Acknowledgments

It was a pleasure to work with the people at Apress on this book. The superior Apress staff often made the difficult seem easy. Thanks to Dominic Shakeshaft who first proposed the idea of a second edition and helped me through the sometimes difficult process; Sofia Marchant for her dedication and Olympian patience as I tried to get everything right; Ben Renow-Clarke for his valuable suggestions and the considerable expertise he brought to the project; Elizabeth Berry for her sharp eye and kind words; Grace Wong for adding her special touch where it was most needed. I'm grateful to all the people that worked on the first edition of this book—including Jason Gilmore, Tracy Brown Collins, Damon Larson, Marilyn Smith, and Katie Stence—who helped make the book successful enough to warrant a second edition.

I must thank the twin stars of my life—my wife, Elizabeth, and my daughter, Alexandra—for their untiring patience as I crafted this book. Elizabeth put up with all the late nights and lost weekends with seldom a complaint. Meeting her was the best thing that ever happened to me and I am eternally grateful that serendipity introduced me to my better half.

I'd like to thank everyone that helped me in this endeavor, including Ron Rahmel, Marie Rahmel, Darlene Rahmel, Greg Mickey, John Taylor, Juan Leonffu, Joel Harris, Ed Gildred, and Weld O'Connor. I want to thank Soorena Salari for the opportunity to work on groundbreaking Joomla projects, and everyone at Globalist for their help and collaboration. I'm very grateful to Sandra Villagran who kept the munchkin at bay and happy while I focused on the writing.

The Joomla development team deserves all of our highest praise. They work tirelessly with small thanks and smaller remuneration to create the most fantastic open source application in the world. We all benefit from their generosity.

Most of all, I'd like to thank you, the reader. By buying this book, you make it possible for all of us in the publishing industry to labor to produce good work. I hope the information in this book will play a part in helping you achieve your dreams. Thanks.