Simple Machines book?

[Tomás C.]

Hi,

Anyone know if is avaiable a simple machines book?

I mean, a book that teaches how to program themes/mods and how to customize the forum and that explains how everything works (not how to work but the tecnhical things) ? Do you know if there's such book that i can buy?=

thanks!

[Deaks]

why buy it its free and online to read

http://docs.simplemachines.org/

unfortunatley you cant download it

[Tomás C.]

Thanks for the speed answer. I see i have a lot to learn.

I don't mind pay because it it was like a tutorial with index was awesome.

The ideia was to carry it like a book.

There's no place do download it? I would really like to have it to download.

[Deaks]

the closest thing we have to a book is the Doc Site

[Tomás C.]

No one ever thinked of writing a book (like there are books for php) or at least some pdf's of 3rd party websites?

Anyway the doc site it's a start

[Marcus Forsberg]

Actually a book would be pretty interesting

[Simplemachines Cowboy]

Here is someones chance at the big time: "SMF for Dummies" !

[Tomás C.]

Exactly!

Please send me a pm if someone write tutorial / or smf for dummies, i'll pay for that 

[phpMyTony]

Lol. Why not print the pages off

[manofkent]

I would like a book.

I am in the process of selecting a forum to go with our existing website.

The documentation is always very poor  and does not go into any great detail.

I would love a book which explains what template did what and how I could customise the forum.

Also how to add adesense.

The link to the supposed documentation is very inadequate.

I would pay for a decent book too

[Marcus Forsberg]

Maybe I should write one

[青山 素子]

The documentation is always very poor  and does not go into any great detail.

I would love a book which explains what template did what and how I could customise the forum.

That would be rather difficult as there are a lot of themes on our theme site that do things their own way. If you just need to know about how the functions work, our graphics and templates board has information on how our "layer" system works.

Also how to add adesense.

Take the code Google gives you. Put it in the template at the location you want it to show.

The link to the supposed documentation is very inadequate.

What kind of things are you looking for that we can provide? We can't really go into heavy customization simply because there are thousands of ways to do things. It would be impossible to cover stuff.

I would pay for a decent book too

Would you pay for someone to write one? There is a lot of work that goes into making a good-quality book, often taking over a year after the initial writing is done. You'd also have to find a publisher that is willing to take the chance and actually publish the book (or go for a vanity press where the author would pay for each copy themselves and then sell it).

[DragonballZ]

^ there are always well argued reasons why something CANT be done.

meanwhile, we have information just scattered all over the place.


I second the idea of a SMF book. Why shouldnt a major project like this not have it's own book anyway?

It could be devoted to SMF2.0 instead of 1.1x and should be current for many years!

I'd certainly spend $10,$15 easy - vs this painful almost searching through the forums.

hxxp:www.imagechicken.com [nonactive]

In case anybody not getting me, I second (third,fourth?) the idea of a SMF book!

[Tomás C.]

Why shouldnt a major project like this not have it's own book anyway?[/b]

Nas, go for it!

I would pay  $20 for it! And even promote it between my webmaster friends!

[TheDisturbedOne]

Parse errors are fun...and yummy. I had two for dinner and another sprinkled over ice cream for dessert.

[Arantor]

What would such a book cover, exactly? Because for the most part I see it being a copy of the Doc site plus some stuff from the forums.

[Tomás C.]

Like i said in the first post:

a book that teaches how to program themes/mods and how to customize the forum and that explains how everything works (not how to work like the documentation but the tecnhical things)

Index:

1) How to change the color of the quotes in the boards

2) How mods communicate with the forum.

3) How to update manually

4) How to build a mod

5) How to design a new mod

6) How to add hide or show buttons in the user menu, like the member list or the calendar and appear only to some members

7) How to change some tables and formatation like fonts.

How to catch security bugs

9) How to build a more complex mod.

10) How to add banners to the forum, and change the way your forum looks

11) How to use fields like server and put them in the member list

12) How to change the position of things in the skin

13) What are the files in a skin? And in the forum and default?

14) etc etc etc

I Don't know, just some ideias!

Nobody likes documentation.

Basically a book that would make a guy that only know how to use and administrate the forum, to a guy that can personalize and program all the forum, everything.

I think most of the programmers would buy it, but i would need to be good writted.

Like: "Be a pro in SMF in 1 month".

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

SMF for dummies

[Arantor]

Well, if such a book were to be written - and believe me it's something I have considered - there are 3 distinct versions of answers to the above questions, for 1.1.x (1.0.x is not in widespread use, though is still in use), 2.0 up until RC2, and 2.0 RC2 onwards (the distinction is because of Curve)

As for no-one liking documentation, it is necessary, and the documentation is actually not bad at all for 1.1.x here. But docs for 2.0 are still being written.

[matt_m]

I think it's a good idea although I do think, being a newbie to SMF myself, if you use the doc site in conjuction with the SMF community forums, you will find what you are looking for. It might be better and more ideal if it were all in one place such as a book, but I don't think it's a "vital" addition to SMF.

If a book was to be created, you don't need a publisher these days. As someone said earlier, you can create and pay for a select number of books, and then sell them individually..there are online companies that provide this service (at least I know there are for the UK, not sure about US/international).

It would be easy to ensure that a loss (in terms of finance) was not made by setting up a pre-order facility and ensuring that only enough books were supplied before the demand increased (if you get what I mean!). I think perhaps the book should contain the basics of SMF to the every day user, along with information on customizing your forum but not go into great detail about the individual possibilities - instead incude clear links to the SMF website which can be kept up to date much more easily than a book!

[Tristan Perry]

Like i said in the first post:

a book that teaches how to program themes/mods and how to customize the forum and that explains how everything works (not how to work like the documentation but the tecnhical things)

Index:

1) How to change the color of the quotes in the boards

2) How mods communicate with the forum.

3) How to update manually

4) How to build a mod

5) How to design a new mod

6) How to add hide or show buttons in the user menu, like the member list or the calendar and appear only to some members

7) How to change some tables and formatation like fonts.

How to catch security bugs

9) How to build a more complex mod.

10) How to add banners to the forum, and change the way your forum looks

11) How to use fields like server and put them in the member list

12) How to change the position of things in the skin

13) What are the files in a skin? And in the forum and default?

14) etc etc etc

I Don't know, just some ideias!

Nobody likes documentation.

Basically a book that would make a guy that only know how to use and administrate the forum, to a guy that can personalize and program all the forum, everything.

I think most of the programmers would buy it, but i would need to be good writted.

Like: "Be a pro in SMF in 1 month".

That's the thing though, every single one of your questions can be answered with a simple search here.

As for your questions:

1) Via the "blockquote" selector of "style.css" in a theme folder

2) Moderators or package mods?

3) Upload the files. Run upgrade.php

4) A bit more complicated but the information is there. Have a install.xml, package-info.xml and readme.txt file. The general syntax for install.xml  can simply be:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<!DOCTYPE modification SYSTEM "http://www.simplemachines.org/xml/modification">

<modification xmlns="http://www.simplemachines.org/xml/modification" xmlns:smf="http://www.simplemachines.org/">

<name>NAME</name>

<id>ID</id>

<version>1.0</version>

<homepage>HOMEPAGE URL</homepage>


   <file name="$sourcedir/FILE">

      <operation>

         <search position="replace"><![CDATA[
CODE
]]></search>

         <add><![CDATA[
new code
]]></add>

      </operation>

   </file>



</modification>

5) As above

6) See /Sources/Subs.php

7) See the theme files, and basic PHP knowledge and XHTML/CSS knowledge is required

See "PHP Security" by Chris Shiflett

9) Same as 4) and 5) - just PHP knowledge (and SQL knowledge) is required

10) See the theme files, and basic PHP knowledge and XHTML/CSS knowledge is required

11) Not sure I understand this one sorry

12) See the theme files, and basic PHP knowledge and XHTML/CSS knowledge is required

13) If you look at them, and have basic PHP knowledge and XHTML/CSS knowledge, it's easy enough to figure it IMHO



Basically, if you know basic PHP and XHTML/CSS, you are set for SMF. But it's like with any software around - if you don't know such languages, you will struggle.

The best way to learn the 'complex' stuff of SMF is to pick-up a basic PHP book (PHP for dummies was good enough for me), and then read some XHTML and CSS tutorials online.

[H]

Most of what you're asking could not be covered in a book. Everything involving creating or modifying mods really requires that you understand php. If you do, you don't really need any help as it will be clear what must be modified. If you don't, then you actually want a php book rather than an SMF book!

[Tomás C.]

Sorry, didn't mean to criticize documentation, it's a must have of every software, and the simple machines documentation is great. but i mean from the point a view of a newbie, exactly smf for dummies!

Like i said:
Basically a book that would make a guy that only know how to use and administrate the forum, to a guy that can personalize and program all the forum, everything.

Of course it should have various versions, but with smf 2.0 coming to live i think the writter should focus on 2.0

If something like smf for dummies that would follow that ideia i would really pay good for that, and believe not only me.

Anyone with experience could advance with that, doesn't need to be something made by smf team (they already have too much work), just by a pro. And the money made from the selling could go for the writter and for the smf team.

matt_m, good point a view.

[Arantor]

If I were to start writing it now for RC1.2, by the time it was complete, it would be entirely obsolete due to Curve.

But as pointed out, most of the information is not actually suited to an SMF book but a PHP one.

[Tomás C.]

Why due to curve? Everyone should their own skin, even we can make a personalized one.

Maybe an php book, but a php book is too much complex, it should be a smf book that teaches the basics of php, basically only the php part that matters to smf. and learn how to do a simple mod and everything i said, it's perfect for a book!

like i said, i would pay for one like that

[Arantor]

Curve is a complete replacement theme, meaning it replaces every single file in the theme directory; almost no other theme does that, instead replaces just the parts that change.

There are a ton of changes coming in the code to support it as it becomes the new default theme too, meaning that virtually every mod from pre Curve and probably all the themes have to be rewritten too.

Regarding the scope of the book, to do anything substantial to SMF other than minor tweaks requires PHP knowledge, typically more advanced knowledge, meaning you would only be able to dip toes in the water of possibilities without demanding the reader learn PHP.

You can't write a book that does everything without being less useful to someone else.

And what we already have is docs.simplemachines.org - which is being worked on.

[clapter]

ITs almost impossible to write a book about an open source project. By the time it hit bookshelves, it would be obsolete.

[Arantor]

ITs almost impossible to write a book about an open source project. By the time it hit bookshelves, it would be obsolete.

Not entirely true. You can pick a point and say "That's what I'm working on." Indeed, I have several books that discuss open source software and its development.

But certainly you wouldn't begin this until RC2 because of the scale of the changes that obsolete RC1 documentation. Realistically you could start writing it now and you'd probably have it ready around 2.0 going final. But I still don't see that it would be that helpful.

For people who don't know PHP, a book on SMF+PHP is the wrong place to start. It's like trying to learn, say, German and how to speak German specifically for computing without knowing German to start with - going to be difficult at best. In short: users looking for this would be well advised to start with a book on PHP on its own.

Then for experienced programmers, by the time it was written it'd be obsolete anyway, meaning that you either just look at the code or wait for it to appear here, or in the doc site.

[Yigal]

If we wrote a book, we would always have to update it :/ ... new versions always coming out.

[Arantor]

I have a fantastic idea.

Let's write a book.

The fantastic part? Do it online at http://docs.simplemachines.org/

[clapter]

O.o Arantor is a genius!

[Tomás C.]

Yes it's better to wait for 2.0 to end.

So you recommend learning php first.

The doc site is getting better, we just need to update it and make it as good as that possible book, making the beginners pros!

If a guy that is just starting to know php could be in less time become a great smf modder, that would make this community even better!

[Arantor]

If you want to do anything serious with regards to modding, even the best SMF documentation in the world won't help you if you can't program in PHP. So for any serious modding, PHP knowledge is a must.

[青山 素子]

Learning PHP is only required if you want to customize SMF on your own. It isn't really needed for operating SMF, nor installing pre-made modifications. All you need to know for those functions is a passing knowledge of PHP, which is maybe a 30 minute effort if you have no programming experience.

If you are serious about running a website, especially with dynamic content, you should have a passing knowedge of PHP, so SMF isn't any different in that regard than any other web software out there.

[Tomás C.]

So the book could focus on passing php knowledge that can be associated with SMF, i wasn't so that wrong...

And maybe focus the documentation on the smf website  more to turn an newbie into a pro user, so the comunitty could grow even better.

And if someone wants to change smf and make great mods you learn a lot of php.

[Arantor]

In which case the book would DEFINITELY be better placed online as the software changes, just like docs.simplemachines.org - what isn't in there that you think should be?

[青山 素子]

In which case the book would DEFINITELY be better placed online as the software changes, just like docs.simplemachines.org - what isn't in there that you think should be?

Agreed that an online manual is the best place for this. Best practices change reguarly and the minimal bit needed for essential work is a few paragraphs at best.

[Tomás C.]

Yes definitelly online, i would even suggest expanding the smf documentation to include passing php knowledge that can be associated with SMF.

And maybe focus the documentation on the smf website  more to turn an newbie into a pro user, so the comunitty could grow even better.

And if someone wants to change smf and make great mods you learn a lot of php. But this simple way we will have much more users learning php and more about smf without beiing afraid We knowledge easy to learn!

[Arantor]

Unfortunately that's incredibly vague.

What specifically would you like to see in the manual that isn't there right now? If you can give examples, we'll see what we can do

[Tomás C.]

"How to build a simple mod that changes some messages"

"How to change something in the skin"

Maybe step by step learning with examples.

And passing php documentation easy to read, like a smf for dummies

I know how to install foruns, manage them etc, but don't know how to personalize them, only install one or two mods, if we could make it easier to the webmasters to go to the next step (modding and personalizing) the community would be much better, sorry if my ideas are vague arantor.

[Arantor]

There's actually two sets of things here - one is how to package a mod up, the other is the things you've talked about.

You generally wouldn't actually change messages very often (it's not something we see) - and in 2.0 the ability to do that is core functionality anyway with the built-in language editor.

Changing something in the skin... is actually very vague because it depends what it is as to where it'll be, and whether you need HTML, CSS, PHP, Javascript or some combination thereof to make it work.

[KensonPlays]

Well, Scrooge, you could download it, right click and "Save Page As" then save it as either a HTML file (with images), or just a text file for printing, etc...

...you can download and print it! (the whole docs.simplemachines.org if you wanted to!)

[Arantor]

* The Grinch thinks he isn't Scrogge.

Sure you could download it and print it but it still wouldn't be a published book, and it'd be out of date the minute you printed it.