php|architect’s Guide to Programming with Magento takes you from installation to deployment of this popular e-commerce open source software. Magento’s flexibility and Zend Framework-based structure have made it an increasingly popular e-commerce solution ... The book will be available in PDF format on May 15, 2008, and in print format on May 31, 2008

More information can be found on php|architect’s website

Thanks for clearing that up.  You didn’t sound too much like a sales pitch, and definitely helped me figure out that the book will be a valuable resource for me. 

I don’t personally think there would be a problem with including “re-hashed” material that is available elsewhere, but if that’s all the book was, I probably wouldn’t buy it.  Given that it contains lots of original material, including other stuff would in many ways be more convenient, as it would give us a single place to go for most of what we need to know.  I can certainly see why (given the comments above) you would want to avoid that, to make clear to potential buyers that it isn’t just a rehash of stuff already online.

Has anybody buy the book from phparch,i finaly managed to pay it online, and now i’m on Fraud Check status. Can you tell me how much you waited until the e-book was sent to you?

Thanks

I can see why reading just the chapter titles might lead some people to believe that this book is a re-hash of already publicly available information.  Maybe some explanation is called for.

The only part of the book that is not original are the *questions* from the “Quick Answers” chapter.  The questions came from frequently asked forum topics and often asked question in the IRC chat room.  The answers are all 100% original answers with explanations of why you would solve the problem a certain way, nothing was lifted from on-line documentation nor from the forums.

Now, of course there are some problems that can only be solved one way.  So you may find some answers in the forums about overriding one thing here or there.  But the answers in the forum are not part of a larger picture.  The book shows you how to do all of the customizations in the context of a real custom module with a purpose in mind.  You get some context as to *why* something should be done in a controller vs. a helper, or why a template change is better than overriding a block in some cases.

Thanks for the feedback everybody.

Actually, I got a little push-back from the publisher for *not* re-hashing already available documentation.  I made the point clear that I was not going to cover templating, which is already available in the designer’s guide, and some basic “how-to” information which will be (or currently is) available from Varien on this site.  The first half is some basic review of Mage and its capabilities as a shopping cart, information that a store owner or developer who’s running the store would find useful.  The last half is all about custom modules, each sample module focuses on a different aspect of Mage’s programming: events, sales orders, database entities, controllers, blocks, etc.  I wrote all of these modules myself, the code really works, it’s not sample code by any means.  (I’m trying not to sound too much like a sales-pitch).

The day isn’t over though…

First I almost file a chargeback on this purchase because I saw something suspicious on my CC statement - two items were charged at the same day, one was from ‘MARCO TABINI AND ASSOC TORONTO CD’ and the other ‘FOREIGN CURR CONV FEE - $0.89’.

1) As a customer, I will greatly appreciate if there is indication on “FOREIGN CURR CONV FEE” warning somewhere in the checkout place for international transaction, if pays by CC - Is this standard practice by the way? I purchased some software (Parallels, MAMPO, CSSEdit etc) that the developers are from Europe, I never see this ‘FOREIGN CURR CONV FEE’ charges. It’s a small amount but I do not like surprise charges like this.

2) This is more for php|architect’s people (and very important to people who do international online sales - something I’d learned from many retail business’ clients) : to minimize customers from filing chargeback, it’s a best practice to indicate in the invoice as well as somewhere in the checkout that ‘acb or xyz company name’ will be printed on his/her CC statement. I remember the MAMP people was very thorough about this, as it was indicated in the invoice and few days later I got a reminder email.

Cheers

http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards/viewthread/6842/

Moshe (a Varien team member) provides some help on extending the header class and creating a new module, which I haven’t seen clearly spelled out anywhere else. This is the type of thing I would expect to find in a book with this title, but I fear that instead PHP|architect have compiled the already extensive support available for installing and configuring Magento, instead of a guide to programming in Magento.

Kind regards,

I hope Varien gets a royalty out of it

There is an issue with the checkout, I will just go ahead mentioning it here as I think php|architect will read the thread.

Under the Billing Address, the ‘Copy from shipping address’ button isn’t working . I needed to enter my billing address one more time.