language. Then, by building on that knowledge, additional and supporting languages and systems will be discussed. To get the most out of this book, you should be somewhat familiar with HTML, although you don’t need to be an expert coder by any stretch. No other previous knowledge is required.

“XML: Visual QuickStart Guide, 2nd Edition” is divided into seven parts. Each part contains one or more chapters with step-by-step instructions that explain how to perform XML-related tasks. Wherever possible, examples of the concepts being discussed are displayed, and the parts of the examples on which to focus are highlighted.

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Book Description

Expert Guide to Deploying, Using, and Managing DataPower SOA Appliances

IBM® WebSphere® DataPower® appliances can simplify SOA deployment, strengthen SOA security, enhance SOA performance, and dramatically improve SOA return on investment. In this book, a team of IBM’s leading experts show how to make the most of DataPower SOA appliances in any IT environment.

The authors present IBM DataPower information and insights that are available nowhere else. Writing for working architects, administrators, and security specialists, they draw extensively on their deep experience helping IBM customers use DataPower technologies to solve challenging system integration problems.

IBM WebSphere DataPower SOA Appliance Handbook begins by introducing the rationale for SOA appliances and explaining how DataPower appliances work from network, security, and Enterprise Service Bus perspectives. Next, the authors walk through DataPower installation and configuration; then they present deep detail on DataPower’s role and use as a network device.

Using many real-world examples, the authors systematically introduce the services available on DataPower devices, especially the “big three”: XML Firewall, Web Service Proxy, and Multi-Protocol Gateway. They also present thorough and practical guidance on day-to-day DataPower management, including, monitoring, configuration build and deploy techniques.

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Book Description

Scala is an object-oriented programming language for the Java Virtual Machine. In addition to being object-oriented, Scala is also a functional language, and combines the best approaches to OO and functional programming.

In Italian, Scala means a stairway, or steps indeed, Scala lets you step up to a programming environment that incorporates some of the best recent thinking in programming language design while also letting you use all your existing Java code.

Artima is very pleased to publish a new edition of the best-selling book on Scala, written by the designer of the language, Martin Odersky. Co-authored by Lex Spoon and Bill Venners, this book takes a step-by-step tutorial approach to teaching you Scala. Starting with the fundamental elements of the language, Programming in Scala introduces functional programming from the practitioner’s perspective, and describes advanced language features that can make you a better, more productive developer.

This book is the authoritative tutorial on the Scala programming language, co-written by the language’s designer, Martin Odersky. This second edition provides more than 100 pages of new material that covers new features in Scala 2.8, including:

• The design of the new collections library
• Structural subtyping
• The new rules for implicits Download Now »