Introduction 1
About This Book 2
Foolish Assumptions 3
Icons Used in This Book 4
Beyond the Book 4
Book 1: Getting Ready to Code for the Web 5
Chapter 1: How Web Coding and Development Work 7
The Nuts and Bolts of Web Coding and Development 8
Understanding the Front End: HTML and CSS 12
Understanding the Back End: PHP and MySQL 15
How It All Fits Together: JavaScript and jQuery 16
How Dynamic Web Pages Work 18
What Is a Web App? 19
What Is a Mobile Web App? 19
What's the Difference between Web Coding and Web Development? 20
Chapter 2: Setting Up Your Web Development Home 21
What Is a Local Web Development Environment? 22
Do You Need a Local Web Development Environment? 22
Setting Up the XAMPP for Windows Development Environment 23
Setting Up the XAMPP for OS X Development Environment 29
Choosing Your Text Editor 33
Chapter 3: Finding and Setting Up a Web Host 35
Understanding Web Hosting Providers 36
A Buyer's Guide to Web Hosting 37
Finding a Web Host 40
Finding Your Way around Your New Web Home 41
Book 2: Coding The Front End, Part 1: HTML & CSS 47
Chapter 1: Structuring the Page with HTML 49
Getting the Hang of HTML 50
Understanding Tag Attributes 52
Learning the Fundamental Structure of an HTML5 Web Page 53
Some Notes on Structure versus Style 57
Applying the Basic Text Tags 58
Creating Links 62
Building Bulleted and Numbered Lists 65
Inserting Special Characters 68
Inserting Images 69
Carving Up the Page 71
Chapter 2: Styling the Page with CSS 79
Figuring Out Cascading Style Sheets 80
Getting the Hang of CSS Rules and Declarations 81
Adding Styles to a Page 83
Styling Page Text 87
Working with Colors 93
Getting to Know the Web Page Family 95
Using CSS Selectors 96
Revisiting the Cascade 100
Chapter 3: Sizing and Positioning Page Elements 103
Learning about the CSS Box Model 104
Styling Sizes 105
Adding Padding 107
Building Borders 109
Making Margins 110
Getting a Grip on Page Flow 113
Floating Elements 115
Positioning Elements 120
Chapter 4: Creating the Page Layout 127
What Is Page Layout? 128
Laying Out Page Elements with Floats 128
Laying Out Page Elements with Inline Blocks 132
Making Flexible Layouts with Flexbox 136
Shaping the Overall Page Layout with CSS Grid 153
Providing Fallbacks for Page Layouts 164
Book 3: Coding The Front End, Part 2: Javascript 167
Chapter 1: An Overview of JavaScript 169
JavaScript: Controlling the Machine 170
What Is a Programming Language? 171
Is JavaScript Hard to Learn? 172
What Can You Do with JavaScript? 173
What Can't You Do with JavaScript? 174
What Do You Need to Get Started? 175
Basic Script Construction 175
Adding Comments to Your Code 180
Creating External JavaScript Files 181
Chapter 2: Understanding Variables 183
What Is a Variable? 184
Naming Variables: Rules and Best Practices 187
Understanding Literal Data Types 189
JavaScript Reserved Words 193
JavaScript Keywords 194
Chapter 3: Building Expressions 197
Understanding Expression Structure 197
Building Numeric Expressions 199
Building String Expressions 205
Building Comparison Expressions 208
Building Logical Expressions 215
Understanding Operator Precedence 219
Chapter 4: Controlling the Flow of JavaScript 225
Understanding JavaScript's Control Structures 226
Making True/False Decisions with if() Statements 226
Branching with if() else Statements 228
Making Multiple Decisions 229
Understanding Code Looping 234
Using while() Loops 235
Using for() Loops 237
Using do while() Loops 241
Controlling Loop Execution 243
Avoiding Infinite Loops 246
Chapter 5: Harnessing the Power of Functions 249
What Is a Function? 250
The Structure of a Function 250
Where Do You Put a Function? 251
Calling a Function 252
Passing Values to Functions 255
Returning a Value from a Function 258
Understanding Local versus Global Variables 259
Using Recursive Functions 262
Chapter 6: Working with Objects 267
What Is an Object? 267
The JavaScript Object Hierarchy 269
Manipulating Object Properties 271
Working with Object Methods 273
Playing Around with the window Object 275
Programming the document Object 284
Chapter 7: Working with Arrays 291
What Is an Array? 291
Declaring an Array 293
Populating an Array with Data 294
Creating Multidimensional Arrays 299
Using the Array Object 300
Chapter 8: Manipulating Strings, Dates, and Numbers 311
Manipulating Text with the String Object 311
Dealing with Dates and Times 323
Working with Numbers: The Math Object 335
Chapter 9: Debugging Your Code 341
Understanding JavaScript's Error Types 342
Getting to Know Your Debugging Tools 344
Debugging with the Console 345
Pausing Your Code 348
Stepping through Your Code 350
Monitoring Script Values 352
More Debugging Strategies 355
Top Ten Most Common JavaScript Errors 356
Top Ten Most Common JavaScript Error Messages 359
Book 4: Coding the Front End, Part 3: Jquery 363
Chapter 1: Developing Pages Faster with jQuery 365
Getting Started with jQuery 366
Selecting Elements with jQuery 369
Manipulating Page Elements with jQuery 373
Modifying CSS with jQuery 377
Tweaking HTML Attributes with jQuery 385
Chapter 2: Livening Up Your Page with Events and Animation 387
Building Reactive Pages with Events 388
Building Lively Pages with Animation 398
Chapter 3: Getting to Know jQuery UI 411
What's the Deal with jQuery UI? 412
Getting Started with jQuery UI 413
Working with the jQuery UI Widgets 415
Introducing jQuery UI Effects 424
Taking a Look at jQuery UI Interactions 428
Book 5: Coding the Back End: Php and Mysql 433
Chapter 1: Learning PHP Coding Basics 435
Understanding How PHP Scripts Work 436
Learning the Basic Syntax of PHP Scripts 436
Declaring PHP Variables 438
Building PHP Expressions 438
Outputting Text and Tags 439
Working with PHP Arrays 445
Controlling the Flow of Your PHP Code 451
Working with PHP Functions 456
Working with PHP Objects 458
Debugging PHP 463
Chapter 2: Building and Querying MySQL Databases 467
What Is MySQL? 468
Introducing phpMyAdmin 470
Creating a MySQL Database and Its Tables 473
Querying MySQL Data 480
Chapter 3: Using PHP to Access MySQL Data 493
Understanding the Role of PHP and MySQL in Your Web App 494
Using PHP to Access MySQL Data 495
Creating and Running Insert, Update, and Delete Queries 504
Separating Your MySQL Login Credentials 505
Book 6: Coding Dynamic Web Pages 507
Chapter 1: Melding PHP and JavaScript with Ajax and JSON 509
What Is Ajax? 510
Making Ajax Calls with jQuery 511
Introducing JSON 526
Returning Ajax Data as JSON Text 528
Chapter 2: Building and Processing Web Forms 533
What Is a Web Form? 534
Understanding How Web Forms Work 535
Building an HTML5 Web Form 536
Handling and Triggering Form Events 557
Submitting the Form 561
Chapter 3: Validating Form Data 565
Validating Form Data in the Browser 566
Validating Form Data on the Server 574
Regular Expressions Reference 582
Book 7: Coding Web Apps 591
Chapter 1: Planning a Web App 593
What Is a Web App? 594
Planning Your Web App: The Basics 595
Planning Your Web App: Responsiveness 599
Planning Your Web App: Accessibility 605
Planning Your Web App: Security 608
Chapter 2: Laying the Foundation 619
Setting Up the Directory Structure 620
Creating the Database and Tables 624
Getting Some Back-End Code Ready 626
Creating the App Startup Files 630
Chapter 3: Managing Data 637
Handling Data the CRUD Way 638
Creating New Data 643
Reading and Displaying Data 652
Updating and Editing Data 661
Deleting Data 668
Chapter 4: Managing App Users 673
Configuring the Home Page 674
Setting Up the Back End to Handle Users 677
Signing Up a New User 682
Signing a User In and Out 696
Resetting a Forgotten Password 704
Deleting a User 714
Book 8: Coding Mobile Web Apps 721
Chapter 1: Exploring Mobile-First Web Development 723
What Is Mobile-First Web Development? 724
Learning the Principles of Mobile-First Development 725
Going Mobile Faster with jQuery Mobile 729
Working with Images in a Mobile App 731
Storing User Data in the Browser 734
Chapter 2: Building a Mobile Web App 739
Building the Button Builder App 740
Getting Some Help from the Web 741
Building the App: HTML 741
Building the App: CSS 754
Building the App: JavaScript and jQuery 757
Index 769
