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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The book for somewhat advanced WordPress information, March 9, 2010
This review is from: WordPress Bible (Paperback)
If you are just starting out with WordPress, then the best book I've found for that is Lisa Sabin Wilson's "WordPress For Dummies" (WPD). WPD will carry you surprisingly far into the installation, use, maintenance and extension of WordPress. It is now in its second edition with a third expected soon.
For most people, WPD will suffice.
But If your needs are more demanding, then Aaron Brazell's "WordPress Bible" is a good place to go.
Brazell gets much deeper under the WordPress hood than Sabin-Wilson. - and this content is not for the neophyte.
The content is eclectic, with a lot of emphasis on building plugins. Installing WordPress is covered, but not in the same supportive way you'll find in WPD. Some chapters are head-scratchers: why are nine pages devoted to the WordPress help system ("Codex") and other support groups? Chapters like "Extending WordPress with Plugins", "Widgetizing WordPress", "Understanding the WordPress Database Class" and the doozy "Dissecting the Loop and WP_Query" give you what you need to know to write and manage plugns. Another chapter talks about using WordPress as a Content Management System, which I found helpful, and wish was three times longer.
Overall, "WordPress Bible" is a valuable addition to any serious WordPress library. My one criticism of the book is about Wiley, the publisher: they have a adopted a design that makes it look as if the type is printed in gray, which I find very difficult to read for more than a few minutes at a time. Wiley does not respond to customer comments. Because of this flaw, I will buy Wiley books only when they appear to be best in class.
Jerry
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32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent resource for developers and enthusiasts alike, February 3, 2010
This review is from: WordPress Bible (Paperback)
I have been developing websites on the WordPress platform for a few years. Most of what I have learned has been learned by experimentation, lurking in forums and reading the WordPress Codex. I've been hoping that some day, a book that would delve into the inner-workings of WordPress would appear. The WordPress Bible is that book and it does not disappoint. It covers WordPress 2.9
Of the various WordPress books in the marketplace, few excel in the ways that this book does. The author writes in an engaging way that never makes you feel like you can't grasp his points or aren't technically savvy enough to understand. The book therefore appeals to both the learning student of WordPress as well as more experienced developers.
The structure of the book is such that you do not have to work through it in a linear fashion. It is not necessary to read the chapters sequentially. Instead you can flip to the chapter that deals with the topic you want to explore. If you want to learn how to begin construction your own themes for instance, Chapter 12 discusses best practices. The author leaves no stone unturned and looks at every significant aspect of development using WordPress including how to ensure you website will scale well by using proper caching strategy and how to leverage the power of using WordPress MU with its multi-blog functionality.
The author also explains in very clear terms how the implementation of Hooks has made the platform extendable. An appendix includes useful information including a WordPress Hook Reference, Template Tags, what to look for in WordPress hosting and a good discussion of PHP 5 and how that will affect WordPress development moving forward.
I wasn't sure if the more technical topics would be over my head, but the author does a fine job of explaining complex subjects in easy to understand terms.
I have scores of computer books on my shelves, but this is one of only a few that I would rate as being at the absolute top of the pile. An excellent resource for anyone working with WordPress. Although this book is based on WordPress 2.9, it should remain relevant for some time since WordPress 3.0 is still off in the distance as of the writing of this review (February 2010) and as the author states in his Preface, "Though there will be new versions of WordPress 3.0 that will not be covered in this book, the bulk of the software will remain intact and version neutral.
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41 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Read the descrption of this book carefully, March 15, 2010
This review is from: WordPress Bible (Paperback)
I have purchased some of the Bible computer book series in the past and have generally found them to be useful for whatever level of experience and expertise one might have.
This Bible is different. Unless you are very sophisticated in the world of coding, web/blog construction, don't even think of getting this book. If you wish to build a blog buy a different book. If you wish to build widgits, plugins, or other code-level structures, this is for you.
I wanted to build a moderately sophisticated blog using wordPress and feel that I totally wasted my $31.
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