Developing Large Web Applications

Preface

It’s been a while since I first worked on a book with O’Reilly in 1997. That book was a practical guide to data structures and algorithms, a subject that, for the most part, had been defined many years before by some of the early giants of computer science (Dijkstra, Hoare, Knuth, to name a few). By comparison, I’ve been able to witness the rapid evolution of the subject of this book from the front lines, and I have had the good fortune to help refine it myself while working as a web developer at one of the largest web applications in the world, Yahoo!.

Web developers have a fascinating role. We work just as closely with user experience designers as with engineers, and sometimes we’re the designers, too. In many ways, we are guardians of the user experience as a web design goes from its mockup to its implementation. But we also have to write exceptionally good code that performs well in the challenging environment of web browsers. Today, more than ever, engineers recognize that web development must be carried out with the same rigor as other types of software development.

This book presents a number of techniques for applying established practices of good software engineering to web development—that is, development primarily using the disparate technologies of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and server-side scripting languages. Whereas there are many books on how to use languages, how to use libraries, and how to approach software engineering, this is the first book to codify many of the techniques it presents. These techniques will make the components of your own web applications more reusable, maintainable, and reliable.

Audience

The primary audience for this book is software developers and managers interested in large web applications; however, you’ll find that the techniques in this book are equally useful for web applications of any size. Although it’s especially important to follow good development practices in large web applications, smaller web applications benefit from many of the same techniques, too.

To get the most out of this book, you should already be very familiar with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript; this book does not teach these languages, although it covers many interesting aspects about them. This book uses PHP as the scripting language for server-side examples. Many readers will have a good understanding of PHP as well, but even those who don’t should find the examples easy to follow. PHP is known for its flexibility, ubiquity, and ease of use, so it works well. Most examples can be translated to other server-side scripting languages fairly easily, if you desire.

Organization of This Book

This book is organized into three types of material: background (e.g., Object Orientation in Chapter 2), techniques associated with specific languages (e.g., Large-Scale HTML in Chapter 3, Large-Scale CSS in Chapter 4, Large-Scale JavaScript in Chapter 5, and Large-Scale PHP in Chapter 7), and techniques related to other aspects of development (e.g., Data Management in Chapter 6, Large-Scale Ajax in Chapter 8, Performance in Chapter 9, and Application Architecture in Chapter 10). Each chapter begins with a tenet presented from Chapter 1. These tenets act as assertions about the topic for each chapter to provide a concisely articulated direction.

Throughout the book, there are numerous examples in real code to demonstrate many of the techniques presented. Some of the numbered examples work together to create larger, more complete examples that extend across multiple chapters. While the focus of this book is not on teaching the specific languages addressed, the examples do demonstrate a number of aspects of each language that will help make you more proficient with each as you master them.

Conventions Used in This Book

The following typographical conventions are used in this book:

Italic

Indicates new terms, URLs, filenames, and Unix utilities.

Constant width

Indicates command-line options, variables and other code elements, HTML tags, the contents of files, and the output from commands.

Constant width bold

Shows commands or other text that should be typed literally by the user.

Constant width italic

Shows text that should be replaced with user-supplied values.

Note

This icon signifies a tip, suggestion, or general note.

There are some other conventions to be aware of in this book:

...

Indicates something that is missing (for you to fill in) in a line of code or a path (e.g., require_once(.../navbar.inc);).

<?php ... ?>

Wraps PHP examples that contain the complete code for a file. Most PHP examples don’t have this, because they show only a code snippet.

Using Code Examples

This book is here to help you get your job done. In general, you may use the code in this book in your programs and documentation. You do not need to contact us for permission unless you’re reproducing a significant portion of the code. For example, writing a program that uses several chunks of code from this book does not require permission. Selling or distributing a CD-ROM of examples from O’Reilly books does require permission. Answering a question by citing this book and quoting example code does not require permission. Incorporating a significant amount of example code from this book into your product’s documentation does require permission.

We appreciate, but do not require, attribution. An attribution usually includes the title, author, publisher, and ISBN. For example: “Developing Large Web Applications, by Kyle Loudon. Copyright Yahoo!, Inc., 978-0-596-80302-5.”

If you feel your use of code examples falls outside fair use or the permission given here, feel free to contact us at [e-mail].

We’d Like to Hear From You

Every example has in this book has been tested on various platforms, but occasionally you may encounter problems. The information in this book has also been verified at each step of the production process. However, mistakes and oversights can occur and we will gratefully receive details of any you find, as well as any suggestions you would like to make for future editions. You can contact the author and editors at:

O’Reilly Media, Inc.

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We have a web page for this book, where we list errata, examples, and any additional information. You can access this page at:

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596803025

You can find additional information about this book, including electronic versions of the examples at:

http://kyleloudon.com

To comment or ask technical questions about this book, send email to the following address, mentioning its ISBN number (978-0-596-80302-5):

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Acknowledgments

This book is the result of having worked with outstanding people both at O’Reilly and in many projects leading up to the book. For this, I offer my heartfelt thanks.

First, I thank my editor at O’Reilly, Andy Oram. Andy and I worked together on my first book with O’Reilly, and I had hoped for a long time that working on another book together would not be a matter of if, but when. Having finished this book, I hope that another book will be a matter of when again. Andy inspires me with his ability to always find ways to make things better. His insights appear in one form or another on nearly every page of this book. Andy also kept our project moving along while being patient and understanding of the struggle that writers doing other jobs constantly face.

I also extend my sincere thanks to the entire production team at O’Reilly, who constantly impress me with their ability to handle the numerous aspects of production so smoothly. The ease with which it all seems to take place belies the work that it really requires. I would also like to thank Amy Thomson, my copyeditor, for having worked under such tight time constraints at the end of the book.

I send my heartfelt thanks to Nate Koechley for writing the foreword. Nate was one of my earliest colleagues at Yahoo! to turn me on to the truly awesome potential of web development. Much of what I’ve tried to capture in this book came from ideas that Nate worked passionately to instill at Yahoo! and across the Web. I couldn’t have asked for a more fitting person to write the foreword.

I am grateful to have had outstanding technical reviewers for this book as well. Christoph Dorn, Steve Griffith, and Nate Koechley each provided an impressive level of detail and thought in their reviews. The book benefited greatly from their comments.

I would also like to acknowledge the influence of my many colleagues at Yahoo! and other projects before this. I especially thank Bryce Kujala and Vy Phan, who helped refine many of the ideas in the book by putting them to the test in practice early on. I’m also grateful to the exceptional user experience designers with whom I’ve had the honor to work closest: Veronica Gaspari, Cathy Tiritoglu, and Sasha Verhage.

Finally, I thank Shala, my wife, for her encouragement on another book project; my parents, Marc and Judy, for their support from afar; Shala’s parents, Elias and Maria, for their frequent assistance at a moment’s notice; and Julian, who has been my late-night companion—just too young to know it yet.