Beginning Drupal (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) Review

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(More customer reviews)Knowing near nothing about Drupal, I wanted to find a book that would give me the big picture and help me develop a nuts-and-bolts working knowledge quickly. I saw so many titles online that I went to a physical bookstore so I could carefully look at the books and choose the most appropriate one for my needs. I looked at many books, and scanned the Introductions and Tables of Contents of several promising ones. I chose "Beginning Drupal" because it had a great balance of concrete examples, theory, and discussion of the implications of making various choices in Drupal.
After I purchased the book and began to actually use it, it became quickly clear that Wiley Publishing had not only jumped the gun in publishing a Drupal 7 book prematurely, but several other things really soured the experience for me. There was no discussion in the introduction about the fact that the book was based on early alpha and beta versions of Drupal 7, and that the installation instructions would install Drupal 6 which is so different that the exercises in the book are more confusing than helpful. Still, I persisted, trying to find the Drupal 6 equivalents to the Drupal 7 examples in the book. (of course this was not mentioned on the cover either, or on the web site. As a matter of fact, the promotional materials misleadingly call Drupal 7 the latest version, but don't mention that it has not been officially released yet). After I hit page 100, I realized that the UI differences were not the only problem. The book was not only unclear because of the version differences, but because the writer apparently didn't have the benefit of a conscientious editor to make the language clear. The grammar was sloppy, but worse yet, the meanings of many of the sentences were foggy.
I did switch over to using Drupal 7 beta, hoping that would help. In fact, it did help with many of the exercises, but there were also far too many instances in which the examples were confusing because they were based on earlier versions of Drupal 7. I looked at the "errata" published for the book, but they barely scratched the surface of the errors in the book.
I really liked the unfolding of concepts as the book progressed, in that sense the design of the book was brilliant. But it was sloppily executed, and there were numerous instances in which avoidable inconsistencies prevented examples from working the way they should have.
In summary, I'd say that this book was a well conceived but so poorly executed and rushed to market. It wasted more of my time and effort than any other "how to" book that I have ever encountered in my 4 decades in the computer business.

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A thorough introduction that lessens the learning curve to building sites with Drupal 7
Drupal 7 is the latest version of the free, open source content management system Drupal. A powerful content management system and framework Drupal has an unfortunate reputation of having a steep learning curve. This guide to Drupal 7 methodically demystifies Drupal and shortening the learning curve.
Author Jacob Redding is deeply embedded in the Drupal community, and walks first-time Drupal developers through the installation and configuration of a Drupal system. In-depth information on key areas of Drupal explore the Drupal hook system, Drupal's theming layer, and Drupal's API. You'll also get sample code, and lessons that guide you through various aspects of Drupal.
Introduces you to every aspect of Drupal 7
Demystifies key areas of Drupal and shortens the learning curve for even the most novice beginner
Features lessons and sample code that offer extra insight into a Drupal web site
Exploring simple single website installations and more advanced multiple site installations that share users and/or content.
Addresses how to use Drupal's theming layer to your advantage.

With this comprehensive and clear book by your side, you will quickly learn to leverage Drupal's impressive power.
Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

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Leveraging Drupal: Getting Your Site Done Right (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) Review

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(More customer reviews)As a website developer specializing in Drupal-based sites for the last few years, I found this book to be exactly what I needed. I have several other books about drupal, including Pro Drupal Development, Second Edition (Beginning from Novice to Professional) and Learning Drupal 6 Module Development: A practical tutorial for creating your first Drupal 6 modules with PHP, yet I have found Leveraging Drupal to be the most helpful yet.
Leveraging Drupal goes into precisely the topics related to Drupal development which your average "working stiff" building Drupal sites runs into on every job: version control, the development and deployment process, upgrades, internationalization options, theming, etc. Included are helpful life-saving tidbits such as dealing with the infamous WSOD (php's white screen of death), checking out drupal via CVS, and setting up cron. It more than pays for itself in just the first three chapters.
One of the things I like most about the book is that the author treats website development with the same respect as any software project. From the book: "First of all, in a software project (and because of it's complexity, that is what a website application is), you are either controlled by circumstances or you succeed - but only if you can maintain your grip on things."
I would compare it to my other favorite programming book: Agile Java(TM): Crafting Code with Test-Driven Development (Robert C. Martin Series) by Jeff Langr. Leveraging Drupal is similar in that after reading and digesting it, you are a more mature developer than you were before.

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This book is a step-by-step guide and a hands-on co-piloted experience for those trying to make Drupal powered websites work for them, and for their clients. Much more than a "tutorial", what is needed is a nuts-and-bolts living mentor and guide which really shows the reader how to do the things really required for bringing it all together in a site which works. This will be the only book covering all the difficult components of Drupal: views, panels, themes, content creation, etc. The book will cover:* How to upgrade your hopelessly outdated and obsolete-software dependent site and bring it into the Drupal mainstream and future* How to become a great Drupal themer and make "non-Drupal" looking sites* How to really customize Drupal for your real needs* How to start using best practices in Drupal web application development* How to work like the pro Drupal shops and be ready for big projects - and small ones* Learn by example (code samples, theme samples, videos) at every step

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CMS Made Simple 1.6: Beginner's Guide Review

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(More customer reviews)I have been using CMSmadesimple (CMSMS) for 5 years or so. It's a very robust CMS (content management system) that is quite easy to learn in a basic way. To get more out of CMSMS though you need to know a bit more than you can easily pick up from just using the application, visiting the WIKI and user forums.
This book is exactly what a user new to CMSmadesimple would need to jump-start the learning experience. A web developer with more experience but no experience specifically with CMSmadesimple or the Smarty templating engine would also benefit from this book. To be sure, the measured pace of the book is perfect for a neophyte to CMSmadesimple.
The approach taken by the book is to teach you how to install CMSmadesimple and then how to build an example website from scratch using the book as your tutor. It walks you through each and every step, carefully assessing your progress along the way with end-of-chapter quizzes and a great method of delivering the content.
The book follows the procedure of telling you what you are about to do, telling you how to do it then explaining to you what you just did. For block-heads like me, it is the only way I learn well... by reading, doing and recapping.
All the major areas are covered including how to Install CMSMS, how to use the core modules, an understanding of how to use Smarty to build your templates, how to convert other website templates to work with CMSMS, a brief discussion of SEO and how to add e-commerce functionality and a discussion of Users and Permissions. There is a lot of information packed into this slender book. All of the information is presented in a no-nonsense, straightforward manner.
If you prefer reference types of books, this probably won't meet your needs as it does take a tutorial approach and is best consumed in a linear fashion. You -could- use it by jumping around from here to there if you just wanted to discover how to do some specific things such as adding a protected page to your site, easily implementing YouTube videos onto your pages or perhaps how to create a form with various types of input fields. But this book is not a reference book for CMSmadesimple. Rather it is a guided approach to learning the basics, and then some, of CMSmadesimple.
The author makes ample use of screenshots along the way. The code snippets are available from the publishers website, which is fortunate since no CD accompanies the book.
There are not many books dealing with CMSmadesimple and I was thrilled to find one that covered all the essentials in an easy to digest way. I'd highly recommend this to anyone contemplating the building of a website with CMSmadesimple. It will greatly enhance your early experiences with the application and explain some of the concepts that even I didn't have a firm grasp on until reading the book. In particular, the brief but helpful discussion of how the Smarty templating engine works is indispensable information.
I can't think of a better introduction to CMSmadesimple. I wish I'd had this book 5 years ago. It would have accelerated my learning greatly. And as an aside, if you are using WordPress to build websites but blogging is not your primary focus for the website, give CMSmadesimple a good look. It is really slick, has an active user forum and is continually undergoing development.

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This is a practical, hands-on book based around a case study website, which you will set up in this easy-to-understand introduction to using CMS Made Simple. The chapters provide clear instructions and detailed screenshots, so you can see exactly what to do at each step of the build. This book is perfect for newcomers as well as webmasters who are looking for an introduction to building powerful and professional websites with a content management system. The workshop covers all aspects of web publishing and is aimed for web designers, web developers, editors, and web managers.

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Joomla 1.5: Beginner's Guide Review

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(More customer reviews)In the early days of the web, a business would put up a website with a few HTML pages, some contact info, and be done with it. This was fine until their competitors started offering more dynamic content and services on-line. Customers began to have higher expectations for on-line services, and the web has evolved to meet these new realities. It's changes like these that have sparked the 'CMS Revolution', where businesses and individuals are empowered by software tools like Joomla! 1.5. Tools that allow a non technical person to build and maintain a website quickly and easily. Joomla 1.5 Beginner's Guide by Eric Tiggeler is a new book that covers a broad range of topics to get you up and running on your new Joomla! 1.5 based website.
You'll learn how easy it is to install Joomla! 1.5 on your own computer or a web server. Using a practical example website, follow the step by step guide to creating a basic site in just one hour. You'll learn techniques for organizing your content and navigation. This means that as the site grows, it remains easy to find what you're looking for, both as an administrator, and as a visitor browsing the site. Beyond the basics of site administration, you'll learn best practices to help you get the most from your website. Tips for attracting search engine traffic are included, as well as ways to enable visitor interaction, to keep people engaged with your content. In addition to the practical examples given, each section concludes with a quiz, to help reinforce learning in an entertaining way.
Even if you're new to web design concepts like HTML and CSS, you won't have any difficulty understanding this book. By following the practical, clearly worded examples, you'll learn everything you need to know to build and maintain a professional looking website. The material in this book will meet the needs of most website administrators. This is because Joomla! 1.5, and the many extensions available, are built with ease of use in mind. If you want to learn more advanced topics, this book doesn't cover those, but will still give you a solid grounding in Joomla! 1.5 administration. So for the more experienced web developers, it's also a great way to fast track your knowledge about the CMS.
So why are open source CMS solutions becoming so popular? On the one hand, it's about moving from static HTML based websites, to dynamic CMS solutions. This allows websites to deliver an engaging experience that's not possible with only static HTML. In many cases, it's also about users being empowered to publish their content directly, rather than relying on expensive and restrictive proprietary products and services, such as proprietary portal software. Joomla! 1.5 is free software, maintained by a word-wide user community, with the goal of empowering anyone to build and maintain their own website. I hope you enjoy this book, and that is helps you get the most from your Joomla! 1.5 based website.
Note: I'm a member of the Packt affiliate program. I'm providing disclosure of this fact, so that my readers can make informed decisions.

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Written with a fast-paced but friendly and engaging approach, this Packt Beginner's guide is designed to be placed alongside the computer as your guide and mentor to meet real-world web building challenges. Step-by-step tutorials are bolstered by explanations of the reasoning behind what you are doing. You will quickly pick up the necessary skills, tips, and tricks for building a successful Joomla! web site with practical examples that help you to learn by experiment and play. If you want to build and maintain your own web site, the Joomla! Beginner's Guide is perfect for you. It helps you build on the skills and knowledge you may already have on creating web sites-but even if you're new to this subject, you won't have any difficulty understanding the clear and friendly instructions and explanations. You learn how to build and maintain web sites without having to dive deep into HTML and CSS.

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Drupal 6 Social Networking Review

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(More customer reviews)I really like this book, it covers a lot of territory in a very practical way, while also digging into the "why's" of things should be done the way Michael suggests. Understanding the "why's" is important so that if you want your site to do something different, you can make a good decision about the implementation.
The book is also very "satisfying." I'm a deep technical person [...], though don't have much Drupal experience. I was afraid, I'd have to bite my tongue and toothpick my eyes open to read this book for the Drupal specifics. That's not been the case. It's an easy read, interesting, and relevant. I'm currently thinking about a few new social projects, and while I wouldn't go so far to say that you should read this book whatever platform you are deploying on; I would say that you should consider prototyping on Drupal with this book in hand so you could make a better platform decision once you know more about building a social site. (sorry about the run-on sentence!).
I gave it a 4 instead of 5 stars, because there are a few places where there are typos that affect the content, and other places where ideas are used before they're explained, or a final screen shot that brings it all together is missing. I realize it's really boring to read a lot of explanations, and then read about the example, and sometimes it's best to talk about the example, and explain stuff after. It just makes it harder to read because I'm trying to figure out if something will be explained later, or if I need to look online before reading further.
This book has saved me a LOT of time researching Drupal and its plugins on line, so really glad I'm reading it. There were a lot of good references for further reading about the topics discussed AND the topics referenced, but not discussed in the book.

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Build a social or community web site, with friends lists, groups, custom user profiles, and much more
Step-by-step instructions for putting together a social networking site with Drupal 6
Customize your Drupal installation with modules and themes to match the needs of almost any social networking site
Allow users to collaborate and interact with each other on your site
Requires no prior knowledge of Drupal or PHP; but even experienced Drupal users will find this useful to modify an existing installation into a social web site

In Detail
Drupal is ideally equipped to be used as a base system for creating a custom social networking site like Facebook and MySpace. While these large social networks have their place, niche social networking web sites can help promote businesses, products, projects, and hobbies of any nature.
This book provides careful instructions and clear explanations to take you through the setup and management of your social network site, covering topics from users to marketing to maintenance. It will help you create your own social networking site, suitable for whatever audience you decide!
This book will take you from the very basics of both Drupal and Social Networking right through to more complicated aspects, like creating your own custom design and features for the site. With no experience of Drupal required, the book will introduce you to this award-winning CMS and carefully take you through the steps to create a social networking site from it. As the book progresses, you will learn how to add to and expand your social networking site, adding more features and adding value for your users, and how to make your users feel part of the community. Social networking web sites rely on their users contributing to the site, and this book helps you structure a site in a way users can easily and enjoyable contribute to the site - creating a powerful social network.
The book begins with the fundamental concepts of a Social Networking site, and how we can use Drupal to create such a site. It then goes through installing Drupal before looking at expanding the out-of-the-box feature set with third-party modules designed for Social Networking. Once the web site is running, it looks at securing the Social Network, deploying it on the Internet, and keeping it running and well maintained. It doesn't stop there however; as Social Networks rely on their user base to run and become successful, the book also covers marketing the Social Network using Search Engine Optimization, Online Marketing, and a range of new Social Media.
What you will learn from this book?

Get started with Drupal and explore the features of this powerful Content Management System.
Build a social networking site from the ground up using Drupal 6
Use a combination of features, modules and some simple custom development to allow user interaction and user contributions
Enable your users to interact and communicate with one another, building friendship
Let your users contribute to the site, from those who wish to add a little content to those who wish to help run the site on a daily basis
Import content into your site from elsewhere on the Internet using the Aggregator module
Create user profiles, set up roles and permissions, and handle security settings
Explore Drupal's modular system, and use it to create modules to add additional functionality relevant and useful to your social network.
Customize the look and feel of your site by enabling and installing new themes, ensuring that your site is distinctive
Deploy and maintain your social networking site on the Internet using the maintenance mode, reports, and cron to keep everything running smoothly
Recover from virus attacks and hacking attempts to your Social Network by making and maintaining regular backups, in case the worst should happen
Promote and market your Social Network using advertisements, advertising networks, other social networks, and search engine optimization
Approach
This book is packed with clear instructions and careful explanations for creating a powerful Social Networking web site using Drupal 6. With each chapter, you add new features and content until the Social Network is ready to be released to the Internet where it can grow.
By the end of this book, you will have a powerful Social Network either like that of the case-study, or of your own design based on the setup and features the book walks through.
Who this book is written for?
This book is aimed at anyone looking to create their own social networking web site, including:
Businesses - building a Social Network around a product or service can improve your company profile and increase customer loyalty. Alternatively, an internal social network gives you employees a place to keep resources, discuss ideas, raise concerns, and keep up to date on company policies.
Hobbyists - create a community around your hobbies and interests; create a local or distributed user group.
Organisations & Charities - Raise your profile, promote your events / services / fundraisers and get help from the community in organizing them.
Families - For large families based across the country or across the globe, keep up to date with everyone, and let everyone know what you are up to.
You don't need any experience of Drupal or PHP to use this book. If you are a Drupal user you will find this book a great way to rapidly tailor an existing installation into a social-orientated web site.

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Building Websites with DotNetNuke 5 Review

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(More customer reviews)I wish that this book was available when I started using DNN 1.5 years ago. It takes you though the installation, then introduces you to the basic concepts, and explains some things that you "must get around to figuring out what it does".
There is a middle section that then explains a little about the core and about the web.config, which are extremely useful, and they are the first documentation I have seen on that subject area.
Finally, the third section, is the brilliant examples from Michaels site on how to build modules easily. If you have not built a module, you will love this.
This book will suit a complete beginner but it will also suit a developer that wants to learn DNN and wants to learn how to program modules.
To followed on from the previous reviewer, my father always said about Country music that it is the chords you leave out that are he nicest. Michael Washington has a particular style, he cuts to the chase and tells you what you want to know without the fluff.
I have five DNN books now, but this is the best. I repeat, I wish I could have bought it a year ago.
thanks for all the help.

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This book has been written both for beginners wanting to set up a website and also for ASP.NET developers with a grasp of VB.NET and C# who want a deeper understanding of how to work with DotNetNuke. To work with the DotNetNuke code, you will need access to Visual Web Developer Express or Visual Studio .NET 2010. No prior knowledge of DotNetNuke is assumed.This book is a practical tutorial with step-by-step instructions and clear, concise explanations. Illustrative screenshots are used for better understanding at every step. You will learn how to set up and administer an example site, stepping through all the tasks to ease your learning. The emphasis is not on becoming a better VB.NET or C# programmer but on taming DotNetNuke.

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Start Your Own Blogging Business Review

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(More customer reviews)I found this book after starting 3 blogs. Before, I had low traffic, I didn't quite understand Adsense, and had gotten sucked into phony affiliate marketing programs. After reading the book, my traffic has increased threefold, I've signed up for Google Analytics, and I now have 6 blogs. I have yet to make much money yet, but this book is taking me in the right direction.

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Turn Your Blog Into Big Bucks

Blogs are one of the internet's fastest-growing phenomena-and one of the best and easiest ways to make money online.Learn how to choose a topic, start a blog and attract thousands of avid readers. Then use your blog to generate income from advertisers, promotions, affiliate links and other techniques-all from your own home.
We'll reveal how to:
Attract visitors and hold their interest
Entice advertisers to promote their products on your blog
Earn an affiliate fee when your visitors shop at some of the most popular websites
Promote your blog and get listed on top blog search engines

Successful bloggers reveal their expert strategies for maximizing profits.Pick up this book and get started on the road to riches-without leaving your desk!

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Joomla 1.5 Template Design Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I, too, can only give this book two stars, which is unfortunate, because had a little bit more care been taken this could have easily been a five-star book.
The main reason I can only give the book two stars is due to the same concerns that have been previously expressed...the code and style sheets are not in sync with the text of the book (and I'm only in Chapter 2). I've had to constantly replace the code and style sheets I've typed in from the book with the code and style sheets downloaded from the site. More often than not, changes have been made to the code or style sheets as the book progresses without the author even indicating that such changes have been made. This is not something that someone who has purchased this book should have to contend with.

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This book covers the "how-tos" of creating templates for Joomla! 1.5. There is also advice about what works and what to consider when working with your Joomla! 1.5 template. Because this title is about Joomla! 1.5 templates and not about CSS or semantic XHTML, an understanding of established and current XHTML and CSS techniques for achieving compliant, semantic, and accessible designs is assumed. However, quality references and links are always given so the reader can learn more about any specific CSS or XHTML technique discussed if they are unfamiliar with it. This book is aimed at web designers who want to create their own unique templates for Joomla! 1.5. Readers should have a basic knowledge of Joomla! 1.5 (Building Websites with Joomla! 1.5 by Hagen Graf from Packt Publishing will help you with this) and also basic knowledge of table-less CSS and XHTML techniques, as well as using Dreamweaver or other text/code editors for coding purposes.

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Drupal 7 Primer: Creating CMS-Based Websites: A Guide for Beginners Review

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(More customer reviews)I thought that these types of computer software books were long extinct - but, no. Purporting to be a primer on Drupal 7, this book is little more than a collection of the author's experience as a user of various Google products, with a smattering of Drupal information thrown in. You could find the Drupal stuff in 10 minutes of tooling around on the Web.
He devotes entire chapters to Google Sites, Google Analytics, Promoting Your Site With Social Networks, Google Checkout, etc. His "Troubleshooting" section consists of advice so generalized as to be really funny! He suggests that inevitably things go wrong, and that you should "see how it goes" when you try to do something with Drupal. Then, his "Troubleshooting" consists of telling you to consult your hosting company or a Drupal forum somewhere. Duh! Gee, maybe he should have included a chapter on how to use Google, since that appears to be his favorite topic anyhow. Nothing on Drupal 7 vs. previous versions, no thorough explanations for anything that has to do with Drupal 7 at all.
For a topic so potentially rich as Drupal, this is a ridiculously poor book, vague and off-topic, padding with lots of useless non-Drupal information.

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In the past, in order to make a website, you had to manually assemble all the files and develop a fair amount of technical expertise; however, an open source content management system (CMS) like Drupal can automate and significantly simplify many parts of the process. This book contains an easy-to-understand introduction to related concepts and a series of step-by-step examples that can help you learn how to use Drupal to create and maintain a website. The coverage also includes using a "quick-install" Web hosting account, which can greatly reduce the complexity of installing Drupal. You'll find that this book is written with beginners in mind; no prior expertise is required, except some familiarity with how to browse the Internet and use a PC. By the end of the book, you'll have a working knowledge of content management systems, installing and building a site in Drupal, and various Web promotion tactics that can help you share your new site with the world.

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Joomla 1.6: A User's Guide: Building a Successful Joomla Powered Website (3rd Edition) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I appreciate that Mr. North published a Joomla! 1.6 book so soon after the release of Joomla! 1.6. (I bought the Kindle edition.)
But what's best is that it is a very well written and practical guide to building a web site with Joomla! 1.6. It's exactly what I was looking for.
Barrie North writes in a very linear style, which is what I like in a technical book.
Obviously, Mr. North took his Joomla1! 1.5 book and updated it for 1.6. As a result there are a few (but not too many) places where 1.5 references remain. For example, the word "section" is used in places where it no longer applies. When Mr. North makes these corrections, it would be nice to have a free update for the Kindle version. :-)

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Praise for Previous Edition of Joomla!: A User's Guide"A complete guide to the powerful features of Joomla! 1.5, this book takes a holistic approach to building a Joomla!-powered website–from the CMS itself to its many extensions, search engine optimization, and even building your own tableless template. The novice reader is eased into the subject and confidently guided through the basic principles and on to the more advanced features. This guide empowers the user not only to build a professional website but to also to make it a success."–Russell Walker, CEO, Netshine Software Limited (Joomla! Development Consultancy)"If you've been using or following Joomla! in the past years, you've most likely seen the name Barrie North or Joomlashack. Barrie has been a member of the community for a long time and, as such, my expectations for this book were pretty high. Besides explaining how Joomla! works from a usability point of view, there is valuable information for people who want to learn serious template building, and readers can stand out of the crowd by using Barrie's steps to make their (X)HTML and CSS optimized for accessibility and SEO. All in all, this book is a great guide that comes at the right time for newcomers and more experienced Joomla! users and developers alike. Well done, Barrie!"–Arno Zijlstra, Joomla! cofounder, custom template specialist, www.alvaana.com"In a time when solid, real-life Joomla! 1.5 information is rarely available, this book is a thirst-quenching oasis of knowledge. The abundant and clear examples in the book make Joomla! 1.5 websites within anyone's reach. I heartily recommend Joomla! 1.5: A User's Guide by Barrie North."–Tom Canavan, author of Dodging the Bullets: A Disaster Preparation Guide for Joomla! Based Web Sites"Refreshing! After reading many how-to books, this one is a step beyond the rest because of its focus on examples based on live sites. This book is well crafted for beginners to advanced users with a well-organized overview that walks you through the entire Joomla! CMS."–Steven Pignataro, corePHP, www.corephp.com"As a long-time Joomla! end-user and developer, I had low expectations for anything new I might learn from this book. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find it a great refresher course, especially since the book is logically organized, leading beginners from the most basic Joomla! concepts and continuing through to more complex ones, such as tableless template design and how to write a template for Joomla! 1.5. In summary, Barrie North has produced the gold-standard print reference for Joomla! 1.5. I highly recommend this book for novice and intermediate users if you want to make the most of Joomla!"–Vicor Drover, http://dev.anything-digital.comThe Best Easy-to-Use Guide to Joomla!™−The World's #1 Open Source Content Management SystemIf you want to build sophisticated websites that can be easily edited and updated, you need to master Joomla. Now there's an easy-to-read, easy-to-use guide to Joomla for every site manager, administrator, and developer. Leading Joomla consultant Barrie North covers all you need to get results: installation, administration, site organization, template development, content updates, and a whole lot more. You'll find tips, tricks, and troubleshooting solutions, as well as three start-to-finish case studies.New to Joomla? No problem! This book starts with the simplest design and system concepts, and builds your expertise step-by-step. You'll rapidly master Joomla's power, even if you have no content management, scripting, or CSS expertise. Experienced with Joomla? You'll turn to this book constantly for its authoritative, plain-English, example-rich Joomla 1.6 reference content.• Understand content management, what Joomla does, and how its components fit together• Build Joomla sites from scratch and systematically customize them to your needs• Create modern, pure CSS Joomla 1.6 templates using popular grid frameworks• Use Joomla 1.6's nested categories to organize content and articles • Create dynamic pages and effective navigation• Work with Joomla modules and components• Learn how to optimize your Joomla sites for search engines• Follow three start-to-finish case studies: building a school website, a small business site, and a blog• Identify the most valuable Joomla extensions and add-ons: find them and use them

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The Official Joomla Book (Joomla Press) Review

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(More customer reviews)Advertised as a "comprehensive Joomla! reference for every administrator, developer, designer, and content manager", I expected a lot more from this book. As a PHP developer who has worked extensively with Wordpress writing custom code and templates, I'm very disappointed by the misleading product description. While good for getting acquainted with CMS concepts and getting your feet wet with Joomla for project manager types, this book is not for programmers looking for a O'Reilly-styled reference manual on coding Joomla modules or creating your own templates. There isn't a single block of PHP code anywhere in this entire book.
It leans heavily towards the non-technical aspects of Joomla and web management principles in general and seems to be written for a tech-savvy, but non-programmer lay audience. In the beginning is a chapter of non-Joomla fluff like branding (choosing a memorable logo), identifying your target audience, how to register a domain name, color schemes, search engine optimization, and choosing a hosting provider. This is all well and good for a web development principles "For Dummies" book, but for a book that's already thin at 300 pages and billed as a comprehensive reference book, this feels like an attempt at length padding. The next few chapters are about how to use the Joomla menu system itself to do things like navigate the site, upload files, and add new content, then moves onto a few examples of Joomla as used for business, schools, and non-profits, followed by useful plugins and a chapter of interviews from Joomla users, ending with an appendix of links and a glossary.
For experienced developers looking for actual technical material on how to write your own extensions and modules, you won't find it here. Discussion of CSS, the most fundamental and powerful way of changing the entire look of your site without any programming, is discussed here in a scant few pages and scattered mentions. After looking through this book, I am no closer to understanding how to work with Joomla's API and create my own templates from scratch. The jdoc statement, for example, is briefly explained in a paltry 2 pages.
In short, this is a good book for getting to know the basics of content management systems and core Joomla admin/content-creation capabilities, but for users looking to actually write code to extend Joomla's functionality, you'll find very little of use here. This book tries to be all things to all people, but it doesn't work. In the installation chapter at the beginning, for example, the book assumes your hosting provider has Cpanel and phpMyAdmin (administrators), yet the remainder of the book is very non-technical (content-managers). Somewhere, they forgot the developer. The interviews chapter takes up 38 pages and is almost completely useless to most people and reads like a product testimonial commercial. The participants are all asked many of the same questions (what attracted you to Joomla, do you use open-source software). Another nit is that the book is all black and white, minus the cover. Lastly, you get a free online version of the book, but for only 45 days.

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The Official Joomla! Book is the authoritative and comprehensive Joomla! reference for every administrator, developer, designer, and content manager. Distilling the unsurpassed experience of two long-time Joomla! contributors, it teaches exactly what you need to know, through practical example sites and crystal-clear explanations.
If you're new to Joomla!, you'll learn how to quickly create usable, effective sites. If you're an experienced Joomla! user, you'll learn how to make your sites more flexible, feature-rich, visually attractive, and useful. And whether new or experienced, you'll learn how Joomla! really works, so you can fully leverage its power whenever you're ready. You'll also get to know the Joomla! community by hearing from twelve community members through in-depth interviews, and you'll learn how to participate in the Joomla! project in ways that make sense for you.

The Official Joomla! Book covers everything from installation to usability, templates to extensions. The authors explain each key concept conversationally, helping you learn to help yourself and confidently gain control over Joomla! and the sites you build with it. They also present chapter-length application case studies for business, non-profits, and education. You will learn how to


Plan sites effectively before you start building them
Create production sites quickly while avoiding common mistakes
Install and configure Joomla! for maximum efficiency
Create and edit content for your Joomla! site
Customize and work with Joomla! templates
Work with extensions: components, modules, plugins, and languages
Efficiently administer Joomla! sites
Participate in the Joomla! community as a user and contributor

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Joomla 1.5: A User's Guide: Building a Successful Joomla Powered Website (2nd Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)I recommend to every Joomla user who is less than "expert level" -- read this book! I have been working with Joomla 1.0 for about 5 months, so already had a basic understanding of many of the terms: component, module, etc. I purchased this book just before Christmas and took it with me to read on the holiday roadtrip. You know you are reading a great computer-related book when you can read and understand and make copious notes in the book margins...without sitting in front of a computer! Not only did it "fill in the blanks" about much of my understanding re: Joomla (any version), but I felt excited, and much more confident, about using Joomla 1.5. Great overview of Joomla, great details, great tips! A well-written user's guide. Thank you!

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The Best Easy-to-Use Guide to Joomla!TM--The World's #1 Open Source Content Management System If you want to build sophisticated websites that can be easily edited and updated, you need to master Joomla. Now there's an easy-to-read, easy-to-use guide to Joomla! for every site manager, administrator, and developer. Leading Joomla! consultant Barrie North covers all you need to get results: installation, administration, site organization, template development, content updates, and a whole lot more. You'll find tips, tricks, and troubleshooting solutions, as well as three start-to-finish case studies.

New to Joomla? No problem! This book starts with the simplest design and system concepts and builds your expertise step-by-step. You'll rapidly master Joomla!'s power, even if you have no content management, scripting, or CSS expertise. Experienced with Joomla!? You'll turn to this book constantly for its authoritative, plain-English, example-rich Joomla! 1.5 reference content.


Understand content management, what Joomla! does, and how its components fit together

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WordPress For Dummies, 3rd Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)This is Lisa Sabin-Wilson's 3rd Edition of her bedrock "WordPress For Dummies". I own all three editions and each is thicker and filled with more knowledge than the prior edition. If anyone asks me how to learn, manage and use WordPress, this is what I recommend.
It is truly A through Z coverage. Sabin-Wilson is, in my opinion, one of the best technical writers around. Her language is clear, uncluttered and free of artifice.
Logically enough, she begins at the very beginning explaining what WordPress can do for you. To her credit, she doesn't hold it out as a panacea for all that ails you. She doesn't promise you that you'll earn millions or will win public office. Sabin-Wilson simply tells you how to set up your blog and then moves progressively into the minutiae of creating and managing a WordPress blog. (And yes, operating a blog is like most other things in the world - a series of small details that you must repeatedly (i.e., daily or thereabouts) attend to. In fact, one of the chapters is appropriately entitled "Establishing Your Blog Routine".
"Wordpress For Dummies" is thorough. The WordPress Dashboard is explained as is the use and, perhaps more importantly, the customization of themes. (With WordPress, your blog or website can look however you like it, but getting it right is not necessarily simple.)
Another important Sabin-Wilson covers in some detail is using WordPress as a Content Management System. Although she treats it in some detail, I personally wish that she would write a book on this subject alone.
In all, none of the other WordPress books I've read - and there are quite a few of them - measure up to the standard that Linda Sabin-Wilson has set in all three editions of "WordPress For Dummies". Each edition has been extensively revised to stay as current as possible with WordPress releases.
A total delight to read and use, it is, in my opinion, the gold standard for learning, managing and using WordPress.
Jerry

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The bestselling guide to WordPress, fully updated for newest version of WordPress

WordPress, the popular, free blogging platform, has been updated with new features and improvements. Bloggers who are new to WordPress will learn to take full advantage of its flexibility and usability with the advice in this friendly guide.
Previous editions have sold nearly 50,000 copies, and interest in blogging continues to explode.
WordPress is a state-of-the-art blog platform that emphasizes aesthetics, Web standards, and usability
WordPress For Dummies, 3rd Edition covers both the free-hosted WordPress.com version and WordPress.org, which requires users to purchase Web hosting services
Written by an expert who works directly with the developers and cofounder of WordPress
Shows readers how to set up and maintain a blog with WordPress and how to use all the new features

Like its earlier editions, WordPress For Dummies, 3rd Edition helps bloggers quickly and easily take advantage of everything this popular blogging tool has to offer.

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Getting Started with WordPress: Design Your Own Blog or Website Review

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(More customer reviews)It must have taken me an hour to decide which book on Wordpress to choose. I needed a book that would take me by the hand and walk me through every step slowly and surley. Mr. Kelsey makes it easy and is right there the entire way without speaking above your head. Buy this book if you need help building your site!

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If you're a beginning blogger looking for an easy-to-follow, friendly guide to help you produce an attractively designed blog or website, this is the book for you. You'll learn the basics of WordPress, one-click installs, and customizations. There's also coverage of SEO, categorizing blog posts, and social media promotion strategies, such as importing your blog into a Facebook page. This book's approach starts out simple using step-by-step examples and builds from there, enabling you to gain confidence in building your blog. You'll soon feel comfortable with a variety of helpful techniques: writing the text for your blog, adding pictures to your posts, publicizing your blog, tracking the number of visitors you've had, customizing the look and feel of your blog, managing comment spam, and even exploring ecommerce. You'll see sample blogs in the book and on the companion website so you can get an idea of what other bloggers are doing. Readers await your blog!

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Joomla 1.5 Site Blueprints Review

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(More customer reviews)Timi Ogunjobi author, has a few publications about web design in the topic: Joomla!, as well as Drupal. The first chapter was devoted to preliminary issues, this way so even person which didn't deal earlier with Joomla! will be happy to find some info.
The author focused on the functionalities, and so each chapter shows how to use the popular ones, including those built into the system. Reading the chapters you will learn how to build: business page (Chapter 2), club page (chapter 3), the on-line magazine (Chapter 4), events web page (chapter 5), social networking (Chapter 6), shop (chapter 7), directory (Chapter 8), gallery (Chapter 9), Google maps (chapter 10) and using the RSS web page (chapter 11).
This book is aimed at people who haven't used Joomla! 1.5 before and want to learn how to build popular web pages. Unlike many other Joomla books, this one gets you how to build web page very quickly, very practical publication for beginners. If you are an experience Joomla! web designer or web developer, sorry but this is not the book you need. Because, it doesn't cover a lot of questions a user might have if he build a website for demanding customer.
In the case of Internet Magazine (Chapter 4) - useful tips, but too little (or more accurately lack of!) Described modules, which simplify the construction of this type of party. It is a pity that the author did not write about the components using separate CCK such as K2.
So, If are you a beginner buy it ! You will get clear and full of useful informations with lots of screen shots.


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The hands-on example projects in this book are based on fictitious website development briefs, and they illustrate practical ways of applying Joomla! The book dives straight into the process of constructing the featured projects. A chapter is dedicated to each example website project. Each chapter is a separate project booklet, written independently of any other chapter. Each chapter contains a fictitious brief from which we derive the list of core and contributed extensions that we will need to implement the project. Then each chapter progresses into step-by-step instructions for building the web project, aided by the extensive use of screenshots. This book is for Joomla! developers who want to build a range of Joomla! sites, and see how to apply the many available Joomla! extensions and features in different scenarios. If you would like to try building websites as a freelancer or give your business a professional quality web presence, this is a great book to help you get started.

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MODx Web Development Review

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(More customer reviews)I've been developing sites with MODx for years. It's a great content management system. What it needed was better documentation, and that's where this book comes in. It begins with a cool overview of content management system types, and where MODx fits into that continuum. Then it goes on to describe in clear steps how to build and manage a site. Although I am very experienced with the system by this time, I still picked up some good new things.
It's well-organized, and pretty easy to follow, as long as you have a basic understanding of website concepts. I wish I had had this while I was learning (he said enviously)!
I think the author is an excellent writer, and has done an exemplary job. Very nice!

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Build a fully-functional, dynamic website with MODx-the powerful content management system and PHP web application framework. This book is a tutorial packed with examples that will show you how to install, configure, and customize MODx to create feature-rich, professional-looking web pages. This book is an example-driven tutorial, which will take you from the installation of MODx through to configuration, customization, and deployment. Step-by-step instructions will enable you to build a fully-functional, feature-rich website quickly and without any programming language. This book is ideal for those who want to learn to use MODx. Both beginner and experienced web developers will benefit from this comprehensive guide to MODx. No knowledge of PHP programming or any templating language is needed, but the more advanced chapters towards the end of the book will allow more confident developers to extend their applications even further by creating their own snippets.

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WordPress In Depth (2nd Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)A representative of Pearson Education spotted me on the LinkedIn WordPress group and offered me a review copy of this book, and a second one to give away at the East Bay WordPress Meetup. That was more than a month ago, but I wanted to do justice to all 432 pages and actually read the book in as much depth as it had been written.
Not surprisingly, my fine-toothed comb revealed a handful of typos and printing errors, which I've pointed out to Pearson so they can be corrected in the next edition. They're all fairly minor and I won't mention them here.
There was only one omission really worth the name, and it made me wonder how many other experienced WordPress users might have overlooked this feature when it came out, because I'm pretty sure the authors aren't the only ones. More on that in a minute.
The book is detailed but not excessively technical. I wouldn't give it to my mom, but anyone who is computer-literate should find it accessible. The style is clear, the directions easy to follow, and the decisions about what to put in sidebars and callout boxes logical. There are plenty of illustrations and some impressively detailed tables. The book design, like the writing style, is workmanlike: it gets the job done effectively, without being especially beautiful or inspiring. (You want a WordPress book that's beautiful, go take a look at Digging into WordPress.)
The most important thing to know about WordPress in Depth is that the first 226 pages are dedicated to WordPress.com. As the authors point out, there are very few resources, online or off, devoted specifically to WordPress.com users. When I first began using WordPress in 2005, WordPress.com didn't even exist, so I never learned anything about it. But with a meetup to run, I thought it would behoove me to learn. After reading this book, I feel much more confident answering questions about the differences between WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress (often referred to as WordPress.org).
I'm sure that any WordPress.com user will be able to get the most out of that service with the help of WordPress in Depth. Though, really, the more I learned, the happier I was that I'd always installed WordPress on my own site and had the full range of themes and plugins to draw on. Hosted services (I used Blogger before converting to WordPress) are incredibly limiting.
In moving from WordPress.com to installing the WordPress software on your own site, the authors take us right off the deep end: setting up a web development server on your own computer with XAMPP. It's great to have this tutorial here, though by no means everyone who uses the .org version of WordPress is going to need a development server. It's also good to show the steps of a manual WordPress installation. On the other hand, most popular web hosting companies offer a "one-click" installation process for WordPress through Fantastico or whatever their control panel software is, and it wouldn't have hurt to see a screenshot or description of that process, too, though of course it differs somewhat from host to host.
The next two chapters cover themes and plugins, and here is where that omission comes into play. Every time Smith and McCallister talk about installing a theme or plugin from somewhere other than the WordPress.org/extend/ repository, they tell you to download, unzip, and upload via FTP. It seems that neither of them ever noticed the "Upload" option under "Add New" in the Themes and Plugins sections of the WordPress dashboard, which lets you browse for a .zip file, upload it, and install it.
I use this all the time, and it works extremely well, except in those few cases where the real theme folder is actually a subfolder, in which case you have to go back and move things around with FTP. Everyone who manages a self-hosted WordPress site should know how to use FTP, but why make things harder on yourself than they have to be? This feature came in with WordPress 2.8, and it's a handy one.
Another feature the book never mentions--and which I only noticed myself a few weeks ago--is the ability to set the number of columns for your edit window. So you don't actually have to switch to full-screen mode (a thing I didn't know existed until they recommended it on page 86) in order to get a wider window for your content: just choose 1 column under Screen Layout. (I don't actually like this very much, because I have to scroll down in order to do anything, but then, I normally work on a 17" laptop, and I normally write my posts in Windows Live Writer. On my netbook, it might make a lot more sense to use the single-column layout.)s
The brief overviews of CSS, XHTML, and PHP are certainly not enough to make you expert in any of those things, but they're surprisingly helpful. (And Pearson publishes titles on all those subjects, if you want to learn more about them. Just search on their website.) You're not going to become a ninja-class theme developer just by reading what's here, but having it would have saved me a bit of trial and error in my earliest days of tweaking themes. And since I really knew nothing of PHP beyond what I'd cribbed from the Codex, I found the description in Chapter 15 illuminating.
The book concludes with some handy appendices: a comparison of WordPress.com and WordPress.org, an examination of the existing WordPress documentation, some examples of famous WordPress.org and WordPress.com blogs, a map of the official WordPress sites, and finally a guide to importing your content from other systems into WordPress.
I would recommend this book without reservation to WordPress.com users and to anyone who is about to make or has just made the transition from WordPress.com to self-hosted WordPress. If your main interested is in WordPress.org, however, you may find the first half of the book frustrating. While there are many things that work just the same for the two versions of WordPress, there are also quite a few differences, of the kind particularly likely to trip up beginners who are unfamiliar with the WordPress dashboard.
While not the best book for everyone, WordPress in Depth is a very good book for at least one segment of WordPress users.


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WordPress has grown into the #1 blogging tool in its category: several million bloggers have downloaded this powerful open source software, and millions more are using WordPress.com's hosted services. Thirty-two of Technorati's Top 100 blogs now use WordPress. WordPress InDepth, 2/e, is a comprehensive reference for everyone who wants to use either WordPress or WordPress.com more effectively -- regardless of their experience with WordPress or with blogging. It offers comprehensive guidance for every aspect of using WordPress -- from downloading, installing, and securing it through blog design, templates, themes, posting entries, working with comments and email, and managing WordPress blogs. WordPress software has moved from Version 2.9 to Version 3.0 and this new edition has been fully updated to reflect the changes, including: -New look. The software has a more sophisticated look. Some menu items have been moved around, and the font is different. -Menus editor. WordPress now allows users to create and manage menus -Graphics editor. -New default theme. The look and functionality of the default theme have changed -Merger of WordPress and WordPress Multi-User (WordPress MU) -Use of WordPress as a CMS.

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