Using Joomla - Severdia and Crowder
Severdia, Ron & Kenneth Crowder. (2010). Using Joomla. Cambridge: O'Reilly.
This is the first Joomla title that I am aware of from O'Reilly, and I was interested in checking it out for that reason alone.
The publisher describes this as suitable for introductory/intermediate users with some basic HTML and/or CSS skills. As someone who teaches Joomla development, I was a little suspicious. After spending some time with Using Joomla, however, I would have to agree that this is an excellent book for non-developers, but with a couple of caveats.
Chapter 2 suggests to readers that installing Joomla with Fantastico is an excellent option, and I couldn't disagree. The downside to this approach is that not all hosts will provide the most current version of Joomla. This may pose some security risks to your site, but if you're more of a hobbyist than relying on Joomla as a business-critical site, that may not be a problem. Chapter 2 also briefly discusses how to install Joomla using FTP, as well as provides an overview of the technical environment needed to run Joomla. In a future edition, I would recommend either eliminating this information (it's too simplistic to be very helpful) or providing more useful links to additional information. For example, providing a link to mysql.com as a reference point to MySQL compatibility isn't going to be terribly useful. As a beginning user I primarily need to know how to find out this information.
Across every chapter, Severdia and Crowder do an excellent job of explaining the functionality of every administrative aspect of Joomla. Further, they provide succinct explanations of every setting imaginable, and the book's index is thoughtful and well-organized.
One strange aspect of an otherwise excellent book is that the cover teases: Includes Joomla 1.6. First, be warned that this amounts to 8 pages, including some beefy screenshots. This chapter most appropriately should have been prefaced with the fact that Joomla 1.6 is still in beta, and not yet ready for primetime. Period. If you want an overview of 1.6, the book does provide it, but Joomla.org offers a better description on their site.
While I wouldn't recommend this title to my students (or other developers), it's precisely the title that I want to hand to new Joomla Web site owners.