WordPress Top Plugins is rather unique book published by Packt Publishing. Book is written by Brandon Corbin, and it contains description and examples of use for some of the most popular WordPress plugins in use with introduction chapter on working with plugins in WordPress.
WordPress Top Plugins on Packt Publishing Website.
Book Contents
First chapter deals with plugin basics including searching for and installing the plugins from WordPress.org plugins repository both auto install through WordPress interface and manual installing over FTP. This is followed by information on updating the plugins and troubleshooting common problems.
Plugins are divided into chapters according to plugins category and usage. First category is for content generating plugins and it starts with my own GD Star Rating plugin and some practical advises on changing thumb/star rating display. Gallery, tags, and other content plugins, forms and content scrappers are part of this chapter.
Next two chapters are for sharing content and style plugins, and here I have found several great plugins I never tried before. Overall, very good choice of plugins. Next chapter focuses on BuddyPress: setting the plugin, specific themes and plugins.
E-commerce plugins are next, followed by user related plugins. Security, maintenance and administration plugins end this book.
Verdict
For the most part, choice of plugins is good, and as I said, I have found myself several plugin new too me that I will surely try and use in my projects. Content for each plugin ranges from simple description to solutions for some common problems with that specific plugin. This is really handy for some complex plugins like CForms or some of the e-commerce solutions.
All plugins in the book are free, no premium/commercial plugins are included, and that is the something that such book really needs. Also, there are no SEO plugins in the book, and that is really strange decision not to include them. Last chapters on maintenance and security are missing some important plugins and on the other hand included are plugins that don’t even work with most WordPress versions, and are long time outdate. My own GD Press Tools Lite plugin is missing, and compared to most other plugins included, it’s much easier to use and more powerful.
But, even with the few problems, this is very useful book for WordPress beginners and even experienced users can find it interesting and find some interesting plugins inside.
Buy the book
You can get both PDF and print edition of this book from Packt directly, or you can buy print edition from the Amazon.
Win a free copy of this book
I would like to say thanks to Packt Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book for this review, and also giving one more copy of the book for one lucky reader. Starting today, for the next 10 days you have a chance to win this book by leaving a comment or sending the tweet about this review. On Monday, January 24 at 14:00 CET I will announce the winner that will be picked up randomly from all comments and tweets:
- Leave a comment here and talk about jQuery, or
- Tweet about this review follow and include @milangd in the tweet
Lucky winner is getting PDF version WordPress Top Plugins from Packt Publishing.
Giveaway completed
Winner of PDF version of the book WordPress Top Plugins is @NiceThai. Congratulations!
