Web Designer's Guide To Wordpress (Voices That Matter) 1st Edition

Delivers as advertised. The title is Web Designer's Guide to WordPress. So, if you are a web designer with little to no WordPress experience, then this is the book for you. Friedman writes in a highly accessible manner, providing the necessary details where needed while restraining from deeper examinations of code that often leave a new designer impressed, but bewildered. Still, this book does offer ample opportunities to build on your newly acquired WordPress skills. A thorough read, front to back, will empower you to enter the nearest WordPress meetup ready to access the next level.Having read many of the reviews, most positive and some negative, I would question the following regarding the negative remarks. First, if you are a serious developer looking to add WordPress to your already impressive list of CMS/Frameworks, then the title should have clued you into the simple fact that this book might be focused on a slightly different demographic. It is clear that Friedman is trying to bridge the territory between those who are new to WordPress, but need the vehicle to move into deeper waters, which this book effectively does.Secondly, for those who have flagged the text as confusing, I would ask, did you actually read the entire book before submitting your review? I was amazed at the amount of detail and guidance that the book provides, especially the copious amount of commented files that can be downloaded from the author's site. When I found myself confused, it wasn't because of the writing, but because of the complexity of the concepts and code being reviewed. I had to re-read some passages more than once, but as I cross-referenced the book and the provided files, I could then easily see the clarity in the text upon a second read. So, like all things that have value, you sometimes need to put in serious effort. WordPress is no different.For those who claim the text contains coding errors, I did not find this to be true. I purchased an electronic version which allowed me to copy/paste the code directly, and things went smoothly for me.So, a summary of what is inside.Why WordPress? - Friedman introduces the reader to WordPress as a CMS, taking the time to outline the strengths and weakness of this platform. Jesse presents a strong argument as to why choosing WordPress might make sense for you as a designer/developer or for your organization, and backs up this claim with both examples of how WP has focused his career, but more importantly how widely embraced WordPress is from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies. It is clear that Friedman is a WP evangelist, but in no way states WordPress is the right solution for every project. If his enthusiasm for WordPress appears to exclusionary, it is only because this book is about 'WordPress' and not meant to be an overview of comparable and capable CMS's like Drupal, for instance.WordPress 101 - Friedman then provides detailed instructions on how to properly setup WordPress along with some security tips, as well as concentrating on providing an overview of the WP Dashboard. My only recommendation for this chapter would be the inclusion of a sample.xml file that could be downloaded from the author's website and imported into the new WP installation. My reason is simple. Once you used WordPress, even if it is only for a short time, understanding the Dashboard is pretty straightforward. However, if you have never used it, a trip through a populated WordPress site can really demystify things. I think if the book encouraged more 'play' time with an existing site, a beginner would have an easy time assimilating the advanced content of the following chapters.Theming - The real action begins in Chapter 4, where Jesse takes the user through step-by-step instruction on how to create your own theme. The writing is clear and elementary. Easy to follow if you take the time to read the text carefully and thoughtfully. You are given an already designed HTML site, which step-by-step you will replace the static HTML with PHP WP calls. In addition, you have the completed theme just in case you prefer to reverse-engineer things a bit. Lastly, the static HTML files are heavily commented for a deeper understanding.Personally, I have building sites without first statically coding the design, and found Jesse's approach refreshing and less constrained than working directly in WP. Definitely, a good moment for me. At this point, the book had already provided me with a means to both build my own theme based on Friedman's existing files, as well as to start successfully deconstructing starter themes.PHP and WP - Writing PHP for a web designer might prove a bit intimidating at times. However, WordPress is a gentle place to start your study of PHP, and Jesse does a great job in building a bridge for the non-programmer. When a detailed explanation is needed, it is provided. In other spots, Jesse refrains from going into too much detail as to not bog down the newbie.In summary, Jesse Friedman's book is an excellent choice for the beginner-intermediate WordPress designer. Written in a clean and friendly tone that is richly informative, this is a book that will get you into the game.

This book is meant for those who would like to explore how Wordpress works and functions from a development standpoint. The book is well written, minus a few typos here and there. One thing that kind of threw me off at the beginning of the book was the authors salivation over Wordpress as a CMS. He goes so far as to say, "You will have to learn it if you want to work with me." While on the surface this may seem to be a reasonable prerequisite for understanding development of a popular CMS in the workplace, the following descriptions of Wordpress seem... hyped. Going on about how Wordpress is the best CMS on the market, against all other options, makes me feel that the author is a bit too biased towards this CMS compared to others. However, I will credit him for actually admitting his bias on page 7, citing that the "sheer amount of Wordpress work available has led me to not try other competing CMS's." So, understand that there may be a narrow viewpoint from the author surrounding his world-view of the CMS marketplace.While Wordpress is a great platform to develop websites on, and is widely popular amongst developers and designers, there is little to no difference between it and Joomla. Having worked with both systems from a design standpoint over the years, I often feel that the WP community believes that WP is unique, and that no other options exist against it. Considering that most other CMS's are developed with PHP, MySQL and the MVC framework, really the only difference is the community and design trends harnessed by HTML, CSS and jQuery which can be seen as unique for the WP circle - versus other CMS's and their design trends. That's probably one aspect to this book that made me feel uncomfortable at the beginning. It's one thing for an author to be passionate about the subject at hand, but it's another for him to gush over the application and give the impression that no other options exist in the industry.I personally feel that you should gain as much experience with as many platforms as you possibly can without limiting yourself to one viewpoint based on personal desire. I have many clients who have stated that their current Wordpress sites actually limited what they wanted to accomplish. This is due in part because Wordpress, at its core, is not a TRUE CMS in the sense of the idea. It was never designed from its onset to be a CMS (content management system); however, it has been adapted over the years and built upon to act as one (it began as a blogging platform). So, from an outside perspective as someone who has used Wordpress, it can get the "job done"; but other solutions exist with more logical approaches to managing content and constructing large directory/content driven websites with PHP.Great book though. Just a bit too much gushing over the CMS at hand.