Modern web development is becoming a delicate balancing act between frontend and backend development. Developers have to constantly switch back and forth and it can get confusing keeping track of what happens where and how to communicate between the two effectively.

This tutorial puts two experts together. Rasmus Lerdorf started the PHP project and has been doing backend web work since the beginning of time. Thomas Sha started the YUI JavaScript library project. Working concurrently Lerdorf and Sha will build a sample modern web application with Lerdorf driving the backend and Sha the frontend. The goal is an entertaining and hopefully very informative look at both of these technologies and how they can be used together effectively.