Customer Reviews

Joomla! Start to Finish: How to Plan, Execute, and Maintain Your Web Site (Wrox Programmer to Programmer)

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4 star:		(2)
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2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Review of Joomla! Start to Finish by Jen Kramer

I received a few weeks ago my review copy of Jen Kramer's new book - While I expected Ms. Kramer's book to be very good, I was treated with the surprise of a not a 'very good' book but a very GREAT book.

Ms. Kramer is a warm and extremely knowledgeable writer immediately making the reader feel comfortable. As if she is there helping you through your planning, development, struggles, and triumphs with developing a Joomla! website.

My favorite line is the title of Chapter one: "I want a website and I want it blue - how much will that cost!" - After wiping the coffee I spit off my keyboard, and quit laughing, I dove into the book.

That line in my experience is so true. A client wishes to hire a developer, they want a "clone" of oh, I don't know, [...], and they have no clue as to how to get there.

The opening chapter gives you a real-world strategy on starting down the thorny path of development. Helping you avoid the pitfalls that await you.

The book moves to what in my opinion is the next logical step [that is frequently ignored] Choosing the RIGHT technologies to solve your problem. Many times a client may be good at what THEY do, but they are hiring you to build their site. They might have an assumption they know the right tools, but your role is to guide them. This chapter offers battle-tested knowledge about picking that right tool.

She then takes you through the balance of the book, patiently introducing you to the administration console, various components and extensions that build the site. Building a critical foundation to introduce the advanced topics of template CSS and other scary things that go bump in the server.

There are many, many GOOD Joomla! books on the market, however there are not many GREAT Joomla! books on the market. Jen Kramer's book is one of the Greats.

If you buy ONLY one Joomla! book - Buy Jen Kramer's - Joomla! Start to Finish. You won't be disappointed.

Tom Canavan
Author, Joomla! Web Security

I really like this book - it is demystifying, extremely well-written, nicely formatted, easy to follow, and doesn't miss a beat with all the basic info.

For those HTML web developers who want to make the leap to a well-supported, globally-popular, flexible content management system for a multitude of businesses, schools and non-profit organizations, Jen Kramer has done a huge favor.

Clear, concise information, thoughtfully and logically laid-out, excellent explanations of sections, categories, articles and modules and their relationships, plus the abundance of accompanying illustrative screenshots, puts this Joomla! book at the top of the must-have list.

Bravo!Joomla! Start to Finish: How to Plan, Execute, and Maintain Your Web Site (Wrox Programmer to Programmer)
Enjoy these lynda.com DVDs by Jen Kramer:
Joomla Creating and Editing Custom Templates
Joomla! Advanced CSS

The book never made it past "Start". If you are a beginner, it did not adequately explain the relationships between Sections, Categories, Articles and Menus - the basis of Joomla. If you are a more advanced web designer making the transition to a Content Management System (CMS) - the book spends a scant several pages on using external templates and resolving issues.

You are better off spending a few dollars less for a basic entry level book if you are just learning the ropes of CMS. Or, for more advanced designers, spend a few dollars more and buy something that goes deeper into the subtle nuances of Joomla.

I have been using DreamWeaver for the last few years to maintain/update client sites. I have a client that needed a cms site. After deciding on Joomla!, I read and referenced this book throughout the process. It was very helpful, and got me through most of the key concepts. Layout and pace of the book was very good, as was the language/terminology. As for any book, you will run into issues when creating your site that may or may not be covered. Even though that was the case, the concept was covered. When I searched the Joomla! community, this made it much easier to understand and implement the solution.

I also liked the "Favorite Extensions" chapter--essential tools for managing, backing-up, and enhancing the site.

This book covers some pretty good material in terms of the basics of starting a website with Joomla. It gives a good foundation for how to make a site that is usable on the Internet. However, it doesn't cover a lot of questions a user might have if they are familiar with HTML and are now trying to use Joomla for a website. One example is that I was unable to find anything about making a link from one article page to another. There is only information about how to make links from the homepage. There is also very little about how to create basic HTML items such as drop down lists and frames.

...and I was right. I'd watched her videos on another site for Joomla and knew I wanted the book. I think I have most every J! book out there but this one is outstanding. If you're stumped on your site or just need more info than you have, this is a great solution.

What I liked: good clear instruction. Lots of overviews of the admin stuff, plus outside-the-Joomla-box info on planning. A good section on backup.

What I would like more of: extension coverage, especially the multi-use modules and the ecommerce selections. That is because most of these are poorly documented by their creators and no one has really tackled a book on the subject (although most J! authors do include sections in their books on the topics).

Well worth your dollars and minutes to get and read.

There are several books out there to get you started but not many on what to do now that you got it. This one is a great one for improving your knowledge on maintaining a site. It's not a beginner book and that's fine with me. I do want deeper information. I'm ready for deeper stuff now.

Rob

Great book! It has helped me immensely in converting my static html website into a joomla site. Well written and easy to follow. If you aren't real familar with CSS or Html you need separate books on those subjects. If you are more advanced and know a lot of PHP, get a more advanced book on that topic.

I was disappointed that the product specs and the peek into the pages did not reveal that this book is written for Joomla 1.5. The current Joomla is at 1.7 now. So this book is outdated. I would buy the a book from this author for 1.7 but it does not appear to exist. Good thing I only paid $15 for this.

Wow! Page 72 is the first time you actually do Jooma tasks.

While I appreciate Ms. Kramer's background, it's well overstated in this book. She attempts to preface her approach with this book not being a point-and-click book, but it fails to deliver content. It narcissitic and nearly useless.

The final point may be a gripe with Amazon more than the book. It indicates that it is a Joomla 1.6 book, but it is not. It is Joomla 1.5 exclusively.