Product Description
How to setup, configure and customise this powerful PHP/MySQL based Open Source CMS
- Install, configure, administer, maintain and extend Drupal.
- Control access with users, roles and permissions
- Structure your content using Drupal’s powerful CMS features
- Includes coverage of release 4.7
In Detail
Drupal is one of the most popular content management systems on the internet. Based on PHP/MySQL, its power and flexibility combined with its exceptional design mean it is already on the way to becoming the de facto standard for CMS Websites. Drupal’s modular design and structured source code make it both highly flexible and easily extended and modified. Drupal is extremely scalable, making it ideal for both a simple personal website as well as an industrial strength commercial or institutional web presence.
Drupal is a model open source project in that it has a large, friendly community of people who contribute to the project in various ways. Drupal is not only free and easy to use, but this community provides on going mutual support.
Drupal’s power means choosing an initial pathway can be daunting. The flexibility and power of its content management features mean the right approach needs to be taken. This book takes you from initial set up through site design and creation in a series of carefully structured steps. While there are a few advanced topics that are beyond the scope of the book, all of the core stages of creating a website using Drupal are covered in detail.
What you will learn from this book?
Chapter 1 introduces you to the world of Drupal and looks at where Drupal comes from, where its going and what it can offer you. Because it is important to understand the nature of the tasks which lie ahead, it also discusses how to plan and build your website, taking a sneak preview of the book’s demo Website in the process. Finally, we scrutinize the Drupal community and learn how to make the most of Drupal as an organized, living entity and not just a piece of software.
Chapter 2 deals with how to get everything you need up and running on a development machine and also briefly looks at how all the requisite technologies gel together to produce your working Drupal site. Once everything is up and running, and after looking over some of the more common installation problems, the chapter presents a short tour of Drupal in order to give you an idea of what to expect.
Chapter 3 looks at the most general settings which all Drupal administrators need to contend with. Everything from determining your site’s name to dealing with the cache or file system settings gets treated here before we look at more focused and complex issues in the chapters to come.
Chapter 4 sees us adding functionality to the newly created site. The focus of this chapter is really on modules and how they can be added and enabled, or even how to obtain modules that are not part of the standard distribution. Since blocks are often required to display the functionality provided by modules, this chapter ends off with a discussion on how to control blocks.
Chapter 5 concerns itself with the topic of access control. Drupal has a sophisticated role based access control system, which is fundamentally important for controlling how users access your site. This chapter will give you the information you need to implement whatever access controls you require.
Chapter 6 gets to the heart of the matter by beginning the book’s coverage on content. Working with content, what content types are available, administering content and even a discourse on some of the more common content related modules serve as a basis for moving to more advanced content related matters that follow in the next chapter.
Chapter 7 gives you the edge when it comes to creating engaging and dynamic content. While this chapter doesn’t require you to be an expert in HTML, PHP and CSS it does introduce you to the basics and shows how, with a little knowledge, extremely powerful and professional content can be created. That’s only half the story, because later on it looks at categorization and how this particular feature of Drupal sets it apart from everything else out there.
Chapter 8 gives you a run down of how attractive interfaces are created in Drupal through the use of themes. As well as discussing briefly some of the considerations that must be taken into account when planning your website, it ends off by looking at how to make important modifications to your chosen theme.
Chapter 9 really adds the icing on the cake by looking at a host of more advanced topics. From creating flexible content types and generating revenue from ads, all the way through to building dynamic content using Ajax, you will find something to enhance your website and add that something special.
Chapter 10 takes a pragmatic look at the type of tasks you will need to be proficient in in order to successfully run and maintain a Drupal site. Whether its setting up cron jobs or making backups of your database, everything you need to do throughout the course of running your newly created website will be covered here.
Appendix A deals with the all important topic of deployment. Because all major work should be done on a copy of your Website on a development machine, this appendix presents a sound process for taking the finished product and making it available for public consumption on your host site.
Who this book is written for?
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.
Drupal: Creating Blogs, Forums, Portals, and Community Websites: How to setup, configure and customise this powerful PHP/MySQL based Open Source CMS
search terms:
Tags: based, Blogs, community, configure, Creating, customise, Drupal, Forums, Open, PHP/MySQL, portals, powerful, Setup, source, this, Websites
16.Nov.10 
Blog 
Comments Off
Product Description
Welcome to the only guidebook series that takes a visual approach to professional-level computer topics. Open the book and you’ll discover step-by-step screen shots that demonstrate over 220 key Mambo techniques, including:
* Installing and configuring Mambo
* Changing time and language settings
* Editing the CSS file for a template
* Managing site users
* Creating sections and categories
* Linking a Content Item to a menu
* Adding images and media to Mambo
* Using Modules to embed content and links
* Installing features manually or automatically
* Working with Mambots
“I’ve read a number of your programming books, and they’ve really helped me with the basics so that I can understand the course materials in my classes a lot better. I’m a strong visual learner. You really know how to get people addicted to learning!”
-Helen Lee, (Calgary, Alberta, Canada)
* High-resolution screen shots demonstrate each task
* Succinct explanations walk you through step by step
* Two-page lessons break big topics into bite-sized modules
* “Apply It” and “Extra” sidebars highlight useful tips
Mambo: Your visual blueprint for building and maintaining Web sites with the Mambo Open Source CMS
Tags: blueprint, Building, maintaining, Mambo, Open, Sites, source, visual
08.Sep.10 Blog Comments Off
Product Description
Find the best CMS and start working with it to create web sites, blogs, communities, e-commerce sites, and intranets
- Understand different types of CMSs and select the one that best fits your needs
- Install and customize a CMS with themes and plug-ins
- Learn key concepts of Content Management Systems and how to systematically assess your requirements
- Introduction to the major CMSs including Joomla!, Drupal, WordPress, Plone, Magento, Alfresco, and more
- A hands-on, easy-to-read guide that gives you practical tips on hosting, project management, working with specialists and communities, and finding experts
In Detail
There are many powerful open source CMSs available to take the pain away from managing a web site. These systems are feature rich, often easy to use, and free. Unfortunately, there are so many choices it’s tough to be sure you’re choosing the right one. How can you be sure that you are selecting and working with the right tool?
This book will guide you through choosing the right CMS for your needs. You can be confident in your choice of CMS for the needs of your project. It will also help you make a start using the CMS, and give you a feel for what it’s like to use it – even before you install it yourself.
Are you bewildered by the many open source CMSs available online? Open source CMSs are the best way to create and manage sophisticated web sites. You can create a site that precisely meets your business goals, and keep the site up to date easily because these systems give you full control over every aspect of your site. Because open source CMSs are free to download, you have a huge amount of choice between the various systems.
Yet there are many open source CMSs to choose from, each with unique strengths – and occasionally limitations too. Choosing between the bewildering number of options can be tough.
Making the wrong choice early on may lead to a lot of wasted work, because you’ll have a half-finished site that doesn’t meet your initial requirements – and needs to be restarted from scratch.
This book will show you how to avoid choosing the wrong CMS. It will guide you through assessing your site requirements, and then using that assessment to identify the CMS that will best fit your needs. It contains discussions of the major CMSs, and the issues that you should consider when choosing: their complexity to use, their features and the power they offer. It discusses technical considerations such as programming languages and compliance with best practice standards in a clear, friendly way that non-technical readers can understand.
The book also contains quick-start guides and examples for the most popular CMSs such as WordPress, Joomla!, and Drupal, so that you can experiment with these CMSs, get a feel for how they work, and start using them to build your site.
After reading this book, you can be confident that your CMS choice will support your web site’s needs because you have carefully assessed your requirements and explored the available options.
What you will learn from this book?
- Analyze your web site’s CMS requirements, and identify the CMS options that best suit your needs
- Explore the differences between the major CMSs, and understand which CMS option best fits your site
- Assess your technical skill level and choose a CMS that combines ease of use with flexibility and power
- Extensive discussion and quick start guides for several major CMSs: WordPress, Drupal, Joomla!, and more
- Discover “speciality CMSs” for specific requirements: intranets, document sharing, community, e-commerce, blogging, and more.
- Know how to choose the right developers and designers to customize the CMS to your requirements
- Know what to do when your CMS plays up: troubleshoot, get help from the community, and make full use of the documentation
- Make sure your web site gets the best hosting: find an ISP that can provide your CMS with the web hosting it needs, or learn about hosting the site on your own server
- Investigate the plug-ins available for each CMS – plug-ins extend the power of a CMS, meaning that you can build features into your site that the CMS on its own might not provide
Approach
This is a practical guide that takes a task-centered approach. Each task is stepped through with detailed instructions. You will come across many step-by-step examples with plenty of screenshots and resources. This book provides all the support and guidance you need as you begin to work with CMSs. It even has additional tasks that you can carry out to build your skills further. Everything is oriented towards managing content with a CMS.
Who this book is written for?
This book is written for anyone who wants to start a web site and is looking for a good CMS. It is best suited for people who are selecting a CMS for their sites and people who will manage a CMS. Knowledge of web basics is certainly helpful, but not needed.
Choosing an Open Source CMS: Beginner’s Guide
Tags: Beginner's, Choosing, guide, Open, source
18.Aug.10 Blog Comments Off
Product Description
Building robust, content-centric web applications with Plone 3, an open source Content Management System.
- Plone development fundamentals
- Customizing Plone
- Developing new functionality
- Real-world deployments
In Detail
Plone is an open-source content management framework, built on the top of the Zope application server and written in Python. As a ready-to-use Content Management System with a focus on usability, Plone makes it easy for content authors to create and edit web content.
Plone is also used by developers, as a framework for building content-centric web applications such as dynamic websites and intranets. This book focuses primarily on the developer-oriented aspect of Plone.
What you will learn from this book?
You will gain an in-depth understanding of the concepts that underpin successful Plone development, including:
- How to set up a suitable development environment
- The importance of automated testing of any code you write
- How to perform Plone customizations in a manageable, re-usable fashion
- Techniques for branding Plone and changing its look and feel
- How to safely install and manage third-party add-on components
- How to create your own content types
- How to create new forms and templates
- Ways of interacting with external relational databases
- Techniques for managing users and custom user metadata
- Using Plone’s new AJAX framework to build dynamic user interfaces
- How to set up Zope and Plone in a production environment
- How to connect to an LDAP/Active Directory repository for authentication
- How to configure a caching proxy to improve Plone’s performance
Throughout the chapters, there is an emphasis on demonstrating key concepts with practical examples. The reader should be able to borrow from the examples to get up and running quickly, but refer to the explanations provided to fully appreciate what is going on under the hood.
Approach
The book takes a pragmatic approach, building a realistic example application based on a case study. The code for this application is included with the book, and should serve as a useful starting point and source of examples for the reader.
Who this book is written for?
This book is aimed at developers who want to build content-centric web applications leveraging Plone’s proven user interface and flexible infrastructure.
Some familiarity with the Python programming language and basic web technologies such as HTML and CSS is assumed. Readers would also benefit from some prior experience with Zope or Plone, for example as site administrators or “power users”.
Professional Plone Development: Building robust, content-centric web applications with Plone 3, an open source Content Management System.
Tags: applications, Building, content, contentcentric, development, Management, Open, Plone, Professional, robust, source, System
10.May.10 General Comments (5)
- ISBN13: 9780596529185
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Developed by an extremely active Open Source community, Moodle is a popular course management system that’s ideal for creating dynamic online learning communities and for supplementing face-to-face learning. Used in more than 190 countries with support for more than 70 languages, Moodle can scale from a single-teacher site to a 50,000-student university.
Moodle gives teachers and trainers a powerful set of web-based tools for an array of activities, such as forums, messaging, quizzes, assignments, wikis, blogs and databases.
Using Moodle is a comprehensive, hands-on guide, with plenty of examples, screenshots, best practices and suggestions for using Moodle tools effectively — and creatively. Authored by members of the Moodle community, this authoritative book, updated for Moodle 1.8, also explains the new roles and permissions system. If you’re using — or thinking of using — this CMS, Using Moodle is required reading.
Using Moodle: Teaching with the Popular Open Source Course Management System
Tags: Course, Management, Moodle, Open, Popular, source, System, Teaching, using
28.Apr.10 General Comments (5)
