We’d like to include a special thanks to Kenyon Brown (O’Reilly Media Senior Editor), who nurtured us and kept us on track during the many months that it took to produce this book. Without his patience and excellent suggestions, this book would never have been produced.

It is never easy to write a book, especially one that covers such a vast subject area and in such detail. A number of us have authored and contributed to many books. For others, writing chapters for this book was a new experience, but we can all agree that it placed a considerable amount of strain on our personal and professional lives. However, now that it is finished, there is such a sense of accomplishment that is due to the phenomenal dedication to the project shown by everyone and the amount we have learned along the way. We are happy that we have been able to share this knowledge with you, our reader.

A huge thanks goes out to the following people for contributing to the production of this project: Teresa Elsey (Senior Production Editor at O’Reilly), Dianne Russell (Project Manager at Octal Publishing, Inc.), Troy Lanphier and Marlene Lanphier (Technical Reviewers), and all other people at O’Reilly who helped with the production of this book.

Last but not least, our greatest appreciation and admiration to our families for their continued support while writing this book. We thank them all for their love, support, and understanding.

The Authors

September, 2011