Input wanted for new tech book

[essellar]

Okay, here's the deal.

In response to a whole bunch of questions in threads spread hither and yon throughout the forum, I've decided to write a book. Building Your Site -- the Hard Way (the working title) will attempt to answer a lot of the questions and (hopefully) solve a lot of the problems that are regularly raised on this site.

It won't be a comprehensive tutorial or a step-by-step guide. I don't know what kind of site you want to build, so I can't tell you exactly how to build it. And, really, that's sort of the point of the book.

Among the most common problems here is resource usage -- and that's a problem in any shared hosting environment. When you star with a general-purpose "site platform", like WordPress or a CMS (Drupal, Joomla), then start adding in plugins and third-party tools to make the site you want, you often end up running enough code to support the complete infrastructure of a major multinational corporation -- and that's for a "simple" site for collectors of interesting nineteenth-century moustache wax tins. There is no reason why your little hobby site, or the site for your small business, should be bumping into any sort of limits.

I hope to show people enough to let them build what they need -- no more, but no less -- and leave room to grow. And it will all be geared to working in a shared PHP+MySQL hosting environment with tight resource constraints. That applies to the Free Hosting accounts here at x10Hosting, but will translate perfectly to other hosts and account types as well. And it means that if you are using paid hosting for a business site, you should be able to run your site much more cheaply.

I will be concentrating on principles, and there will be at least as much about the why and wherefore as there is about the how. It's going to be talking about security, usability, accessibility, program design and data organisation. There will be a brief introduction to the basics of HTML, CSS, JavaScript (including a taste of jQuery and AJAX), PHP, relational databases (using MySQL), and how to put it all together using best practices.

I've already written a large swath of the book, but there's a problem: I've been doing this stuff for longer than many of you have been alive. I know what "most people" (even most professionals) don't know and never seem to think about (things like what real security is, what accessibility and usability are all about, and why these things are important), but I don't know what you don't know. It's easy to write a book for intermediate and advanced programmers, but it's hard to write something that's not "dumbed down" for beginners. So I need your help.

What would you like to see in a book like this? Keep in mind that I don't want this to be just another useless "dummies" book -- it's aimed at people who are seriously interested in learning enough to enable their own self-education, without getting them in over their heads too quickly. Any ideas or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[paul-holmes83]

How about a chapter on setting up a home server, something like a wamp server, so people can test their sites before making them go live,

[essellar]

That was part of the plan (along with "how to test your app") -- there's nothing quite like coding infinite loops and such to tick off a hosting provider. But that's the sort of feedback I'm after -- if I didn't mention it and it should be in the book, I want to know about it.

Perhaps I should mention that the book (at least an electronic version -- the dead tree ones cost money) will be free to people who make useful suggestions here without repeating something somebody else has already said. And when I say "useful", you should assume that since I've already mentioned security will be a big part of the book, that designing a registration and login scheme is already covered, so suggesting that isn't very useful. Paul will be getting a copy (eventually), since even though I'd planned to include what he'd suggested, I hadn't already mentioned it.

[paul-holmes83]

Paul will be getting a copy (eventually), since even though I'd planned to include what he'd suggested, I hadn't already mentioned it.

Thank you for that

[Anna]

Don't think I'll need the book, but I think the novice webmasters might need a hint or two on how to use an ftp client.

Seen a few ask "How do I upload my files to the server" (which in some cases would be due to them simply not finding the information) and I've met quiet a few that never had used an ftp client of any kind where I basically had to step them through it.

[paul-holmes83]

Seen a lot of people ask about htaccess as well, that would probably help me also, because what I have seen on it so far is like a foreign language to me.

[essellar]

Like it or not, Anna, you'll be getting a copy. It may be a useful resource to recommend (or not -- I'm not expecting staff here, or anyone else, to become my sales force in some kind of twisted quid pro quo scheme; I expect the book to stand or fall on its own merits).

[descalzo]

Description of caching and why it may cause HRU while not helping your site

Description of SEO plugins and why they might cause HRU. Especially site maps that might have to be regenerated each time you change a page.

Graphics plugins and HRU. ie, make your thumbnails on your computer with GIMP etc and upload them. If the server has to create a thumbnail using GD for every page, it bogs down the server.

Tips for quick loading sites. Smaller graphics, combine/minify/gzip css and js files. Using FireBug or other developer tools (helps finding that your css graphics aren't loading because of a 403 Forbidden because you messed up Hotlink protection).

Basic .htaccess , including how to make cPanel/FTP show hidden files and ErrorDocuments

Are these the type of topics you want?

[essellar]

They'll do, and there goes another book. Efficiency will play a huge role in the book (the HRU issue was one of the main motivators). CPanel basics (and the "other" common control panel) and error documents (and why custom errordocs are better by far than the default) will be new sections, though. Thanks.

[descalzo]

Don't forget security. Passwords and little brothers. CAPTCHAs and spam controls. Up to date versions of software (and no warez/nulled scripts, good sources of problems). Software forums as sources of information on how to "harden" a site.