Pro Drupal Development

Pro Drupal Development is strongly recommended for any PHP programmer who wants a truly in-depth look at how Drupal works and how to make the most of it.

? Michael J. Ross, Web developer/Slashdot contributor

Drupal is one of the most popular content management systems in use today. With it, you can create a variety of community-driven sites, including blogs, forums, wiki-style sites, and much more. Pro Drupal Development was written to arm you with knowledge to customize your Drupal installation however you see fit. The book assumes that you already possess the knowledge to install and bring a standard installation online. Then authors John VanDyk and Matt Westgate delve into Drupal internals, showing you how to truly take advantage of its powerful architecture.

Youll learn how to create your own modules, develop your own themes, and produce your own filters. You'll 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. Of course, your Drupal-powered site isnt effective until you can efficiently serve pages to your visitors. As such, the authors have included the information you need to optimize your Drupal installation to perform well under high-load situations. Also featured is information on Drupal security and best practices, as well as integration of Ajax and the internationalization of your Drupal web site. Simply put, if you are working with Drupal at all, then you need this book.

This book is written by Drupal core developers. Drupal architecture and behavior are mapped out visually. Common pitfalls are identified and addressed. Chapters provide regular discussion and reference to why things work they way they do, not just how. The front matter features a foreword by Dries Buytaert, Drupal founder.

User review
Pro Drupal Development Review
Pro Drupal Development is well written and very informative. with easy to follow directions included within the chapters.

The book does assumes that you have experience with Drupal, it is not a how-to-book for the beginning user. If you have some experience working with CSS, HTML and file structure, this book can assist you in developing themes, modules, menus and much more.

User review
This book are imprescindible for all developers.
I believe that this book are very good. All drupal developers have to had a copy of this, as a handbook. Are perfect for complete the drupal development documentation.

User review
Highly recommended
I own 3 Drupal 6 books, and this is by far the most useful and informative. As a software engineer, I immediately grasped the fundamentals of Drupal within the first 2 chapters.

User review
Don't Buy This Book, Buy the Second Edition
I have a waste of paper in my hands. Although this book was great for Drupal 5, we are now are in Drupal 6(6.4 as of today) and this book is useless. I now have to go to the store and buy the second edition. Sad but worth it.

User review
Another very disappointing publisher
Note that the first edition of this book covers Drupal 5 and thus if you (like me) want to use this book with Drupal 6 you're out of luck. Already the first example will not work as expected with Drupal 6. This wouldn't so much of a frustration if a publisher would be very clear on this. I've had the same with a book by Packt Publishing on Drupal. No clear mentioning on the version the book intends to describe. Note that I bought this book when Drupal 6.x was already around for some time.

I guess the bottom line is that when you buy any books from these guys, you'd better check for which version of the software it was written and if tha's the version you expect. If you don't; chances are that the book is outdated the moment it reaches you.