Drupal 5 Views Recipes Review

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Drupal 5 Views Recipes ReviewI am not a PHP expert and I barely know how to spell CSS. My first attempt at website development began three years ago with the decision to utilize Drupal. After three years of trial and error, the searching of forums, posting questions, hiring four different developers, installation and then un-installation of almost one hundred modules, and the purchasing of several reference books and videos, I would say that I still have barely scratched the surface of potential with Drupal.
So it seems to me that there are basically six levels or stages of Drupal knowledge and understanding that users (other than true professional developers) go through:
1. The Discovery phase where the user decides "This looks easy, how hard can it be to plug in a module?"
2. The Awakening phase where the user finds that Drupal is amazingly powerful.... with hundreds of ways to attempt to solve the problem and to really tweak their website, they must use and understand modules and possibly the basics of CSS. This is the stage where the user may even abandon Drupal due to the feeling of being overwhelmed.
3. The Acceptance phase where the user decides they if they want to really customize their site they may need to seek professional help.
4. The Disbelief phase where the user discovers that anyone with a computer can claim to be a Drupal expert and that they (the user) may in fact know as much as the Pro they have hired. This user is not afraid to wade into the fray, comfortable in the knowledge that the site can always be restored from a backup (you DID backup the site didn't you?).
5. The Semi-Pro - Feels comfortable with about 90% of the requirements for building an awesome website, but still discovers new ideas and processes through forums and books
6. The Pro - only occasionally needs help with the finer details of a particular code snippet or module customization, generally can figure it out without assistance
With these phases in mind, I would say that "Drupal 5 Views Recipes" is a fantastic resource for stages 1 through 5. Certainly some users within the different stages will gain more from the book than will others, but overall this is a cookbook with recipes designed to not only attain a particular result... but also to help remove the "tunnel vision" thought process for solving Drupal problems.
This book includes almost 100 "recipes" with specific examples of how to set up the modules to attain a particular result, plus the downloadable files enable copy and paste simplicity.
Topics/Recipes include, setting up the Frontpage, podcasting, Google proximity views, Blogrolls, tweaking themes, displaying charts, Photo Galleries, YouTube, Calendars, Popular Content pages, exposed filters, applying and creating patches, setting up Cron, a thorough discussion with examples for VBO (Views Bulk Operations), Google maps, formatting of queries, Panels, code snippets to tweak the PHP files, etc.
Though written for Drupal version 5, many of the workflows and module combinations will work equally as well in version 6 (although the user interface in v6 may be different in some cases).
As I mentioned earlier..when it comes to site development in general and specifically Drupal, I am NOT a Pro. I need instructions as well as a "Step One, Step Two, Step Three approach and that is what I really like about Marjorie's approach.
This will become a well-worn reference guide in my library of Drupal tools....I highly recommend it!Drupal 5 Views Recipes OverviewThis book will give you a long list of powerful recipes. Choose the ones that suit your needs and use them through step-by-step instructions. Most of the recipes are code-free, but a number of the recipes contain code snippets. This book is primarily written for Drupal site builders, administrators, and themers who want to develop custom content displays using Views. It can be used by anyone who has a Drupal 5 web site, including original site developers as well as people who have inherited a Drupal 5 site. Some knowledge of HTML and CSS is required; PHP basics will be handy for some of the recipes.

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Beginning Drupal (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) Review

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Beginning Drupal (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) ReviewKnowing near nothing about Drupal, I wanted to find a book that would give me the big picture and help me develop a nuts-and-bolts working knowledge quickly. I saw so many titles online that I went to a physical bookstore so I could carefully look at the books and choose the most appropriate one for my needs. I looked at many books, and scanned the Introductions and Tables of Contents of several promising ones. I chose "Beginning Drupal" because it had a great balance of concrete examples, theory, and discussion of the implications of making various choices in Drupal.
After I purchased the book and began to actually use it, it became quickly clear that Wiley Publishing had not only jumped the gun in publishing a Drupal 7 book prematurely, but several other things really soured the experience for me. There was no discussion in the introduction about the fact that the book was based on early alpha and beta versions of Drupal 7, and that the installation instructions would install Drupal 6 which is so different that the exercises in the book are more confusing than helpful. Still, I persisted, trying to find the Drupal 6 equivalents to the Drupal 7 examples in the book. (of course this was not mentioned on the cover either, or on the web site. As a matter of fact, the promotional materials misleadingly call Drupal 7 the latest version, but don't mention that it has not been officially released yet). After I hit page 100, I realized that the UI differences were not the only problem. The book was not only unclear because of the version differences, but because the writer apparently didn't have the benefit of a conscientious editor to make the language clear. The grammar was sloppy, but worse yet, the meanings of many of the sentences were foggy.
I did switch over to using Drupal 7 beta, hoping that would help. In fact, it did help with many of the exercises, but there were also far too many instances in which the examples were confusing because they were based on earlier versions of Drupal 7. I looked at the "errata" published for the book, but they barely scratched the surface of the errors in the book.
I really liked the unfolding of concepts as the book progressed, in that sense the design of the book was brilliant. But it was sloppily executed, and there were numerous instances in which avoidable inconsistencies prevented examples from working the way they should have.
In summary, I'd say that this book was a well conceived but so poorly executed and rushed to market. It wasted more of my time and effort than any other "how to" book that I have ever encountered in my 4 decades in the computer business.Beginning Drupal (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) OverviewA thorough introduction that lessens the learning curve to building sites with Drupal 7
Drupal 7 is the latest version of the free, open source content management system Drupal. A powerful content management system and framework Drupal has an unfortunate reputation of having a steep learning curve. This guide to Drupal 7 methodically demystifies Drupal and shortening the learning curve.
Author Jacob Redding is deeply embedded in the Drupal community, and walks first-time Drupal developers through the installation and configuration of a Drupal system. In-depth information on key areas of Drupal explore the Drupal hook system, Drupal's theming layer, and Drupal's API. You'll also get sample code, and lessons that guide you through various aspects of Drupal.
Introduces you to every aspect of Drupal 7
Demystifies key areas of Drupal and shortens the learning curve for even the most novice beginner
Features lessons and sample code that offer extra insight into a Drupal web site
Exploring simple single website installations and more advanced multiple site installations that share users and/or content.
Addresses how to use Drupal's theming layer to your advantage.

With this comprehensive and clear book by your side, you will quickly learn to leverage Drupal's impressive power.
Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

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Leveraging Drupal: Getting Your Site Done Right (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) Review

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Leveraging Drupal: Getting Your Site Done Right (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) ReviewAs a website developer specializing in Drupal-based sites for the last few years, I found this book to be exactly what I needed. I have several other books about drupal, including Pro Drupal Development, Second Edition (Beginning from Novice to Professional) and Learning Drupal 6 Module Development: A practical tutorial for creating your first Drupal 6 modules with PHP, yet I have found Leveraging Drupal to be the most helpful yet.
Leveraging Drupal goes into precisely the topics related to Drupal development which your average "working stiff" building Drupal sites runs into on every job: version control, the development and deployment process, upgrades, internationalization options, theming, etc. Included are helpful life-saving tidbits such as dealing with the infamous WSOD (php's white screen of death), checking out drupal via CVS, and setting up cron. It more than pays for itself in just the first three chapters.
One of the things I like most about the book is that the author treats website development with the same respect as any software project. From the book: "First of all, in a software project (and because of it's complexity, that is what a website application is), you are either controlled by circumstances or you succeed - but only if you can maintain your grip on things."
I would compare it to my other favorite programming book: Agile Java(TM): Crafting Code with Test-Driven Development (Robert C. Martin Series) by Jeff Langr. Leveraging Drupal is similar in that after reading and digesting it, you are a more mature developer than you were before.Leveraging Drupal: Getting Your Site Done Right (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) OverviewThis book is a step-by-step guide and a hands-on co-piloted experience for those trying to make Drupal powered websites work for them, and for their clients. Much more than a "tutorial", what is needed is a nuts-and-bolts living mentor and guide which really shows the reader how to do the things really required for bringing it all together in a site which works. This will be the only book covering all the difficult components of Drupal: views, panels, themes, content creation, etc. The book will cover:* How to upgrade your hopelessly outdated and obsolete-software dependent site and bring it into the Drupal mainstream and future* How to become a great Drupal themer and make "non-Drupal" looking sites* How to really customize Drupal for your real needs* How to start using best practices in Drupal web application development* How to work like the pro Drupal shops and be ready for big projects - and small ones* Learn by example (code samples, theme samples, videos) at every step

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Drupal 6 Theming Cookbook Review

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Drupal 6 Theming Cookbook ReviewIn Drupal or any Web development environment, the themer's job is to make the site look nice. This might mean making a Photoshop mockup into a real site, or implementing a design in another way. A themer is expected to use CSS, JavaScript and some Php to make this happen.
This cookbook offers recipes to help the themer do his job. The recipes start simple with tips on how to download a contributed theme from Drupal.org and install it. The recipes then quickly move to show you how to make a custom theme from scratch or using Zen as a base theme. One recipe walks you through the components of a theme step by step so you can get started on your own theme. The recipes build from there.
Some of the other basic recipes I like include: customizing a node template for a specific node type, including a CSS of javascript file in a theme, and optimizing CSS and Javascript for production sites.
I also really appreciated the fact that the author encourages the use of a custom module for theme customizations. A lot of themers get caught up in working their theme's directory only and never realize the advantage of using a module to add javascript to a specific page, change a form submit button into an image, etc... (The advantage is the code is more easily reused on another site).
What I especially like about the book is the fact that there are several good recipes for experieced themer's like me in addition to basic recipes. Some of the more advanced tips I looked included using Firebug's console.trace for JavaScript debugging, making Php variables available to JavaScript, and even a simple example of a Views Style plugin. I've been wanting to learn to make views style plugins to expose some of those cool jquery effects out there in the wild. This gives me great starting point.
The one thing I wish the book would emphasize more is most of implementing a theme still is writing CSS. Often the point of a fancy theme preprocess function is to add a CSS ID or class to some part of the markup so we can target it properly with CSS. This is however a small gripe.
This cookbook along with "Front End Drupal" are an essential part of any Pro Themer's library.Drupal 6 Theming Cookbook OverviewWritten in cookbook style, this book offers solutions to all common theme design problems through recipes. Each recipe contains step-by-step instructions followed by the analysis of what was done in each task and other useful information. The book is designed so that you can read it chapter by chapter, or you can look at the list of recipes and refer to them in no particular order. This book is written for Drupal developers who want to refresh the look and feel of their sites. If you are a Drupal site administrator who is looking to go beyond the basics and customize the presentational aspects of your Drupal site, then this book is for you. It assumes that readers are familiar with rudimentary PHP and acquainted with Drupal installation and general usage. Readers are also expected to have knowledge of CSS and XHTML.

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Drupal E-commerce with Ubercart 2.x Review

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Drupal E-commerce with Ubercart 2.x ReviewAt first glance at the title of this book, you might be tempted to think that it is not too much more than a reference guide to the complex Ubercart module. Surprisingly, you're only half right. While the authors, George Papadongonas and Yiannis Doxaras, do a great job of covering almost all aspects of the modules that ship with Ubercart, they also go way beyond that. It turns out this book is actually a pretty good guide for not only configuring your Drupal-powered ecommerce site, but also quite valuable in the planning, promoting, and tracking phases as well.
As you'd expect, the authors do a nice job covering the many modules that need to be enabled and configured for a basic Ubercart site. In many cases they go screen-by-screen in the configuration - something that isn't easy to make very engaging. They cover Ubercart's conditional actions functionality quite nicely and how it can be used to configure tax and shopping modules. They also cover product classes and product kits - two very powerful features of Ubercart that every site admin should leverage.
Where the book really shines though is in the descriptions of all the various topics (mainly other modules) in the Ubercart universe. They wisely provide information about popular supporting modules that many ecommerce sites lack, including wish lists, product recommendations, and coupon codes. It is effective use of modules like these that really make ecommerce sites useful.
Overall, this book is a nice surprise. At well over 350 pages, it is beefier than most Drupal books, and provides a wealth of practical information that most Ubercart-powered sites will benefit from.Drupal E-commerce with Ubercart 2.x OverviewThis book will take you through the basics, like Drupal and Ubercart installation and common settings, and as we proceed through the chapters, we'll implement more advanced techniques. Whether you know Drupal or not, this book will be your guide to creating a powerful e-commerce web site. If you are a business owner wanting to create an eCommerce website for your company or to upgrade a company eShop to be easier to maintain and have advanced e-shopping capabilities, then this book is meant for you. You don't need any programming experience to use this book.

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Drupal 6 Social Networking Review

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Drupal 6 Social Networking ReviewI really like this book, it covers a lot of territory in a very practical way, while also digging into the "why's" of things should be done the way Michael suggests. Understanding the "why's" is important so that if you want your site to do something different, you can make a good decision about the implementation.
The book is also very "satisfying." I'm a deep technical person [...], though don't have much Drupal experience. I was afraid, I'd have to bite my tongue and toothpick my eyes open to read this book for the Drupal specifics. That's not been the case. It's an easy read, interesting, and relevant. I'm currently thinking about a few new social projects, and while I wouldn't go so far to say that you should read this book whatever platform you are deploying on; I would say that you should consider prototyping on Drupal with this book in hand so you could make a better platform decision once you know more about building a social site. (sorry about the run-on sentence!).
I gave it a 4 instead of 5 stars, because there are a few places where there are typos that affect the content, and other places where ideas are used before they're explained, or a final screen shot that brings it all together is missing. I realize it's really boring to read a lot of explanations, and then read about the example, and sometimes it's best to talk about the example, and explain stuff after. It just makes it harder to read because I'm trying to figure out if something will be explained later, or if I need to look online before reading further.
This book has saved me a LOT of time researching Drupal and its plugins on line, so really glad I'm reading it. There were a lot of good references for further reading about the topics discussed AND the topics referenced, but not discussed in the book.Drupal 6 Social Networking OverviewBuild a social or community web site, with friends lists, groups, custom user profiles, and much more
Step-by-step instructions for putting together a social networking site with Drupal 6
Customize your Drupal installation with modules and themes to match the needs of almost any social networking site
Allow users to collaborate and interact with each other on your site
Requires no prior knowledge of Drupal or PHP; but even experienced Drupal users will find this useful to modify an existing installation into a social web site

In Detail
Drupal is ideally equipped to be used as a base system for creating a custom social networking site like Facebook and MySpace. While these large social networks have their place, niche social networking web sites can help promote businesses, products, projects, and hobbies of any nature.
This book provides careful instructions and clear explanations to take you through the setup and management of your social network site, covering topics from users to marketing to maintenance. It will help you create your own social networking site, suitable for whatever audience you decide!
This book will take you from the very basics of both Drupal and Social Networking right through to more complicated aspects, like creating your own custom design and features for the site. With no experience of Drupal required, the book will introduce you to this award-winning CMS and carefully take you through the steps to create a social networking site from it. As the book progresses, you will learn how to add to and expand your social networking site, adding more features and adding value for your users, and how to make your users feel part of the community. Social networking web sites rely on their users contributing to the site, and this book helps you structure a site in a way users can easily and enjoyable contribute to the site - creating a powerful social network.
The book begins with the fundamental concepts of a Social Networking site, and how we can use Drupal to create such a site. It then goes through installing Drupal before looking at expanding the out-of-the-box feature set with third-party modules designed for Social Networking. Once the web site is running, it looks at securing the Social Network, deploying it on the Internet, and keeping it running and well maintained. It doesn't stop there however; as Social Networks rely on their user base to run and become successful, the book also covers marketing the Social Network using Search Engine Optimization, Online Marketing, and a range of new Social Media.
What you will learn from this book?

Get started with Drupal and explore the features of this powerful Content Management System.
Build a social networking site from the ground up using Drupal 6
Use a combination of features, modules and some simple custom development to allow user interaction and user contributions
Enable your users to interact and communicate with one another, building friendship
Let your users contribute to the site, from those who wish to add a little content to those who wish to help run the site on a daily basis
Import content into your site from elsewhere on the Internet using the Aggregator module
Create user profiles, set up roles and permissions, and handle security settings
Explore Drupal's modular system, and use it to create modules to add additional functionality relevant and useful to your social network.
Customize the look and feel of your site by enabling and installing new themes, ensuring that your site is distinctive
Deploy and maintain your social networking site on the Internet using the maintenance mode, reports, and cron to keep everything running smoothly
Recover from virus attacks and hacking attempts to your Social Network by making and maintaining regular backups, in case the worst should happen
Promote and market your Social Network using advertisements, advertising networks, other social networks, and search engine optimization
Approach
This book is packed with clear instructions and careful explanations for creating a powerful Social Networking web site using Drupal 6. With each chapter, you add new features and content until the Social Network is ready to be released to the Internet where it can grow.
By the end of this book, you will have a powerful Social Network either like that of the case-study, or of your own design based on the setup and features the book walks through.
Who this book is written for?
This book is aimed at anyone looking to create their own social networking web site, including:
Businesses - building a Social Network around a product or service can improve your company profile and increase customer loyalty. Alternatively, an internal social network gives you employees a place to keep resources, discuss ideas, raise concerns, and keep up to date on company policies.
Hobbyists - create a community around your hobbies and interests; create a local or distributed user group.
Organisations & Charities - Raise your profile, promote your events / services / fundraisers and get help from the community in organizing them.
Families - For large families based across the country or across the globe, keep up to date with everyone, and let everyone know what you are up to.
You don't need any experience of Drupal or PHP to use this book. If you are a Drupal user you will find this book a great way to rapidly tailor an existing installation into a social-orientated web site.


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Drupal 7 Bible Review

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Drupal 7 Bible ReviewI bought this book last week... I think the book covers only the WHAT part of everything in Drupal 7. It does not go any further.... I found Drupal in 24 hours to be a much much better book... And on top of that, tHere are so many cross references in the book that one reads more cross references than the actual text (at least in the kindle edition). It reminds me of the classical spagetti code that used to be in the earlier years in programming with the GOTO statements... There is also a lot of repitition in every chapter that kind of makes you think why are we not moving ahead... There is also not a single case study or a discussion of the alternativea approaches to what you are trying to do... I also felt, even as a Drupal newbie, that the coverage of topis was very superficial. In a nushell, I would say that the help text in Drupal provides a better explanation of things than this book. This is NO WAY A BIBLE.Drupal 7 Bible OverviewGuidance for administrators, content managers and web publishers on using Drupal for content management
Start building and managing web sites with the open-source content management system Drupal 7 and this in-depth guide. Whether you're new to Drupal or migrating from another system, you'll find the tips and techniques you need to understand Drupal, create a new web site, or manage an existing one. Learn how to create, modify, and delete items-and much more-with the detailed tutorials in this step-by-step guide.
Teaches you how to use a Drupal site, as well as how to set up, configure, and customize a new site, including obtaining code and deploying it to a server
Covers advanced topics like multilingual content management, publishing workflows, or Views and Panels
Shows you how to work with Drupal 7's new fields and custom content types

Get on the Drupal bandwagon with this complete guide.

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Drupal 7 Primer: Creating CMS-Based Websites: A Guide for Beginners Review

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Drupal 7 Primer: Creating CMS-Based Websites: A Guide for Beginners ReviewI thought that these types of computer software books were long extinct - but, no. Purporting to be a primer on Drupal 7, this book is little more than a collection of the author's experience as a user of various Google products, with a smattering of Drupal information thrown in. You could find the Drupal stuff in 10 minutes of tooling around on the Web.
He devotes entire chapters to Google Sites, Google Analytics, Promoting Your Site With Social Networks, Google Checkout, etc. His "Troubleshooting" section consists of advice so generalized as to be really funny! He suggests that inevitably things go wrong, and that you should "see how it goes" when you try to do something with Drupal. Then, his "Troubleshooting" consists of telling you to consult your hosting company or a Drupal forum somewhere. Duh! Gee, maybe he should have included a chapter on how to use Google, since that appears to be his favorite topic anyhow. Nothing on Drupal 7 vs. previous versions, no thorough explanations for anything that has to do with Drupal 7 at all.
For a topic so potentially rich as Drupal, this is a ridiculously poor book, vague and off-topic, padding with lots of useless non-Drupal information.Drupal 7 Primer: Creating CMS-Based Websites: A Guide for Beginners OverviewIn the past, in order to make a website, you had to manually assemble all the files and develop a fair amount of technical expertise; however, an open source content management system (CMS) like Drupal can automate and significantly simplify many parts of the process. This book contains an easy-to-understand introduction to related concepts and a series of step-by-step examples that can help you learn how to use Drupal to create and maintain a website. The coverage also includes using a "quick-install" Web hosting account, which can greatly reduce the complexity of installing Drupal. You'll find that this book is written with beginners in mind; no prior expertise is required, except some familiarity with how to browse the Internet and use a PC. By the end of the book, you'll have a working knowledge of content management systems, installing and building a site in Drupal, and various Web promotion tactics that can help you share your new site with the world.

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