Showing posts with label cms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cms. Show all posts

Professional Community Server Review

Professional Community Server
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Professional Community Server ReviewThis book deals almost entirely with an older 2.x version of Community Server. The current version, CS 2007 is massively different.
Although the authors seem to have made a few last-minute additions to cover some of the many changes made to CS 2007, the book is a poor introduction to the current version.
Telligent offers poor documentation for Community Server, so a book is necessary for anyone who wants to do more than make UI-supported changes to the app. This one isn't it for CS 2007. I'm hoping that 'Professional CS Themes' (which I have on order) will better serve the purpose.Professional Community Server Overview
Community Server is one of the hottest Web site packages available today and runs many popular sites, including Microsoft's Channel 9, Xbox.com, Xbox's Major Nelson, and The Hive
This hands-on guide teaches readers how to extend their implementation with themes, modules and add-ons through the use of helpful examples
Explains how to troubleshoot installation issues, understand Community Server ASP.NET config files, implement kinds, modify custom controls, and work with master pages
Explores ways to manage the point system, extend the database, write custom modules, and modify Community Server code
Foreword by Rob Howard, Microsoft ASP.NET MVP and CEO of Telligent Systems


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ASP.NET Website Programming: Problem - Design - Solution, Visual Basic .NET Edition Review

ASP.NET Website Programming: Problem - Design - Solution, Visual Basic .NET Edition
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ASP.NET Website Programming: Problem - Design - Solution, Visual Basic .NET Edition ReviewASP.NET Website Programming - Problem, Design, Solution
by Wrox Press

OVERALL ASSESSMENT
I had the pleasure of reading through this book over the course of a week, and I really let it sink it. I was very impressed with this work. This is a great book that the intermediate-to-advanced .NET developer should get their hands on. It's very well thought-out and the lessons are plainly stated, and easy to follow.

Authors Marco Bellinaso and Kevin Hoffmann describe a fictional content-based site that provides information for DVD and book enthusiasts, THEPHILE.COM. The book is essentially a long-form case study, diving into the architecture, infrastructure, and engineering behind an online publishing system.

The book takes a very honest approach and enforces a disciplined, structured methodology to writing an extremely practical (and cool!) n-tier Web app. The book also dives briefly into extending a few of THEPHILE.COM's various applications as desktop applications, which is a nice addition to make for a more well-rounded title.

You'll need a solid understanding of the .NET Framework, specifically ASP.NET, C#, and ADO.NET if you're to get the most out of this book, as it's definitely not for beginners. But it's a no-nonsense, well-prepared look at leveraging .NET Web technologies to your advantage.

There have been several books written to date profiling the design of an enterprise-level solution, like Sams' excellent "Building e-Commerce Sites with the .NET Framework." To cater to the masses, these books present a hypothetical business model, usually based around an e-commerce framework, and feature applications like shopping carts, inventory management utilities, etc. There really haven't been a whole lot of title that deal with simply-yet-prolific Web features like mass e-mail list managers, advertising engines, user polls, and article management - apps that are common to high-traffic Web sites.

On a personal level, I'm in charge of running several news-oriented Web sites, so on a personal level this book had more direct appeal to me, demonstrating how one could implement .NET technologies in efficiently managing content and interactives.
This is a very worthwhile buy (although Wrox apparently doesn't differentiate book length with book price, it being the typical US$59.95), and a great addition to your library. You'll read this one more than once for inspiration on your own projects.
WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THE BOOK
The approach to designing the app is very intuitive - from promoting code reuse, object inheritance, modular component design in XML files, intelligent administration files, and much more. The end result is a big app that performs great and is largely self-sustaining.
The authors were very honest. This is most notable in their revelation that they didn't care much for the dragging-and-dropping DataAdapters within Visual Studio .NET, which leads to cumbersome code and a loss of control, preferring to code it themselves. I thought I was the only one. They also write THEPHILE.COM as if it were to be served on a commercial Web hosting service, which is a nice break from the assumption that we're all running massive data centers completely under our control in our offices.
The authors prominently cite Visual Studio .NET as their tool of choice for coding THEPHILE.COM, but don't neglect the text editor crowd, and present their work in a neutral way that doesn't alienate those choosing to stick to NotePad. This is a big advantage.
A best practices approach to enterprise application design is exhibited throughout the book...and this is something the reader will pick up on, using a consistent method that promotes code reuse, componentization, interchangeability, separation of code from content, and modularity. I particularly liked Marco and Kevin's description of the design of their data access tier for their poll feature.
The book is succinct, to the point, and beautifully written. Unlike Wrox titles in years past, the book is a very easy 518 pages (12 chapters, no appendices).
Although written 100% in C#, the code is quite easily transferable to VB.NET, for those interested.
Is it just me...or has Wrox changed the binding on its books? While Wrox titles (at least in my library) have been the first to contract Broken Book Spine Syndrome, the front and back covers seemed more durable, and the book held very well. Which was a much-welcome change, I assure you. And this just isn't because this is a shorter title from Wrox...their entire .NET v1.0 line seems to be better built.
The code download is well-documented, and both Marco and Kevin make themselves very accessible for feedback and help.

WHAT I FEEL NEEDS IMPROVEMENT
Although it's obvious in the book community that having documentation for the two major .NET languages in a single title (Visual Basic .NET and C#) is a tall order to fill (and most often doubles the size of a book), the fact that the book is exclusively in C# may detract some of those developers partial to VB.NET from partaking of what is a really good book. Perhaps the good folks at Wrox are considering releasing a VB.NET version?
THEPHIILE.COM at the time of this writing doesn't exist on the Web...which was a minor downer. I was hoping to see the app running full-speed prior to trying the code out for myself, in the vein of the IBuySpy and ColdRooster demo projects.
While it's unconscionable that each and every line of code would be put on paper, the book highlights some of the more notable code constructs.ASP.NET Website Programming: Problem - Design - Solution, Visual Basic .NET Edition OverviewWhat is this book about?
The C# edition of ASP.NET Website Programming Problem-Design-Solution has been phenomenally successful, gaining rave reviews for its unique approach and valuable content. The blend of theory and practice.
Now, due to demand from readers, a Visual Basic .NET edition of the book has been produced. This edition will offer the same blend of theory and practice that won so many fans for the C# edition. The book has been completely re-edited to ensure that it address the needs of ASP.net developers who use VB.net.
ASP.NET Website Programming shows you how to build an interactive website from design to deployment.
Packed with solutions to website programming problems, this book will have you building well-engineered, extendable ASP.net websites quickly and easily.
What does this book cover?
In this book, you will learn how to
Establish a solid, scalable website foundation
Provide flexible user accounts integrating with ASP.net's built-in security
Create message forums that enable formatted messages but defend against cross-site scripting
Generate revenue from advertising
Build a web interface for uploading, downloading, editing, and managing the files on your site
Add opinion polls, email newsletters, and news management
Deploy the finished site on a live server
Build websites using good, n-tier coding techniques

The site that you build is modular. You can slot the modules into your own Web site, modify them, or use them as examples of particular ASP.NET techniques.
The code will work with Visual Basic .NET Standard. However, Chapter 11 "Deploying the Site" uses some features found only in the full Visual Studio .NET. You will still be able to deploy the site, but the process will be less automated.

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The Definitive Guide to Plone Review

The Definitive Guide to Plone
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The Definitive Guide to Plone ReviewEarlier this year I was evaluating a couple of content management systems (e.g., Bricolage, Typo3, Plone) for a project. Every system had compelling features, but Plone provided the best overall feature set (e.g., search, templating, workflow, user management) in a single package. Plone runs on top of Zope, a popular Python-based open source web application server. Many consider Zope to be Python's killer-app, similarly Plone may be one of Zope's killer-apps. After my initial experimentation with Plone, I was really impressed with its ease of use and the power and flexibility of its page templating system. Strengths aside, Plone's online documentation did not adequately address advanced topics. I often found myself sifting through bits of online howtos and other people's examples to understand how to do certain things. Not only was this time consuming but also hit-or-miss.
Enter The Definitive Guide to Plone by Andy McKay. This book provides a series of task-driven chapters with practical information necessary for you to develop great web applications in Plone. The reader is assumed to be knowledgeable about HTML, CSS, the Web, and Python (for advanced features of Plone). Each chapter begins with an overview of what will be covered and uses examples to clarify concepts. A novice user can read cover to cover and come away with a working knowledge of Plone and be able to create relatively sophisticated web sites. A more advanced user can skim the chapter outline, pick and choose topics of interest and quickly find answers.
Who is the author? Andy McKay is a core developer of the Plone CMS project and an active contributor to a variety of Python-based open source projects. McKay also maintains ZopeZen.org, a web site dedicated to Zope applications and extensions. All the examples in this text were reviewed by well-known Zope authority Michel Pelletier, co-author of the Zope book.
McKay aims for the novice user in the first four chapters. Beginning with a high-level introduction to the benefits of content management, then on to installing Plone, and finally how to do basic content editing and customizations. Those of you getting started with Plone will find the chapter on customizations to be most helpful. It shows you everything from changing a folder's default page to altering navigational tabs, further demonstrating Plone's flexibility. You'll notice that some of the text in this section is fairly self-explanatory (i.e., form field descriptions). You should be able to get going with a moderate Plone site after reading this section.
The next six chapters (5-10) go under the hood of Plone, and aims for administrators and developers. Templating is one of the first stumbling blocks when learning to use Plone, remarks McKay. To that end, McKay provides an excellent introduction to the building blocks of Plone's templating machinery, Template Attribute Language (TAL) and Macro Expansion TAL (METAL). McKay goes on to show you how to develop Script (Python) objects and web forms. Next, McKay breaks down Plone's concept of "skins" - images and styles surrounding the content, using the NASA Mars Rover website as an example. McKay moves on to discuss content workflow, one of the more complex features in Plone. Although he manages to explain individual concepts (e.g., states, transitions) well, he could have used some tougher (more real-world) examples to help readers tie in these concepts. Finally, the last two chapters in this section explain how to setup site permissions and users, and also integrate Plone with other systems (e.g., Apache, LDAP). Users looking to customize an existing Plone site should pay special attention here. Be sure to try out the examples, they will help you understand the concepts faster.
The last four chapters tackle advanced topics such as developing custom content types with Python code and Archetypes, indexing, and scalability. McKay provides an in-depth comparison of two approaches for creating new content types. First, using Python code to define content attributes, and second using Archetypes - a schema-based framework. McKay points out that Archetypes is the preferred way for development of products and content types by the Plone team. You can even use UML tools to model your content type, then generate a schema using ArchGenXML. From caching policies to Zope Enterprise Objects, the final chapter presents several techniques for improving your Plone site's performance.
The Definitive Guide to Plone fills the gap between the inadequacy of online howtos and the need to read through someone's example to find out how a particular thing is done. Users of all experience levels will benefit from the authoritative knowledge of the author. The writing style is clear, to the point and neutral. If you want to improve your productivity with Plone, look no further.The Definitive Guide to Plone OverviewThe Definitive Guide to Plone is the authoritative, unique guide to Plone, describing everything from installing Plone (on Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux) to writing code for the system. The book - part of Apress's library of Python programming and content management tools, and written by one of Plone's core development team - emphasizes the customization of Plone, and shows how to fully integrate Plone into an existing Web site and application. If you want to adopt Plone for some or all of its features, this is the book to pick up and learn by.

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WordPress Complete: A comprehensive, step-by-step guide on how to set up, customize, and market your blog using WordPress Review

WordPress Complete: A comprehensive, step-by-step guide on how to set up, customize, and market your blog using WordPress
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WordPress Complete: A comprehensive, step-by-step guide on how to set up, customize, and market your blog using WordPress Review"Complete" in no way describes this book. I have yet to find any mention of tagging, sessions, pages, or many other important aspects of WP. Part of the problem is that the book's index is almost non-existent. In all fairness, the author says that the book is for beginners; that said, the author spends far too much time reiterating the easy stuff (installation, how to create a basic blog entry, etc) that is explained for free on the WP web site (and dare I say in a much clearer way). Also, the figures look like they were printed-on-demand on a laser printer; this is not acceptable for a price tag like this (cf. O'Reilly's production values). I returned it right away.WordPress Complete: A comprehensive, step-by-step guide on how to set up, customize, and market your blog using WordPress OverviewWordPress is a simple and powerful way to start blogging. If you're not an IT expert but want to use a state-of-the-art blogging system to give your blog the best chance of success, while giving you the time to focus on content and your readers, WordPress is the right system for you, and this book is the right place to start. It will give you a rapid and straightforward introduction to the rich and powerful features of WordPress and get you up and running with a state-of-the-art blog as quickly and painlessly as possible. This book is a beginner's guide to WordPress, for people who are new to blogging and want to create their own blogs in a simple and straightforward manner. It does not require any detailed knowledge of programming or web development, and any IT-confident user will be able to use the book to produce an impressive blog.

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Building Online Communities With Drupal, phpBB, and WordPress Review

Building Online Communities With Drupal, phpBB, and WordPress
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Building Online Communities With Drupal, phpBB, and WordPress ReviewWhen I picked up this book I knew what phpBB was (my main reason for getting the book), but the other two applications were foreign to me. So, let me start off by briefly pointing out what each application is and does:
- Drupal is a CMS, content management system, (think Wikipedia) that allows users to input and update information
- phpBB is bulletin board software (very much like Invision or Jolt from surface appearances)
- WordPress is blogging software (do I really need to say more after 2005, the year of the Blog)
The publisher has chosen to group what amounts to three separate books on three open source applications together based upon the 'community' aspects that they engender, allowing groups of users to come together to post, comment and counter-comment.
The book is effectively a collected user manual for these three applications, but that does not really go far enough. Yes, the material for each is available online, but this book collects the documentation together in a user friendly manner. Anyone that has tried to install and operate a complex piece of software based upon the canned manuals can appreciate the complexity involved. Using this book is essentially like having an experienced guru looking over your shoulder offering advice as you go through the process. This can be the difference between 30-60 minutes of simple work and 5-6 hours of confusion, frustration and ranting.
Add to this the advice on configuration and usage/management for avoiding pitfalls and achieving best case results, and this book can pay for itself in no time (I bill at $50 an hour and consider my personal time even more valuable).
Bottom line, if you want to keep users on your site (i.e. not farm out these services), and want to use a CMS, bBoard, or Blog using open source software, it is worth your time to check out these options. If you then decide to use one of them, this book can save you a chunk of time and frustration.
P-)Building Online Communities With Drupal, phpBB, and WordPress OverviewWhether you want to build a community with a content management system, a bulletin board, or a blog, Building Online Communities with Drupal, phpBB, and WordPress is the authoritative guide using Open Source software. Drupal (http://www.drupal.org/) is a full content management system that allows you to create any type of web site you desire, from an eCommerce to a community-based site. With phpBB (http://www.phpbb.com/) you can set up a bulletin board or forum. And WordPress is fast becoming the software of choice for the exploding blog community. Building Online Communities with Drupal, phpBB, and Wordpress is authored by a team of experts, including Jared Smith, a long time support team member of the phpBBHacks.com web site who has been building sites with phpBB since the first beta releases, and Mike Little, the founder and a contributing developer of the WordPress project.

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The Definitive Guide to Plone (Expert's Voice in Open Source) Review

The Definitive Guide to Plone (Expert's Voice in Open Source)
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The Definitive Guide to Plone (Expert's Voice in Open Source) ReviewI had the Definitive Guide to Plone first and second editions. I whacked at it for a few years. I never got it. Moved to Django a little over a year ago. Now I can actually develope web apps. Yeay!The Definitive Guide to Plone (Expert's Voice in Open Source) OverviewPlone allows big and small companies, freelancers, individuals, institutions and organizations to create and manage Internet sites, intranets, and Web applications. It is the leading open source Content Management System (CMS), and because it is also completely customizable, can be deployed quickly and easily in a wide range of applications. The Definitive Guide to Plone is the only complete book to learning, using, and customizing Plone for a wide-range of online applications.

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Building Websites with Plone: An in-depth and comprehensive guide to the Plone content management system. Review

Building Websites with Plone: An in-depth and comprehensive guide to the Plone content management system.
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Building Websites with Plone: An in-depth and comprehensive guide to the Plone content management system. ReviewI bought Andy McKay's "The Definitive Guide to Plone" and while it may indeed be that, it is not something for the newcomer to Plone to dive right into. McKay is really for the system developer who is charged with installing, configuring and extending Plone. It's not for content managers, and I find myself more in that category these days.
I managed to familiarize myself with the basics by searching through the Plone.org website, but I still didn't really have a very good vision of the scope of Plone, how it could be used, or how it should best be configured for my use. Even looking at sites that used Plone, had a lot of questions about how it could be used in my applications.
Enter Cooper's book. This is an excellent all-encompassing guide that lays out what Plone is, what it can be made into, and how to go about creating usable Plone sites. Perfect for the absolute beginner, the web designer, content manager, or the developer looking for guidance on what can be done with Plone. Five minutes thumbing through it in a local shop convinced me I needed to add this one to my library.Building Websites with Plone: An in-depth and comprehensive guide to the Plone content management system. OverviewBuilt on the powerful and popular Zope application server, Plone is regarded as one of the best and most powerful open source content management systems. Many compare it favorably to high-end commercial content management systems. Written by Plone expert Cameron Cooper, this book explains how Plone works, shows how to use its many out-of-the-box features, and explains how this highly flexible system can be extended and customized. Camerons deep understanding and fluid writing style make even the most complex aspects of administrating and developing Plone websites easy to understand. Beginners and experienced Plone users alike will find this book invaluable. Requiring only a basic knowledge of Zope and Python, this book is valuable for both beginners and experienced Plone developers.

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The Definitive Guide to Interwoven TeamSite (Definitive Guides) Review

The Definitive Guide to Interwoven TeamSite (Definitive Guides)
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The Definitive Guide to Interwoven TeamSite (Definitive Guides) ReviewFirst let me say that I have never seen a formalized methodology such as the Rational Unified Process wrapped into a book on Content Management, let alone such a title demonstrate how to incorporate those practices into CMS work. I found this to be a novel concept and one that I feel will add a lot of value to my future projects. The authors share their expertise, not only with technical TeamSite implementations details, but also with some softer skills related to everyday IT/CMS life ( i.e., project management, requirements management, project deployment, and marketing). The book is broken up logically enough into sections which map to the specific RUP phase being discussed. Detailed coverage is given to TeamSite 6.5, with some additional coverage of TeamSite 6.7. Most of the Interwoven products are discussed, explaining why certain products could be selected, what their purpose is, and the value that they may add to an implementation. The authors also provide coverage of how to define a taxonomy in MetaTagger, using OpenDeploy and DataDeploy, using LiveSite, TeamSite Front Office, TeamSite Search, as well as extremely handy FormAPI and FormsPublisher references. Thank you and well done!
The Definitive Guide to Interwoven TeamSite (Definitive Guides) OverviewThe Definitive Guide to Interwoven TeamSite is the first comprehensive book on this enterprise-level content management system, guiding the reader through the product Architecture, key features, and a detailed implementation of the product by way of a case-study involving a hypothetical financial services firm. Along the way, the authors share key development and deployment principles gained throughout their several years of working in enterprise CMS environments.Divided into five parts, the material is presented in much the same way one might expect when considering a large-scale CMS project: Introduction, Inception, Elaboration, Construction, and Transition. Each part introduces the concepts and TeamSite features readers will need to understand in order to carry out that aspect of the project. Complete with a working implementation and numerous visual guides, the authors painstakingly layout the project process. Finally an Epilogue which discusses future product releases.

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WordPress Plugin Development (Beginner's Guide) Review

WordPress Plugin Development (Beginner's Guide)
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WordPress Plugin Development (Beginner's Guide) ReviewThis book talks about the why and how of WordPress plugin development with heavy emphasis on the "how". The book's tagline "Learn by doing: less theory, more results" describes the book quite well. There is an introductory chapter that talks about the many benefits of learning WordPress plugin development. After that, the book immediately jumps right into showing you how to develop a series of 6 increasingly challenging WordPress plugins from scratch. It then finishes up by talking about plugin localization, promotion, and support tips.
Even though this book is a "Beginner's Guide," there are a lot things in there that many advanced WordPress plugin developers can benefit from. I don't consider myself a beginner in WordPress plugin development (see my WordPress plugins), and I have definitely learned quite a bit of things after reading this book.
[...]WordPress Plugin Development (Beginner's Guide) OverviewBuild powerful, interactive plug-ins for your blog and to share online
Everything you need to create and distribute your own plug-ins following WordPress coding standards
Walk through the development of six complete, feature-rich, real-world plug-ins that are being used by thousands of WP users
Written by Vladimir Prelovac, WordPress expert and developer of WordPress plug-ins such as Smart YouTube and Plugin Central
Part of Packt's Beginners Guide series: expect step-by-step instructions with an emphasis on experimentation and tweaking code

In Detail
If you can write WordPress plug-ins, you can make WordPress do just about anything. From making the site easier to administer, to adding the odd tweak or new feature, to completely changing the way your blog works, plug-ins are the method WordPress offers to customize and extend its functionality. This book will show you how to build all sorts of WordPress plug-ins: admin plug-ins, Widgets, plug-ins that alter your post output, present custom "views" of your blog, and more.
WordPress Plug-in Development (Beginner's Guide) focuses on teaching you all aspects of modern WordPress development. The book uses real and published WordPress plug-ins and follows their creation from the idea to the finishing touches, in a series of carefully picked, easy-to-follow tutorials. You will discover how to use the WordPress API in all typical situations, from displaying output on the site in the beginning to turning WordPress into a CMS in the last chapter. In Chapters 2 to 7 you will develop six concrete plug-ins and conquer all aspects of WordPress development.
Each new chapter and each new plug-in introduces different features of WordPress and how to put them to good use, allowing you to gradually advance your knowledge. This book is written as a guide to take your WordPress skills from the very beginning to the level where you are able to completely understand how WordPress works and how you can use it to your advantage.
What you will learn from this book?

Get to know the WordPress code base, WordPress's plug-in architecture, and the plug-in application programming interface (API) and learn how to hack it
Master the WordPress database and the API - access and manipulate data, handle user roles and permissions, posts, and so on
Hook into the rest of WordPress using actions and filters
Change the way your WordPress backend looks by customizing menus, submenus, and the plug-in admin panel
Integrate AJAX and jQuery into your plug-ins to dynamically generate content
Hook directly to WordPress edit pages and use AJAX to generate fast searches
Integrate your plug-in with WordPress panels and the tinyMCE editor
Access and work with third-party APIs like Flickr
Implement localization support for users of other languages
Maintain and manage your plug-in using SVN and publish it to the WordPress Plugin Repository
Handle security issues and make your plug-ins safer to use
We cover the development of six plug-ins from start to finish:
Digg-this: Adds a Digg This button to each post.
Live Blogroll: Adds a recent posts popup for each blog in your blogroll.
The Wall widget: Displays comments on the sidebar without reloading the page.
Snazzy Archives: Presents your site archives in a unique visual way.
Insights: Access your articles and Flickr images from within the WordPress edit page.
Post Types: Provides pre-defined post templates to quickly add a photo or a link to your blog.
Approach
This is a Packt Beginners Guide, which means it focuses on practical examples and has a fast-paced but friendly approach, with the opportunity to learn by experiment and play. Each chapter builds a practical plug-in from the ground up using step-by-step instructions. Individual sections show you how to code some functionality into your plug-in and follow up with a discussion of concepts.
Who this book is written for?
This book is for programmers working with WordPress, who want to develop custom plug-ins and to hack the code base. You need to be familiar with the basics of WordPress and PHP programming and believe that code is poetry; this book will handle the rest.


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Joomla Bible Review

Joomla Bible
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Joomla Bible ReviewThis is far and away the best overview on Joomla, how to deploy a website in Joomla. This is not a book on how to develop in Joomla. The intended audience is someone who will be building Joomla websites, administrating them and doing mild customization in the HTML/CSS arena. Not a book about PHP programming or Joomla's MVC architecture (shame to even use that term, as Joomla MVC is horrific!).
Joomla is a great product for the right audience and this book is perfect for them!Joomla Bible Overview
Comprehensive guide to creating Web sites with the open-source Joomla!1.5

Joomla! is an open-source content management system (CMS) for Web sites. While it is free and relatively easy to use, there are lots of tricks and functionality that may not be intuitive to new users or those switching from other systems. And the previous version is quite different from the new Joomla 1.5, for which documentation is sparse.Joomla! Bible is the complete, step-by-step guide you need to build and manage Web sites using the very newest version of this powerful and popular CMS.
Walks you through obtaining the Joomla! 1.5 code and how to deploy it to a server, configure the site, create content, and manage content and user hierarchies
Helps you get the most out of core modules that provide advanced functionality, including the Polls Module, the Banner Manager, the Media Manager, Galleries, Weblinks, Content Syndication, and Newsfeed Aggregation
Vaults you into the world of Web 2.0 with extensive coverage of JomSocial, and shows you how to set up for e-commmerce with VirtueMart

Get the most out of Joomla! 1.5 with this complete guide guide.

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Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog (Smashing Magazine Book Series) Review

Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog (Smashing Magazine Book Series)
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Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog (Smashing Magazine Book Series) ReviewLet me preface this review by saying this is NOT a beginner Wordpress book. That said, the folks who leave a mediocre review for this book due to this being over their head are ridiculous. If your looking for a book that teaches you "how to get started" with wordpress this is not your book. You will NOT find sections on how to create a post, add tags, install plugins, etcetera. This book is to teach you how to do advanced secure installs, understand the wordpress framework, template tags (the code snippets that make things work), how to create themes and plugins, and start working with some examples.
This book was an amazing for me because of where I am at in my wordpress development. Before reading this book I knew how to install wordpress, set up permalinks, work with .htaccess files, create posts, add plugins, and even do some minor tweaking. I did not however understand the core code concepts of wordpress that make it work, thus I could not advance beyond an "advanced beginner." When I would go to read advanced wordpress books they were all written in techie speak and I always ended up feeling lost.
Enter Smashing Wordpress:
From the moment I started reading this book it was right at the level I needed. I had finished my knowledge of the beginner to mid level stages of wordpress and Smashing Wordpress took me to a solid level of advanced wordpress techniques and theme/plugin building. It is written in PLAIN ENGLISH and not techie speak like most advanced technology books (please remember you must have a solid beginner level understanding or this book will seem complicated).
If your looking to start understanding all that code that makes themes and plugins work and you have a solid understanding of the basics of wordpress this book is for you.
From the very first chapter this book I stated to absorb the wordpress code concepts and advanced techniques I was craving to learn. I am half way through this book and I am quickly becoming the advanced wordpress theme creator that I have been wanting to be. (This book will also give you a solid ability to modify even the most advanced themes)
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO WORDPRESS USERS READY TO UNDERSTAND AND BUILD OR MODIFY WORDPRESS THEME AND PLUGINS.Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog (Smashing Magazine Book Series) OverviewSmashing WordPress shows you how to utilize the power of the WordPress platform, and provides a creative spark to help you build WordPress-powered sites that go beyond the obvious. The second edition of Smashing WordPress has been updated for WordPress 3.1+, which includes internal, custom post types, the admin bar, and lots of other useful new features. You will learn the core concepts used to post types, the admin bar, and lots of other useful new features. You will learn the core concepts used to build just about anything in WordPress, resulting in fast deployments and greater design flexibility.
Inside, WordPress expert Thord Daniel Hedengren takes you beyond d the blog and shows you how WordPress can serve as a CMS, a photo gallery, and e-commerce site, and more. This edition includes new and upgraded examples of cool WordPress usage.
You Will Learn How To:
Build Beautiful WordPress Themes, including Child Themes

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Professional WordPress Plugin Development Review

Professional WordPress Plugin Development
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Professional WordPress Plugin Development ReviewA formula for success:
1. Put together an idea and outline for a book that hasn't been covered in-depth before.
2. Gather three of the most talented WordPress developers/writers and have them write the book.
3. Release the book and watch the Elves return back to Middle Earth to rejoice with men.
Professional Plugin Development, written by Ozh Richard, Justin Tadlock, and Brad Williams, is a much-needed and very timely book.
There have been several aspiring developers that have approached me saying they needed a start-from-the-basics WordPress plugin development book. And while Professional Plugin Development does teach the basics of plugin development, it quickly moves on to much more complex topics.
The book covers the topics I care most about, such as:
* WordPress Plugin Foundation and Best Practices
* WordPress Security
* WordPress Actions and Filters (aka, hooks)
* And Ajax
But the book goes beyond basic plugin development. It teaches you about plugin options, CRON for scheduling common tasks, storing data (whether it is via post types, transients, or options), the HTTP API (for retrieving remote data), users (how to set up roles and capabilities), localization (err, internationalization), and how to test plugin performance.
For a novice PHP and WordPress developer, this is a good starting point. But don't think of this book as your way to learn PHP, jQuery, or even basic WordPress (there's WordPress for Dummies for that).
This is a book written by developers for developers. And I must say that I learned a lot from this book, and I've been developing WordPress plugins and themes for almost six years.
Here are the things I learned most from this book:
* The Why. I've used a lot of the techniques from the book before, but now I have a better understanding of why the techniques should be implemented. An example is security and WordPress coding best practices.
* Rewrites and Cron. These two topics escape me (no pun intended) for some reason, but I have a much better understanding of how everything works behind the scenes.
* Security. Security can not be stressed enough, and very solid security tips are sprinkled throughout the book (and the topic even receives treatment via its own dedicated chapter).
* Multisite. I've been working with multisite for almost a year now, and it's a topic I'm still learning in-depth. The chapter gives a great explanation of terms and common pitfalls.
Last, but certainly not least, the book goes into great detail for what you should do after you've released a plugin, whether you want to release it for free in the official WordPress repo, or have it available exclusively on your own site (whether commercial or free). The book explains marketing, how to set up automatic updates (albeit a bit glossed over), and how to get the plugin on the official repo.
This is a highly recommended book, whether it be the print version, or digital.Professional WordPress Plugin Development OverviewAs one of the most popular open source content management systems available today, WordPress boasts a framework that allows you to easily customize and extend it through plugins. This comprehensive book shows you how plugins work, reviews the tools and APIs available in WordPress, and demonstrates how to extend the functionality of WordPress with plugins.The trio of established authors provides a practical, solutions-based approach along with a collection of timely examples and plenty of code, all aimed at clearly explaining how to create a plugin file, work with users, integrate widgets, add menus and submenus, secure your plugins, and more. You will quickly come to understand how to develop custom plugins so that you can take WordPress to the next corporate and enterprise level.Professional WordPress Plugin Development:
Details the range of complexity in plugins, from a very simple plugin to an extremely elaborate social network package
Addresses how to integrate into WordPress, save settings, create widgets and shortcodes, and implement uninstall
Learn the proper techniques for storing data, customizing user roles, and security best practices
Shares techniques for using custom post types and creating and using custom taxonomies
How to create plugins for WordPress Multisite networks
Integrate user and role management
Explores the HTTP API, JavaScript and AJAX, Cron, the Rewrite API, and more


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Professional WordPress (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) Review

Professional WordPress (Wrox Programmer to Programmer)
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Professional WordPress (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) Review"Professional WordPress - Design and Development" is a superb book that will be appreciated greatly by developers looking to WordPress (WP) for the first time or for giving them a more thorough understanding of the inner-workings of WP. WordPress, as I write this, is at the WordPress 3.0 beta 2 cycle of development. This book will still be pertinent even though it was not specifically written as a WP v3.0 book.
The book's chapters are arranged in 3 major sections. Chapters 1 thru 4 are a top-level look at WordPress. The history and development of WordPress is discussed as well as the presentation of a functional overview, discussion of installation (including a valuable discussion of debugging errors you may have during installation), a code overview and a tour of the core. There is good stuff here. For instance if you are unclear of the distinction between tags and categories, this will clear things up for you. Or if you've ever wondered what the Turbo option in the Dashboard is, your answer will be found in these chapters. There is even an excellent discussion of advanced wp-config options that is sure to be helpful to the developer as well as a lot of information on configuring your .htaccess file.
Chapters 5 thru 8 thoroughly explore the Loop, understanding the WordPress database and how to directly manipulate it (database queries, building your own taxonomies, direct database manipulation), plugins development & WordPress integration (shortcodes, widgets, plugin security) and theme development (modifying existing themes, creating new themes.)
Chapters 9 thru 15 cover everything else including content aggregation (how to get information into your WordPress site by various means such as XML feeds, integrating twitter, RSS feeds), creating a user experience through consistent navigation, design elements, how to structure your information, searching your site, mobile access & statistics, cache performance, dealing with spam, using WordPress as a content management system (CMS). For developers considering a new web site with WordPress, migrating an existing site to WP is an important consideration and this is discussed in Chapter 14. Chapter 15 concludes the book with a discussion on the WordPress developer community; how you can contribute, working on the core using Subversion and a look at other WordPress resources.
I am not a hardcore developer by any means. My experience with PHP and CSS is marginal, yet I learned a lot from reading this book. Using the code samples helped further my understanding of PHP and this has given me a new interest in learning more about the "inside" of WordPress.
This is a substantial book on WordPress especially geared to developers and secondarily to enthusiasts who wish to dig into WordPress more deeply and begin to explore what makes WordPress tick and how to extend WordPress. Even though the topics are discussed at an advanced level, the writing is not nearly as dry and cumbersome as other technical books can be.
This is an extremely valuable resource for the developer yet there is a thorough approach taken in the early chapters that even a fledgling WP user would find valuable (but not a non-technically minded reader.) However, it is certainly not an appropriate "first" book for the non-technical person simply desiring to get started with WordPress. There are more appropriate books for the non-technical reader. Having said that, there are certain users who may be inspired enough by the easily readable approach taken by the authors to be propelled to learn more because of the depth of information that is contained in this book. Merely using some of the existing code samples can help you learn more about writing and debugging PHP code and serve as a platform for future growth in your knowledge and skills.
This is a stand-out book on WordPress and anyone doing serious development with WordPress could benefit from "Professional WordPress." Highly recommended.
Professional WordPress (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) OverviewAn in-depth look at the internals of the WordPress system. As the most popular blogging and content management platform available today, WordPress is a powerful tool. This exciting book goes beyond the basics and delves into the heart of the WordPress system, offering overviews of the functional aspects of WordPress as well as plug-in and theme development.
What is covered in this book?
WordPress as a Content Management System
Hosting Options
Installing WordPress Files
Database Configuration
Dashboard Widgets
Customizing the Dashboard
Creating and Managing Content
Categorizing Your Content
Working with Media
Comments and Discussion
Working with Users
Managing, Adding, Upgrading, and Using the Theme Editor
Working with Widgets
Adding and Managing New Plugins
Configuring WordPress
Exploring the Code
Configuring Key Files
wp-config.php file
Advanced wp-config Options
What's in the Core?
WordPress Codex and Resources
Understanding and customizing the Loop
Building A Custom Query
Complex Database Operations
Dealing With Errors
Direct Database Manipulation
Building Your Own Taxonomies
Plugin Packaging
Create a Dashboard Widget
Creating a Plugin Example
Publish to the Plugin Directory
Installing a Theme
Creating Your Own Theme
How and When to Use Custom Page Templates
How to Use Custom Page Templates
Pushing Content from WordPress to Other Sites
Usability and Usability Testing
Getting Your Site Found
How Web Standards Get Your Data Discovered
Load Balancing Your WordPress Site
Securing Your WordPress Site
Using WordPress in the Enterprise
Is WordPress Right for Your Enterprise?
and much more!

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

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