It's official, the ink has dried on the contract and the table of contents has been approved: My next book project is the Drupal Bible!
This will be my fourth title for U.S. publisher Wiley & Sons and my second book in the popular Bible series. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Bible series of tech books, Wiley pushes authors to provide "the ultimate resource" on the topic at hand. The books strive to be comprehensive and authoritative.
The Drupal Bible, like the Joomla! Bible I am currently working on, will cover how to obtain and install the core, how to configure the system optimally, and how to manage the various core features. Looking beyond the core, I dive into customization, common extensions, and the basics of ongoing site management.
The Bible series includes explanations, tips and practical examples. Weighing in at well over 700 pages, it is expected that this book will provide a much-needed resource for site administrators and those who are looking to deploy sites using the Drupal CMS.
Current plans are for a publication date in late Q4, with the hope being that we can focus on the upcoming Drupal 7 release.
Today is the official release date of my newest title -- the Ubuntu Linux Desktop Visual Blueprint. Though April 9 is the "official" date of release, I just got back from Singapore where I saw copies of the book already on display in the bookstores!
The Ubuntu Linux Visual Blueprint covers the Hardy Heron release of the Ubuntu Desktop operating system and goes into a great deal of detail concerning not only the base OS, but also the bundled applications, including Open Office. If you are looking to adopt the Ubuntu Desktop, this book is a nice "how to" -- the "missing manual" if you will.
If you have not looked at the Ubuntu Desktop, but are curious about whether a Linux desktop system is right for you, I would encourage you to download Hardy Heron and check it out. It's quite impressive and for many people would be a perfectly acceptable Windows replacement. Indeed, those of you who are tech-oriented really have no excuse any more. If you're sick of Windows, you now have a viable option.
This title is my second for Wiley's Visual Blueprint Series. The books take a visual, step-by-step approach to the subject and are highly task-oriented. I'm working now on another title for Wiley, this time the Joomla! Bible, which is slated for release in September of this year.
Over 220 techniques for applying the Mambo Open Source Content Management System. This visual approach to system administration takes you step-by-step through all the most common tasks. It explains not only the steps, but also the concepts and principles that work behind the scenes to make Mambo a useful and powerful CMS.
Ubuntu Linux is fast becoming the "people's Linux" and provides a secure and simple desktop operating system that provides both ease of use and a number of powerful applications for free. Ubuntu Linux: Your visual blueprint to using the Linux operating system provides the essential coverage for end-user productivity. With an emphasis of the preloaded applications that accompany Ubuntu, this book will cover multimedia applications, Web and email applications and a powerful suite of productivity tools that allow you to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
This book is the ideal introduction to theming with Drupal 5. If you want to create a striking new look for your Drupal website, this book is for you. Starting from the basics of theme setup and configuration, you will learn about the Drupal theming architecture and the PHPTemplate engine, and then move on to modifying existing themes and building new themes from scratch. Included is a complete guide to the various style sheets and themeable functions in Drupal 5, making this book a valuable resource even to experienced theme developers.
