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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:  -
Mastering Joomla 1.5 Extension and Framework -James Kennard
After whetting my appetite on LeBlancs book [Learning Extensions and frameworks], I decided to go further into detail. This book is not for the novice, but is for the experienced Joomla coder. That does not detract at all from its rich details on building your own extensions. Its explanations help you form new insight into how Joomla works at the core. This can only help you with at a minimum customizing Joomla.
It has already proved worth the price in the work I am currently doing in modifying Joomla components for more than one client. If you plan to do serious coding or need to know the inner workings of Joomla, you need this book.
Rating:  -
I would not recommend this book for anyone wanting to develop Joomla!1.5 components, modules and extensions without first learning Object-Oriented PHP programming. While I do support Joomla!, I cannot support books written for it that are not meant for the average Joomla! user.
I do highly recommend it for Power PHP programmers not familiar with the Joomla!1.5 content management system. Prior to purchasing this book last year, I was more familiar with XHTML/CSS and not any server-side scripting language such as PHP. Now that I've learned PHP as a beginning web developer this book makes sense to me but only after reading and purchasing many PHP books.
Rating:  -
Pros: gives some good overviews and dives deep into some concepts.
Cons: does not give adequate examples. It is definetly not an advanced book or "Mastering".
I returned the book.
Rating: -
It's a good book. But it's got some short-comings that makes it not a complete reference for Joomla 1.5. The organization is a little bit fragmented. All the examples are snippets and are never complete listings. This makes it a difficult book to use for a brand new learning Joomla developer. If it was a complete reference tutorial, it being the only book that you would ever need, that newbies and experts alike could pick it up and gleam from it I would have given it a 5 stars. I would have given it a 4 if the Appendix that has a quick look up was clearer on what section your in and the section titles were more distinguishable. But it has produced a decent amount of answers to my periodic questions. It's a nice book to have but far from the only book you'll ever need on Joomla. So I gave it 3 stars.
Rating: -
This is a reasonable introductory text and it gave me what I needed when I read it after Learning Joomla! 1.5 Extension Development: Creating Modules, Components, and Plugins with PHP in the same series.
However, it is let down by a poor index and the fact that the coverage is too much 'type this' and 'do this' rather than helping the reader understand why things need to be done in a certain way and how to find the necessary resources to address new problems.
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