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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:  -
Nowhere in this book are the fundamental concepts of how Joomla puts a page together laid out clearly. I'm a web programmer tasked with learning Joomla while moving an existing static web site onto it. I understand PHP, CSS, and the MVC pattern quite well. This book was less than useless -- it was a time vampire that set me back at least half a day on the project.
I find Wrox books to be questionable overall, but I gave this one a shot. "Professional" and "programmer-to-programmer" it's not. As a programmer, I don't need several chapters devoted to how to make my site a success in the market place, or a dozen pages on how to create a rounded rectangle layout in CSS and Photoshop -- YES! that's actually what you're going to get in this book -- tutorials on SEO and Photoshop that aren't as good as what you can Google up for free.
What I needed was a book that talked specifically about how Joomla assembles content; both how to use the interface to create and maintain a large site and where in the PHP code the hooks go for the content. After several hours, not only had I not learned this, I couldn't even find relevant information in the book. Avoid this.
Wrox, you're dead to me.
Rating:  -
A very good comprehension for people they like to know more details on the subject of how Joomla works what strengthen and what the weaknesses are. I have reviewed several books about Jommla getting a quick and professional point of view about Joomla and what I can do with it; however the most books I read have been weak in the most of there content. Copy and past of online material mashed with some nice pictures. From an IT Directors prospective, the book goes deep enough to see what the system is about and what can achieved with it, what kind of modules/plug-in are available, how to customize it and so forth. I have extracted enough knowledge to overlook a Joomla implementation and guide my team. I would like to suggest this book to someone who is looking in to a comprehensive introduction from a technical and professional point of view. I agree the book might be not a good resource for fulltime developer knowing PHP and all other programming languages, but for web developer assigned to multiple projects a nice resource..
Researching and reading article about Joomla on the internet is sometimes frustrating because you are going to lose interrelation. Therefore, I was looking for something like that book and I am very pleased with it. I am not sure the book will fit the programmers need; therefore, I think the second title (Programmer to programmer) fail to achieve the intended result. Only 4 stars :-)
Rating: -
I'm still waiting for a book that deals in the specifics of writing extensions, etc. that can mesh with the Joomla core. This book doesn't go much deeper than their Beginning Joomla book. Pick one or the other but both are for beginners and neither deserves the name "Professional" on the cover.
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.
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