Packt Publishing is giving away a free copy of Mastering Joomla! 1.5 Extension and Framework Development by Chuck Lanham and James Kennard. Entering only takes a few seconds, since all you’ve got to do is leave a comment.

About the Book

Mastering Joomla! 1.5 Extension and Framework Development is your guide to learn about the framework and the different libraries of Joomla! 1.5 and how to extend it. It offers the tools you're going to need to facilitate the development process.

At the beginning it introduces the object oriented design and the different design patterns to build a clean, maintainable and secure extension. Then it moves to the core classes of Joomla! and explains "How Joomla! Work" What are the processes happening before you see an output. That's an essential part to understand how to build your extension.

Chapter seven explains the basics of building an extension. How the directory should be structured, what are the basic files to start with and how to setup your extensions sandbox. In later chapters it goes through how to work with database and how to store & manibulate data. There're three different chapters for the different types of  extensions : 

• Component ( the MVC pattern, building frontend/backend, helpers, routing)
• Module ( standalone modules, working with components, helpers, layout)
• Plugin ( different types of plugins, the listeners/observers)

One of the best chapters I liked was about error handling. It explains the best practices and highlights the common mistakes you should avoid. There's also a useful part about different types of attacks (session token, code injection, XSS, file system snooping) and how to discover and block it. 

At the end of the book there're comprehensive appendices about the core classes, parameters, XML manifest files, Utility classes and the HTML library. If you're already familiar with the framewok, this is going to help you if you want to know everything about a certain class or if you're searching for a certain function.

This book is a useful reference that explains many advanced design features and classes in Joomla! 1.5 If you're a PHP developer looking to take your Joomla! development skills to the next level this book is for you. It covers almost everything you need to know to build strong extensions for Joomla!

How to Enter

Leave a comment about what extension you're going to develop if you read this book. Make sure you enter a valid email address so we can contact you in case you won. Packt Publishing ships print books to US and European destinations and e-copies to destinations other than the one mentioned above. TWO WINNERS will be chosen after three weeks and would be given away the contest winner copies (print/e-copy) according to their destinations.

Good luck to all participants!