"WordPress Complete" by Hasin Hayder provides a
comprehensive overview of the tool in a step-by-step manner. Chapter 1 examines
the basics of blogging with reference to other popular blog softwares such as
Drupal and Expression Engine. Chapter 2 demonstrates the complete steps
involved in the installation of the software. The next chapter provides a nice
overview of Themes. The author points out the factors that have to be
considered while choosing a theme, which I hope will help readers a lot.
Chapters 4 and 5 provide a comprehensive coverage of the
management of content (both blog and non-blog), the aspects involved with RSS
feeds and integration of podcasts into the posts. The author delves deep into
the development of themes in Chapter 7. I feel that this chapter will help
users create their own themes according to their taste and preferences without
depending upon other free themes. Chapter 8 provides a short coverage of the
management of users and other permission related issues.
Chapter 9 provides a deep insight of Plugins, which are the
core elements of WordPress. The author also examines the usage of hooks. It includes
a coverage of widgets creation although it is now outdated as WordPress 2.3
includes built-in support for them. The final chapter basically provides a
comprehensive reference for administrators and it includes topics such as
upgrading, installing multiple copies on the same database, troubleshooting
tips and the procedure to backup the installation.
The book does not examine the integration of Social
Bookmarking and Google Adsense using various plugins, which I feel is little
disappointing. Readers should know how to monetize their blogs which will
enable them to generate revenue. I would suggest the author provides a chart of
important plugins and themes along with the relevant web address so that readers
can instantly fine tune their blogs with them.
A big asset of the book is that the author has covered both
plug-in and theme development in a comprehensive manner, which will surely help
developers. From my point of view, the author should maintain a website for
posting updates and ideas about the new plug-ins and themes for the benefit of
readers.
