Professional WordPress, the new book I co-authored, is officially in production!

After a 4 month writing phase, and 1.5 month editing phase, we have finally completed the book! I’m extremely excited for this book to hit the store shelves and really believe it’s going to be well received by the WordPress Community.

This book is really different than any other WordPress book on the market. Professional WordPress is a more internals look at WordPress and how it functions. We dive into the Core code and review built-in functions and APIs available for use when extending WordPress.

My favorite chapter of the book is the plugin development chapter. I honestly believe this chapter is worth the price alone. If you are interested in creating custom plugins in WordPress, or even if already know how but want to expand your knowledge, this is the book for you!

You’ll learn the correct way to use the Settings API when developing plugins. We also cover data validation and security to make your plugins as secure as possible. This chapter covers everything you need to know to create amazing plugins the correct way in WordPress!

This book was written by myself and David Damstra. Our Technical Editor was Hal Stern. Mike Little, the co-creator of WordPress, was also a Technical Editor and helped verify the methods we used were always the most appropriate and up-to-date.

Be sure to pre-order a copy of Professional WordPress today! If you’d like to share this link please use http://tinyurl.com/prowp. The official release date is April 5th, 2010.

Popularity: 5% [?]

I’m extremely excited to announce a new book I am co-authoring: Professional WordPress.

Professional WordPress will be a WROX publication, which is the technical branch of Wiley books. I have the honor of writing this book with David Damstra and Hal Stern, both of which have an extensive background working with WordPress.

We have officially crossed the 50% mark writing this new book so I thought it was a perfect time to officially announce it! Professional WordPress is a more advanced book detailing everything WordPress has to offer. There are WordPress books on the scene currently, and even more being written, but Professional WordPress is unlike any books on the market. We take a more advanced look at WordPress, from breaking down functions and classes, to exploring in depth each WordPress API, this book is for anyone wanting to take the next step in WordPress website development.

Below is our official book description:
———————-
As the most popular blogging and content management platform available today, WordPress is a powerful tool. This exciting book goes beyond the basics and delves into the heart of the WordPress system, offering overviews of the functional aspects of WordPress as well as plugin and theme development.

What is covered in this book?
• Detailed review of WordPress Functionality and Codebase
• The Loop and Data Management
• Plugin Development
• Theme Development
• Content Aggregation, SEO and User Experience
• Statistics, Scalability, Security and Spam
• Using WordPress as a CMS
• Using WordPress in the Enterprise
• Moving your existing site to WordPress

This book takes an “internals” view of WordPress and drives the fundamentals of how things work to explain use cases and extensions to the core platform. Including hands on examples, and real world tips, this exhaustive book is a must-have for Web and PHP professionals developing on the WordPress platform.
———————

You can follow our progress and any Professional WordPress news with the hash tag #prowp. Now that we have officially announced our book we plan on using that hash tag more often. You can also pre-order your copy of Professional WordPress starting today! The book is currently planned for a March 2010 release date.

Now to finish the final 50%!

Popularity: 9% [?]

By StrangeWork.com: I recently received a copy of Managing Online Forums, a new book by my friend Patrick O’Keefe. As most of you know I am an Advisor on SitePoint Forums with Patrick, so I couldn’t wait to dive into this book and see what Patrick had written.

One of the first things I noticed is this book can be read by beginners and experts alike. I’ve been around internet communities for well over 10 years now and would consider myself a semi-expert in the field. Patrick was able to not only write for a beginner enthusiast wanting to learn all about community management, but also the seasoned community veteran who thinks they have seen it all.

Patrick breaks down every aspect of community management including developing community guidelines, promoting your community, managing forum staff, dealing with bad members and chaos, and how to make money from your community.

My favorite chapter of the book is one of the more sensitive subjects, Banning Users and Dealing with Chaos. One of the quickest ways to lose control of a community is to handle chaos incorrectly. Patrick does a great job of giving real world community examples and solid solutions on how to handle each.

Another great chapter is Developing Guidelines. I’ve started more than a few communities, and not once have I stopped to think about my communities guidelines before launching. Not only does Patrick go into great detail on what type of guidelines you should have, but he also provides a blank guideline template section demonstrating exactly how he lays out his guidelines for reference.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to anyone, beginner and expert alike, that is interested in increasing their knowledge on community management. So get out there and buy this book!

Popularity: 4% [?]

By StrangeWork.com: Today I received my newest book from SitePoint, The Ultimate CSS Reference.

The first thing I noticed is the durable hard cover the book is wrapped in. There is something special about a hard cover book, especially when it’s a reference manual!

I’m a huge fan of reference books. Most of us out there know how to use different languages to develop our web sites. What we don’t always know is the correct syntax to make that magic happen. That’s where the reference manual comes in to play.

Of course we all know over time these manuals can take a beating from constant use. That is why I love the hard cover! It’s able to hold together when I launch it across the room in frustration.

Kidding of course! I highly recommend the entire line of SitePoint books for beginner and expert developers alike.

Popularity: 8% [?]

By StrangeWork.com: I just received my latest book in the SitePoint collection, The Art & Science of JavaScript.

As always SitePoint has gathered some of the greatest minds in modern JavaScript to collaborate on an amazingly easy to follow book.

The Art & Science covers some great topics including Google Maps and Flickr mashups, building your own fully accessible 3D maze, draggable and sortable table columns, and much more!

SitePoint has always amazed me with the beautiful layout and design of their books. Code is easily readable in a fixed-width font with a blue background. The book also displays Tips, Notes, and Warning icons to help expand upon certain points.

This book is geared towards anyone who is familiar with JavaScript and wants to take their skills to the next level.

Popularity: 6% [?]

By StrangeWork.com: SitePoint.com is at it again. Fresh off the press and in my hands is the new SitePoint book The PHP Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks, 2nd Edition.

As most of you know I primarily use Microsoft technologies for developing, but as this blog shows I also like to dabble in the dark arts known as PHP. I’m no PHP expert, so this book will make for great reference material when I’m hacking up plugins or modifying scripts.

As always SitePoint has done an amazing job at making a technical book easy to read, understand, and actually enjoy! I recommend this book for PHP enthusiasts and experts alike!

Popularity: 7% [?]

By StrangeWork.com: Yesterday I received my new book from SitePoint.com, The ASP.NET 2.0 Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks.

After skimming through my new read I must say, SitePoint can write some amazing books! I love how each section is prefaced with a question:

“How do I read data from my database?”
“How do I use source control?”
“How do I require users to log in?”

This method seems to flow easier for me in understanding new development techniques and code.

If you are interested in learning ASP.NET 2.0 using C# or just looking to refine your ASP.NET 2.0 skills then this is a must read.

Popularity: 16% [?]

There is nothing quite as magical as seeing a package on your door step after work. Yesterday I received my new SitePoint book The CSS Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks.

What great timing too! I’ve been working on increasing my knowledge of CSS for some new projects I’ve been working on. With just my initial flip through of the book I can already tell this book is jam packed with valuable knowledge.

SitePoint has an entire line of well written books covering everything from web design to developing database driven web applications.

It’s always a challenge to stay ahead of the technology curb, but Sitepoint is helping make that challenge a little easier.

Popularity: 5% [?]