This book is a great way to get introduced to Joomla if, like me, you are only used to creating static content websites. With the help of this book I got a site up and running in a really short time and was mostly pleased with the results. If there is one flaw with this book it is that it covers too much and falls short on some of the finer points of content management. I searched forever through the book to find out how to achieve a couple of things that were relatively simple, but on teh whole this book is a great product and I highly recommend it.

This is a very poor training book for anybody that not a complete beginner to Joomla. Dan Rahmel is an experience computer book writer and this is one of his worse books. it goes into number of subjects that don't really have anything to do with Joomla. The controlling editor obviously had no control over Mr Rahmel need to explain every type of open source program that you can use with jooomla!

As a web graphic designer, I want to expand my skills into CMS systems. I thought this book would be a good start, but after reading it, I learned little more than how to install Joomla and basic interactions. The book is states it's for "Novice to Professional," but a more accurate description would be "a getting started guide".

These technical books are expensive (I paid full price for this in a bookstore) but worth every penny when they provide the answers to those inevitable snags you hit on a project. This book, however, almost never had the answers I needed. Mainly it points out the features in the Joomla admin interface, but that I could figure out on my own. I wanted to know things like how to download a template and customize it for my site. Instead the book tells you where the CSS code is and that you "can edit it" -- duh! In not anticipating and helping me through typical development tangles, I found the book an expensive, boring, barely helpful description of the Joomla admin tools. Save some money -- there are much better helps available free by searching Google.

Great book, very informative. Was able to begin working on an existing Joomla site in short order. Also has info on how to use Google Analytics for web stats!

This is the best basic book I have found on Joomla! It's well written, with lots of tips for building a well thought out site with Joomla! I also learned much about how to think through site layout, and what keeps end users interested. We have built a really nice Intranet site with the knowledge gained from this book. Good info on nice Joomla plugins and other useful packages such as FreeMind.

I was initially very pleased with this book, and with help from this book, I was able to get a basic Joomla website running in a day or so. However as other reviewers have noted it seems to be missing several chapters that should provide details and examples of how to use menus, modules and articles together to create a good Joomla website.

The author raves about the Leo outline editor but never shows how to actually implement the outline using the Joomla menus etc. The author touches on some advanced issues such as creating your own template or an extension, but does not explain how to use the templates or extensions that come with Joomla. For example he states that "The parameters for Mod_mainmenu can change everything from the menu style to the menu hierarchy" but provides no examples and then proceeds to list the more advanced options! At a minimum he should explain how modules position content as left, main, right etc. Also as an example of poor organization this topic is in "Extensions - Default Site Modules - Main Menu" rather than "Adding Menus to Point to Content".

Figuring out how to modify a template and use modules so that content is placed where you want it, is perhaps the hardest aspect of Joomla. I'm still struggling to understand what all the CSS styles are used for. The author provides a brief intro to CSS but it would be nice to have a list of the key Joomla CSS styles and where they are used, plus some real world examples of (say) changing a color scheme or widening a column.

I'm puzzled by the many glowing reviews for this book! It gets off to a good start but then wanders off to discuss editors, extensions, analytics etc. rather than providing a good foundation for building a solid Joomla website.

Let me start off by saying I am not a programmer or developer, but I have been exposed to and tinkered with html, `view source' on web pages and quite a few Firefox add-ons to know enough to be dangerous. For several years, I have wanted to create my own website, but just did not want to devote the time it took UNTIL something came along to ease the process. That's where CMS comes in. Also, I wanted to go with a web hosting company, and somehow combine the two. I did my research on both and for the former opted to use Joomla 1.5.

However, after many many frustrating hours of searching forums and going down fruitless paths via search engines, trying just to get basics answers on where to begin, I came across this book. It answers:
-the requirements and other inter dependencies of installing Joomla locally
-the same for using with my hosting company
-step by step instructions for above
-tools you can use to further plan and design your website.
All in all this is what I needed, and this book gave me that. Over the span of a weekend, I had a shell of my site designed, and at least a landing page loaded. It kept me from giving up hope yet once again, so now I can muddle along at my own pace.

CONS:
Not a Reference Guide. Many of the GUI features are not discussed, let alone described. Joomla features numerous drop downs, and many of these are not addressed.
Significant gaps. The author states in Chapter 4 about Menu Manager "...The Menu Manager is truly the core of the Joomla system. Second only to the Article Manager, proper configuration of the Menu Manager is critical to your site's user appeal." While factual, there is no 'meat' regarding Menu Manager further in the book. A brief overview of the menu types are discussed previously, but we only get 3 screen gabs and a few additional paragraphs.

Summary. As stated, this book was vital in allowing me to begin using Joomla, for which I was unable to find any other source of information. It is helpful in other ways as well. But I am now searching for a second book, with more substance on the Hows and Whys.

Let me start off by saying I am not a programmer or developer, but I have been exposed to and tinkered with html, `view source' on web pages and quite a few Firefox add-ons to know enough to be dangerous. For several years, I have wanted to create my own website, but just did not want to devote the time it took UNTIL something came along to ease the process. That's where CMS comes in. Also, I wanted to go with a web hosting company, and somehow combine the two. I did my research on both and for the former opted to use Joomla 1.5.
However, after many many frustrating hours of searching forums and going down fruitless paths via search engines, trying just to get basics answers on where to begin, I came across this book. It answers:
-the requirements and other inter dependencies of installing Joomla locally
-the same for using with my hosting company
-step by step instructions for above
-tools you can use to further plan and design your website.
All in all this is what I needed, and this book gave me that. Over the span of a weekend, I had a shell of my site designed, and at least a landing page loaded. It kept me from giving up hope yet once again, so now I can muddle along at my own pace.
The rest of the book has been helpful to, but I am not yet qualified to comment beyond the first four chapters.

The book was probably great in 2007, but not for 2008+. Zoomla 1.5.1 is out and not as compatible with most of the extensions and modules. For example, author writes a great tutorial on bridging SMF with Zoomla, but Zoomla developers have abondaned SMF and now focusing only on phpBB3. Community Builder and many other extensions/modules don't work with Zoomla 1.5.1 as of this review. Bottom line is that the book needs to be revised significantly to include today's relevant information.

I'm grateful because this book is helping me so much to understand about joomla features because honestly I'm a beginner in Joomla.

I will buy another book that make me professional using Joomla.

I liked Joomla and really wanted to get under the hood. Not necessarily covered in oil but proficient enough to take any template and make a really professional web site from it. Now I don't mean to be a naysayer but I bought this book owing to the praiseworthy reviews. I've been hand coding websites for ten years and have even built my own CMS using PHP and MySQL so I'll give my opinion for the sake of those who are about to buy based on what I feel are misleading rave reviews.

First of all, Joomla is a very powerful CMS, so in fairness to the author it would be very difficult to write a book which warranted five stars given the complexity of what this CMS affords one. However, I do agree with, J. W. L. Smits "doctor dream", and should have paid more attention to that review. The book will get you underway competently but when it comes to implementing a template and customizing it for your particular purposes look elsewhere - this book will not be especially helpful. By and large, it is for the novice, it simply is not for the professional. Hopefully a second or third edition will address information organization more clearly especially with regard to the many permutations Joomla offers for navigation. Afterall if your navigation misleads, your audience leaves the page rapidly. I think the editor should have helped Mr. Rahmel more closely, it seems rushed and frought with omission as if it were trying to remain under a certain number of pages. Adding the 'to Professional' onto the title tagline is clearly the publishers effort at entrapping a greater audience - poor form.

I've read the thing cover to cover and it really needs an overhaul in terms of informational hierarchy and content layout. Specifically, what constitutes an article, why does it fall under a certain category and where and what section that in turn lies beneath and why and how do I link an article under a category within a section - the fundamental stuff, I could go on. In summary, buy it if you know nothing about CMS's, for a beginner its a four star read and you'll have a CMS website in no time. For the rest of us, get back online and google the forums and or buy Barrie North's book, 'Joomla, A users Guide'.

I liked Joomla and really wanted to get under the hood. Not necessarily covered in oil but proficient enough to take any template and make a really professional web site from it. Now I don't mean to be a naysayer but I bought this book owing to the praiseworthy reviews. I've been hand coding websites for ten years and have even built my own CMS using PHP and MySQL so I'll give my opinion for the sake of those who are about to buy based on what I feel are misleading rave reviews.

First of all, Joomla is a very powerful CMS, so in fairness to the author it would be very difficult to write a book which warranted five stars given the complexity of what this CMS affords one. However, I do agree with, J. W. L. Smits "doctor dream", and should have paid more attention to that review. The book will get you underway competently but when it comes to implementing a template and customizing it for your particular purposes look elsewhere - this book will not be especially helpful. By and large, it is for the novice, it simply is not for the professional. Hopefully a second or third edition will address information organization more clearly especially with regard to the many permutations Joomla offers for navigation. Afterall if your navigation misleads, your audience leaves the page rapidly. I think the editor should have helped Mr. Rahmel more closely, it seems rushed and frought with omission as if it were trying to remain under a certain number of pages. Adding the 'to Professional' onto the title tagline is clearly the publishers effort at entrapping a greater audience - poor form.

I've read the thing cover to cover and it really needs an overhaul in terms of informational hierarchy and content layout. Specifically, what constitutes an article, why does it fall under a certain category and where and what section that in turn lies beneath and why and how do I link an article under a category within a section - the fundamental stuff, I could go on. In summary, buy it if you know nothing about CMS's, for a beginner its a four star read and you'll have a CMS website in no time. For the rest of us, get back online and google the forums.

After all the great reviews i (unfortunately) bagged this fellow...

Sorry to say IMHO..
- Non-technical.

- Doesn't explain *why* things happen, nor *what* things do.. It merely states, 'do this, then this!' .. and i think 'ok, why?'..

- Rambles on about other software products which one could use to build sites more than actually getting into the guts of Joomla!.

- Light, glaze over of what Joomla! can actually do..

- Very casually, lazily written.

- Targeted more for somebody wanting to throw up a quick and nasty site - rather than for someone wanting to investigate what they can do with Joomla!, what and how they can customize, understand what's going on under the hood and build a wholesome, unique experience(site).

Maybe i was expecting too much from a 'Beginning' / 'Novice to Professional' book.

I was impressed with how well this book covered the gambit--from beginners to experienced users of Joomla, it connected. I know some have complained that it was more for the advanced user but I did not find that to be true. Great book on a very techy subject. Good examples, the author did not teach down to the reader, and yet conveyed a basic explanation of Joomla. I recommend you buy this book without hesitation if you want to begin building a Joomla site, whether you're new to Joomla or experienced with it.

This is easy to understand and well written. Almost anyone could make a Joomla site with this by their side.

This book does a nice job to get you up and running with a Joomla!-website (chapters 1 to 3), and then in chapter 4 nicely points your way in getting your own content organized and in place, but then, when it comes to questions like "How do I put related but different articles together in one 'page'" it lets you down completely. The way you use menu's to lay out a page doesn't get real attention, instead you only get an overview of the different manager screens, no explanation of the coworking of menu and module manager.
I expected this to come in chapter 6, but then the author moves to things like creating new templates, using extensions and other things that are surely interesting to know, but of more intermediate to advanced level. The beginners level however seems to be somewhat unfinished. I really have looked to see if pages where missing in my copy somewhere in chapter 4 or 5, but they weren't.
This book could have been so much better if the more advanced chapters where left for a second volume and that space was used for more info about concepts and real world examples. The books promises to make you from novice to professional, but you really can't get there if the foundation is too weak.

This book does a nice job to get you up and running with a Joomla!-website (chapters 1 to 3), and then in chapter 4 nicely points your way in getting your own content organized and in place, but then, when it comes to questions like "How do I put related but different articles together in one 'page'" it lets you down completely. The way you use menu's and modules to lay out a page doesn't get real attention, instead you only get an overview of the different manager screens, no explanation of the coworking of menu and module manager.
I expected this to come in chapter 6, but then the author moves to things like creating new templates, using extensions and other things that are surely interesting to know, but of more intermediate to advanced level. The beginners level however seems to be somewhat unfinished. I really have looked to see if pages where missing in my copy somewhere in chapter 4 or 5, but they weren't.
This book could have been so much better if the more advanced chapters where left for a second volume and that space was used for more info about concepts and real world examples. The books promises to make you from novice to professional, but you really can't get there if the foundation is too weak.

If the software industry had more technical writers like Dan Rahmel oh how different our world would be. This is an excellent book, I highly recommend it. Now if Dan would do a book on Drupal....

Got Joomla as an add on with your ISP through Fantastico? - not used to using a CMS like Drupal or Mambo? - then this is the book for you. It is well written and logical in its approach, as is Joomla 1.5. This is the mai downside as this version of Joomla is still in the Beta versions and not available through ISPs just yet as it is not a gold final candidate. For example, at the time of writing, GoDaddy can update your Joomla version to 1.0.13, but not to 1.5
It would have been better for the author to acknowledge this, as he states that it is best to install Joomla independently, but may not be aware of the issues, and the difficulties of upgrading independently once previously installed by the ISP.
This is however a minor quibble, and I would heartily recommend this to anyone who is interested in using Joomla as their CMS based website

I read some reviewers prefer reading online tutorials. I'm more a book person. For something completely new, I rather sit down with a book.

This book is perfect for Joomla beginners, like myself. It took me a weekend to understand Joomla good enough to build a basic site, and a bit longer to make a reasonable template. Without this book, I could do it too, probably. Only it would take me much, much longer.

Good written, well explained. Doesn't go deeper than it has to, so you (that's us, beginners) can build a pretty advanced site without diving into PHP or MySQL too deep. Doesnt't scare you off with complicated language or arcane required wisdom required after chapter 1. (Which far too many computer books do, regretfully.)

Highly recommended.

I have "looked" at a couple of Joomla books and read this one. This is the best one - and I recommend it as a "working book".

I have built a site and I would like to share some of my thoughts:
1. The book's "demo site" is good but it's not complete.

2. I guess whatever will be written on "categories" would not be good enough. It's something that's requires more explaining. What were they thinking when they created this concept?

3. It's not clear whether the web master should stick with long native URL's or move on to the SE friendly ones.

4. Some of the "little" comments (details, details) are life savers!

5. I have yet to meet one that will layout the express way to "template" modification.

6. Very well organized book; very helpful on modules vs components overview (p. 267).

7. So, how do you set caching=on for non static pages?

8. Missing "how to integrate Flash" chapter.

9. Missing "little secrets" how to navigate Joomla Admin GUI

10. All in all: congratulations to the author!

This is a well written guide to Joomla. It's perfect for the novice as it covers just about every aspect of installing and configuring this amazing CMS.

This book is a good introduction for a professional web designer who's been given the task of creating a web site using Joomla. It is NOT written for a novice web designer, but the author is quite explicit that its audience is a developer who is new to Joomla. I don't have "super administrator" status on my site, so some of the material doesn't apply to me. I'd really like to see a more thorough description of the TinyMCE WYSIWYG editor. A list of work arounds would be helpful. For example, the copy and paste function can only be done in the HTML, but at least you can do it.

I cannot compare to other similar books, but this book gave me all the information that I needed to get going with Joomla. I liked the 20 min. quick start chapter, it let me get my hands dirty without having to wade through all of the 'whys' before trying some of the 'hows'.

Recommended.

First off, let me state that I'm a complete beginner when it comes to making websites. I have very limited experience with HTML/XHTML, and no experience with PHP, MySQL, javascript, modules, etc. But with this book I was able to have a complete up and running website in a matter of hours. The author does a very good job of holding your hand and walking you step by step through the entire process of setting up Joomla! on your web server and customizing the site to make it your own.

I've looked at some of the documentation online, but a lot of it assumes that the reader has a more than cursory knowledge of numerous online processes. But Rahmel assumes that you have a shaky foundation of websites and instructs you accordingly. The book is also valuable in that it explains the numerous ins and outs of Joomla! where other documents fall short. For example, one of the templates I downloaded didn't call up the breadcrumbs module and I had no idea how to insert it into the template. The online documentation didn't help much, but luckily this book explained the breadcrumbs module and how to insert it. For anyone who is a newb to website design, this is the perfect book to get you started.

As a newcomer to Joomla and the LAMP stack, I found the background material showing how Joomla relates to PHP and MySQL to be very useful. Studying them separately is fine, but may not get a newbie very far in practice, hence the value for me of information on getting all the pieces related together.

The book is also very well-written; I say this because the presentation at no time gets in the way of the technical material. (Not all technical books have this advantage.)

I'm definitely going to get ahold of the author's Wrox book on advanced Joomla when it comes out, as I have been assured that it covers different material and Joomla looks like a good horse to bet on. As a practicing mainframer wandering from oasis to shrinking oasis, I find Joomla to be a promising new expertise to develop: although it may to be a little hard to grok at first, it plainly rewards whatever study you put into it. (That's why good technical books mean so much to me.)

Rating criteria:
This book didn't get five stars because nowhere is the Meaning of Life explained, so in my personal rating system four out of five stars means "Really Great."

I have been learning Joomla for quite sometime - from online videos, forums etc and finally i decided to get a book.

This book is an excellent tutorial whether your starting out or have some ideas already. The author explained the topics thoroughly.

What i really like is it that it not only teach you good design concepts but also it has everything you need to know to start a CMS website using new Joomla 1.5

I already read some 75% of this book, and I figure it taught me what I need to know to build a Joomla 1.5 website. Even though there isn't a stable version of Joomla 1.5 yet. Will have to wait and see if this book works in practice. But it is a nice book.

This is close to a must-have book for anyone using Joomla 1.5, the brand-new version of Joomla. Rahmel combines a clear, readable prose style with a concise, step-by-step approach to each point in the installation, design and maintenance of a Joomla site.
Joomla 1.5 is a great step forward, but it is a significant change from Joomla 1.0; I would recommend Rahmel's book for any experienced Joomla 1.0 user, who is upgrading to Joomla 1.5. In fact, I am designing a site for a friend, and I just bought another copy of this book for her, so that she can take over the site when the design is done.

Well, I pretty much had to learn Joomla from scratch within a few days. There is so much documentation online, but this book was well worth the $40 I spent on it. I bought it from a bookstore.

As a novice developer, I felt this book was written in easy to read, easy to understand, language. Not at all theoretical, and provides good practical examples with lots of diagrams and screen-shots.

This is one of the few technical books out there that I didn't get a headache from reading. I highly recommend it.

I wrote the initial review, the gist of which I leave below, after completing only the introductory chapter. I have since read very carefully every word of this fantastic book up to page 139. I am now so pleased with this surprisingly good book that if I could change my rating (which I can't due to amazon restrictions), I would raise it to five stars.

The author has really done a fine job imparting his vast experience to the reader. He's very generous with his many valuable ideas about website design, organizational tips, installation on various operating systems, and more.

For example, he casually introduces the Leo outline editor, which he uses to document a joomla web site he is explaining. Being introduced to the Leo outliner, which may well be the killer application for Python, is of itself worth the price of the book. I now have Leo up and running and am pouring through the tutorials that come with leo. Leo is incredible, and it's quite motivating to read that an author of Dan Rahmel's calibre uses Leo extensively himself.

Here's the gist of my original review:

...snip...
The author states that in version 1.5 it is not necessary to delete the installation directory after installation. He says it was necessary in prior versions but not 1.5.
...snip...
Well, ...snip... Joomla 1.5 release candidate will *not* work until the installation directory is removed.... exactly the opposite of what the author said.
...snip...
the author only explains how to install Joomla on a goDaddy web host. I think the author could darn well have spent $12.95 for a yahoo account so he could say something about installing Joomla on a yahoo host. There are severe problems installing Joomla on a yahoo host that he could have helped readers understand and avoid.
...snip...
The book ultimately seems worthwhile, most especially because it deals exclusively with version 1.5. Still, I subtract two stars for the reasons mentioned.

I wrote the initial review, the gist of which I leave below, after completing only the introductory chapter. I have since read very carefully every word of this fantastic book up to page 139. I am now so pleased with this surprisingly good book that if I could change my rating (which I can't due to amazon restrictions), I would raise it to five stars.

The author has really done a fine job imparting his vast experience to the reader. He's very generous with his many valuable ideas about website design, organizational tips, installation on various operating systems, and more.

For example, he casually introduces the Leo outline editor, which he uses to document a joomla web site he is explaining. Being introduced to Leo, which may well be the killer application for Python, is of itself worth the price of the book. I now have Leo up and running and am on the second Leo tutorial from the Leo website.

Here's the gist of my original review:

...snip...
The author states that in version 1.5 it is not necessary to delete the installation directory after installation. He says it was necessary in prior versions but not 1.5.
...snip...
Well, ...snip... Joomla 1.5 release candidate will *not* work until the installation directory is removed.... exactly the opposite of what the author said.
...snip...
the author only explains how to install Joomla on a goDaddy web host. I think the author could darn well have spent $12.95 for a yahoo account so he could say something about installing Joomla on a yahoo host. There are severe problems installing Joomla on a yahoo host that he could have helped readers understand and avoid.
...snip...
The book ultimately seems worthwhile, most especially because it deals exclusively with version 1.5. Still, I subtract two stars for the reasons mentioned.

I wrote the initial review, the gist of which I leave below, after completing only the introductory chapter. I have since read very carefully every word of this fantastic book up to page 131. I am now so pleased with this wonderful book that if I could change my rating (which I can't due to amazon restrictions), I would raise it to five stars. The author has really done a fine job imparting his vast experience to the reader. He's very generous with his many valuable ideas about website design, organizational tips, installation on various operating systems, etc.

Here's the gist of my original review:

This book takes great pains to say repeatedly in the introductory chapter that Zoomla version 1.5 is the current version and that version 1.0.x is an obsolete, inferior version that should not be used.
...snip...
But in fact version 1.5 is only a release candidate as I write this...
...snip...
The author states that in version 1.5 it is not necessary to delete the installation directory after installation. He says it was necessary in prior versions but not 1.5.

Well, that is poppycock. I wasted an entire evening trying to follow this author's installation instructions until finally realizing Joomla 1.5 release candidate will *not* work until the installation directory is removed.... exactly the opposite of what the author said.

Another thing I don't like is that the author only explains how to install Joomla on a goDaddy web host. I think the author could darn well have spent $12.95 for a yahoo account so he could say something about installing Joomla on a yahoo host. There are severe problems installing Joomla on a yahoo host that he could have helped readers understand and avoid. Specifically, the ftp upload of the Joomla installation php files will always cancel in the middle of the upload because yahoo will not allow a directory to have a period in it, and one of the Joomla directories has a period in it.
...snip...
The book ultimately seems worthwhile, most especially because it deals exclusively with version 1.5. Still, I subtract two stars for the reasons mentioned.

This book takes great pains to say repeatedly in the introductory chapter that Zoomla version 1.5 is the current version and that version 1.0.x is an obsolete, inferior version that should not be used. It clearly says to download the most current version of Zoomla and that the current version is 1.5.

But in fact version 1.5 is only a release candidate as I write this... and I am writing this *after* the book has already been published and printed. The "current version" is 1.0.13, it is not 1.5 as of August 13, 2007.

Obviously the author was trying to write a book that would not become obsolete and so he pretended version 1.5 was "current". But it's not and it gets the author in trouble.

The author states that in version 1.5 it is not necessary to delete the installation directory after installation. He says it was necessary in prior versions but not 1.5.

Well, that is poppycock. I wasted an entire evening trying to follow this author's installation instructions until finally realizing Joomla 1.5 release candidate will *not* work until the installation directory is removed.... exactly the opposite of what the author said.

Another thing I don't like is that the author only explains how to install Joomla on a goDaddy web host. I think the author could darn well have spent $12.95 for a yahoo account so he could say something about installing Joomla on a yahoo host. There are severe problems installing Joomla on a yahoo host that he could have helped readers understand and avoid. Specifically, the ftp upload of the Joomla installation php files will always cancel in the middle of the upload because yahoo will not allow a directory to have a period in it, and one of the Joomla directories has a period in it. The only solution is to manually rename the directory prior to uploading Joomla and to make changes to Joomla files that reference that directory by name. It seems to me the author could have mentioned that. It was true in version 1.0.x and it is still a problem in version 1.5RC.

Furthermore, during setup the Joomla configuration panel for specifying how to use the yahoo ftp services for internal Joomla purposes gives a cryptic error message that does not explain why the connection always fails even though the parameters are correctly specified. It would not have broken the author's bank account to have spent a day on a yahoo host doing an install so he could provide some guidance on that and similar problems unique to yahoo.

I will return and update this review as I continue further into his book.

The author is not a phony, and he does seem to really know what he is talking about. The book ultimately seems worthwhile, most especially because (sigh) it deals exclusively with version 1.5. Still, I subtract two stars for the reasons mentioned.