Learning eZ publish 3: Building Content Management Solutions--Leaders of the eZ publish community guide you through this complex and powerful PHP-based Content Management System (Paperback)

by Paul Borgermans (Author), Tony Wood (Author), Paul Forsyth (Author), Martin Bauer (Author), Bjorn Dieding (Author), Ben Firt (Author) "Installing eZ publish can seem like quite a daunting task at first, but if you follow the guidelines it's one of the easiest content management..." (more)
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Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Leaders of the eZ publish community guide you through this complex and powerful PHP based content management system.

• Build content rich websites and applications using eZ Publish
• Discover the secrets of the eZ Publish templating system
• Develop the skills to create new eZ Publish extensions

In Detail

eZ publish is a PHP-based, Open Source Content Management System and development framework. With over 1,000,000 downloads of the system to date (June 15, 2004), and now at version 3, eZ publish has evolved from a standard CMS to a framework for developing your own robust, PHP applications. With a community of devoted developers behind it, eZ publish has grown in popularity, with a tested and proven core architecture. Historically, eZ publish has had a notoriously steep learning curve. This book sets out to change that, and to make the unrivalled power and flexibility of eZ publish accessible to all developers. For the first time, the top contributors to the eZ publish community take you inside eZ publish, lifting the lid on this mysterious and powerful product to have you developing content-driven Web applications in no time. With hard-won experience of the practical difficulties faced by developers working with eZ publish, and technical approval from eZ systems, creators of eZ publish, this book is a distillation of the authors expertise, and the perfect way to master the system. If you are new to eZ publish, or have been frustrated or perplexed at being unable to get the most from eZ publish, then this is the book for you. A working knowledge of PHP is required to get the most from eZ publish, and from this book.

What you will learn from this book? With this book you will conquer eZ publish, and learn the skills to become an accomplished eZ publish developer. At the end of this book, you will:

• Understand how eZ publish handles, versions, and publishes content to the Web
• Be confident working in the eZ publish administration area
• Know the secrets of the eZ publish templating system to design your own pages
• Have the skills to create new eZ publish extensions See how real world eZ publish sites have been designed and implemented

This book covers:

• Installing eZ publish
• The basic concepts of eZ publish
• The structure of an eZ publish site
• Content management with eZ publish
• Controlling your page output with eZ publish templates
• The eZ publish core libraries
• Creating eZ publish extensions
• Creating new modules and datatypes
• Working with RSS import and export
• Deploying an eZ publish site
• Case studies of real eZ publish sites
• Optimizing your eZ publish installation

Approach

Although there is good quality reference documentation on eZ publish, there are currently no books available. Therefore, this book has been written from the ground up, in a tutorial/case study style to fill this gap.

Who this book is written for?

This book is for Web developers new to eZ publish, while experienced developers of eZ publish who want to consolidate their knowledge will learn new techniques from eZ publish masters.

It has also been designed for those new to eZ publish while also being aimed at experienced developers who want to consolidate their knowledge and learn new tricks from eZ publish masters

About the Author
Tony Wood has over 16 years of experience working for both small and large clients, with work ranging from system administration to knowledge management.

Tony is an active member in the eZ publish community and regularly contributes to the eZ publish community. Tony works for VisionWT which was the first company outside of eZ publish to deploy an eZ publish version 3 site and has focused on creating only eZ publish sites.

Paul Forsyth is an active contributor to the eZ publish community, and lead developer at Vision with Technology. As Lead Developer, Paul helps to develop processes, methods and technical standards in addition to developing systems and overseeing the development team.

Ben Pirt studied architecture at Edinburgh University and at the Bartlett School of Architecture. His company, More Associates, specializes in eZ publish development, where he is able to combine his two main fascinations: design and technology.

Ben Pirt

Ben Pirt studied architecture at Edinburgh University. In 1999 he moved to New York where he developed animation skills through working for a design and visualisation company. Here he was also able to strengthen his web development skills through the use of PHP, SQL, CSS and XHTML. On his return to Edinburgh in 2001 he co-taught a course on architecture and multimedia before completing his postgraduate diploma at the Bartlett School of Architecture.

Bjorn Dieding

Bjorn Dieding attended the Ev. Gymnasium Werther, where he took advantage of a student exchange to the U.S. in 1997, and at this time, first came into contact with web design. From then on he invested much of his free time gathering knowledge and learning about Internet-related topics. In 1999 he started realizing his first commercial projects. In 2000 Bjorn attended the b.i.b. Hannover, graduating in 2003 as a computer scientist in e-commerce (Staatl. gepr. Informatiker Electronic Commerce). After graduation, he became a freelance web application programmer and web designer. In March 2004, Bjorn became the first core developer of eZ publish outside eZ systems.

Bjorn Dieding met Soren Meyer while studying, and at the end of 2002 they decided to team up as xrow GbR. Their main objective was to deliver value-added services for professional and high-quality open source software. Today, xrow GbR is one of the top German consultancies for delivering eZ publish services.

Martin Bauer

Martin Bauer is the Managing Director of designIT, an Australian based content management specialist practice. Martin has ten years experience in web development and web based content management. He is the world's first certified Feature Driven Development Project Manager. Prior to his role as Managing Director, Martin held a variety of roles across a range of industries. This experience includes careers in law, advertising and IT. Martin's breadth of expertise has culminated in a focus upon the delivery of effective content management solutions.

Paul Borgermans

Paul Borgermans holds a Masters degree in Science and a PhD in Applied Physics. He became involved with high-performance computing from the start of the 90s while doing plasma physics research. From then on, computing has always been an important part of his job, which gradually involved the integration of large databases, computations, and operational management in R&D. The birth of the World Wide Web also marked the start of projects around intranet developments. Recently, he started a knowledge-management program with his current employer, the Belgian Nuclear Research Center.

Paul Forsyth

Paul Forsyth is an active contributor to the eZ publish community, and lead developer at VisionWT. As Lead Developer, Paul helps to develop processes, methods and technical standards in addition to developing systems and overseeing the development team.

Tony Wood

Tony Wood has over 16 years of experience working for both small and large clients, with work ranging from system administration to knowledge management.

Tony is an active member in the eZ publish community and regularly contributes to the eZ publish community. Tony works for VisionWT which was the first company outside of eZ publish to deploy an eZ publish version 3 site and has focused on creating only eZ publish sites.

Tony concentrates on building VisionWT which is a company he founded on the principle that content management should be available to all; whatever their budget.

Product Details

• Paperback: 392 pages
• Publisher: Packt Publishing (May 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904811019
• ISBN-13: 978-1904811015
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,256,640 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book: very technical, August 31, 2004

By	Firebright (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

With this book, our intrepid micro-publisher has sought to lay out an understanding of the complex content management system eZ Publish (www.eZ.no). eZ Publish is a very powerful php based CMS solution, and really does meet the requirements of an Enterprise CMS solution.

However, it has not been a very well documented project despite great efforts by the developers, especially for the more complex functionality.

This book addresses many of the things that are left wanted by the documentation, such as the modification of core classes. However, it oddly combines them with basic information like how to set up the system -- information which was almost out of date before the book was released.

Sadly, the book fails to go deep enough to satiate the demand of our more technical users while also failing to provide enough introductory material for beginners. This lack of clear audience focus plagues the book and lessens it's utility for real world developer or beginners.

This book is absolutely worth the money, if you've got a little php under your belt and you're looking to really buckle down and start developing eZ Publish sites. But if you're a beginner, or you don't have a solid understanding of php, you'll probably find this book to be over your head past the first chapter.

This publisher is coming out with a revised version which I am sure will address many of these issues, as they are one of the best computer book publishers to hit the scene since WROX. The fourthcoming Plone book by the same publisher looks like a good title, and the OpenCMS book by Packt Publishers is very good.

1.0 out of 5 stars Not good, February 10, 2009

By	Jens C. Brynildsen (Oslo, Norway) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book was a real disappointment. Poorly written with bad examples. It actually convinced me NOT to use EZ as my CMS. I went with the ExpressionEngine CMS (EE) instead and I'm very happy I did. Much easier to learn and there's good books for it as well.