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Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog (Smashing Magazine Book Series) First Edition

3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 61 ratings
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Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog
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GO BEYOND THE BLOG

Smashing WordPress shows you how to utilize the power of the WordPress platform, and provides a creative spark to help you build WordPress-powered sites that go beyond the obvious. You will learn the core concepts used to build just about anything in WordPress, resulting in fast deployments and greater design flexibility.

Inside, WordPress expert Thord Daniel Hedengren takes you beyond the blog and shows you how WordPress can serve as a CMS, a photo gallery, an e-commerce site, and more.

YOU WILL LEARN:

  • THE ANATOMY OF A WP INSTALL AND HOW WORDPRESS ACTUALLY WORKS
  • HOW TO BUILD BEAUTIFUL WORDPRESS THEMES - INCLUDING CHILD THEMES
  • HOW TO CREATE CUSTOM LOGIN FORMS AND ADMIN THEMES
  • HOW TO USE THE LOOP TO CONTROL CONTENT, AND EVEN USE ALTERNATIVES TO THE LOOP
  • HOW TO INTEGRATE THEME OPTIONS
  • HOW TO BUILD PLUGINS - INCLUDING WIDGET FUNCTIONALITY
  • HOW TO BUILD YOUR WORDPRESS PROJECTS FOR SEO
  • INTEGRATE WORDPRESS WITH THE SOCIAL WEB
  • HOW TO CREATE AMAZING NAVIGATION
  • HOW TO USE CONDITIONAL CONTROL ELEMENTS
Previous slide of product details
  1. ISBN-10
    0470684151
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0470684153
  3. Edition
    First Edition
  4. Publisher
    John Wiley and Sons
  5. Publication date
    February 8, 2010
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    7.4 x 0.72 x 9.3 inches
  8. Print length
    322 pages
  9. See all details
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Amazon First Reads | Editors' picks at exclusive prices

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Go Beyond the Blog

Smashing WordPress shows you how to utilize the power of the WordPress platform, and provides a creative spark to help you build WordPress-powered sites that go beyond the obvious. You will learn the core concepts used to build just about anything in WordPress, resulting in fast deployments and greater design flexibility.

Inside, WordPress expert Thord Daniel Hedengren takes you beyond the blog and shows you how WordPress can serve as a CMS, a photo gallery, an e-commerce site, and more.

You will learn:

  • The anatomy of a WP install and how WordPress actually works
  • How to build beautiful WordPress themes – including child themes
  • How to create custom login forms and admin themes
  • How to use the loop to control content, and even use alternatives to the loop
  • How to integrate theme options
  • How to build plugins – including widget functionality
  • How to build your WordPress projects for SEO
  • Integrate WordPress with the social web
  • How to create amazing navigation
  • How to use conditional control elements

Smashing Magazine (smashingmagazine.com) is one of the world’s most popular web design sites. True to the Smashing mission, the Smashing Magazine book series delivers useful and innovating information to web designers and developers.

About the Author

Thord Daniel Hedengren is a professional web designer and developer who has created numerous WordPress themes, developed plugins, and put WordPress to good use powering both blogs and big editorial sites. He is the former editor of the Blog Herald, a popular website for bloggers and WordPress users.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ John Wiley and Sons; First Edition (February 8, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 322 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0470684151
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0470684153
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.64 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.4 x 0.72 x 9.3 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 61 ratings

About the author

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Thord D. Hedengren

Thord D. Hedengren

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Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Thord D. Hedengren is addicted to words, and the stories they make. He writes fiction, short and long, as well as freelance articles and columns for various media outlets. You can find some of his short stories in HAUNTED FUTURES, CTHULHU LIES DREAMING and FIRESIDE FICTION MAGAZINE, among other places. Thord is a renowned web developer and designer, and the author of techy books such as SMASHING WORDPRESS: BEYOND THE BLOG and THE WRITER’S IPAD.

Thord lives in Sweden, the Land of Kings.

Customer reviews

3.7 out of 5 stars
61 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the content spectacular, dense, and useful. They also say the book is well-written and easy to understand. Readers appreciate the layout and colors. Opinions are mixed on the ease of use, with some finding it easy to implement and others saying it's difficult to understand with poor explanations.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

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ContentLanguageColor schemeEase of use
9 customers mention "Content"9 positive0 negative

Customers find the content spectacular, dense, and useful. They say it has good examples that make WordPress plugin and theme development easy. Readers also mention the book is well-written and informative.

"...and are ready to start customizing your Wordpress, this is a great book to have. When you're ready, start reading and experimenting!..." Read more

"...1. Spectacular content not found in any other single book2. Covers up and coming wordpress features such as child themes3...." Read more

"...All in all however I am glad of the purchase because there is a ton of good stuff that I will definitely reference in customizing wordpress sites." Read more

"...or designing themes for Wordpress as a CMS, this is a pretty good book to get started...." Read more

6 customers mention "Language"6 positive0 negative

Customers find the book well-written and conversational. They appreciate that the author doesn't waste time introducing HTML, CSS, or PHP. Readers also say the book is easy to understand and can be used as a reference.

"...does not waste words plugging his own products, and provides a great exciting atmosphere..." Read more

"...The author doesn't waste any time introducing html, css, or php, which is good...." Read more

"...It is written in PLAIN ENGLISH and not techie speak like most advanced technology books..." Read more

"...It appears to be very well written and conversational, and the layout and colors are quite nice..." Read more

3 customers mention "Color scheme"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the layout and colors of the book nice. They also appreciate the full-color throughout. Readers mention the book provides good insight into template design and how to use it to do more than a blog.

"...A lot of good insight into template design and how to use it to do much more than a blog approach...." Read more

"...One nitpick; the book has full color throughout? Why couldn't the code examples be syntax highlighted by color?..." Read more

"...to be very well written and conversational, and the layout and colors are quite nice..." Read more

8 customers mention "Ease of use"3 positive5 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the ease of use of the book. Some mention it makes WordPress plugin and theme development easy to implement, while others say it's difficult to understand, with poor explanations and confusing code.

"As others have stated, this is not a beginner's book, but I woul not tell a beginner to ignore it, but rather to remember the title, because once..." Read more

"...3. Tutorials for designing functioning job boards, faq knowledge bases, e-commerce sites, portfolio sites and more4...." Read more

"...If not, don't bother. It's way over my head with poor explanations that mean nothing to me." Read more

"Good guide for the WordPress developer." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

JLIrish
5.0 out of 5 stars TDH, thanks for a great book!
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2011
Verified Purchase
As others have stated, this is not a beginner's book, but I woul not tell a beginner to ignore it, but rather to remember the title, because once you get the basics down and are ready to start customizing your Wordpress, this is a great book to have. When you're ready, start reading and experimenting!

The author provides a free Theme (great for creating child themes and learning how to create your own theme), does not waste words plugging his own products, and provides a great exciting atmosphere for learning. The quality of the book itself is much better than many. It's pages will stand up to highlighters & inkpens.

I would also suggest to set up a test blog site to use while learning from this book. Once you've found what you want, you can incorporate the mod's to your "real" site.
One person found this helpful
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Mark Luetke
4.0 out of 5 stars Spectacular Content/Poor Book Design
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2010
Verified Purchase
I am fairly new to web design and wordpress theme development and have been searching for ways to go beyond the typical wordpress theme. This book gives you exactly what it says it will. It really does go beyond the blog. This is by far the most thorough wordpress themeing book I have found. The content within this book is dense and every bit of it is useful.

I would not recommend this book to the absolute beginner unless you really like jumping headfirst into the very deep end. You really need to have at least a moderate understanding of html css and php to get through this book. The author is able able to cover as much as he does in large part by assuming you can keep up.

The biggest problem with this book and the only reason I am not giving it 5 stars is the layout. I have heard this complaint regarding other books from smashing magazine and unfortunately it is very true. The guys at smashing mag are brilliant web designers but would do well to hire some equally brilliant print designers to layout their books. The biggest problem is the inner margins of the book. They have been designed as though this book were to be read on a vertical blog with identical margins on both pages instead of reflected margins resulting in having to force the book open to read the left page. Sorry to go on about this but it really is a big problem and I hope they will fix this in future versions (or at least in future publications).

Pros:
1. Spectacular content not found in any other single book
2. Covers up and coming wordpress features such as child themes
3. Tutorials for designing functioning job boards, faq knowledge bases, e-commerce sites, portfolio sites and more
4. 2 chapters on functions.php and plugin development
5. Too many great things content wise to list!

Cons:
1. Not recommended for the beginner
2. Layout of the book is quite poor and makes reading difficult

Overall:
If you are serious about creating your own wordpress themes and have experience with css html and php then this is absolutely the book you want.
49 people found this helpful
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J. D. Brewer
3.0 out of 5 stars A decent intro to wordpress customization
Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2010
Verified Purchase
This is a good intro into customizing wordpress if you have a mid-to-high-level PHP background. The author doesn't waste any time introducing html, css, or php, which is good. A lot of good insight into template design and how to use it to do much more than a blog approach. There are specific examples (Wordpress as CMS, as a Gallery, using e-commerce, and so forth). After the author introduces basic Wordpress concepts and inner workings, the next largest section is on template design. Then a small section on plugins, and the rest of the book about going beyond a blog format with the examples mentioned earlier.

There is nothing here about ajax, which is a disappointment to me, so one star off. It is more and more prevalent and I was hoping to see at least a few examples of ajax queries occurring inside of the WP framework. I expected this topic to be covered but it is not even mentioned. Also, there is no coverage of using custom database tables for plugins that use more data than you'd be comfortable with in the WP Options table, so another star taken off. It does give decent coverage to using the WP Options table for data storage however. I would think that something intent on "smashing" wordpress would have taken it just that little bit farther. All in all however I am glad of the purchase because there is a ton of good stuff that I will definitely reference in customizing wordpress sites.
10 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

JasonJPeters
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Reviewed in Canada on September 21, 2020
Verified Purchase
Originally purchased this when I started using WordPress (coming from Joomla) in my 9 - 5 job. This book helped me to understand some of the inner working of WordPress and how to use it in non-conventional ways. Although it is on the older side today I find myself returning to it for reference from time to time.
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martcol
5.0 out of 5 stars Not for the Blogger
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 4, 2010
Verified Purchase
This book helped me a lot and was the first resource that I used that began to open up Wordpress for me. I don't think it's the book for anyone who wants to develop their blogging skills. It is more for people who want to push past novice/intermediate level development skills.
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DAR
4.0 out of 5 stars An indispensable guide to getting the most out of Wordpress
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 20, 2012
But not for beginners. Some knowledge of CSS and PHP is necessary! But if you are looking to create a flexible hard-working website, this is the book that can pull it all together for you.
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Informative but poorly written
Reviewed in Canada on April 7, 2010
Verified Purchase
This book has some useful information. The writing style is a little difficult, though. The author tries very hard to be hip and cool in his prose. There are a lot of unneeded words and phrases that are annoying to read.

In general the treatment is not very concise nor is it very complete. The ideas are sometimes confused and unclear.
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PdeP
3.0 out of 5 stars A curate's egg of a book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 11, 2011
Verified Purchase
This is a book of wonderful content very badly presented - making it a classic 'curate's egg' of a book - good in parts!

The author clearly does not have English as a first language and the style is far too chatty. This is supposed to be a text book of programming instruction - not a social 'blog' of a book. Those having difficulty and indicating low(er) ratings here all have similar issues with the book - comprehension. The text waffles and sentence construction is often ungrammatical and shoddy. Grammar exists for a purpose - it aids comprehension, hence the prime fault of the book. The technical data and expertise is top-notch, the penmanship is not.

Far better alternatives are:
1) For the keen user looking to understand more - Build Your Own Wicked WordPress Themes by SitePoint
2) For the would-be developer needing a first class reference and text book - Professional WordPress: Design and Development (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) - do not be put off by the 'Professional' in the title or the tagline 'Programmer to Programmer' This book is from very basic principles through to fairly advanced stuff laid out in a crystal clear and logical fashion. If you buy just one book on Wordpress, be brave, buy this one.
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