Drupal 7 First Look (by PACKT Publishing) came out right on time, just a about month before Drupal 7 release. At first I was a bit skeptical: how can you write about something which is not there yet. But to my pleasure and thanks somewhat coincidence (Drupal 7 was so overdue but stable enough for last few months) the book is quite up to date.
What I liked about the book, that it gives you a quick overview of important changes in Drupal core concepts, functionality and APIs compared to D6. Of course you could grab the majority of information gradually reading blogs, articles, forums or http://api.drupal.org but summarized change list gives a better assurance you won't overlook some important changes (aka: Oh, look, I didn't even think about that).
The book covers probably all aspects in fair amount of detail: Drupal installation and upgrade procedures, building and administering your website with new content types, fields, automatic image handling (imagecache) and much much more.
There is more programming oriented second part of the book. It covers changes in APIs for themes, database handling and Drupal development in general. With examples, descriptions etc.
Who is this book for? I'd recommend it to many advanced Drupal users, administrators and especially developers and themers who would like to upgrade from Drupal 6 to 7. All in all I was happy enough to skim it, as I would know much of what's in the book already, but also to read some new for me parts more attentively.
Disclaimer: the book was provided for review by PACT Publishing. Above is my sole opinion on the book which can not be considered as advertising of any kind.
I just finished reading this book and I think it's a great resource for those who are making the jump from Drupal 6 to the new almost-released Drupal 7. This very comprehensive books is well-written and covers just about everything you'd need to know about the changes from Drupal 6.
Thank you for taking the time and sharing this information with us. It was indeed very helpful and insightful while being straight forward and to the point
Well, we will go through that book which gives you a quick overview of important changes in Drupal core concepts, functionality and APIs compared to D6. I would love to know about Drupal application. Thanks for sharing the information.
Thanks for the overview. Given all the attention that Drupal is getting I need to learn more.
A nice blog. Drupal 7 is creating high waves in the web development industry. I would surely want to read the book. It's important to learn about something so interesting and vital to website development.
I have always want to try Drupal for my websites and after reading this book i decided to do it. Drupal 7 now provides an installation script that makes it so much easier to install and it automatically populates database tables and configures the correct settings you need. Drupal created some best practices you should follow when setting up a CMS. Drupal 7 also introduces a new Toolbar and Shortcut bar and it really changes how to work with Drupal and it is much more user friendly and efficient.
Overall, i really like this.
I would just like to say how helpful this review is. I have an old Drupal book, which is very dog eared, as I still occasionally use it as a reference book. It is called Using Drupal and has 6 authors and a squirrel on the front (publisher O'Reilly). After reading your review, it has helped me decide to buy a new book, this time on Drupal 7, and I will getting the one you have reviewed. Thanks
If you are suggesting ,definitely it would be a great book,but i really don't like reading the whole books.i am looking for something where i can read the tips on the updates section.i need not go through the older things that were their in the previous version,do have any idea of such kind of books or tutorial link
Interesting book to read, great fro drupal 7 tutorial.
I usually snub "first-look" titles because of a potential boring read -- but this is an exception. The author (Mark Noble) made good mileage with each chapter for each tasks/specialization (theming, administration, development ...). Since it's more of an overview guide, I forgive the outdated screenshots and references to Drupal.org's original-but-old design. Other than that, I'm very glad the author was able to cover the essentials.
Good for a once over. Quick read but you can get up to speed quickly.
I haven't read the book yet but according to the review that I have read it seems good news to all drupal and non-drupal users.
I have not read this book yet but through review it seems to be interesting for drupal 7.