HTTP Developer's Handbook

HTTP is the protocol that powers the Web. As Web applications become more sophisticated, and as emerging technologies continue to rely heavily on HTTP, understanding this protocol is becoming more and more essential for professional Web developers. By learning HTTP protocol, Web developers gain a deeper understanding of the Web's architecture and can create even better Web applications that are more reliable, faster, and more secure.

The HTTP Developer's Handbook is written specifically for Web developers. It begins by introducing the protocol and explaining it in a straightforward manner. It then illustrates how to leverage this information to improve applications. Extensive information and examples are given covering a wide variety of issues, such as state and session management, caching, SSL, software architecture, and application security.

The largest group with an unsatisfied demand for a good book on HTTP is the worldwide group of Web developers. A good book on HTTP can help new and old Web developers alike, as a thorough understanding of underlying protocols can remove the dependencies on specific tool sets and help people create and maintain better Web applications as well as adapt to technologies. HTTP has become an essential topic because the Web's importance has created an army of people creatively leveraging the Web for their specific needs. By making standards information more available to the common developer, standards compliance becomes more widespread and common, something that the industry needs. Developers will buy this book because they want to advance their expertise, and because there is very little documentation available. This book will easily become the standard reference for the Internet's most dominant protocol.

Chris Shiflett is a Web developer with nearly a decade of experience creating applications in a variety of languages such as C, Perl, PHP, and ColdFusion. He is a frequent contributor to the open source community, and can often be found answering questions on various mailing lists. He has authored several open source projects and is also a member of the PHP development team.