Product Description

A complete guide to every aspect of creating a variety of different websites using Drupal.¿ A trove of well-considered and practical information is presented in a logical and intuitive manner so that you can either build up your site step by step by reading from cover to cover or, alternatively, focus on your specific needs by diving into each chapter as required. This book will suit anyone who has a need to create a content rich website. Whether you are: Adding a personal web page. Building a forum. Writing a collaborative book. Retailing goods. Creating a blog. Launching a community Website. This book will prove to be an indispensable companion. Both experts and beginners to computing alike will find the information contained herein to be accessible and easy to intuit.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #379685 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 284 pages

About the Author
David Mercer was born in August 1976 in Harare, Zimbabwe. Having always had a strong interest in science, David came into regular contact with computers at university where he graduated cum laude with majors in applied math and math (although he minored in computer science). As a programmer and professional writer who has been writing both code and books for about nine years, he has worked on a number of well known titles, in various capacities, on a wide variety of topics. His books have sold tens of thousands of copies and have been translated into over 6 different languages to date. David finds that the challenges arising from the dichotomous relationship between the science (and art) of software programming and the art (and science) of writing is what keeps his interest in producing books piqued. He will no doubt continue to write professionally in the future. David balances his time between programming, reviewing, writing, and contributing to interesting web-based projects such as RankTracer and LinkDoozer. When he isn't working (which isn't that often) he enjoys playing guitar (generally on stage and unrehearsed) and getting involved in outdoor activities ranging from touch rugby and golf to water skiing and snowboarding. Visit RankTracer or find him on LinkDoozer where he is generally lurking.

Customer Reviews

Beginners Please
Its a good book for an absolute beginner like myself. It has a nice chatty style and is not too dry. It does assume you want to work in a certain way and if your are happy to go along with that, it is great. If you think of it as a course and not a manual then you won't be disappointed. It is very good and dealing with a number of Drupal concepts that you really need to understand if you are to make progress. But if you already have some knowledge in this area and are looking for a reference manual then this is probably not the book for you.

A gentle introduction but thats all
This is a very easy introduction to Drupal, A consolidation of the various online materials in to one very easy to follow text.

As a web developer I found it a rather too easy and slow going. For example There are lots of screenshots with explanations of fairly obvious settings. But it is well written and less experience folk should find it very useful. The basics of users/roles/permissions and taxonomy are well explained.

The book was written against Drupal 4.7 so its becoming a little dated now in the specifics.
In particular it discusses the basic content types and flexinode module. The Content Creation Kit (CCK) has since made the later redundant and the former highly customisable.
The is also no mention of the Views and Actions modules

I didn't waste my money - its a decent starting point. I just wished it went deeper quicker. I'm buying the Pro Drupal Development book which is much more up to date and technical (You can find a sample chapter by Googling). People who already know some CSS/HTML/PHP and have swum around the online documentation might like to skip this book and go for Pro Drupal instead. However it doesn't cover how to install Drupal and use all the configuration options. It's about understanding Drupal's code and writing more in modules, themes etc. to achieve what you want.

Interesting but frustrating!
As a novice, I found the introduction to the principles interesting and fairly straightforward to understand. However, when I tried following the example given in the text, I could not get it to work. The support files mentioned in the book were not evident on the website address cited.
Gave up in frustration and resorted to the online Drupal documentation which is actually very good!!
I'm prepared to try carrying on through the book, but can't recommend it greatly - partly because the current version of Drupal has moved on, partly because it is v frustrating for novices, and (according to other reviews) a bit simple for experienced users!