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Message from Dean - May 8th 2007
I am currently testing out a new version of the APF Bridge Component - If you notice any errors within this demo store please drop me a line.
Rating:  -
A new phenomena like the Joomla! content management system doesn't come along very often. When better ways of doing things first happen, there is a recognizable pattern. The experts dismiss the item, the mainstream press ignores the item, and all the while the first users blissfully take advantage of the situation. Examples include AutoCAD in 1985, Turbo Pascal in 1986, the Internet itself in 1992, and I'll let you fill in the rest.
Now that Joomla has reached the ripe old age of 1.5, Dan Rahmel's book is the first to gently guide the novice towards whatever level he hopes to reach, from simple user to commercial developer.
The examples are not always in sync with the latest 1.5 release, but that happens when you have an evolving product. And it is sometimes dificult to figure out just what reader expertise is presumed in the areas of Server Tech, PHP, SQL, HTML and CSS.
In site design, and in training others in site design, I've personally experienced the same difficulties, finally adopting a philosophy of "pick up what you need as you need it" that seems to work. You know the PHP/SQL/HTML/CSS/??? that you use, and you learned it because you needed it. It's not always pretty out there.
For real basics we have the online Joomla docs and wiki. These are improving daily, but are not all that easy to learn from.
For real in-depth we have the forums. It seems like there are a thousand users and developers like the author who not only know this stuff, but are quite willing to share the knowledge with the world. (And of course, a few jerks to make life interesting)
For an organized plan for the beginning user and developer we have this book. Well beyond a Dummies text. Not quite a cookbook.
Rating:  -
This is a light read containing a reasonable amount of guidance on editing templates and a regurgitation of the stuff you can get by googling joomla 1.5 (with many edit errors).
However, there is very little meat with almost nothing covering any of the underlying principles and a terrible guide to writing a component (that ignores MVC entirely).
Its not worth the money I paid for it.
Rating: -
Although I have been involved in many forms of application development (including 20 years of various Oracle products) over the years I haven't used PHP or MySQL before begining to develop a Joomla website. To me this book has been exactly what I've been looking for! I'm not looking to make a career of Joomla development but I want to add functionality to the JSN Epic Pro template I've been using and this is answering my questions nicely.
I haven't experienced a problem with the way things are described. To me it has seemed very clear and has guided me through one topic after another very well. I went through several resources on the Internet and I'm still glad I picked this up. I am experimenting with MySQL database modifications and creation of new Joomla extensions. So far it's been very smooth. I had picked up "Mastering Joomla 1.5" by James Kennard and found it inaccessable because it assumed more PHP background than I have. I can imagine that would be a good guide for someone who has used these technologies but I'm very content starting with this.
For someone in my category I would definitely recommend purchasing it.
Rating:  -
this book is ver clear and well done, it explains all the covered topics with simple but effective examples. The topics are all about Joomla 1.5 so don't buy it if you're interested in Joomla 1.0
Rating: -
Well, I have to say that this is a good book. I has very good examples and gives you more than you could ever find surfing the web, for hours, trying to find relevant info by yourself.
Most of all, it covers security issues that you don't hear about very often. It takes you from the basics of installation, to advanced levels in terms of management and best practices, among other things. I can't expect to have the author reinvent the wheel.
This book is not called "The unknown practices" nor " The Secrets of Joomla". You wont find Joomla "top secret information here", but the author delivers what he promises and you can see the table of contents before you buy.
I bought it, I have been using Joomla for a year, I am a PHP coder and found it very useful. My sites are much better now because of this book.
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