Author/s : Elin Waring, Jennifer Marriott
Category :
Other
Review by : Roel De Nijs
Rating : 8 horseshoes
Despite having already some experience with creating dynamic web sites in PHP, I am a complete Joomla! novice. My next web site I create will be one with Joomla!, so the Official Joomla! Book should be a good starting point to gather the necessary information and experience to create a decent website.
The book is written in a crystal-clear style, which makes it easy to read (even for a non-native English speaker like me). It is also very wordy which can be a good thing (when you need a lot of detail, for example if you are a complete novice to the world wide web) or a bad thing (if you learn more visually).
The book is written from a user's perspective and provides a beginner with all of the information they need to get started creating (basic) Joomla! websites. In the first two chapters you get some background information about Joomla! itself (history, community,…) and about all things
you should consider when building a website (purpose, logo, trademark, branding,…).
In the next chapters you get an extensive coverage of all things you need to know about Joomla! to create your web site, including installation and configuration, creating content, customizing templates and using extensions.
The following 3 chapters are the book's strongest points. These chapters deal with practical web sites which are specifically geared to Business, Organizations (groups, clubs,...) and Education. In each of these chapters a list of recommended extensions is discussed that could be useful for such type of website.
The last chapter is a collection of interviews with experts in the Joomlasphere about almost every topic discussed in the book. In my opinion this chapter had little added value to this great book.
The major part of the book is based on Joomla! 1.5, but will also be applicable to version 1.6 and later versions. The book also contains a seperate chapter to address the major changes made in Joomla! 1.6.
The only (little) thing I missed in the book was some instructions about how to upload your Joomla! website which you developed on your personal computer to your hosting provider.
Nonetheless if you want to develop web sites with Joomla!, this book is simply a must-buy and will definitely save you many hours.
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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in
exchange for writing this review on behalf of CodeRanch.
More info at Amazon.com