Web Books

Great book for designer and technical architect, the presentation of the book is very good, it go through the guidelines, implementation examples and case studies in nice and simple way support by good charts, graphs and tables. That is one of few books in the market which cover all the phases of software life cycle including analysis, application architectures and design... Its easy to read and understand, but hard to find in the books stores, my guess its one of the great books I had in my library from couple of years.

Great book for designer and technical architect, the presentation of the book is very good, it go through the guidelines, implementation examples and case studies in nice and simple way support by good charts, graphs and tables. That is one of few books in the market which cover all the phases of software life cycle including analysis, application architectures and design... Its easy to read and understand, but hard to find in the books stores, my guess its one of the great books I had in my library from couple of years.

The author made no assumptions regarding the reader's technical knowledge. Thus, he provides a comprehensive guide beginning with the fundamentals of application re-engineering to the technical details of Web development; e.g., CGI and JAVA. Experienced architects will rejoice, because finally someone put all the information needed in one book. Those who are inexperienced with architectures or re-engineering can sit down and learn how all the different pieces fit together. This is the only book I have ever seen that puts all the pieces of application architecture and system design together tjat is easy to read, easy to understand, and steps through each part of the process. Well done!

This is a very good introduction to DotNetNuke. It will help you install DNN on you own machine and guide you through building a simple website.

If you know a little about programming in VB and know something about HTML and CSS, this book will show you how to write your own DNN modules and create your own DNN skins and containers. You won't learn how to write complex modules or elaborate skins but you'll learn the basics.

If you already know how to install DNN and how to create DNN modules and skins, this book is not for you.

If you know nothing about programming in VB and know nothing about HTML, then you should probably learn about them before you tackle this book.

This book will take you from absolutely no knowledge of DotnetNuke and get you well on your way. Simple to follow. Like any good intro book it will help you to understand how DNN works and gives you enough information to know where to go to learn more. For example after you are shown what a skin is and how to use it you are then shown how to make one of your own. You should then understand where you want to go from there. My experience level is 1.5 years as an ASP.net, VB and C# Developer with SQL server 2005. I have no previous knowledge of DNN. It will be very helpful if you know a bit about Visual Web developer, Light Coding, CSS, XML and some graphics program knowledge such as Fireworks or Photoshop. However, this book will get even the non programmer where he needs to be to use DNN. In short - if you are new, Start here.

It's not for the complete novice and it won't teach you how to code. But it will get you up and going with VWD and DNN. Well written with good screenshots. He also takes you through the process of creating modules. It's a good primer and was what I was looking for.

Most guides to combat sports are hampered by poor quality photography. This short, good-value book is an exception. The large, full-color photos show clearly how to execute moves and the text contains lots of personal testimonies from experienced wrestlers past and present.

Only one word. Great!!! This book improved my wrestling skills. Wow, I loved the photo's too.

Phil

I've been wrestling for a few years and when I saw this book I was so excited to see a wrestling book in color. When I got the book I was quite pleased with all the advice from coaches and Olympic wrestlers. It's all really practical information and I feel like this will help me stay focused this season. I like the step by step instruction as well. Everything is explained so I can understand it and apply it. I think this is a great book for anyone currently wrestling.

I purchased this book along with several other Berenstain Bears books because my grandsons have expressed an interest in the books that we had from when two of our sons were in elementary school. It's a great book and our 4 year old grandson just loves it when we read it to him. I would recommend this book to anyone who has young children or grandchildren. The children can relate to the things that the Berenstain Bears do.

This is a very good book for young boys and girls. It's easy to know that you should'nt do what PaPa Bear did.

A must have for a child who is about to go on a camping trip. The bears do everything that you are not supposed to do on a camping trip, and show the consequences.

Shirley's a colleague and friend (disclaimer), but her new work via ALA is a much-needed cut-to-the-answers handbook for busy researchers, librarians, and information professionals. Kudos for the spirit of humor and yep-been-there tales that lace the solid tips and site information with her personal style and elan. I'll keep my copy right beside my autographed copy of Reva Basch's "Secrets of the Super Net Searchers." For serious Internet searching today, this is the guidebook to cyberspace.

As reference librarian at the North Dade branch of the Miami-Dade system, I have found this superior and more up to date than the mass produced guides found everywhere these days including the supermarket. Our two week old copy is already thumbworn as we keep it by our copies of the terminals for patron reference. I think we may order another one and hide for staff use only! Good job Ms. Kennedy...just keep updating the book!

As an instructor of Internet research to audiences at all levels, I appreciate the direct, no-nonsense, and humorous approach Kennedy takes. The author manages to demystify a subject that intimidates many, even some librarians, who would benefit from reading this book themselves before they check it out to their patrons.

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Despite Microsoft's claims that their vaunted "focus groups" and client experience consultants have allowed them to offer us painless computing, you and the rest of the world know it isn't true. Waiting for Windows XP or Vista to boot up and shut down certainly are irritations in themselves worth a hack or two.

As you can imagine, this is a large book. That is not just the number of pages (650) but also the format -- of the fold-flat variety. This big book of hacks is easy to work with physically.

The editorial review on this page describes the contents well except that I would alter "contains more than 100 hacks" to "contains almost 200 hacks." Quite a difference.

The writing is clear and informed. I'm sure you have read many of Gralla's magazine contributions over the years. Be sure that the book is not all text. There are plenty of illustrations and even photos (for the hardware hacks) to guide you. The hacks themselves are directed at all versions of Windows, with the focus on XP and Vista.

Consider this book a compendium of all those tips you always rip out of your computer magazine subscriptions to save -- then lose track of. Here they are, all in one place, not easily lost given the size of this book!
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This book has given me immense new ways to work with the Windows XP. It is infomative and simple to understand. I highly recommend it to all Microsoft Windowa XP users. You will be glad you got a copy.

PC users who would understand the underlying power behind the Windows system will appreciate the weighty, information-packed Preston Gralla Big Book of Windows Hacks, a coverage packed with time-saving tips and hints. From how to save regularly-used searches to disabling Windows Mail's splash screen, stopping Firefox memory leaks, and backing up Vista hacks, THE BIG BOOK OF WINDOWS HACKS is a 'must' for any collection catering to patrons behind the novice stages.

This book is a ptome repleat with every-day events in the life of Margo Phillips that would put most boomers in an early grave. She has masterfully told the tale of her errant youth, conservative mother, odd-ball friends and hangers-on and beloved brother. The honesty, gutsy narrative style and cruel truths of this brainy little girl gone to seed in her 20s is worth every dime. Just following one month in Margo's life is like seeing 5 bad 'B-movies' in one day. Run - don't walk to buy this book if you are of 'a certain age'. This is a movie begging to be made.

I loved this book. The journal-entry style writing made it feel like you're reading something you're not supposed to see, which made it fun for me. At times, I had to force myself to put it down; I kept wanting to see what happens next, and believe me, it does. If even part of this stuff came from the author's own experiences, this lady has lived a wild and interesting life. If you're not a prude and can handle the racy language, and like the idea of reading someone's diary, I think you'll really enjoy this book.

A wonderfully hilarious account of my generations lifestyle (well, some of us). I couldn't stop reading as this woman took me through her everyday life and everyday thoughts. The characters are alive and real. Would make a great movie.

Lots of interesting facts I never knew about the internet. Made my internet experience a lot more enjoyable and productive than I ever imagined!

Wao - everybody thinks they know the Internet! But they have not seen even a fifth of it until they have gone through the exercises in this book. Gopher and Archie? Most people have never heard of these services. They are out there and are very useful. I downloaded a ton of documents for my research paper this weekend.

The step by step intructions in this book make it easy to use. It taught me a lot about the Internet. It is a very user-friendly manual. A must have.

My thanks goes' to packtpub.com for giving me this opportunity to review this Php-Nuke book.
So maybe your thinking, is it something for you?
Without kicking too much i would say yes, but with some remarks.

The E-book starts with a story at the beginning explaining what php-nuke is, and that's the area of the newest Nuke Noob.
Is it boring?
No! But a concern could be that the average Nuker hates to read, many forums prove that all the time.
But the author Douglas Paterson hit the right tone in explaining it all in his own way, by making it fun to read.

The book explains very well, the first steps to take and all that comes after that.
The tutorial is well documented with pictures, also explaining even better what to do.

Disapointing is that the author should have give some people more attention when it comes to php-nuke security.
Chatserv that walks the endless road of patching php-nuke where Francisco Burzi faild.
But also Gaylen (aka Raven) and Bob marion for their Sentinel.

Sure long ago we all could install php-nuke without being afraid of any attacks,but not anymore and that's just the price you pay when you run worlds most downloaded content management system.
Personaly I believe that Sentinel should be standard in php-nuke and its popularity grows by the day,cause php-nuke sites without patches or Sentinel are hacked every day.

But lets continue....
This book will be good for not just the Noob, but also for the serious user among us.
Sounds funny but if everybody would buy it we could possibly close all forums, but like i said.....reading is not something most will enjoy.
But i do believe it will open a whole new world for you.
The book covers almost 8 pages of index, showing you exactly where to find everything, from blocks to modules, from themes to fixing errors.
It also shows a wide variety of technical details, you can read whenever it suits you.

It also takes you a bit on a coding tour, which can be a nice learning process for most people.
What's often a problem for some, are the themes,
A change of colour is easy, but changing the whole header or structure is a different story, Douglas Paterson even explains that greatly and with ease!

A good thing about the book is that it takes you "inside" Php-Nuke and shows you how it works, and what actually happens when a page is requested.
If you read the whole book, then after that, you are well on your way to calling yourself an expert on Php-Nuke.

But some info about the book...
Like i said...the table of contents takes up to 8 pages and at the end a big index.
All together the book is about 305 pages !
And also interesting...if you order the print book from packtpub.com you can add the ebook for about $5 extra, which gives you immediate access while you wait for the book to arrive.

Hitwalker
www.hitwalker.com
Phpnuke database

Although I have fond memories of scouring the web and user forums for instructions and tutorials on how to install, configure and use open source software, I am particularly pleased to see such well-written and high quality books coming out on open source applications every month. Building Websites with PHP-Nuke by Douglas Paterson is no exception. The author has written a book on PHP-Nuke, an open source content management system, which provides opportunity for open source software to gain even wider acceptance and utilization. I would characterize the book as most useful for the novice-to-moderately skilled user, however the book provides broad coverage of topics beyond the novice user, so advanced users will find many of the chapters useful as well. I fully recommend this book to anyone interested in learning and getting up to speed quickly on the PHP-Nuke open source content management system.

The 295 page book progresses well, and generally spends an adequate amount of time on each topic. Chapter lengths are not too long or arduous, as some can be, and make fairly easy work of guiding the reader through getting a working PHP-Nuke system up and running. In addition, I like the order and presentation of the chapters, which flow very well and are organized in a logical manner. The first part of the book deals with introduction, installation, and initial setup of the PHP-Nuke environment. The author begins in chapter 1 with an effective and concise introduction to PHP-Nuke. Chapter 2 deals with installation, configuration, security patches, and some troubleshooting of the installation process. Although I particularly appreciated that the author addressed issues of security and the reasons for applying security patches, I did feel that this chapter was a little rushed. I would be concerned that the novice-to-average user might get lost in some of the database setup steps, or in the installation of phpMyAdmin. I realize this book is about PHP-Nuke, but I think a slightly longer treatment of these topics within chapter 2 would be very useful and could alleviate any potential confusion or frustration on the part of the novice reader. I should add that the book does provide many useful web resources for additional help in these areas, and that the book also offers an appendix for installing and using XAMPP, a bundled collection software needed run PHP-Nuke and most other open source software. Normally users need to install and configure all of the server and software applications separately, which are in themselves topics for entire books, but XAMPP comes with a simple installer and a management and control interface to streamline the entire process.
The middle chapters of the book do an excellent job on taking the reader through the workings of the PHP-Nuke system with ample and appropriate screenshots. The author does an effective job at guiding the reader and creating a working system, while at the same time covering the important basics of setup, structure, and user access, as well as additional topics of system/story and module management.

The final few chapters are devoted to more advanced topics of customization. Chapter 9 discusses customization within the PHP-Nuke framework or through basic hacking of the source code, and chapter 10 deals with extending PHP-Nuke with programming through the utilization of its API-like code. Although I would characterize the book as being more useful for a novice-to-moderately skilled user, there are several chapters at the end of the book in which more advanced users would find helpful in customizing the look and functionality of the system.

Overall, I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in learning and getting up to speed quickly on the PHP-Nuke open source content management system. The book is a concise and easy to following guide to quickly learning this content management system.

What I liked:

How pleasantly surprised and impressed I was with this book! Doug has written this with the novice, average, and advanced user in mind and has done a most excellent and impressive job.

I have been professionally building Information Systems for some 38 years now and got interested in PHP-Nuke back in 2001/2002. I run one of the most popular PHP-Nuke support/security sites on the Internet ( http://ravenphpscripts.com ) and so I am highly critical, knowledgeable, and experienced when it comes to PHP-Nuke, PHP, and MySQL in general.

Doug's writing style is excellent. He takes you through a cursory understanding of the subject matter at hand. He then gives real-life examples. Then he challenges the reader with "What just happened?". But, he doesn't leave you there. He offers code to enhance the code and to entice you to do more. Doug explains every aspect of the core Nuke distribution and does it very well. His chapter on Changing the Theme is excellent and should help many a user to customize their site. Most other authors gloss over the theme area and more or less advise you to contact an expert.

What he doesn't do, and I am so glad he doesn't, is spend half the book on installing the environmental software needed to run PHP-Nuke. So many books waste (in my opinion) my money and time trying to show you how to install *nix/Windows, Apache/IIS, MySQL/RDBMS, and PHP/ASP. He assumes you are there and want to build a web site using PHP-Nuke. What he does do, is add an appendix that explains how to get up and running using a popular all-in-one application called XAMPP (XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is really very easy to install and to use - just download, extract and start.) Then, all you do is add PHP-Nuke, follow his instructions, and you have a working web site!

What I didn't like:

There are two critical areas, in my opinion, that Doug seems to have avoided like the plague. In fairness, I can understand why he did. As a preface to the following comments, I think he just wanted to concentrate on the positive aspects and avoid the potentially subjective and argumentative issues that would be generated by introducing the issues. But, what he avoided telling the users will come back to haunt them, in a very severe way - being cracked.

The first thing is that the author (of PHP-Nuke), or current maintainer/owner of the name and original code, Francisco Burzi, does not offer any support at all for the CMS. He openly states on his web site "PHP-Nuke is distributed AS IS, without any warranty nor technical support according with the GPL license". In other words, you will get no support from the author. He also does not offer any forums for support so you will have to go elsewhere for support.

The second issue I have is a major one. PHP-NUKE, as distributed by Burzi, is very insecure and prone to many kinds of exploits. Doug does mention my site and a couple others for security updates and help, but if you blink, you will miss it. The security issues would easily warrant a chapter of its own. Any one who uses PHP-Nuke needs to know about the many security risks if installed as is, right from the virgin download.


Having said all that, I still give this 5 stars. This is a book that every Nuke user, regardless of your skill level, needs to have on their book shelf. I recommend it with the highest recommendation. This book easily surpasses every other book that has been published on PHP-Nuke, at least in English :). I can't comment on the ones that have been written in other languages.

Gaylen Fraley (aka Raven)
http://ravenphpscripts.com
http://ravennuke.com (A very secure CMS)

I've read several pieces by Janelle Elms and have had the good fortune to meet her "virtually" through an interview she did with me for her Online Success Institute. I'm proud to own this work by one of the most respected experts on the subject out there. Janelle is a brilliant business woman who writes regularly for Entrepreneur Magazine and is called upon by the likes of CNN for her expertise. I have had several misconceptions about eBay in the past, but thanks to Janelle, I've been turned around. The bottom line is that you cannot afford not to take your business to eBay. I've been inspired to eBay my own business and I believe you will be inspired to do the same. Read, glean, and make notes.

My 2 fav guides to eBay business sales are this book and the Powerseller Secrets. This one is best for transitioning your business from 'brick to click'. Ive seen some eBay guides which are too simple, they're oriented for the folks who are cleaning out their attics and this isn't one of them.

This book is very hands-on and covers all the aspects of selling on eBay if you're a business as opposed to a hobbyist. The 'launch, test, and refine' model is key along with the tips on researching other sellers and their pricing strategies. This book plus another title like Unleashing the Power of eBay gives a good jump on the competition.