Chapter 1. Basic Principles of Data Source Design

So, you’ve been building static Web sites for a while now and you’ve decided to take the plunge into data-driven Web work. Your main question probably is “Where do I start?” The short answer: here. A slightly longer answer—about 500 pages—follows....

Before you begin crafting dynamic Web sites and adding “developer” to your designer credentials, it’s best to spend some time learning the fundamentals. Whereas the recipes in this book are all hands-on, build-them-today-and-use-them-tomorrow applications, this chapter—and the one that follows—is more theoretical. To get the most out of this book, you have to understand both theory and practice.