Tom Geller

Regular readers know that I've been working on a Drupal 7 book for beginners. We -- meaning Peachpit Press and myself -- are now faced with a decision. We could release it before, after, or at the same time as Drupal 7's release. Each option has its pitfalls. Release it too early, and it might not match the final Drupal 7 software. Too late, and we could lose the "first mover advantage" to another book.

Whatever our decision, we have to provide some date for potential distributors, booksellers, and customers. So we boldly decided we'd try to release it at the same time as Drupal 7 itself -- and announced the 24 January 2010 date you currently see on Amazon.

Webchick, when asked when Drupal 7 will be released, always says "When it's ready". Neither she nor co-maintainer Dries will set a date at this point, and for good reason: Neither of them are in control of when "ready" will be. Of course they could release it any time they like -- in an unready state. That would be bad for everyone who relies on Drupal, wants to switch to Drupal, has built a business around Drupal, who teaches or writes about Drupal... in short, bad for everybody. So their silence is as it should be.

But we, like IT professionals around the globe, still have to make decisions. In our case, we have to guess at Drupal 7's release date a few months in advance if we're going to hit that goal of simultaneous release. (Book publishing takes time!) And the sooner we make the decision, the better.

I'd personally love to announce the availability of Drupal 7: Visual QuickStart Guide on the same day as Drupal 7's own release. But I'm nagged by unknowns. What would it mean if it came out early? What if it came out after a similar book? Which situation is worse?

What do you think?

I've been busy writing Drupal 7: Visual QuickStart Guide for Peachpit Press over the last couple of months. I'm pleased to say that all the main chapters are done, and most of them are already available for preview on Safari Books Online. (I've given the table of contents below.)

Now it's time to write the appendices, and I'm not sure what would be most useful. We're thinking:

• Extending Drupal, including a list of the most popular modules, and whether they're expected to be available for D7 (thanks to the #D7CX project)
• Differences between D6 and D7
• Interacting with the Drupal community

Here's what the book contains so far:

Chapter 1. Getting Drupal Up and Running

• Fulfilling Drupal's Requirements
• Downloading and Unpacking Drupal
• Creating the MySQL Database Using phpMyAdmin
• Installing Drupal

Chapter 2. Establishing Your Drupal Site

• Performing Common Post-Installation Tasks
• Giving Your Site Its Identity
• Selecting a Visual Theme
• Monitoring Your Drupal Site
• Packaging Your Drupal Site

Chapter 3. Creating and Managing Content

• Gaining More Control of Individual Nodes
• Creating Other Types of Content
• Finding, Editing, and Deleting Content

Chapter 4. Customizing Content

• Defining Custom Types of Content
• Putting Images and Styled Text in Content

Chapter 5. Making Content Interactive

• Enabling Interactive Content Types
• Categorizing Content with Taxonomies
• Mastering Text Formats

Chapter 6. Improving Access to Content

• Making Content Searchable
• Directing Traffic with Menus
• Laying Out Your Site with Blocks

Chapter 7. Wrangling Users

• Managing User Accounts
• Controlling How Users Interact with Their Accounts
• Defining User Roles and Permissions
• Building and Protecting User Community

Chapter 8. Customizing Drupal's Look and Feel

• Creating a New Theme
• Changing Theme Graphics and Typography with CSS

I'm sure I'm not the first to discover this, but...

An online dictionary search for "Drupal" says it's a synonym for "drupaceous": that is, "resembling, related to... [or] producing drupes". A drupe is a fruit whose seed is covered by a tough endocarp, like the red peaches you see here.

Juicy!

Look at the top keyword searches that bring people to my site, according to Google Analytics:

1. tom geller (O.K., that's a gimme.)
2. wamp drupal
3. drupal wamp
4. (content targeting)
5. drupal on windows
6. drupal windows

Further, about one in five requests for support sent through my site's contact form is WAMP-related.

So -- what's the story? Is it that WAMP is hopelessly messed up? Is there a vacuum of relevant information out there? (My Running Drupal on Windows using WAMP article is Hit #4 on Google.) Have you had problems running Drupal on WAMP? Does the Acquia Drupal stack installer for Windows help?