Web Application Architecture: Principles, Protocols and Practices [Repost]

An in-depth examination of the core concepts and general principles of Web application development.
This book uses examples from specific technologies (e.g., servlet API or XSL), without promoting or endorsing particular platforms or APIs. Such knowledge is critical when designing and debugging complex systems. This conceptual understanding makes it easier to learn new APIs that arise in the rapidly changing Internet environment.
* Includes discussions of markup languages: HTML, the eXtensible Markup Language (XML), XHTML, eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL), and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
* Contains exercises geared to constructing an advanced XML application that makes use of XML and XSL parsers
* Explores emerging technologies: Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE), industry-specific XML standards, Resource Description Framework (RDF), and XML query languages

It is no longer enough for Web application developers to be proficient in just one platform. As platforms grow and evolve and new ones arise, developers must be able to transfer their proficiency across platforms in order to design, develop and debug complex Web applications effectively. This book uncovers the underlying core technologies that developers need to understand to help them learn new APIs and application frameworks more quickly.
Web Application Architecture: Principles, protocols and practices provides an in-depth examination of the basic concepts and general principles associated with Web application development. It explains the underlying protocols and languages that support Web application development, and delineates the best practices associated with building robust applications. It describes mechanisms for providing Web access to heterogeneous data sources including relational databases and multimedia.

Includes chapters on:

Internet protocols - from TCP/IP to HTTP and beyond
software components - servers, browsers, proxies and agents
the dynamic web - how web applications present dynamic data
markup languages - HTML and XML
future directions and emerging technologies
This book explains the skills that developers need to design and build complex and sophisticated Web applications that are also scaleable, extensible, maintainable, and reusable.

About the Author
Leon Shklar heads up the development team for the online edition of the Wall Street Journal at Dow Jones. Prior to joining Dow Jones he spent six years at Bell Communications Research and almost as long in the world of dot coms and Internet software. Leon holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Rutgers University.
Richard Rosen also works for the online edition of the Wall Street Journal as an Application Architect. He began his career at Bell Labs, where his work with relational databases and the Internet prepared him the world of Web application development, including e-commerce projects for 3Com, Outpost.com and Reuters. Rich holds an M.S. in Computer Science from Stevens Institute of Technology.