[Book Review:] Drupal 6 Social Networking by Michael Peacock

Submitted by David Needham on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 09:18

I recently read the book Drupal 6 Social Networking from Packt Publishing, and wow - I can't believe how useful it has been for Make it Play it. I wish I had gotten it back in January when I first started planning! For some reason I'd never thought of Make it Play it as a social network, but as I started reading through the book I found myself thinking, "Wow, this is perfect! I had no idea adding X was so easy!" I kept reading and quickly realized I was doing that for almost every section.

PROS:

    • Great for teaching the proper way to run a website - not just social networks, but any site that has more than one user.
      Step by step instructions with an example website to follow along, but still easy to understand what's going on without actually making their website.
      Helps teach different ways to build user interaction with administrators, other users and the website in general.

    • CONS:

    • There are a number of areas where you are taught to make a module, but the book explains that it's not doing it the right way. I imagine it could take too long to explain the "right" way, but it's annoying none the less.
      This book may not be too basic for Drupal Ninjas who already know the modules and processes needed to create and manage the topics covered.
      If you don't already know Drupal, the introduction might be too steep, but I still plan on giving the book to a friend to learn the basics.
      There were a number of places where the book says "this module isn't yet available for Drupal 6, but keep checking the website for updates!" It may be potentially helpful, but I eventually found it annoying.
      There is a section where there are pages and pages of code. I can't imagine why we need that printed in the book, since the only reason for needing the code is to actually follow along with the example (and you'd have the real files for that). Huge waste of paper and time going through that.

    • CONCLUSION: This is a great book to read after Using Drupal. You can get it from Amazon today for about $35 and it's been worth every penny to me. I can't begin to say how much it's helped me with Make it Play it so far, and I'm confident that it's tips for modules and user interaction will influence how I build nearly every other website I make from this point on. If Using Drupal is 10/10, I can safely say that Drupal 6 Social Networking is 8/10.

    Thanks for the review!

    Submitted by Michael Peacock (not verified) on Wed, 07/08/2009 - 17:19.

    Thanks for the review of the book, always great to hear what readers think of it! :-)

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