Book review: Practical Plone 3

Let me first make the observation that printed books are here to stay; I received an electronic copy of the latest Plone book from the publisher asking for a review and it's been looking at me from its place on the desktop for about two months now. Today I received an e-mail from the publisher asking for the location of the review, so I'd better get on with it.

I haven't bought or read a technical book for about five years. The last one was Philipp's book on developing Zope applications using the component architecture. I thought that was quite a good book and certainly one that I'll revisit from time to time (okay, less and less so, but it's had a very decent life span). Why is it a good book? I think the primary reason is that it knows its audience and stays with it throughout the book. There's a learning curve, but not an audience curve.

I think the average reader will take one year to read this book (sic).

When I read through the initial chapters, I got the odd feeling that it's got an audience curve instead of a learning curve. In the first few chapters we learn what Plone looks like and we're introduced to some new vocabulary like breadcrumbs and colophon. That doesn't seem very practical; it seems introductory. To spend some fifty pages going through the main user interface may not seem like an issue (you can easily skip them), but skipping pages is something you do on Google, not when reading. In other words, skip the extended introduction–it's too likely that it will be anyway.

Parts 2 and 3 (starting on page 55) make up the rest of the book. Part 2 is essentially a user's guide (how to use Plone) while part 3 is an integrator's guide (how to extend and customize Plone). It's good writing and the material matches expectations. However, we can't get around the fact that this book addresses three different audience in three different parts. It'll take a year to read the book and by then we'll have Plone 4.

Perhaps 500+ pages isn't always the right balance for a technical book; in the case of Plone, it seems that 50/250/250 would be better, distributed in three separate volumes, like a trilogy. Perhaps 50/250/500/500, where the missing part 4 would deal with how to develop enterprise Plone apps, but luckily, this is what Martin's book is all about.

Is there a conclusion to these ramblings? I'm not sure, but knowing your audience, staying with them and appreciating the quick read are valuable points I think. As for a recommendation, I'll say that this book belongs in any office where Plone is being used, but perhaps not in every home. I look forward to the revised second edition, coming out in three separate volumes.