Building Solutions with Microsoft Commerce Server 2002

Web Servers

Microsoft Content Management Server 2002: A Complete Guide

Format: Paperback
Author: Bill English
ReleaseDate: 24 October, 2003
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Rating:

Worthless for beginers and experts alike.
It has no focus. This book has too many flaws to count. It contradicts itself in many places (sometimes within the same paragraph!). The organization of the chapters is completely alien and ensures a beginner will be confused. The rambling, repetitive prose and authors' habit of inventing and making extended use of non-standard terminology renders the book useless to developers. The authors' complete lack of common sense makes it a poor choice for admins. I really can't imagine who this book is for. EVERY chapter I got frustrated with text about half way through and looked up the information in MCMS's online help instead. In EVERY instance, the MS documentation was more clear and helpful.

Here's a sample paragraph from Chapter 2, Installing Microsoft Content Management Server:

"Creating the Necessary Windows User Accounts"

"The system account will need read/write permissions on the SQL database. In addition, ensure that this account is not the same as the local administrator account and that it is not the IIS anonymous account. In reality, you'll need to create two accounts, not one. The first will be the CMS system account. The other will be the CMS administrator account. The system account will be used to read and write data to the database. The administrator account will need to be the first administrator to access the CMS Web application. "

If you don't find that painful to read, and you think that provides all the information you need to "Create the Necessary Windows User Accounts", then you might like this book. Otherwise, you'll be better off with the online docs.

Poor Layout. Not for beginners.
First few weeks with the book was agonising to read through. I bought this book to help my client evaluate CMS 2002. The author explains in verbose text about something and you have to read through it all coz you dont know what is fluff or where he might say something useful! I read through the documents that came with CMS 2002 last week and there is one called SiteDevl. chm which has a chapter on how to Use VS. net to create a CMS web site. I finished the whole chapter in about an hour creating my site simultaneously. Since I did a web site from scratch I had a better understanding how to use various CMS components! First read this help file before you buy this book.
I went through the first 286 pages of this book and was yet struggling. Then I read through this help file that comes with CMS which has 36 pages now the difference is like day and night! Since there are no other good book available you have to get this book just coz you odnt have a choice.
There is a new book written by Stefan Gossner from MSFT coming out soon. He is a regular contributor on CMS message boards on msdn. Seems very knowledgable. I havent got the book yet, I have reserved a copy when it is out.

Authoritative Reference for Content Mgmt. Server
I've known Bill for a few years (I'm a Windows Server MVP, Bill is an MVP on the Exchange side), and am usually quite impressed with his writing, his teaching, and his work. What drew me to this book was Bill English's name. Yet, there were a number of other names that are associated with this book. I don't know who was responsible for which parts, but this is truly an all-star cast of technical experts on Microsoft Content Management Server.

Content Management Server can be a tantalizingly ominous program. On the surface, it appears so simple, however - under the covers is a very complex and detailed series of modules for managing content on web servers. Essentially, it covers birth to retirement of the content of web publishing. And, diferent from many other programs of this type - it is aimed at all levels of content creators. It's aimed at the Pro Web Master, but also provides the capacity to allow the typical Business or Marketing type to create and submit content - and to allow it to be reviewed before it is published out to the web site by defining 'roles', and assigning responsibilities and rights to these roles. This flexibility and control is what makes Content Server special.

*This* is what makes this book special. English (Microsoft MVP), Londer (of QA - a training firm in the UK), Bleeker (CTO/ Consulting firm to Fortune 100), Shell (Dell Pro Services), Cawood (MCMS Product Team - Microsoft) are some of the brightest folks working with this product, and they know it well. The thickness of the book is because of depth. Specific sections of the book deal with any portion of CMS that you might encounter, from deployment, to management, to security, and to optimization. It also educates you on how you can use code (your choices are open to any . Net language) to modify some behaviors, enhance and further control the functions of the server.

My experience with CMS is that it can either be the very worst of nightmares, or the best thing for managing your web servers / farms. This book can definitely put you on the track of productive suite rather than uncontrollable mess of code and tags. In conjunction with Application Center Server, Content Management Server provides a complete toolset for staging, deploying, proofing, controlling and validating your web servers.

Your chances of success with this software are greatly enhanced with the written knowledge of these technologists.