Over Promiss, under deliver
This book is typical of computer books today, more fluff, half the book is about how to use PhpBB, a fourth is dedicated to a very few of the nuts and bolts of making Modifications to a template to make it met your needs. It as well as a lot of COMPUTER books, is closer to a sham and is a shame for the price. Save your money, I wish there was a book that would definitively tell you what you need to REALLY modify a base template, let alone how to build one from scratch. The back cover like lots of computer books offers to show you the way to meaningful insight on the subject, but alas is to get you to part with your dollars for naught. IF any one knows of a GOOD overview of this subject and a better book please give us poorer( for buying the book) souls a hint.
Not a beginners book
The authors assume the reader has a fairly sophisticated level of general computer knowledge. If you are not comfortable roaming around the directory structure of your computer then this isn't for you.
After that caveat, the authors want you to also download and configure other [free] software that is not directly related to phpbb, but aids in the installation and management of phpbb. If there are problems with this software it is left to you to solve them using any available resources - usually FAQ's and other help files from whence the free software came.
As for the ease of use - The authors needed a good technical author and editor. There are assumptions made that you should know some piece of information that is either left out or glossed over in this text. In my experience, good, complete step-by-step procedures are always spelled out in detail in a beginners book. Not so here.
The index seems to be woefully lacking in detail. Major topics are covered, but you still have to search through individual pages on those topics to find esoteric specifics.
The above criticism notwithstanding, within two hours of the book's delivery I was able to troubleshoot and repair a nagging problem on the board I am setting up.
So the technical information is there, just do not expect this to be a beginners text. It ain't "phpBB for Dummies!"
A valuable resource to those building on line communities
"Building on line Communities with phpBB2" is one of the few technical books on its kind that keeps up with what it promises. That is to offer "practical guidance for someone to get the most from phpBB".
The book provides practical examples and hands on advice on issues like installation and configuration, administration, development of themes and styles, creation of MOD's and more.
Beginners with basic technical knowledge will benefit the most since they will be able to start deploying their on line community after the first couple of chapters.
As a teacher and consultant to several businesses and organizations i have found this book to be a valuable resource to anyone aiming to build and grow an on line community
a fantastic book
phpBB book covers topics for beginners to advanced users, if you want to jumpstart or customize your forum, this book is for you. Authors went through almost every features of phpBB.
I specially like their writing style and user friendly examples. The installation, requirement before installation and fixing problems (that may occur sometime) after installation and covered well.
If you are a moderator, it's time for you to rock. Administrative features are described well. It also describes administrator roles and tasks.
Developing mods and Hacks, customization of themes seems so much intersting to me. Authors did a great job! I really like this book very much.
Great Book for beginers and experts.
So I went ahead and got this book, just because I am a phpBB fiend. To be honest I was not expecting much out of it. I figured there is not much about phpBB you can write about. However I was pleasantly surprised. This book is a great resource for both the beginner and more advanced users. I learned a couple cool tricks that I did not know before.
For the beginner, it is a great step by step instruction on getting up and running, even explaining how to install MODs and templates. Many of the questions asked in the support forum at phpbb.com are answered in the book, there would be far fewer support posts if people read this book first.
For the more advanced user it is a great reference book. It contains everything you need to know for making a new template. It has a lot of great reference charts like what files do what, and the database structure. It also has a pretty good chapter on custom programing complete with references to many of the variables and functions phpBB makes available.
The only complaint I have is the price. But I feel all computer books are overpriced.
