Sean Reiser

Recently, there was some discussion on twitter about a new book Drupal 6:Social Networking by Michael Peacock. I picked up a digital copy of the book and have been impressed enough by it to write up my thoughts on it.

The most common question I get from folks looking at Drupal after they install it is “OK, I’ve got it installed, now what do I do?”. This book takes you from installation through deciding what features you’d like for your site to finally building a fully functional social networking site. It walks you through configuring drupal, the installation of appropriate modules and theming. The examples Michael gives in the development of “DinoSpace” a social network for people with pet dinosaurs are approachable to anyone.

It could be that I tend to gravitate towards programming books, but I think this is the first Drupal book I’ve come across
which I feel is accessible to non-programmers. Other then one chapter on module building, (which isn’t important for the site being built) I could hand this book to anyone looking to build a social network and they take the examples given and apply them to their own sites.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is starting out with Drupal. There’s also some good information for intermediate users.

I’d love to write more, but I have some sites to code. Enjoy!