Book Review: MediaWiki Administrators’ Tutorial Guide

Packt Publishing sent me a copy of MediaWiki Administrators’ Tutorial Guide for review. MediaWiki is the open source wiki software that powers Wikipedia.org. Many organizations, including mine, use MediaWiki to power their own wikis. The book is a bit incoherent at times and needs polishing, but it had some good sections and introduced me to several new features of MediaWiki.

The title is a misnomer since the first half of the book addresses MediaWiki basics, topics with which an “administrator” should already be familiar. Besides chapter 2, which covers installation, it’s not until Chapter 7 (”Administrating MediaWiki”) that the book really begins to address administrative topics. In a few places the book even suggests that you “request an administrator” (sic) to complete a certain task. (Wait, I thought I was the administrator?) The book might more aptly be called “The MediaWiki User and Administrator’s Guide.”

These are the chapters:

• Chapter 1 - About MediaWiki
• Chapter 2 - Installing MediaWiki
• Chapter 3 - Starting MediaWiki
• Chapter 4 - Advanced Formatting
• Chapter 5 - Organizing Content
• Chapter 6 - MediaWiki in a Multi-User Environment
• Chapter 7 - Administrating MediaWiki
• Chapter 8 - Customizing MediaWiki
• Chapter 9 - Hacking MediaWiki
• Chapter 10 - MediaWiki Maintenance
• Chapter 11 - Cool Hacks

There were a few instances of gushing praise for wiki software that seemed untempered and unsubstantiated. These weakened the book, as if the book were fighting for legitimacy. For example, the introduction states, “If we think a forum, blog, and CMS are easy solutions for this, then a wiki will be an even easier solution for the problem.” (p. 9) Not a line you’d use to sell MediaWiki door to door. After explaining how to edit a page (again, is that necessary for an administrator?) it reads, “Can editing be simpler than that? I don’t think so.” (p. 15) An administrator’s guide doesn’t need to preach the virtues of the software — administrators are already sold — but if it attempts this, the claims should be specific and backed by evidence, not sweeping and general. If the book were to explain that “X percentage of users prefer wiki software because of Y and Z” or “wiki software isn’t right for every situation, but it’s great for A and B,” the administrator might actually have some ammunition with which to sell wiki software to users and decision makers.

Chapter 6 addresses using MediaWiki in a multi-user environment. I think this should be assumed from the beginning. Again, wiki software is not universally superior to all other blogging or CMS packages. It should be assumed that MediaWiki will be used for multi-user collaboration since that’s where it excels. It shouldn’t be an afterthought.

I found several typos and awkwardly written sentences. The editing team should have done another pass over the book.

The book taught me several new things about MediaWiki, including the following:

• Interwiki links, page 61 — “Using interwiki links, we can create links to other sites on the Internet. This gives users the option to avoid pasting in entire URLs (as for regular web pages) and instead use shorthand by adding a prefix to another wiki.”
• External images, page 67 — Use $wgAllowExternalImages = true; then write something like this: [http://www.packtpub.com http://www.packtpub.com/images/PacktLogoSmall.png]
• Definition Lists, page 75 — “To indicate a definition term, use a semi colon at the beginning of the line. To indicate the definition, use a colon….”
• Creating a gallery, page 100 — You can create pages with four columns of image thumbnails.
• Magic Words, page 107 — “Magic words [like NOTOC or NOEDITSECTION] are a few reserved words that are used for special purposes in MediaWiki. They are used to create special types of formatting.”
• Using Sort Keys to Sort Category Listings, page 121 — Category listings are sorted alphabetically by first letter. With sort keys you can cause specific categories to appear out of the usual order.

Administrators and developers will like the sections on how to use templates (p. 122), how to create a new skin (p. 208), and how to write MediaWiki extensions (p. 226).

I would have liked more information on these topics:

• Subversion (SVN) usage and best practices
• Database internals
• Memcached
• Administering multiple installations of MediaWiki (wiki farms)

This book could conceivably be two. After being thoroughly proofread and polished to match the audience, the first half of the book could be a great resource for MediaWiki users. The second half, expanded to include the above topics, would be well suited for a MediaWiki administrator.

• Richard K Miller
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Book Review: Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP

As part of my research for last Thursday’s UPHPU meeting about search engine optimization, I reviewed a new book:  Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP: A Developer’s Guide to SEO by Jaimie Sirovich, Cristian Darie, published in April 2007 by Wrox. In my opinion, SEO should be a part of every developer’s training. The book covers all the basics, debunks a few myths, advises on how to avoid black hat SEO attacks, talks about foreign language SEO, and rounds out with chapters including an e-commerce case study and SEO for WordPress.

You can find a more detailed review of Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP at designsimply.com.

• Sheri Bigelow
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ZEND PHP 5 Certification Study Guide

I recently picked up a copy of the “ZEND PHP 5 Certification Study Guide” by php|architect. I have not yet finished it, however thus far I have liked it enough to want to tell other people about it.

The book is around 250 pages long (short by most standards). To this point I have found that this book is a good way to brush up on things I already knew and learn some things that I did not. I am personally using the book to help me study for the PHP 5 certification. However, certification or not, it is turning out to be an excellent tool for honing my skills. It has the added benefit of showing me areas that I need to work on as well as indicating to myself how much about PHP I really know.

I would recommend this book to the PHP programmer of any level.

• SunSparc
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Essential PHP Security

I recently finished reading Essential PHP Security by Chris Shiflett (O’Reilly). It was a good, quick read, and for me it was mostly a review of principles I had previously read on Chris’s blog. The main principles are filter input and escape output. Using separate arrays for each kind of data is a best practice:

// filter input and assign it to the “$clean” array
if (ctype_alnum($_POST[’name’]))
    $clean[’name’] = $_POST[’name’];

// escape HTML output with htmlentities()
$html[’name’] = htmlentities($clean[’name’], ENT_QUOTES);
echo “You entered the name $html[name].”;

// escape MySQL output with mysql_real_escape_string()
$mysql[’name’] = mysql_real_escape_string($clean[’name’]);
mysql_query(”INSERT INTO table (name) VALUES (’$mysql[name]’)”);

After reading the book I was only left with one question: is HTTP Authentication over SSL fairly secure? (I assumed it would be.) I emailed Chris with my question and he responded quickly in the affirmative. Thanks, Chris.

• Richard K Miller
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Ajax in action

The book takes an excellent approach in explaining both how AJAX works, and how it can be wielded. For example, the authors chose very practical and useful applications that developers could easily find themselves coding for a client. Example projects include advanced HTML forms, type-ahead suggestions, a desktop interface, and search engine.

“Ajax is a growing new technology at the time of this writing and we’re delighted to bring you the low down on it, in the inimitable style of Manning’s In Action series. In doing so, though, we faced an interesting problem. Although Ajax is indisputably hot, it isn’t rally new. It isn’t a really a technology, either…”

The advent of Rich Internet Applications is a result of a harmony of several web disciplines. While there are several ways to create RIA, Ajax is certainly in the forefront.

While AJAX is the soup d’jour, the authors are also very caution to explain the security risks of AJAX and devoted a whole chapter to concerns you will want to consider.

This is my first experience with this publisher and these authors, but I found this book to be less rigid than many other technical books I have read. Truth told, I felt the book was written more in a conversational style and was able to gleam more of the information I wanted easier and faster through their approach.

All things being equal, you should have a good understanding of JavaScript and XML before approaching AJAX in general. I’m not saying you to have achieved Jedi Master status, but padawans may have some difficulty.

I’d recommend this book

M

Ajax In Action
By:
Dave Crane
Eric Pascarello
Darren James
Published by Manning

• mindjuju
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Spring into PHP5

“Spring into PHP5″ is a new book from Addison-Wesley’s series “Spring into…”. The book is written by Steven Hotzner; an author with many books in his line of credits. If you are new to PHP5 this might be a great book to check out.

I just got a copy of the new book from Steven Holzner entitled “Spring into PHP 5″. The “Spring into” is a new series of books coming from Addison-Wesley publication. You can check it out at Addison-Wesley for more information on additional titles in the series. First, let me give some back ground on Steven Holzner. I first heard about Steven in the Java programming world. With more than 88 books to his list of publications, he has extensive experience in teaching and software development.

Now lets get into the book. As with all my reviews the first thing i like to do is check out the table of contents for anything that catches my eye. Sure enough, there is a couple of chapters that really stood out; chapter 6 Creating Web Forms and Validation User Input and Chapter 7 Object Oriented Programming and File Handling. As I preceded to read through chapter 6 i noticed that the book has a very, and i mean, very simplistic approach. The book is written for new PHP users that want to get started with PHP5. However, as I read through the book I noticed that the book does not cover many of the new features that PHP5 has to offer. For example, the book does not really have any coverage of interfaces and the new XML features. The book does a great job in covering basic PHP functionality and only devotes chapter 7 to Object Oriented Programming.

Some of the good items to discuss about the book is that it is simple and provides simple examples for users just learning PHP. The author does not spend any time focusing on the theory behind PHP and web based programming. For me this is a negative aspect of the book, but can be a positive aspect for a user just wanting to get down to using PHP with no interest in the workings of PHP. The examples and very simple and the Steven does a great job explaining the examples in detail for the reader.

Overall, I feel “Spring into PHP5″ is a decent book for a new user just starting out with PHP5. However, with the lack of real PHP5 chapters and the weakness of chapter 7, I think that a new user can find a book that goes into great detail about PHP5 and the new object oriented engine that it contains. For a user that wants simple examples with a simple and easy to understand layout this book does the trick.

• thebigdog
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Linux Quick Fix Notebook

If you are at all interested in Linux, this is one book that you really must have in your library. It is a book that you atleast need to check out.

I recently had the opportunity to review a new book in the Bruce Perens’ Open Source Series entitled “Linux Quick Fix Notebook”by Peter Harrison. The book is definitely one to have in your library. The first thing I did when i received the book was open it up to the table of contents and searched out some advanced topics that I have been looking to read. Topics like wireless networks, iptables, and LVMs to name a few. I was impress to see those topics and more advanced topics like software raids, LDAP and Radius, and linux vpns. Harrison wrote the book to follow a simple pattern of providing real answers to questions ranging from the most basic to advanced.

One of the first sections of the book that I read was “Expanding Disk Capacity”. In searching the table of contents this was one section that really caught my eye. My reasoning for selecting this section is two fold: first, I wanted to see if the book could be used as a reference to various topics; and second, because I wanted to check out some of the advanced topics covered in the book. Peter Harrison does a fanatastic job of focusing on the topic at hand and providing simple and intellegient instruction to your questions. The flow of the book allows you to pick it up and start with a section and just move through it.

As I started reading the book, I noticed that the progression of the topics moved in an orderly fashion that a system administrator would follow. It allowed the basic administrator to start from the beginning and progress to an advanced level of configuration, security and optimization. One item that I did not really like is the references to RedHat as the linux distro. Yet, I can agree with Peter, that many users will start out with this distro or one similar. I think that the topics are great, and my only regret is that there were not more topics to read about.

The book in its entirety is definitely a must have for any system administrator or software developer. Mr. Harrison provides valuable information in sizable chunks for the reader to manage. My only real critique would be to have a different layout in each topic. For example, in chapter 7 Peter discusses “The Linux Boot Process”. He does a great job of explaining and outlining the process. Still, I think that perhaps having sub-sections in the topics would allow readers to glean additional information. Like have a security, advanced, and optimization sub-sections to each topic.

All in all, Harrison does an exceptional job in bring many great topics into one book. Harrison’s style allows the reader to move forward or back without loosing momentum in the book. The reader can get quick answers to their questions.

• thebigdog
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Practical C++ Programming

Ok, I know this isn’t technically a PHP book. However, Ray was gracious enough to get me this book for review, and I believe the book offers techniques and advice to just about any programmer, not just for C++.

Practical C++ Programming, like most O’Reilly books, is a top-notch technical book, with a focus on beginning programmers, but with enough readability to serve more experienced C++ coders. Steve Oualline does a great job of mixing technical, aesthetic, and design advice, spattered with small, amusing anecdotes and miniature quizzes. He uses examples effectively to reinforce standard programming concepts and gently nudge the reader along the sometimes painful path of C++.

The best aspect of the book isn’t the technical knowledge passed along by Oualline; it’s the more abstract things he tackles that truly separate it from other C++ books, such as object orientated and procedural design practice, styling and naming conventions, and the tools of programming that many books miss: Makefiles and a brief overview of debugging utilities. It’s refreshing to read a book that takes such points into account, and I found myself nodding in agreement in these sections.

As far as technical material, Oualline keeps up-to-date by including sections on fairly new and complex topics such as namespaces, STL, and templates, without alienating the reader. He uses code often to explain various points, keeping most examples small, but building to larger snippets and build on previous chapters smoothly. The ‘C to C++’ chapter in particular was excellent, and I think even C++ programmers could benefit from a quick overview of this section.

All in all, Practical C++ is an excellent book as a supplement to your generic C++ reference book, especially for those new to C++ programming or just coding in general. However, I think many, more experienced, programmers could also benefit from his gems of wisdom on various topics that he sprinkles throughout the book. I’ve come to expect the best from O’Reilly, and, again, I wasn’t disappointed.

• Joshua Simpson
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The Zen of CSS Design

I just finished reading Zen of CSS Design, The: Visual Enlightenment for the Web by Dave Shea and Molly E. Holzschlag. For those that don’t recognize the name, Dave Shea is the “creator and cultivator of the highly influential CSS Zen Garden.” The book is well-written, interesting, and covers the subject well.

The way in which the book covers web design is both different and interesting. Instead of simply mechanically moving through lessons, the auther covers web design standards, principles, and technique� by using the conceptualization, birth, and life of the website CSS Zen Garden as a perpectual example. The result provides for interesting reading and for an excellent real-world example experience.

Another thing that makes this book different from many web development books is that it spends more time covering design theory than technical application. This to me is exciting, because even though it was very elementary to me personally, we always need to be reminded about the fundamental principles of design. This book will be of most value however to those just beginning their education in web design or those with a more technical background seeking to improve�or at least enhance their understanding or appreachiation of�good design.

What I found most interesting about the book was the history of Shea and his adventure with CSS Zen Garden. He descripes this interests with web design, web standards, and making a statement. It was interesting to follow the detailed process of organizing his efforts, putting the project together, and partaking of an insiders view of something that has been such a high profile event.

All-in-all, the book is a good read. It was quick, but effective. I did find the last half of the book to be a little repetative, but that might have been because the principles were already understood. Advanced CSS masters will find little value in the book technically, but the history of the web described in the biginning chapters and the story of the Zen Garden makes it still a worthwhile read. Novices and others looking to increase their knowledge of CSS and general web layout however, will be find� a collection of lessons and tutorials pulled from real page examples hosted online in the garden archives.

I was a little disappointed, but that is only because I was hoping to learn something new and not because the book was lacking. It was simply because the book is for a more entry-level audience�and for that it achieves it’s purpose well.

• wade
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Professional PHP5

This is an awesome book that I would highly recommend. I am the type of person who learns well by considering how things fit into the big picture. Professional PHP5 really does a great job of describing the issues of PHP software design in its most structured forms.

Professional PHP5 starts with PHP5 Object Orientation Programming (OOP) concepts and moves into the ideas of broad patterns and toolkits. They provide code you can tryout yourself; doing is of course the best way to learn.

You can build a tool kit with useful collection classes, generic object classes, communication classes, debugging classes, and abstract classes. You can learn the practical and ideal implementations of a Model View Controller pattern and Unit Testing. You can get a feel for SOAP, the finite state machine, and PHP session handling.

The book also has great tips and examples of project management, system design and planning, quality testing, and deployment.

It is a really great book for a wide audience, and I’d recommend it for serious PHP programmers.

View Amazon Summary �

• Ken Snyder
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