book — Brad Williams Blog

New Book: Professional WordPress Plugin Development!

September 1, 2010 By Brad 26 Comments

I couldn’t be more excited to announce a new book I’m co-authoring: Professional WordPress Plugin Development!

This book will continue the Professional WordPress series with a focus on plugin development in WordPress. This alone is exciting news, but of course I’m not writing this book on my own. I’ve brought in two of the best known WordPress developers in the business: Ozh Richard and Justin Tadlock! Anyone who works with WordPress will be very familiar with these two guys. They both have a huge reputation for writing some of the most detailed, easy to understand, and extremely knowledgeable tutorials out there for plugin and WordPress development.

The excitement doesn’t stop there! We’ve also brought in two great Technical Editors for our new book. The first is Andrew Nacin. Anyone who follows the core development of WordPress will be very familiar with Andrew. Andrew is one of the most active core contributors to the WordPress project and his endless knowledge of the internals of WordPress are sure to help take our book to the next level. The second Tech Editor is Doug Vann. Doug is known for his expertise and knowledge in the open source CMS world. Doug will approach this book as a CMS user, thinking outside the box of a normal developer.

This book will be jam packed with plugin knowledge from beginner topics like creating your first plugin, security, and settings, to more advanced topics like JavaScript and AJAX, Cron, and the mysterious Rewrite API. This book will have something for everyone looking to learn or expand their knowledge on building professional plugins in WordPress.

You can following our process during the writing of this book using the hash tag #plugindevbook on Twitter. The book is currently planned for a March 2011 release date.

Filed Under: Professional WordPress, WordPress Tagged With: author, book, WordPress, WROX

SitePoint Podcast Interview with Authors of Wicked WordPress Themes

August 31, 2010 By Brad 1 Comment

Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing two of the authors of SitePoint.com’s new book Build Your Own Wicked WordPress Themes on the SitePoint Podcast. I had a great time talking WordPress themes with Allan Cole and Jeffrey Way.

During the podcast we covered some great topics including:

Intro to WordPress themes
Where to start when building a theme
Theme frameworks
Theme options
Selling themes and what to consider
GPL and split-license

I had a chance to read the new book prior to the interview. I would classify this book as a must read for any designer looking to learn how to develop amazing WordPress themes. The chapter on selling themes is worth the book price alone!

If you haven’t done so be sure to pick up a copy of Wicked WordPress Themes and starting creating beautiful themes today!

Filed Under: Podcasts, WordPress Tagged With: book, review, themes, WordPress

Professional WordPress Has Hit The Shelves!

April 2, 2010 By Brad 1 Comment

I’m extremely excited to announce that Professional WordPress, a book I co-authored, has hit the shelves at major book retailers nation wide! The book is also in stock on Amazon.com!
This journey started in April of 2009 when Matt Mullenweg posted a blog post that Wiley was looking for WordPress enthusiasts to author a new book. I emailed Carol Long that night and before I knew it was one of the co-authors chosen for Professional WordPress along with Hal Stern and David Damstra!

The entire process was quite a learning experience since I had never written a book before. Luckily Wiley/WROX has an amazingly talented staff that helped guide us during this book writing journey. Hal and David were also great co-authors to work with during the process.

Professional WordPress is a book written by programmers for programmers. We take a more in-depth look at WordPress to help explain how WP works from the inside out. Learn how to create powerful plugins to handle any task. Explore how to build amazing themes using the latest features in WordPress. Learn how to use WordPress as a CMS. We even cover WordPress in the Enterprise and migrating to WordPress from another system. This book has something for everyone so make sure you pick up a copy today and help support your favorite WordPress hackers!

Keep an eye on this blog as I’ll be giving away a few copies of Professional WordPress in the coming weeks!

Filed Under: Personal, Professional WordPress, WordPress Tagged With: book, WordPress

Professional WordPress Is In Production!

January 30, 2010 By Brad 5 Comments

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.

Filed Under: Professional WordPress, WordPress Tagged With: author, book, WordPress, WROX

Professional WordPress – New Book Coming Soon!

September 17, 2009 By Brad 5 Comments

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%!

Filed Under: Personal, Professional WordPress, WordPress Tagged With: author, book, WordPress, WROX

Managing Online Forums by Patrick O’Keefe

September 30, 2008 By Brad 2 Comments

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!

Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: book, community, review

The Ultimate CSS Reference from SitePoint

March 10, 2008 By Brad 2 Comments

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.

Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: book, CSS, Personal, Sitepoint

The Art and Science of JavaScript from SitePoint

January 20, 2008 By Brad Leave a Comment

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.

Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: book, JavaScript, Personal, Sitepoint

The PHP Anthology Book from SitePoint

November 8, 2007 By Brad Leave a Comment

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!

Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: book, Personal, PHP, Sitepoint