Customer Reviews

Beginning PHP, Apache, MySQL Web Development

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was forced into the world of PHP, MySQL and Apache by my boss, and I wasn't sure which book to get. I chose this book and I thought it was great! I did see a few typos, but in a way it made me actually learn the stuff, instead of blindly typing away and hoping the programs worked. I understood what they were doing and it has made me catch my own mistakes too. For someone who didn't really know what they were doing, I feel like an expert now! And it was nice to have useable applications when I was done- we are actively using several of these now (such as the emailing script and the user/login script- and we have plans to do more). My boss thinks I'm a genius.

I was reading these other reviews and while I can't speak for other books, I had no problems with deprecated code (I never saw that "mysql_create_db" function once in the whole book and I've been through most of it already) or the missing sql script from chapter 6 (it was the same database used in chapters 3, 4, & 5.. duh!) so I don't know what's up with these other guys. But oh well to each his own.

At any rate, if you want a good primer, get this book.

I came to Amazon to offer my 2 cents on this book, and I was very surprised to read negative comments from others. I think this book is great for beginners, and I'm not sure why there are those who find it less than helpful. There were a few minor bugs in the code, but anybody with half a brain can figure it out. This book is one of the few that offer code where register_globals is "off" as had been my problem with other books. I found the real world examples useful and thorough (so far at least) and the reading is actually humorous which is also unlike some of the other books which sound like you are reading IRS tax documentation.

I not only learned a lot from this book, I enjoyed it as well.

Well its been on my shelf for a couple years and how I've opened it. I am on page 165 and back to Amazon to search for a book to replace it.
The book is outdated. The forum for the book is not well visited. The support code for the book is failing images and some files. The code is written inconsistantly, different authors, and there is no mention of this or proper coding examples. Variables are created on the fly and creates some error messages with uptodate PHP. The explanations of certain things requires several readings sometimes to fill in blanks that a beginner should have explained. The use of CSS is not even mentioned so far and the html does not meet Xhtml standards. We must not forget the book was copyrighted in 2004.

I have purchased "Beginning PHP and MySQL 5" by Jason Gilmore and it seems to be a resonable book but leans more towards a reference text. The search continues...

Namaste,

Kevin Tough

This book is really quite good. It's very interesting & definitely very readable. When I read it, I got straight down to business, so to speak. It gives very practical examples starting you off with making a movie review site which was very interesting! All in all, an excellent book to give you a working knowledge of PHP & MySQL.

That said, there are some shortcomings.

-Significant amount of typos in the code
-Some minor parts of the code requires redoing (which I found out through a forum dedicated for the book)
-For those of you with absolutely no experience in programming, you might find some concepts aren't covered enough in detail

As I said before, overall, great book.

-ive 1 star for the shortcomings.

Richard

I used this book as a tutorial on the subject with graduate students who had only basic programming experience and we all agreed that it was a great way to get started with database-backed PHP work.

The authors are great PHP programmers, I have no doubt, but terrible writers. I do not recommend this book. Like most bad technical writers, they make a big production about trivial concepts, then gloss over difficult concepts without explaining them in detail.

I have about every book related to PHP, Apache, and MySQL out there--from beginning to advanced. This book has several things in it that are excellent, even to the professional.

I have read some of the recent responses. I would hope these guys at least know what PHP is before buying a book. This is EXCELLENT for beginners. And quite honestly, what books don't have a few typos?

The book requires you to have a working knowledge of these items.

I would recommend this book to those that want to increase their knowledge beyond "Hello world".

I think the people that criticize this book don't see the forest from the trees. Yes, there are typos, but this book goes into many of the things I was looking for in getting my ecommerce site going. I think a little more of an introduction/explanation of the basic concepts of html objects would be nice. That said, I have used many of the code examples in my site and am pleased with the results. I had an idea of the functionality I wanted on the site and every time I went to the book to find an example, it was there. Initially I was wondering about how I was going to install all of these tools (mysql, php, apache) and when I saw a reference to the xampp installer I was quite relieved. I have no hesitation in recommending this book to anyone interested in building a website with these tools.

I have lots of computer books and I find this one to be extremely helpful. I've used information in this book to help with my home Internet business already! It is very user friendly and full of useful information. Most computer books are hard to use and I spend a lot of time flipping through pages and reading information I don't need just to find what I'm looking for. This book wasn't like that at all!!!

I really liked the chapter on sessions too!

Worst book of all time, sorry guys and gals but whoever wrote and edited this book should buy a book themselves "Learn to Write and Edit by DUMMIES". To many typo's and script errors which did not work!

Actually I would give the book a 5 star rating if they changed the name to Trouble Shooting Script Errors, Test Your Skills!