| Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog (Smashing Magazine Book Series)
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Friday, 28 May 2010 15:22
 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
List Price: $44.99
Amazon Price: $29.69
Used Price: $26.95
Customer Review: In my view the best mid/advanced level WP book written to date
Let me preface this review by saying this is NOT a beginner Wordpress book. That said, the folks who leave a mediocre review for this book due to this being over their head are ridiculous. If your looking for a book that teaches you "how to get started" with wordpress this is not your book. You will NOT find sections on how to create a post, add tags, install plugins, etcetera. This book is to teach you how to do advanced secure installs, understand the wordpress framework, template tags (the code snippets that make things work), how to create themes and plugins, and start working with some examples.
This book was an amazing for me because of where I am at in my wordpress development. Before reading this book I knew how to install wordpress, set up permalinks, work with .htaccess files, create posts, add plugins, and even do some minor tweaking. I did not however understand the core code concepts of wordpress that make it work, thus I could not advance beyond an "advanced beginner." When I would go to read advanced wordpress books they were all written in techie speak and I always ended up feeling lost.
Enter Smashing Wordpress:
From the moment I started reading this book it was right at the level I needed. I had finished my knowledge of the beginner to mid level stages of wordpress and Smashing Wordpress took me to a solid level of advanced wordpress techniques and theme/plugin building. It is written in PLAIN ENGLISH and not techie speak like most advanced technology books (please remember you must have a solid beginner level understanding or this book will seem complicated).
If your looking to start understanding all that code that makes themes and plugins work and you have a solid understanding of the basics of wordpress this book is for you.
From the very first chapter this book I stated to absorb the wordpress code concepts and advanced techniques I was craving to learn. I am half way through this book and I am quickly becoming the advanced wordpress theme creator that I have been wanting to be. (This book will also give you a solid ability to modify even the most advanced themes)
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO WORDPRESS USERS READY TO UNDERSTAND AND BUILD OR MODIFY WORDPRESS THEME AND PLUGINS.
Customer Review: Way over my head!
I don't want to bash the smash, but this book was WAY over my head. I would only recommend this book if you are mid-to advanced level PHP coder. I purchased it before there were any reviews, which was my own darn fault, but being a web designer for 10 years I thought I would be ready for an intermediate level book. I am new to wordpress and I have been hearing from other designers that the WP backbone can be used to create killer CMS, so I bought this book as an introduction. Oops. I got about 4 pages into it before I realized that I should have started with an entry level book. I am going to put this book on the shelf and save it until I have a better working knowledge of WP and PHP. It appears to be very well written and conversational, and the layout and colors are quite nice (I agree with the other reviewer that the margins are too tight and crowd the pages). If you ARE a curent WP user and PHP advanced user, this might be the perfect book for you.
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| WordPress 2.8 Theme Design
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Friday, 28 May 2010 15:22
 Theme design can be approached from two angles. The first is simplicity; sometimes it suits the client and/or the site to go as bare-bones as possible. In that case, it's quick and easy to take a very basic, pre-made theme and modify it. The second is "Unique and Beautiful". Occasionally, the site's theme needs to be created from scratch so that everything displayed caters to the specific kind of content the site offers. This book is going to take you through the Unique and Beautiful route with the idea that once you know how to create a theme from scratch, you'll be more apt at understanding what to look for in other Wordpress Themes. This book can be used by WordPress users or visual designers (with no server-side scripting or programming experience) who are used to working with the common industry-standard tools like PhotoShop and Dreamweaver or other popular graphic, HTML, and text editors. Regardless of your web development skill-set or level, you'll find clear, step-by-step instructions, but familiarity with a broad range of web development skills and WordPress know-how will allow you to gain maximum benefit from this book.
List Price: $39.99
Amazon Price: $31.57
Used Price: $55.27
Customer Review: Full of useful information
The book is an incredible helpful guide to anyone starting out, or even intermediate Wordpress users looking to create their own themes from scratch. The book is conversational but not to the point of being waffly or frustrating. It's full of helpful little tips along the way about the general process of making a theme and even just rapid prototyping and designing in general - not just a book full of code snippets which can easily be found by using Google or the Wordpress codex. I liked her insights and approach for sketching, wireframing and coding early on even though I've been designing Wordpress Themes for years it's always handy to see a fresh perspective on the process.
There's plenty of practical and common types of things you'll want to add onto your theme, such as plugins and widgets. Alongside this, you're given information on a wide variety of tools that most web developers usually have at their disposal for handling the technical side of managing sites, especially bug testings.
The book is a good mix of advice, non-technical and technical information. Parts of it you may want to skip over on first read and use more as a reference - not every theme has all the complexities mentioned in the book. It's not exhaustive, but again that's where the codex and Google come in handy.
There's a little on adapting other themes and frameworks are mentioned but if you're looking to work with Thesis or adapt an existing theme, this book will be helpful but not provide the answers you're probably looking for. One thing I've come to learn after looking at so many themes is that while there's a lot in common, they do take quite a bit of tuning in to, to understand how the theme author has organized things, especially with the more complex themes. Some themes have been designed for maximum flexibility - within a certain set of parameters - and if you go outside these changes, it can become a bit of a nightmare. Other themes haven't come with all the bells and whistles of their own administration interface but are quicker to adapt.
While Wordpress 2.9.2 is already out, there will be little information in this book which is dated and in fact, screenshots of Wordpress' administration area are minimal.
My only criticism of the book would be that I would have loved to have seen a few more case studies (or mini-case studies) of building a theme, rather than just one long in-depth one on building a magazine-type theme. These days there's so many different types of Wordpress Themes out there, used for so many different purposes.
Chapters are: Getting started, Theme Design and Approach, Coding it Up, Debugging and Validation, Putting Your Theme Into Action, Wordpress Template Tag, Function and CSS Reference, AJAX/Dynamic Content and Interactive Forms, Dynamic Menus and Interactive Elements, Design Tips for Working with Wordpress (including SEO).
Disclosure: I was sent a review copy from the publisher.
Customer Review: Best for less experienced developers
I seem to be reading quite a few WordPress books of late, and there are certainly a few to choose from. Packt Publishing's WordPress 2.8 Theme Design's tagline is 'Create flexible, powerful, and professional themes for your WordPress blogs and websites'.
Wordpress Themes are of interest to me since they fuse a visual aspect with PHP code, and there's no doubt that they appeal to many other people too.
Chapter Overview
1. Getting Started as a WordPress Theme Designer
2. Theme Design and Approach
3. Coding it Up
4. Debugging and Validation
5. Putting Your Theme into Action
6. WordPress Template Tag, Function, and CSS Reference
7. AJAX/Dynamic Content and Interactive Forms
8. Dynamic Menus and Interactive Elements
9. Design Tips for Working with WordPress
The book's author Tessa Blakely Silver starts very gently with an introduction to Wordpress Themes and why downloading a theme that's already been coded and designed may not always be the best solution. Subsequently, the book develops a theme from scratch and examines core technologies such as WordPress, CSS, XHTML and PHP.
The second chapter starts with a discussion of theme design in general, followed by the beginnings of the theme that's developed throughout the book. There are further discussions on semantic markup, typography, fonts and layout.
The following chapter focuses on the code aspect of theme design, and suggests a workflow strategy as well as template tags, hooks, and the WordPress loop. Comments are then discussed in some detail, the topic including pagination and threaded comments.
Chapter four examines the process of debugging and validating. A thorough chapter includes references to the W3C validation services, Firefox's JavaScript/Error console, Firebug and some of the issues that the budding theme developer will face when dealing with IE6.
Chapter five looks at the style.css file, which provides descriptive information about a theme, together with packaging the theme into a ZIP for distribution and running test installations of the theme package.
Chapter six adopts a more reference based approach, with an in depth examination of WordPress template tags, the WordPress template hierarchy, the loop and shortcodes.
The following chapter looks at AJAX and JavaScript, as well as preparing your theme for plugins and widgets.
Chapter eight builds on Chapter 7's JavaScript discussion by developing a drop-down menu for the theme. There is also a discussion of Flash and how that can be used with Wordpress Themes.
Chapter nine rounds off the book with a number of design tips that apply not just to WordPress theme design, but web design in general.
The book's about 250 pages in length, and is generally well written. I did, however, notice a few errors in code samples (mostly misplaced quotes), and a couple of examples in the prose itself. Another minor niggle was that the author talks about semantic markup, and then introduces 'sidebarLT' (sidebar left) and 'sidebarRT' (sidebar right) IDs into the markup.
The back of the book states: This book can be used by WordPress users or visual designers (with no server-side scripting or programming experience) who are used to working with the common industry-standard tools such as Photoshop and Dreamweaver or other popular graphic, HTML, and text editors. Regardless of your web development skill set or level, you'll be walked through the clear, step-by-step instructions. But familiarity with a broad range of web development skills and WordPress know-how will allow you to gain maximum benefit from this book.
It seems as through Packt have tried to convince the potential reader that this is the book for them, regardless of whether they're fairly inexperienced in some areas, or a a highly skilled developer. I'd say that the book covers a lot of ground, and that it does so at a pace that would be suitable for an inexperienced developer. Much of the content, however, would already be familiar to a skilled web developer, and so I feel that they'd think that the really useful content is a little thinly spread.
Overall, it's encouraging to see more books about WordPress; although the internet is a fantastic resource, books still have a very important role in my opinion. The content of this one is great for beginner-medium level web developers, but more experienced readers will be left wanting more.
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| Head First WordPress: A Brain-Friendly Guide to Creating Your Own Custom WordPress Blog
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Friday, 28 May 2010 15:22
 Whether you're promoting your business or writing about your travel adventures, Head First WordPress will teach you not only how to make your blog look unique and attention-grabbing, but also how to take advantage of WordPress platform's more complex features to make your website work well, too.
You'll learn how to move beyond the standard WordPress look and feel by customizing your blog with your own URL, templates, plugin functionality, and more. As you learn, you'll be working with real WordPress files: The book's website provides pre-fab Wordpress Themes to download and work with as you follow along with the text. - Get your site up and running by setting up a MySQL database and creating configuration files
- Work with the Wordpress platform to create posts and pages, learn the difference between tags and categories, edit content, moderate comments, and manage spam
- Explore how to extend Wordpress with plugins and templates
- Convert custom designs (in HTML and CSS) into functional themes and use them in WordPress
We think your time is too valuable to waste struggling with new concepts. Using the latest research in cognitive science and learning theory to craft a multi-sensory learning experience, Head First WordPress uses a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works, not a text-heavy approach that puts you to sleep.
List Price: $34.99
Amazon Price: $23.09
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| WordPress Theme Design: A complete guide to creating professional Wordpress Themes
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Friday, 28 May 2010 15:22
 In Detail This title will take you through the ins and outs of creating sophisticated professional themes for the WordPress personal publishing platform. It will walk you through clear, step-by-step instructions to build a custom WordPress theme. From development tools and setting up your WordPress sandbox, through design tips and suggestions, to setting up your theme's template structure, coding markup, testing and debugging, to taking it live it reviews the best practices. The last three chapters are dedicated to additional tips, tricks and various cookbook recipes for adding popular site enhancements to your WordPress theme designs using third-party plugins. Whether you're working with a pre-existing theme or creating a new one from the ground up, WordPress Theme Design will give you the know-how to understand how themes work within the WordPress blog system, enabling you to take full control over your site's design and branding. What you will learn from this book? - Set up a basic workflow and development environment for WordPress theme design
- Create detailed designs and code them up
- Enhance your sites by choosing the right color schemes and graphics
- Debug and validate your theme using W3C's XHTML and CSS validation tools
- Customize and tweak your theme's layout
- Set up dynamic drop-down menus, AJAX/dynamic and interactive forms
- Download and install useful plug-ins and widgetize your theme
- Improve post and page content using jQuery and ThickBox
- Add interactivity to your themes using Flash
- Includes a reference guide to WordPress 2.0's template hierarchy, markup, styles and template tags, as well as include and loop functions
Approach Theme design can be approached from two angles. The first is simplicity; sometimes it suits the client and/or the site to go as bare-bones as possible. In that case, it's quick and easy to take a very basic, pre-made theme and modify it. The second is "Unique and Beautiful". Occasionally, the site's theme needs to be created from scratch so that everything displayed caters to the specific kind of content the site offers. This book is going to take you through the Unique and Beautiful route with the idea that once you know how to create a theme from scratch, you'll be more apt at understanding what to look for in other Wordpress Themes. Who this book is written for? This book can be used by WordPress users or visual designers (with no server-side scripting or programming experience) who are used to working with the common industry-standard tools like PhotoShop and Dreamweaver or other popular graphic, HTML, and text editors. Regardless of your web development skill-set or level, you'll be walked through the clear, step-by-step instructions, but familiarity with a broad range of web development skills and WordPress know-how will allow you to gain maximum benefit from this book.
List Price: $39.99
Amazon Price: $31.57
Used Price: $21.00
Customer Review: You're better off with free online tutorials or hiring a designer with programming skills
I rely on reviews when I'm looking for a beginner's reference book, and I felt misled by these reviews. I'm comfortable with HTML, CSS and I know a little bit about PHP--what I didn't understand was how WordPress works and how to make my own theme for it. This book walked me through a theme design, but it failed to explain these steps that actually teach you anything applicable.
I ended up doing what I hoped to avoid: I spent hours searching for online tutorials and pouring through the WordPress Codex. I was shocked that free resources did a better job explaining how to break up my design and make it a WordPress theme.
I'm much more dubious of Amazon reviews now and this publisher. In short: this books walks you in a circle and you gain nothing from it except frustration.
Customer Review: Not what I expected
I find this book a bit boasting of what the author did, not really helpful in designing my own theme. I was expecting more how to and less "look at what I did". The "follow along" instructions were a tutorial on how to design a website. I already know how to do that, I wanted something on the css and php of the WordPress application, without having to read the learn to be a website designer.
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