Considering I am developing applications using West-Wind Web Connection, WebRAD could not have been more timely for me. This is truly an incredible book which I gave a 5-star rating in a review I posted on Amazon.com. Although the title makes reference to Web Connection, I would estimate at least half the book discusses in detail every other aspect of deploying a web site including the live server and the development environment.
The first 4 chapters are a terrific jump start on setting up your development environment, installing Web Connection, configuring the web server software, and actually running a test web application. In other words, the first 4 chapters summarize much of the process needed to deploy a web application so you can start experiencing success. All in just the first 90 pages!
After the first 4 chapters get you going, the book is very methodical in how it takes you through building the web site. You first get a brief chapter on the internet basics and how to get your domain name registered. There is also a very good explanation on some basic things to do when something is wrong with accessing your site like pinging and running a trace. The next chapters get you completely setup in your development environment as well as server hardware and hosting options.
One of the major decisions you will make is whether you will host your own web server or if someone else [a data center] will be providing the space, internet connection and/or the server. There is a major portion of a chapter that deals with just this one issue. Regardless of whether you host your own server or go with a data center, you still need to know how to configure the Internet Information Server [IIS] software on your server as well as your development computer. Details abound on installing and configuring IIS, setting up your virtual directories [domains] as establishing FTP capabilities.
Next comes the heart-and-soul of your web site -- developing the application that will take advantage of all your VFP knowledge and data. An entire chapter [60 pages!] is devoted to developing a Web Connection application from start to finish. This is followed up with pros-and-cons on the different methods you can use in your application that will be needed to track your users as they use your web site.
The book wraps up with a few chapters that cover troubleshooting tips. There is short chapter that reads like a manual that would be used by a technical-support help desk. They have categorized several troubleshooting topics, and under each topic they list all kinds of symptoms. Under each symptom, they give the Cause of the symptom, AND A SOLUTION! This chapter is followed by an extensive troubleshooting, debugging and maintenance chapter. You will definitely need to pay attention to this chapter because debugging a web application is not nearly as easy as debugging a regular VFP application.
I tried very hard to find something this book does not cover regarding the development and deployment of web applications. It took awhile, but I did find one small item missing -- how to configure your live server to send e-mail using wwIPStuff without having to go through a 3rd party ISP. However, this is so easy to do, you can find a brief, 13-step document posted by Michael Hogan on the West-Wind wiki at: http://www.west-wind.com/wiki/kb.wiki?wc~SMTPServerSetup
Throughout the book, most chapters referenced other resources relevant to the chapter content. For easier recall of this information, any outside resource mentioned in a chapter was summarized at the end of that chapter along with where the information can be located. Now that is convenient.
There are 8 appendices to the book and are only available as a download from the Hentzenwerke web site. One of the most frequently asked questions I see on news groups regarding web servers is how to configure the server to use the secure sockets layer [SSL and HTTPS]. I have been trying to find a concise document for months now, and Appendix F of this book is it. This clear, concise how-to on SSL is easily worth the price of this book especially when you consider how much getting a digital certificate from a Certificate Authority will cost you. If you are considering web development with Visual FoxPro, I highly recommend this book. It leaves no step unturned
