See the original announcement about Drupal: Creating Blogs, Forums, Portals, and Community Websites’s release in the Drupal news section.

Publisher’s description:

A complete guide to every aspect of creating a variety of different websites using Drupal.¿ A trove of well-considered and practical information is presented in a logical and intuitive manner so that you can either build up your site step by step by reading from cover to cover or, alternatively, focus on your specific needs by diving into each chapter as required. This book will suit anyone who has a need to create a content rich website. Whether you are: Adding a personal web page. Building a forum. Writing a collaborative book. Retailing goods. Creating a blog. Launching a community Website. This book will prove to be an indispensable companion. Both experts and beginners to computing alike will find the information contained herein to be accessible and easy to intuit.

See the original announcement about Pro Drupal Development’s release in the Drupal news section.

Publisher’s description:

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.

You’ll 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.
• Features a foreword by Dries Buytaert, Drupal founder.

See the original announcement about Drupal 5 Themes’s release in the Drupal news section.

Publisher’s description:

This book is the ideal introduction to theming with Drupal 5. If you want to create a striking new look for your Drupal website, this book is for you. Starting from the basics of theme setup and configuration, you will learn about the Drupal theming architecture and the PHPTemplate engine, and then move on to modifying existing themes and building new themes from scratch. Included is a complete guide to the various style sheets and themeable functions in Drupal 5, making this book a valuable resource to even experienced theme developers.

About the Author

Ric Shreves is a partner in water&stone, a web development company that specializes in open source content management systems. He works primarily as a consultant and business systems analyst is currently on extended assignment with Peace Dividend Trust. He lives in Bali with his wife Nalisa, one dog, two cats, three turtles and a mind-boggling number of fish. First and foremost, I thank my loving wife Nalisa for her support and patience. It would also be remiss of me to fail to acknowledge my friend (and editor at ComputerWorld) Stefan Hammond, who provides more than a modicum of support and encouragement—together with much-needed reality checks.

See the original announcement about Selling Online with Drupal e-Commerce’s release in the Drupal news section.

Publisher’s description:

This book will show you how to sell online using the award-winning open-source Drupal web application. No prior experience of Drupal is required; you will learn all you need as you step through the creation of an online shop. You will learn the basics of Drupal, and see how to use the standard features of Drupal to begin construction of an online shop, and improve the selling interface, handling of orders, and reporting with new modules and other customizations. This book is for people who want to start selling online as quickly as possible, and want to see how to use the proven Drupal platform to achieve this. The book is ideal for use in a small business with only basic in-house technical skills. It will also be useful for developers who not only want to create an e-commerce site, but also want a CMS platform for expanding the site in the future. No prior knowledge of Drupal is required. No PHP experience is expected, although it will be useful. Basic knowledge of e-commerce will also be useful, although the main concepts are introduced and covered as required.

About the Author

Michael Peacock is a web developer and senior partner of Peacock, Carter & Associates (http://www.peacockcarter.co.uk) a web design and development business. Michael loves building websites and web applications, and when he isn't, likes to read, watch films and occasionally take part in amateur dramatics.

See the original announcement about Drupal 5 Views Recipes’s release in the Drupal news section.

Publisher’s description:

This book will give you a long list of powerful recipes. Choose the ones that suit your needs and use them through step-by-step instructions. Most of the recipes are code-free, but a number of the recipes contain code snippets. This book is primarily written for Drupal site builders, administrators, and themers who want to develop custom content displays using Views. It can be used by anyone who has a Drupal 5 web site, including original site developers as well as people who have inherited a Drupal 5 site. Some knowledge of HTML and CSS is required; PHP basics will be handy for some of the recipes.

About the Author

Marjorie Roswell is a web developer from Baltimore, MD. She has been building web sites that serve the community for more than a decade. Marjorie developed a GIS system for assisting citizen callers to the Baltimore Office of Recycling, and has taught professional classes in desktop publishing, AutoCAD, and Drupal. While in college, Marjorie received the Betty Flanders Thomson Prize for Excellence in Botany. She now brings together her love of plants and Drupal to create BaltimoreUrbanAg.org, the web site for the Baltimore Urban Agriculture Task Force. Marjorie enjoys writing and playing music with a community of local musicians. You can hear some of her music at FriendlyCoffeehouse.org.

See the original announcement about Building Powerful and Robust Websites with Drupal 6’s release in the Drupal news section.

Publisher’s description:

This book updates the bestselling Drupal: Creating Blogs, Forums, Portals, and Community Websites, released for Drupal 4.7. David Mercer revisits the hugely popular Drupal CMS and expands, concentrates, and upgrades the original book to bring it line with the vastly improved latest version, Drupal 6. This book is for people with little or no experience in website design, people who are not familiar with PHP, MySQL or HTML, and above all people with little to no experience in using Drupal. Even intermediate Drupal users will find this book of interest although it is specifically aimed at pushing beginners up the learning curve.

About the Author

David Mercer was born in August 1976 in Harare, Zimbabwe. Having always had a strong interest in science, David came into regular contact with computers at university where he graduated cum laude with majors in applied math and math (although he minored in computer science).

As a programmer and professional writer who has been writing both code and books for about nine years, he has worked on a number of well known titles, in various capacities, on a wide variety of topics. His books have sold tens of thousands of copies and have been translated into over 6 different languages to date.

David finds that the challenges arising from the dichotomous relationship between the science (and art) of software programming and the art (and science) of writing is what keeps his interest in producing books piqued. He will no doubt continue to write professionally in the future.

David balances his time between programming, reviewing, writing, and contributing to interesting web-based projects such as RankTracer and LinkDoozer. When he isn't working (which isn't that often) he enjoys playing guitar (generally on stage and unrehearsed) and getting involved in outdoor activities ranging from touch rugby and golf to water skiing and snowboarding. Visit RankTracer or find him on LinkDoozer where he is generally lurking.