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Reviewer: Will Wallace

Sikos includes here several important topics not covered in many of the other books on Web standards, including internationalization, server configuration, and Web syndication. He begins with an introduction to Web standards instead of the usual history of the World Wide Web (WWW). This includes background information on various organizations and how their standards contributions affect the WWW. Sikos notes that the WWW Consortium (W3C) does not expect HTML5 to become a W3C recommendation until 2014 [1]. (HTML5 is the fifth major revision of the core language of the Web, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).) Several browsers, like Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Opera, support a growing array of the new features of HTML5. But-and this has been the case for many years-Internet Explorer (IE) lags well behind other browsers when it comes to supporting standards, much less HTML5. Web standardization separates content from presentation. The content is contained within the HTML code. Cascading style sheets (CSS) control the presentation. The CSS level 1 (CSS1) specification was published in 1996; it contained 53 properties. CSS Level 2 (CSS2) is a 1998 superset of CSS1 and originally contained 120 properties. CSS 2.1 (CSS level 2 revision 1) superseded it because of issues with some of the properties in CSS2. CSS 2.1 contains 115 properties. It only became a W3C recommendation in 2011, but it has been used for many years as the styling standard for the Web. Work began on CSS level 3 (CSS3) in 2005. As a superset of CSS 2.1, CSS3 is defined as modules in separate documents. Examples of the modules are backgrounds and borders, colors, 2D transformations, and 3D transformations. A few of the modules have been standardized-for example, the colors module-while others are in different stages of development. This book covers more than just HTML, CSS, and scripting language topics. It also discusses metadata, which makes Web pages more accessible to machines and helps to improve Web searches. Meta tags are discussed in most HTML books. Another type of metadata is the microformat, which provides attribute values for elements. The resource description framework (RDF), which was originally designed as a metadata data model, is now a general Web resource description language. An RDF document is a sequence of statements referred to as RDF triples that can describe any Web resource identifiable by a uniform resource identifier (URI). Web syndication allows the updated content of Web sites to be fed to users without the users having to visit the Web sites. Two popular formats for Web syndication are really simple syndication (RSS) and Atom. Sikos provides information on how to create standards-compliant feed channels and how to maintain them without causing problems with the feed. Sikos encourages readers to optimize the appearances of the Web sites they develop. As he points out, the Web site's appearance will largely determine the visitor's first impression. The table layouts of the past are obsolete; they have been replaced with multi-column layouts using positioning and floating techniques controlled by CSS. Sikos also discusses the techniques used to embed various types of media into HTML5 Web pages. All good Web standards books include a chapter on accessibility; this book is no exception. Making a Web site accessible helps not only visitors using assistive technology, but everyone else, too. Sikos briefly discusses using a multimedia avatar to improve accessibility for people with hearing issues or certain cognitive disabilities. Of course, all nontext content must have alternate text available. Web professionals need to choose wisely when selecting their development tools. WYSIWYG editors and content management systems may enable fast development, but they are also notorious for producing nonstandard code. Sikos includes chapters on best practices and validation. Both of these topics are important to anyone wanting to create Web sites that follow Web standards. Using a validator for both HTML and CSS can help minimize errors that can cause a Web page to be displayed improperly. The last chapter is a great resource for all Web professionals, but especially those just starting out. It is a discussion of common errors. The discussion not only includes common errors in HTML and CSS code, but also common news feed errors, script errors, and accessibility errors. While there is no optimal method for designing and developing Web sites, following Web standards has many benefits. Using Web standards helps reduce the cost of the development and makes the sites easier to maintain. For those Web professionals looking for a resource on Web development using Web standards, this book is a good choice. However, trying to create Web sites using HTML5 and CSS3 should be done cautiously until the majority of Web browsers, including IE, better supports them. Online Computing Reviews Service