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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Only for absolute beginners (new to computers), January 31, 2007
This review is from: Community Server Quickly: A Concise and Practical Guide to Installation, Administration, and Customization (Paperback)
I can't believe they are charging almost $40 for this book.
Imagine a 'quick start' guide that comes with most software - this is an even more basic version.
Examples: it explains 'photo gallery' by stating that in the old days people use albums (in at least two section of the book). There are pages explaining what blogs, forums are. The 'real' meat of the book is just showing screens and telling you what to click.
It is so basic, the title is misleading. For instance, it assumes the users knows how to install IIS, SQLServer etc - but then treats the reader like newbies to computers when explaining the community server or using typical windows install.
I suggest all potential buyers, to browse through it in a book shop first, before ordering. I still can't believe the publisher approved this.
No offense, but the author is doing a college book tour - I think most college students will find this book an insult to their intelligence.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Bit dissapointing., February 3, 2008
This review is from: Community Server Quickly: A Concise and Practical Guide to Installation, Administration, and Customization (Paperback)
I got this when there was no other book on CS out there and the docs from CS were wrong/missleading/incoeherent, now there are plenty (WROX); at the time of release this book was the only source of information to get the damn thing working. Now that CS have read this book that have improved their supplied docs!
This is a quick guide to getting CS1.1 up and running, we are on cs2007 now.
It is a thin book which is good as it is really the book that should come with the software. So if you are to impliment CS in a week by a client this is the one to skim thru. If your client wants its customized (since all CS sites look the same) you will need the WROX books and a copy of VS2005.
CS offers a very rich and very scalable (web farm) platform for deliving forums and blogs with other associated community features. Has an excellent Admin/CMS system, and is the platform of choice my many bloggers at microsoft.
Think of this book at 'CS in 5 days' then its ok.
The more detailed WROX book is 3 times as thick as this one, where as the WORX styling book (use the CD Custom controls to make a CS site unique from all the rest) is the same thinkness.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect for webmaster/sysadmins and non-technical decisionmakers, March 28, 2007
This review is from: Community Server Quickly: A Concise and Practical Guide to Installation, Administration, and Customization (Paperback)
The Community Server platform is an out-of-the-box server software product that makes it possible to create online communities quickly.
The book, Community Server Quickly, helps the system administrator or webmaster that is new to this product, to get a quick start. It must be noted that the book focuses on the 2.1 version of the server. The 3.0 version is at the moment of this review in beta 2, and the book features a small chapter on this release.
The first section is a good introduction to what community server is. It presents the five main functionalities: Blog, forums, photo galleries, file galleries and reader/roller.
Next it explains in detail how to install the server followed by a very detailed description of the five functionalities. I don't think there is a feature in Community Server that isn't described in this book.
The next three chapters is about the administration of users and customizing and setting up the server. This is all described in relation to what the out of-the-box product is capable of.
Last the book goes into the more advanced features of Community Server as reporting, ads, spam blocker, URL redirects etc. This is not need-to-know knowledge for everyone that works with the server, but shows that this book describes what Community Server can do from A to Z.
I think it is a good book for new admins and developers that need an overview of what features the product contains. If you have already worked a lot with Community Server and wants to develop against it, this is not the book for you. Overall its a well-written book for webmasters or non-technical people that want insight in the wonders of CS.
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