Tag Archives: packt publishing

Joomla! 1.6 First Look

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The famous dutch Joomla expert Eric Tiggeler has written a book about Joomla! 1.6 called Joomla! 1.6 First Look. The book got releases last month and I will be reviewing it this month. 

Joomla! 1.6 First Look is a concise guide to the new features of Joomla! 1.6, targeted at existing Joomla! (1.0 and 1.5) users and developers. The book guides readers through topics like upgrading, new features and changes.

What you will learn from this book:

  • General changes to the Joomla! interface and the practical effects this has on creating and maintaining sites with Joomla!
  • Changes in Joomla! 1.6 that affect the day to day routine of organizing, adding and editing articles
  • Changes in menus, that make it easier to manage menus and add new menu items fast
  • Access Control Levels relevant to website administrators in need of fine grained user permissions control
  • What’s new in selecting, using and editing templates
  • New extensions overhauled in Joomla! 1.6
  • New SEO features to enhance your site’s SEO

Book information:

  • Language : English
  • Paperback : 236 pages [ 235mm x 191mm ]
  • Release Date : March 2011
  • ISBN : 1849513422
  • ISBN 13 : 978-1-84951-342-5
  • Author(s) : Eric Tiggeler

Joomla! 1.5 Top Extensions Cookbook

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This month im going to review another book; Joomla! 1.5 Top Extensions Cookbook by Packt Publishing. The review will be published on  this site, like always.

The Joomla! 1.5 Top Extensions Cookbook is one of Packt Publishing’s cookbook series meaning that it contains recipes. This book contains over 80 different recipes to use extensions to add maps, image galleries, slideshows, audio  and video players, security, forums, shopping cart, guestbook and other functionalities to your site.  Each recipe is a small articles/paragraphs with an idea and how to work it out, just like a regular cookbook.

What you will learn from this book :

  • Implement access control list by creating groups and assigning permissions to groups
  • Create backups that can be restored on any other Joomla! site and relocate a site to another server without any hassle.
  • Add an Ajax contact form with custom fields using AiContactSafe extension and add Ajax search to Joomla! site using PixSearch extension.
  • Import hundreds of users from a CSV file enabling them to log in without registering themselves using UserPort extension
  • Integrate phpBB with Joomla! so that users from phpBB can access Joomla! and vice versa without further registration and by a single login using JFusion extension
  • Send tweets automatically upon publishing articles in Joomla!
  • Add project management functionalities to your Joomla!-based sites and get notified about new contents from time to time (for subscribers)
  • Add attachment to an article in a much easier way using Attachment plugin
  • Build a document repository for Joomla! using DOCMan extension for sharing files through your site or if you want to provide downloads
  • Add a Google Map in content articles to find your place.using Google Maps plugin
  • Display PDF documents inside Joomla! content items using Embed PDF plugin
  • Watch your visitors in real-time using JoomlaWatch extension
  • Improve banner ads on your site and add classified ads to Joomla! Site
  • Use Google Adsense with Joomla! contents
  • Preview the page on which you just altered the contents instead of preview button taking you to home page by default

For more information I recommend that you visit the official book page at www.packtpub.com/joomla-1-5-top-extensions-cookbook/book

Inkscape 0.48 Essentials for Web Designers

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As I told you in SVG drawings I started to make SVG drawings in Inkscape.
Inkscape is an open source vector graphics editor application, which has capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Inkscape supports many advanced SVG features such as markers, clones, alpha blending etc, and enables users to edit nodes, perform complex path operations and trace bitmaps easily.

This month I will be reviewing the book Inkscape 0.48 Essentials for Web Designers by Packt Open Source.

More information in the press release below;

Packt is pleased to announce Inkscape 0.48 Essentials for Web Designers, a new book that will assist readers to use the fascinating Inkscape graphics editor to create attractive layout designs, images and icons for their website. Written by Bethany Hiitola, this book will teach readers to create their own Inkscape templates in addition to using the built-in ones.

Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor application, which has capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Inkscape supports many advanced SVG features such as markers, clones, alpha blending etc, and enables users to edit nodes, perform complex path operations and trace bitmaps easily.

Inkscape 0.48 Essentials for Web Designers book starts off with an introduction to the basics of Inkscape and then walks readers through the implementation of each of these features in their websites.  Additionally, this book will teach users to create web page and desktop wallpapers with swirling designs, incorporate icons and interactive maps on their website, style and graphically manipulate text, and enhance their web pages using flowcharts, diagrams and site maps.

Using this book, web designers will learn to add illustrative and web-ready diagrams, maps and designs to their website, import and manipulate images for their web page, tips and tricks for “tracing” bitmap images to convert them into full vector graphics for both photographs and logos, and to create simple and effective animated GIFs for their web page with GIMP.

Written in a clear conversational style, and packed with illustrations and easy-to-follow examples, this book is ideal for web designers, who wish to add attractive visual elements to their website. The book is out now and available from Packt. To read more about it, please visit:
www.packtpub.com/inkscape-0-48-essentials-for-web-designers/book

Packt Publishing 2010 Open Source Awards Winners

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The Packt Publishing Open Source Award 2010 winners are know known!

Open Source CMS

  1. Winner: CMS Made Simple
  2. 1st Runner up:  SilverStripe
  3. 2nd Runner up:  MODx

Hall of Fame CMS

  1. Winner: WordPress
  2. 1st Runner up:  Drupal
  3. 2nd Runner up:  Joomla!

Most Promising Open Source Project

Open Source E-Commerce Applications

  1. Winner: PrestaShop
  2. 1st Runner up: OpenCart
  3. 2nd Runner up: Tomato Cart  

Open Source Graphics Software

  1. Winner: Blender
  2. 1st Runner up: GIMP
  3. 2nd Runner up: Inkscape

Open Source JavaScript Libraries  

  1. Winner: jQuery
  2. 1st Runner up: Mootools and Raphaël

More information can be found at http://www.packtpub.com/open-source-awards-home

Joomla! 1.5 Cookbook

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Next month I will be reviewing the Joomla! 1.5 Cookbook by Packt Publishing.
This book has the same structure as the Joomla! 1.5 Templates Cookbook I reviewed earlier this year.

The book contains over 60 practical recipes covering a range of site management and core Joomla! activities and guides to use several handy Joomla! plugins.

This book is written for beginning and intermediate users of Joomla! 1.5 and 1.6 with or without knowledge about webdesign.

What you will learn from this book :

  • Install Joomla! on two different but common types of hosting; setting up the database on two common hosting platforms, cPanel® and GoDaddy.com®
  • Know your way around phpMyAdmin for some of the tasks you may face.
  • Install your template, assign it as the default and make changes to it.
  • Setup the basics of a Section and a Category to hold and manage content with.
  • Manage links, users and media
  • Install, assign, and create Modules and Components
  • Install and use K2
  • Install, configure and use of some select extensions.
  • Learn how to do the easy and medium difficulty tasks, designed to eliminate  a few of the issues you may experience.
  • Look at recipes that cover the portions of Joomla! 1.6 that are brand new

More information about the book can be found at Packt Publishings product page.

You can expect the review on my site within a month from today.