The WordPress is a platform with the ability of captivating people, it is not unusual to see people becoming charmed with the WordPress universe. From my point of view Brad Williams, David Damstra and Hal Stern are a perfect example of this statement, in fact they wrote an outstanding book and it is possible to feel that they used this passion as the main fuel to accomplish that.
The WordPress’ functions are almost limitless, that being said, it is really difficult to have an approach that covers a high amount of features so deeply the way this book does. Starting from a single post and going all the way through Multisites, Themes, Plugins Development and even more.
The book has the hard mission of conciliating both theoretical and practical knowledge, and it deliveries it in the right rhythm. To almost every new feature shown, the book presents exercises to help you apply and reinforce the knowledge you just gained. Focusing on the fundamentals in the first half of the book, is not only essential but also the right move to allow people to be able to perform the advanced lessons in the second half.
In the beginning they present the core, they not only explain it but also show the importance of not hacking it. Moments later it is explained for us the role of the Loop and how it is the backbone of the WordPress itself. It is impossible to create Themes, Plugins and the most advanced Websites without knowing exactly how the Loop works and how to extract the maximum of it.
The book gives an overview about the Database design and its background working process, it is possible to check diagrams, and a detailed explanation about the meaning of each table and field. It is showed to us how to safely modify the table behavior and how to apply some security measures such as change the database prefix to decrease the likelihood of a successful invasion. Taxonomies and Metadata also play a great role in the WordPress universe, mainly for two reasons, first because it was always a major concern to build structures that allow the appliance of heritage in computer systems and second because the way the Database schema was build, this was not only the best approach to reach this process of heritage, but probably the only one so organised and straight-forward.
In the second part of the book it is showed to us key techniques and procedures as Plugin and Themes development. Due the way WordPress was brightly designed, is not a great deal to build Themes and Plugin.
At this point the reader has been told how to do advanced development and customization in WordPress, and if the book had ended there, it would probably already be worthy, but they would be missing something. What? Well, the true heart and fuel of the WordPress universe, which is the community behind it. This is another key point of the book, the way they explain the relevance of the community, the camps, the meetings and the friendly environment. It shows that WordPress is not only a platform, it is also a lifestyle.