Plone 3 Multimedia

The material covered in Plone 3 Multimedia by Tom Gross from Packt Publishing is a bit broader than I expected.  I was expecting an introduction to Plone4Artists and information on how to include pictures, audio files, video files, and flash in your Plone site.  These are all there, comprising chapters 2-5.  But the book also goes a step further, discussing topics that would also be of interest to those building sites that are multimedia heavy, including content categorization, maps, content syndication, and the best ways to store your multimedia content in Plone.

The book provides a great overview of what is available for Plone.  It covers all of the products that I already knew of and introduced me to a few that I had not yet heard of.  It can be useful to a wide range of skill levels, parts of it being suitable for Plone novices and other parts requiring a more intermediate level of Plone and Zope knowledge.

Again, I would have liked to have seen at least some mention of Plone 4 here.  The information here is all great, but I would love to get a taste of what the future holds, particularly when the future is so immediate.

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Plone 3 Products Development Cookbook

Plone 3 Products Development Cookbook by Juan Pablo Giménez and Marcos F. Romero from Packt Publishing provides practical information on how to create a Plone product from beginning to end.  It says on the cover that it provides “quick answers to common problems,” but it actually does quite a bit more than that.  It also provides you with tools that will help in making product development more effective.

I come to this book as someone who has used Plone for many years, but would like to learn more about developing products for Plone.  In addition to providing step by step instructions for common product creation tasks, the book also provides information on debugging tools, creating tests for your products, and packaging your products for distribution.

So far, the book has held up to practical tests as well.  It was able to help someone in our office, who had never created a custom content type before, create a new content type quickly and easily.  We’re thinking of using the book in our monthly Plone meetings to help the people who come to our group get up to speed in the creation of content types.

If there is one problem with this book, it is that it is for Plone 3 when Plone 4 will be released soon.  Much of what is here will still be useful, but there will be some changes.  Of course, writing a book like this, you will always we trying to hit a moving target.  Still, I would have liked to have seen a chapter at the end on what was coming in Plone 4 and what we could have expected to be different.

But, as I’ve said, this book has already proved its usefulness to me.  I would highly recommend it.

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Packt Publishing Giveaways

Packt has publshed two books on Plone this month, Plone 3 Products Development Cookbook and Plone 3 Multimedia.  I have a copy of each of these books on my desk right now and I will be posting reviews as soon as I get through them.  Packt has also told me that they would be entering into a draw anyone who happens to make a purchase of these books within the first 2 weeks of its publishing date for a chance of winning an iTunes voucher/Amazon Gift Card.  They are also willing to give away one eBook each of the two titles above, as long as the recipient is willing to review the book for their blog or website.  If you would like to review either of these books, please post a comment, and I will see if I can get an eBook to you.  It will be first come, first served.  Here’s some information, on the Packt website, about the special offers on Plone books.

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Three Great Books About Plone

So far this year, three great books about the Plone content management system have been published. All of these books have received fantastic reviews — and have proven valuable to Plone users and developers alike.

The first book is Plone 3 Theming, by Veda Williams. A ONE/Northwest Web Developer, Veda also writes about theming documentation on plone.org. In her book, she concisely conveys her expertise on the subject of theming and leads readers through a step-by-step process to customizing a Plone site.

Subjects covered include:

• designing quality themes with Plone 3

• creating an effective development environment

• fundamentals of skinning

• using add-on tools

• customizing viewlets and portlets

If you’re interested in reading Plone 3 Theming, you can  download the e-book or order a printed copy from Packt.

The second book, Practical Plone 3, takes a broader approach to comprehending Plone. Authored by a collection of the greatest minds in the Plone open source community, this book gives readers a clear understanding of how to use the CMS to meet their needs. Specifically, the authors show non-technical users how to customize Plone using its point-and-click feature instead of code.

The book covers:

• understanding the latest features of Plone 3

• customizing a Plone template for a unique website

• creating and managing web content (pages, files, news items, events, etc.)

• creating users, groups and permissions

• mastering workflow and security systems to maintain control of content

• deploying a site, configuring caching, and connecting to an LDAP/Active Directory repository

Like Plone 3 Theming, you can also download the Practical Plone 3 e-book or order a printed copy form Packt.

The third and final book is the second edition of The Definitive Guide to Plone. Like the first edition, the latest edition is divided into three parts: using, configuring, and customizing. The book includes case studies that demonstrate Plone’s ability to handle a wide range of requirements while maintaining an easy-to-use interface.  This book is a must-have for anyone wishing to expand their knowledge of the Plone content management system.

The book covers:

• Plone development fundamentals
• Understanding Plone design and architecture
• Integrating Plone with other applications
• Optimizing and improving the performance of Plone sites
• Creating and using workflow

Purchase The Definitive Guide to Plone, Second Edition through Arpess.com.

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