Hey everyone, I am looking for a recommended book that would take me from advanced beginner stage to being able to understand advanced web application concepts, so I can create a fairly complex web application for a marketplace, which integrates with several services through APIs.
I know there are a ton of online resources, some of which continue to be very helpful, but I like the idea of having something I can flip through whenever I get stuck.
Are you looking for more UI design or database or something else?
I’m looking to learn everything about the backend (databases, API calls, creating and consuming APIs, talking to the server, keeping things secure, etc.) so I can code my project properly on Anvil.
I just need a good reference book. There are plenty of online resources to learn from (which I am using), but I like the idea of having something I can flip through to revise and use as a reference.
Welcome to the Forum!
If you want to learn and/or use a traditional, six-programming-language, multi-server architecture, in all its gory, mind-shredding details, Anvil is not the toolbox for you.
Anvil’s defining feature is that it layers over those minutiae. Instead of those layers, your Anvil projects see a much smaller, carefully crafted set of Python objects.
Same on the front-end: your Anvil projects see Anvil’s Python-level GUI elements and events.
You build your App on top of those existing types of objects, using them as customizable components. Anvil’s integrated IDE helps immensely with each component’s properties and visual layout, and with management of the App’s source code and other assets.
For folks who just need to get an App done, this drastically shortens (but does not eliminate) the learning curve. The best references, in this case, are Anvil’s own Documentation, accessible at the link at the top of this page. Its Examples and Tutorials have their own links there, too.
It is hard to beat interacting with GPT, Deepseek, Gemini and other frontier model chat bots, to get help learning anything you want to learn. The real benefit is that you can travel down your own learning path, starting with whatever you already know, and tailor your learning experience to satisfy exactly your specific goals.