[opencms-dev] "Managing and Customizing OpenCms 6" book will bereleased soon

[Jonathan Woods]

Matt -
 
Congratulations on getting the book out of the door.  Maybe I should buy it
for my current client, and save myself the effort of writing a short user
manual!  And nice to e-mail you in person - I enjoyed "Building Websites..."
and found it invaluable in the early days (about six intense and Java-filled
months ago).
 
I'd be interested in contributing to the developer-centred book.  I'm an
experienced Java developer, a good communicator, and (now) very familiar
with certain aspects of OpenCms internals.  I'm just finishing development
of a module which integrates more generic Lucene searching with the
collector framework, and if this e-mail is of interest to you I'll send you
a link to the web site incorporating it  - once it's live in a couple of
weeks' time.
 
Again, if it's of interest I can mail you a few ideas about topics I think
it would be valuable to cover.  For a starter, it's clear from mailings to
the list that the OpenCms documentation lacks any big picture of how it all
fits together.  It would be really great if there were a chapter setting
this out - hopefully with real pictures, not just ad hoc code examples - and
perhaps taking the developer through the lifecycle of a typical OpenCms
instance plus the philosophy behind OpenCms configuration.
 
Jon

  _____  

From: opencms-dev-bounces at opencms.org
[mailto:opencms-dev-bounces at opencms.org] On Behalf Of TechnoSophos
Sent: 30 May 2006 21:36
To: The OpenCms mailing list
Subject: [opencms-dev] "Managing and Customizing OpenCms 6" book will
bereleased soon


All,

I wanted to let you know that the new book "Managing and Customizing OpenCms
6" will be released in June. This book is a sort of update of the "Building
Websites with OpenCms" book, but with a more inclusive audience in mind.

While the last book was geared toward the developer, this one is geared more
toward users and administrators. The approach is a little more basic than
the last book. I walk the reader through a task in a step-by-step fashion
instead of assuming that the reader knows how to get around OpenCms. This
book should be a comfortable introduction to someone new to OpenCms, and it
should also provide a wealth of reference material for more sophisticated
OpenCms users. I have also provided more details on administering OpenCms,
so this book should be of interest to system admins, too.

No Java coding knowledge is necessary, and I even try to keep the XML and
HTML examples to a minimum (only chapter 6 requires HTML coding knowledge,
and this chapter introduces JSP tag libs).

As usual, I cover the basics of OpenCms and the process of installing and
configuring. I cover the Explorer in a way that should be comfortable for a
new OpenCms user. In later portions of the book, I cover the Administration
and Workflow views in detail (more detail, in fact, than the previous book).


I also cover the basic taglibs (in chapter 6), though I don't do much
serious coding. The goal is to give the reader the tools necessary for
creating his or her own templates and simple JSP elements without requiring
the reader to learn Java (or even complex JSPs) first. I have made an effort
to cover the new tags introduced in OpenCms 6.2 (namely, the <cms:img/> tag
and the <cms:decorator/> tag).

Keep in mind that some of the royalties from this book go back to Alkacon to
help generate the revenue needed to keep OpenCms flourishing.

The official book site is here:
http://www.packtpub.com/OpenCMS6_admin/book
(Code from the book will be posted there shortly, as will samples from
chapters of the book)

The new developer-centered OpenCms book is in the works. In order to really
make this book stand out, I was hoping to get other serious OpenCms
developers involved, too -- writing perhaps a chapter or two on topics like
writing advanced templates, coding modules, and combining OpenCms with other
Java applications. If you are interested, send me an (off-list) email.

Thanks,

Matt Butcher

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://webmail.opencms.org/pipermail/opencms-dev/attachments/20060530/9c1f3865/attachment.htm>