Programming Phoenix (Pragprog)

Does anyone know if the only major difference between the current version of the book and Phoenix 1.3 is Contexts?

If so I think I am going to start on this book next

Also for those of you who have read it, how long did it take you to read? What did you think of it?

It took me 4-5 days to complete, but I red it during all my work hours (8 hours day), and skipping some exercises.

I found the book a lot helpful! Every now and then I get back to some chapters for examples. Also, the app built from scratch on the book is very interesting and complete for study purposes.

There are other minor subtle differences you’ll find besides v1.3 contexts and related directory structure changes.

I think the book was published in April 2016 so it actually targets Phoenix v1.1.x and Ecto v1.x so some of the frequently used functions (such as Ecto.Changeset.cast/4) are deprecated or changed. Also the book doesn’t cover current best practices such as not calling Repo in your controllers, the use of models rather than schemas, etc.

With your experience I’m sure you will be able to easily work through the differences but newbies would struggle a bit more. For their sake (and to see new intermediate level material) I’m really looking forward to seeing the updated book published.

All of that said, it’s certainly an excellent book which took me (as a newbie only having read PragDave’s book first) ~5 days to work through.

Ah right, thanks… I think in that case I might hold off. I generally only read a book once and so I think I’d prefer to wait until it’s updated. I also hope to blog about learning Elixir and Phoenix at some point so it makes sense to cover an up to date version.

I wonder if @chrismccord could give us a status update please? Is a release imminent or is there quite a bit of work still left to do Chris?

Targeting EOY for the next edition release

Thanks Chris - if your plans change please let us know

I wonder if I might be able to get away with the guides for now… actually I’ll post a separate thread to save this one going off topic

The Programming Phoenix book seems to be a great way to get a high-level overview of the framework and make good choices right out of the gate, but it looks the publication of the 1.3 version’s been pushed back again. Any recommendations as to whether I should wait or work through the old version in the meantime? Thanks!

For learning resource Programming Phoenix is great. I really loved it.

Once you go though the book with all the examples + explanations I suggest you go directly with 1.3. You wouldn’t lose too much and you can understand the basic concepts about phoenix just with the old book.

How do you know it’s been pushed back?

Chris said it should be ready around the end of the year:

I may have brought it up:

PragProg is listing a release date of 2018-Jun-10.