Adapting to web standards - Part 1

A very interesting book has recently hit the shelves of you local bookstore: Adapting to Web Standards: CSS and Ajax for Big Sites (Voices That Matter). One of the co-authors of this book is none other than AOL's own Kevin Lawver. A good opportunity to review the book and be able to ask Kevin some questions about the it.

The book is split in two main parts, the first part deals with coding web pages, using cascading style sheets (CSS), adding behaviour using Javascript and AJAX, building web applications and introducting standards using the 'Circle of Standards'. The second part consists of case studies, looking at the sites www.everythingtori.com and www.aol.com. In the appendixes we find information about targeting browsers, accessibility resources, performance tips and a CSS Selector Reference.

Let's take a closer look at the Part 1.

Chapter 1: Coding the Front End

This chapter deals with HTML vs. XHTML listing pros and cons for both and explaining the usefulness of defining the DOCTYPE in your HTML.

Tip: Different DOCTYPE definitions will lead to different renderings of your page.

The chapter offers a list of ways of validating markup, something that I would think is a must for every developer! I liked the explanation of POSH (= Plain Old Semantic HTML). I guess I already did 'POSH' just didn't know there was a name for it.

Chapter 2: Presenting Cascading Style Sheets

This chapter is a very good overall introduction in CSS and explains very clearly how to apply CSS the right way.

A little misplaced is the paragraph about microformats. While a very interesting concept, the concept stills seems far away from being an industry standard.

Kevin: "Microformats are being adopted faster than anyone expected. In fact, Yahoo's new Open Search platform will support indexing microformats (along with RDFa, FOAF and others), and Technorati's beta search already does. AOL's been involved in the microformats community since almost the very beginning, helping with the hAtom microformat for marking up feeds and serialized articles and creating the ModuleT microformat for marking up modules and portable data. The great thing about microformats is that they're not new "standards" per se, but documenting best practices for using existing markup standards (HTML and XHTML). There are hundreds of thousands of instances of microformats already on the web, and more coming online every day."

Chapter 3: Integrating the Behavior Layer

The books calls for a clear separation of content, style and behaviour. Content should be XHTML, style should be separated into CSS and behaviour should be added using Javascript. Wherever possible the Javascript should externalized from the web page and placed in separate Javascript files (allowing for browser caching of these files).

I like the tips in this chapter on what to do and what not to do with Javascript. Especially when it comes to ensuring accessibility and the concept of designing your page to work, even if Javascript is disabled. The book is loaded with useful information and more importantly showing you how to implement certain ideas with example code. Since it has been a while since I did some hardcore Javascript coding I was pleased to learn some of the newer API's which should ease the implementation of cross browser code.

I was a little disappointed by the limited info on AJAX specifics.

Chapter 4: Developing Web Software Applications

This chapter deals with general rules to code by and how to improve your web application and dives in deeper when it comes to Content Management Systems and my favorite web application framework: ASP.NET.

The chapter contains some good tips on using CSS with ASP.NET which by itself should decrease the page load and improve performance.

I don't quite agree with the comparison drawn between ASP.NET Controls vs. HTML Controls. The chapter skipped the power of ASP.NET themes and skins and did not highlight the multilanguage capabilities of ASP.NET controls. Still very informative reading.

Chapter 5: The Circle of Standards

Great chapter on how to get your team, organisation and management to jump on the standards bandwagon. This chapter is also full of usefull tips for people that are in the business of promoting standards other than web standards.

Kevin: "This chapter was written by Kimberly Blessing, who worked at AOL for several years, and helped start the discussion about adopting standards-based best practices. She's got more experience than anyone I know of getting large companies to embrace standards-based development, having helped me get things started at AOL, and now at PayPal. The process outlined in her chapter works, and works well."

All in all, just based on chapters 1-5 I'd says this book is a must read for anyone building a serious web site or web portal. From developer to architect the chapters contain useful information and make you aware that with just a little attention and effort you can make your website faster and standards compliant.

Next week, the case study: www.aol.com.

Happy coding!

- Mark Blomsma

For sale on Amazon.com: Adapting to Web Standards: CSS and Ajax for Big Sites (Voices That Matter)