Raven
Site Admin/Owner
Joined: Aug 27, 2002
Posts: 14925
Location: Kansas
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 Posted:
Fri Mar 24, 2006 9:48 am |
 
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 Building Websites With Php-nuke (Paperback) - by D. Paterson
Amazon's Description
Book Description
A practical guide to creating your own community website with PHP-Nuke. Written in a clear, easy to read style, this book provides a tutorial on setting up a website with PHP-Nuke. Each topic is tackled in a clear, practical way with many examples to consolidate your learning.
PHP-Nuke is a free tool for managing the content of a dynamic website. As one of the most popular applications on the Internet, PHP-Nuke has grown into a complex, powerful tool with an extraordinary range of features, and a loyal community of supporters. Through a web-based interface, users can edit and manage their site without the need for knowledge of web programming. PHP-Nuke is ideal for running a community-driven website, where visitors create accounts, comment and interact with the site, and contribute material in an easily managed fashion.
Throughout the book we develop an example site, as you are taken on a detailed tour of the features of PHP-Nuke. You will be introduced to the main components of PHP-Nuke, and learn how to manage them. You will develop the skills and confidence to manage all types of content on the site, and also understand how users work and interact with the site.
What you will learn from this book
* Installing and configuring PHP-Nuke
* Managing blocks and modules
* Working with news stories
* Managing users
* Working with other modules for handling content in PHP-Nuke
* Creating and managing discussion forums
* Creating a new look for your site by customizing themes
* Extending your site with block and module development
From the Publisher
If you want to create a powerful, fully-featured website in no time, this book is for you. This book will help you explore PHP-Nuke, putting you in the picture of what it offers, and how to achieve this.
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(also posted at Amazon)
You've tried the rest - Now try the Best, March 7, 2006
Reviewer: Gaylen Fraley "aka Raven - ravenphpscripts.com" (Kansas, USA)
What I liked:
How pleasantly surprised and impressed I was with this book! Doug has written this with both the novice, average, and advanced user in mind and has done a most excellent and impressive job.
I have been professionally building Information Systems for some 36 years now and got interested in PHP-Nuke back in 2001/2002. I run one of the most popular PHP-Nuke support/security sites on the Internet ( ) and so I am highly critical, knowledgeable, and experienced when it comes to PHP-Nuke, PHP, and MySQL in general
Doug's writing style is excellent. He takes you through a cursory understanding of the subject matter at hand. He then give real-life examples. Then he challenges the reader with "What just happened"? But, he doesn't leave you there. He offers code to enhance the code and to entice you to do more. Doug explains every aspect of the core Nuke distribution and does it very well. His chapter on Changing the Theme is excellent and should help many a user to customize their site. Most other authors gloss over the theme area and more or less advise you to contact an expert.
What he doesn't do, and I am so glad he doesn't, is spend half the book on installing the environmental software needed to run PHP-Nuke. So many books waste (in my opinion) my money and time trying to show you how to install *nix/Windows, Apache/IIS, MySQL/RDBMS, and PHP/ASP. He assumes you are there and want to build a web site using PHP-Nuke. What he does do, in add an appendix that explains how to get up and running using a popular all-in-one application called XAMPP (XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is really very easy to install and to use - just download, extract and start.) Then, all you do is add PHP-Nuke, follow his instructions, and you have a working web site!
What I didn't like:
There are two critical areas, in my opinion, that Doug seems to have avoided like the plague. In fairness, I can understand why he did. As a preface to the following comments, I think he just wanted to concentrate on the positive aspects and avoid the potentially subjective and argumentative issues that would be generated by introducing the issues. But, what he avoided telling the users will come back to haunt them, in avery severe way - being cracked.
The first thing is that the author (of PHP-Nuke), or current maintainer/owner of the name and original code, Francisco Burzi, does not offer any support at all for the CMS. He openly states on his web site "PHP-Nuke is distributed AS IS, without any warranty nor technical support according with the GPL license". In other words, you will get no support from the author. He also does not offer any forums for support so you will have to go elsewhere for support.
The second issue I have is a major one. PHP-NUKE, as distributed by Burzi, is very insecure and prone to many kinds of exploits. Doug does mention my site and a couple others for security updates and help, but if you blink, you will miss it. The security issues would easily warrant a chapter of its own. Any one who uses PHP-Nuke needs to know about the many security risks if installed as is, right from the virgin download.
Having said all that, I still give this 5 stars. This is a book that every Nuke user, regardless of your skill level, needs to have on their book shelf. I recommend it with the highest recommendation. This book easily surpasses every other book that has been published on PHP-Nuke, at least in English  . I can't comment on the ones that have been writen in other languages.
Gaylen Fraley (aka Raven)
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