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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:  -
I would like to start by saying this is a book about setting up and running your own blog. If you don't want to get into the design aspects and coding a blog, then you will not like this book as it is not for the people who simply want a setup like blogger.
One thing this book does well is give you an idea of 4 major packages for blog development and one chapter for writing your own engine.
The 4 main packages are:
Movable type seems capable but for some reason it just didn't interest me. It's a little more work then using blogger but I don't know. Wordpress seems to offer much more.
ExpressionEngine is a rather robust package. To me it's for the people who really want to tinker with the guts of a setup. Might be overkill for many bloggers.
Wordpress is a rather nice package which I am told is heavily used. It appears easy to use and setup. To me it seems more people that want to tinker a little bit but want an easy way to do things. I am considering this for my company.
Textpattern seems to be geared towards running a blogging site. It's appears very versatile and seems to organize things really well. I am considering this when I become more advanced at blogging.
The last chapter shows you how to write your own engine. This would be a fun little programming exercise that I will do at a later date!
Overall this is a great little book that will answer questions on design. It will definitely answer your question of if you want to host your own versus using something like blogger.
Rating: -
Chapter seven.."write your own blog engine" alone is worth the price of the book. If you are a beginning to intermediate php "developer" and want to learn how to build a useful expandable CMS and blog, then buy this book. No goofy writer promoting their buddies add on products here. You get the information and clear guidance you need to build your own system.
I do stress that you should know some php to tackle chapter seven. If you do you can will see the flexiblity in the system and be able to take the blog engine presented in the book to new levels. Even if you don't know php, but can follow instructions you will build a blog that is as good as any packaged deal available.
If you are fuzzy on page layouts and css, this book will help clear it up.
If you are interested in writing your own software instead of reengineering someone elses then get this book. If you want to make one of the popular packaged blog engined uniquely your own, then buy this book. It teaches how to do just that.
Rating:  -
I've been a software designer / programmer for 30 some years, working at various levels from programmer to project director so I don't feel like I'm easily intimidated by "tech talk". I also recognize this to be an example of poor quality documentation and technical / tutorial writing and editing. This book seems to be written for "the insiders' community" i.e. experienced CMS, PHP, mySQL website developers.
I found the intro material shallow and repetitive, just filling up pages in some places. I bought the book particularly for the WordPress chapter - looking for documentation to take me from installation, through design options, explanation of concepts, and examples of a variety of blog types, how to design and implement them using WordPress tools and rsources. I found instead small examples of snatches of code to be inserted, who knows where and with little explanation of purpose or design / integration considerations (like no variables or links defined). There is also no adequate bibliography or background list of tutorials to create a conceptual environment or even to facilitate looking up terms.
If you had done this stuff before, these are probably useful tidbits and the name dropping and personal asides might be cute but between the insider jokes and jabs and lack of structured documentation, I found this material next to useless.
Needless to say, I returned this book - the first time I've availed myself of Amazon's return policy in about 100 purchases.
Rating: -
Bought this book mainly for Simon Collision's chapter on ExpressionEngine. Really helpful; love the way he imparts info. EE's worth paying for, definitely, but its creators also offer a completely robust free version. Free as in free, not a trial. Careful, though - you'll want to upgrade to the licensed version after working with EE for a bit. ;)
Rating:  -
I would give this book 5 stars but not untill I can fix my 1045 error I recieved when I try to connect phpmyadmin to mysql, I'll give it one. The book looks really good but for me the instructions for phpmyadmin don't work and I tried every thing possible. I will be returning this book soon unless I find the solution. Update after 4 days of trying I found a way to connect phpmyadmin to mysql. So I'll give this book 4 Stars! The versions of phpMyAdmin and MySQL as in the book are out of date but the latest versions will still work.
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