EDIT :
The author confirmed that the descriptions on both amazon and the Apress site need to be rewritten and that we can expect the same structure as the previous books with the third edition. Yeah! Can't wait to get my preordered copy!
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I've found both the first and second editions of this book to be very useful. While searching for information about the third edition, I found the description of the book by the publisher to be very different from the previous editions. My impression from reading the description is that the third edition might be more of a 'using Drupal' kind of book than a 'developing for Drupal' kind of book.
Third edition description:
This book is geared toward professionals that need to deploy and customize Drupal. This book delves deep into the internals of the Drupal 7 system and teaches you everything you need to know to deploy a highly customized and optimized Drupal installation. Every web developer looking to deploy web sites quickly to their clients while still being able to harness the power of an excellent content management system needs this book.
What you’ll learn
* What Drupal is and why you should use it
* How to install a basic Drupal web site from scratch
* How to create content in your new Drupal web site
* How to manage users on your new Drupal web site
* How to change the look and feel of your new Drupal web site through themes
* How to install and configure modules
Second and first edition :
Assuming you already know how to install and bring a standard installation online, John K. VanDyk gives you everything else you need to customize your Drupal installation however you see fit. Pro Drupal Development, Second Edition delves deep into Drupal internals, showing you how to take full advantage of its powerful architecture.
What you’ll learn
* Find out how to create your own modules, develop your own themes, and produce your own filters.
* Learn the inner workings of each key part of Drupal, including user management, sessions, the node system, caching, and the various APIs available to you.
* Discover how to optimize your Drupal installation to perform well under high–load situations.
* Gain the knowledge needed to secure your Drupal installation and other best practice techniques.
* Learn to integrate Ajax into and internationalize your Drupal web site.
Comments
I think it is most likely
That the publishers description is a bit off.
The entire Drupal universe will expect the 3rd edition to be the same old (but good) stuff - just updated to suit Drupal 7.
I hope you are right...
... but I am concerned. I have come to rely on that book, and I know a lot of Drupal developers who do too. Not having that book would make a big difference.
I also noticed that while on some amazon pages (.com, .co.uk, but NOT .ca) John Van Dyke is still noted as an author of the book, on the publisher's site he is not mentioned:
http://apress.com/book/view/1430228385
Page count has gone down
I was trying to find out more about this, and noticed that the page count has gone down according to the publisher's site, from over 700p for the second edition to 600p for the third.
Authors are different at Borders
I have a gift card for Borders so I looked on their site for this book. I found one, but it just lists Dave Reid as the author with Van Dyk as a contributor. And the cover looks different. Do you think it's the same book? http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=1430228385#
It's all good!
The author confirmed that the descriptions on both amazon and the Apress site need to be rewritten and that we can expect the same structure as the previous books with the third edition. Yeah! Can't wait to get my preordered copy!
I'm glad you were right Anton and that I was worried for nothing :)
Cool
That makes two of us :)
The major difference (at this
The major difference (at this time) is that the 2nd edition has been released and I'm still eagerly awaiting the release of Pro Drupal 7 Development, 3rd Edition.
According to this page it's out there and "it has already reached 29th in Amazon's list of most popular books on Internet tools": http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/press/drupal-development-3rd-edition,...
I'd like all that to be true, but Amazon still doesn't think that the book has been published :))
Having a release date would be nice though, Apress says "Will Publish Nov 2010" and that's it.
I'm the author
I just wanted to answer some of the questions everyone has asked about the book. I am the author of Pro Drupal Development 3rd edition. The book ended up at nearly 700 pages. John is still listed as it is Apress' policy to list the original author of a book on all subsequent versions of that book. John did review the 3rd edition but I did all the writing. I rewrote a significant portion of the book. There were minor sections where the information still fit, but for the most part its nearly a total rewrite. I did follow the same chapter structure as PDD 1 and 2 - just so that all of us who use the book on the daily basis could easily find the information in the new version. I rewrite nearly all of the examples, added examples, and added new chapters. I expanded on several sections as I know that growing up on Drupal the 1st and 2nd lacked information in a few key areas. The book is now (mid-December 2010) available as the ebook version on the Apress website and the print version is in the distribution channel and is being shipped. It should be in the book stores - physically on the shelf - in the next week (last week of December 2010).
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Todd Tomlinson
Author and Drupalista
You can also listen to my Acquia podcast about the book
http://acquia.com/resources/podcasts/acquia-podcast-23-todd-tomlinson-pr...
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Todd Tomlinson
Author and Drupalista
Now that I have the book on
Now that I have the book on my shelf for some time (not literally, because I'm still using it a lot), I'd like to thank for your work put into writing it. The book was worth every cent.
thank you
Disapointing Edition
[EDIT] I am removing my negative comments about this book. After months of using it and realizing that this post comes up early when searching for the book, I have to admit that while it might not be as polished as the previous two editions, this book has turned out to be very helpful again and again.