What Are the Best Joomla Books you should Read

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Joomla is an open-source free to use Content Management System used for creating web content. It has been written in PHP and uses MySQL database to store data. Joomla uses object focused programming techniques. Because of the several useful features it offers, it happens to be one of the most used CMS’s. You can create a fully functional website with support for features like multi-language, page caching and more.

Joomla isn’t quite difficult to work with and if you want you can easily understand about it through some good books. I have hand-picked some books for beginners and advanced web developers that will help them expand their knowledge on the subject.

1. Joomla 3 Explained: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Joomla 3

Author: Stephen Burge

Those that are new to Joomla should go for this book. Joomla 3 Explained will help you learn everything about Joomla from scratch. There are several examples, along with easy to understand steps that explain everything about the core concepts of Joomla 3.

Your Learning:

  • Basics of content management system and Joomla
  • Planning a Joomla website
  • Joomla installations
  • Content in Joomla
  • Editing content in Joomla
  • Joomla fields
  • Using the right menus for website
  • Joomla modules
  • Working with Joomla plugins
  • Adding Joomla extensions to website
  • Developing templates
  • Joomla users
  • Dealing with site management issues

2. Joomla! 3 Beginner’s Guide Second Edition

Author: Eric Tiggeler

You can build a professional-looking website without having any knowledge about CSS or HTML if you have this book to guide you. Joomla! 3 Beginner’s Guide Second Edition is an easy to follow book that will teach you how to build a website. From picking designs for your website to organizing content in the most effective way, this tells you everything about web development.

Your Learning:

  • Basics of web designing
  • How to install Joomla
  • Knowing Joomla in detail
  • Basics of web building
  • Content organization
  • Creating high-quality content – adding and editing articles
  • Creating beautiful home page – drawing traffic
  • Menu management
  • Extending Joomla
  • Working with templates to create beautiful design
  • SEO tips and techniques for website
  • Site security
  • Building multilingual websites

3. Learning Joomla! 3 Extension Development-Third Edition

Author: Tim Plummer

The author targets advanced web developers in this book. It is a detailed guide that teaches to develop plugins, components and modules using your creativity. The instructions are comprehensive and don’t leave any space for doubts or questions. If you wish to expand your knowledge on Joomla and learn about it in detail, then this is a perfect choice for you. Remember, you must have prior knowledge on HTML, PHP and CSS to be able to run through this book. However, you don’t need to know anything about Joomla before you read this book. You will be able to learn and explore everything about Joomla in this book.

Your Learning:

  • Extensions, types and tools
  • Everything about plugin development
  • Everything about module development
  • Everything about backend component development – there are 2 parts
  • Everything about front-end component development
  • How to maintain security for modules, plugins and components and to evade vulnerabilities
  • Extending component with modules and plugins

4. Joomla! 3 SEO and Performance

Author: Simon Kloostra

Websites SEO or Search Engine Optimization and speed cannot survive the internet. A website needs to be high on search engine page results to be seen by the target demographic. If you want to learn how to get there then Joomla! 3 SEO and Performance is your tool to a website that dominates the SERPs. The book speaks of the rudiments of SEO, along with several examples that will help you understand the whole concept of SEO and performance easily.

Your Learning:

  • Basics on how search engines work
  • Preparing your Joomla environment for installation
  • Global configuration of Joomla
  • Understanding metadata
  • URL structure
  •  Header tags
  • Optimization of anchor text and internal links
  • Image optimization
  • Use of rick snippets/structured data
  • How to avoid duplicate content
  • 404 errors and pages
  • Robots.txt file
  • Sitemaps
  • Simple SEO extension for websites

5. Creating a Real Estate Website with Joomla! 3 and Intellectual Property: Open Source Real Estate Websites Made Easy

Author: Northwind Press

This book is exclusively for those that are looking to gain knowledge on building a website on real estate or property management without having to hire a web developer. The book is precise yet comprehensive and gives you all the necessary steps that will help you create a contemporary, SEO friendly and professional website. The book shows you how to use easy yet efficient functions on Joomla while you are building your website. Someone with general computer skills and the inclination to learn will be able to absorb everything from the books. A web developer who is looking forward to ideas and concepts of creating a unique real estate website can also read this book.

Your Learning:

  • Fundamentals of Joomla
  • Downloading and installing Joomla
  • How to set up Joomla in the server
  • Selecting the theme that best suits the website’s requirement
  • How to modify templates
  • How to use plugins that help in website management
  • How to publish content
  • Content management

6. Programming Joomla Plugins: All You Ever Wanted to Know About Joomla Plugins

Author: Jisse Reitsma

The book tells everything you need to know about building plugins in Joomla. Once you are through with the book, you will have the knowledge of writing plugins from scratch. Both beginners and advanced developers can read the book. It takes care of all the plugin types that are available on Joomla.

Your Learning:

  • Different types of plugins in Joomla
  • How to convert an idea into writing working plugins
  • How to Plan Design Patterns
  • Working with autoloaders
  • How to use PHPUnit to test the code
  • How to use Jform to create plugins

7. Advanced Joomla! (Expert’s Voice in Web Development)

Author: Dan Rahmel

If you want to understand the advanced concepts of Joomla in a simplified way, then this is the book that you would want to read. The book explains about all the advanced ways to customize Joomla. It is a very practical and explanatory book that helps you in learning all about administration, creation of templates and building extensions. It also dives deeper into advanced functions where you can learn the integration of blogs, social networking, web services, etc. in Joomla.

Your Learning:

  • How to customize Joomla using widgets
  • How to build a dynamic template
  • Usage of template overrides
  • How to use Ajax and Javascript to load page elements dynamically
  • Learning about Joomla security administration
  • Joomla Database Configuration and Administration
  • How to test a site with Selenium, JMeter
  • How to create core extensions
  • How to connect Joomla and Facebook

These books are excellent to develop your knowledge about Joomla. All those who are already working with Joomla as advanced developers or those that wish to learn more about it should definitely read these books. The books are knowledgeable and will teach you several interesting things that you can do on Joomla to make your website more interactive. There is immense information waiting to be explored in these books that will guide you in building and maintain a flourishing website.