Terrible Textbooks
May 9, 2010 7:11 AM Subscribe
I am teaching a class next semester called "Implementing Web Services." The book I was given this past year was overpriced, error-filled, and oddly GUI-centric. Help me replace it, please!
I want to teach this course from a Linux/Apache perspective. I will cover the basics of security, modules, server-side scripting (PHP), and the like.
Honestly, "textbook" features are not a necessity. I will construct my own exercises anyway. I would just like a book or books which will cover the material in a relatively accessible, high-quality way.
(I am asking anonymously just to keep it detached from my MeFi username.)
I want to teach this course from a Linux/Apache perspective. I will cover the basics of security, modules, server-side scripting (PHP), and the like.
Honestly, "textbook" features are not a necessity. I will construct my own exercises anyway. I would just like a book or books which will cover the material in a relatively accessible, high-quality way.
(I am asking anonymously just to keep it detached from my MeFi username.)
I'm biased, but my partner's book RESTful Web Services might be useful as a resource.
posted by brainwane at 4:51 PM on May 9, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by brainwane at 4:51 PM on May 9, 2010 [1 favorite]
You absolutely want the excellent RESTful Web Services. You might also be interested in WS-REST 2010 First International Workshop on RESTful Design that just happened.
I'm sorry, I don't know of a good book for teaching about SOAP.
posted by artlung at 6:05 PM on May 9, 2010
I'm sorry, I don't know of a good book for teaching about SOAP.
posted by artlung at 6:05 PM on May 9, 2010
Do you mean "web services" the way it's conventionally used in web development (that is to say, SOAP, REST, etc.)? That was how I first read it, but the text book you used previously seems to have nothing to do with that topic, and your description of what you're going to teach (web server modules and only the basics of server-side programming) seem to suggest that "web services" as typically used is not what you mean, so perhaps your course title is something of a misnomer or misuse of nomenclature... perhaps you mean "web services" as in "system services that serve up websites," in the sense that Apache is a service, in which case perhaps you're teaching a LAMP-stack administration kind of a class?
If so, I don't necessarily have any concrete book suggestions (I popped in to Nth RESTful Web Services), but it might help you to get some if you clarify a bit.
posted by andrewpendleton at 10:20 PM on May 9, 2010
If so, I don't necessarily have any concrete book suggestions (I popped in to Nth RESTful Web Services), but it might help you to get some if you clarify a bit.
posted by andrewpendleton at 10:20 PM on May 9, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by !Jim at 1:53 PM on May 9, 2010